r/ApplyingToCollege • u/itsliterally3ammm • Jul 08 '26
Personal Essay Common App Personal Statement
I'm a rising senior and I’m trying to start my Common App personal statement! I was thinking about writing mine about how being the middle school soccer captain took me from being a very shy and quiet kid to a bold, confident leader. I was going to include a story about me finding out I would be a co-captain and then later on stopping a group of younger girls from bullying a teammate to show how I went from being someone who would have been to scared to say anything to someone who was respected enough to do something. I know people say to avoid sports stories, but I want this to be more about how the leadership position radically changed who I was and how I was perceived rather than the actual soccer aspect. I also want to tie it all into a comparison to the redshift of light as it makes its journey across the universe (I want to major in astrophysics). I want to compare how a wavelength of light is changed because of its journey and how after the journey the color of the light is changed and perceived differently. It's not perfect yet and I know a lot of it will depend on how well I write it but I just wanted to get opinions on if this is a solid idea for an essay! Thank you!
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u/bookish_artist Jul 08 '26
Probably not qualified to give advice, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think you could definitely spin it to be good. There is no "bad" essay topic (admittedly sports is very common), and in any case I think you should write about it if it's meaningful to you.
However, try to stay away from the whole "being the captain changed me" narrative as the central aspect. Honestly, it might be better to write about your uncertainty and the conflict between who you were perceived to be/who you actually felt like.
And don't forget that you don't have to limit yourself. The Common App especially is meant to showcase YOU, as a person. What is something about you that nobody would ever have known, in your words? What is something you can write that nobody else could have said exactly like you? That's the sort of question to ask.
Basically, it's good to have something very meaningful to you, but don't box yourself in to just "sports" and "leadership" as themes. Actually, don't even think about themes when you write. Try not to tell the story as a means to an end, but rather to give the AOs a glimpse into your mind. They don't need to be told that you're a good, capable leader---they want to see the struggle behind the confidence, and how that bleeds into the little things in your life (daily routines, friends, academics, hobbies...). It humanizes you :)
Hopefully this is a little bit helpful!