Common App essay grader · 2026–27
Common App Prompt 1 Essay Grader
Background, identity, interest, or talent. Paste your draft and see how well it answers this exact prompt.
Get a clear score, six focused notes, and a practical next step for your college essay. See your score free — no sign-up. Sign in free to read the notes.
06
Reading lenses
01
Free first read
100
Point scale
Private by default. Your draft is used only to create your review. Signed in, it stays in your history until you delete it; as a guest, it is deleted within 24 hours.
Used as context for the same six scoring dimensions; it does not add or change criteria.
No account needed for your score. Your essay is used only to grade it, and is deleted within 24 hours unless you sign in to keep the review.
Common App Prompt 1 · 2026–27
How to answer this prompt
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
250–650 words. Choose one of the seven prompts.
What it is really asking
Readers want the part of you the rest of the application can’t show. The key word is “meaningful”: not what the background or talent is, but what it has done to how you think, act, and choose.
Angles that work
- One specific scene where the identity or interest shaped a decision you made.
- A tension inside the identity — two cultures, two expectations — and how you live with it.
- An unusual interest told through what it taught you to notice, not through a résumé of achievements.
Common traps
- Summarising your heritage or hobby like an encyclopedia entry instead of telling your story.
- Listing awards for the talent — they already appear elsewhere in the application.
- Ending on a generic line about being “shaped by” it without showing the shape.
The grader above already has this prompt filled in. It scores your essay on the same six dimensions as always — narrative strength, specificity, reflection and insight, authentic voice, writing execution, and overall admissions value — and uses the prompt as context, so its notes point out where your essay drifts from the question.
By prompt
Other prompts
Each page pre-fills its prompt in the grader.
Common App personal essay (2026–27)
250–650 words. Choose one of the seven prompts.
- Common App Prompt 2 · Challenge, setback, or failure
- Common App Prompt 3 · Questioning a belief or idea
- Common App Prompt 4 · Gratitude
- Common App Prompt 5 · Accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked growth
- Common App Prompt 6 · A topic that makes you lose track of time
- Common App Prompt 7 · Topic of your choice
UC Personal Insight Questions (2026–27)
Up to 350 words each. Answer four of the eight questions; all are weighed equally.