Here are some great questions to get yourself ready to write a college essay.

Answer each of the following questions in a brief paragraph in the order given.
Try to complete the list within three days.

1. Who are the five people who have most influenced you?
2. What do you read?
3. List three virtues that you admire and respect.
4. Discuss three significant lessons you have learned.
5. Tell us about three memorable experiences you have had.
6. Discuss a failure that taught you something.
7. Respond to three quotes that mean something to you.
8. Remember your greatest success.
9. Name five things that you know.
10. Discuss your definition of happiness.
11. What do your parents remember about you?
12. What are your earliest memories?
13. What is an education supposed to provide?
14. List and describe five special things about you.
15. What is your “one-sentence philosophy of life”?
16. What is the funniest thing that ever happened to you?
17. What makes the world go round?
18. Picture the five places you’ve been that impressed you the most.
19. What is your favorite social activity?
20. What is your favorite intellectual or artistic activity?
21. Describe yourself to a stranger.
22. Tell the story of a fear you conquered.
23. Discuss three goals that you have in life.
24. List ten things you like and ten things you don’t like at all.
25. What do your friends say that they like most about you?
26. What question have you always wanted answered and why?

From Michael James Mason’s How to Write a Winning College Application Essay (2000)

Printable Forms

Information Request Tracker

Application Checklist

Individual College Application Tracker

Essay Checklist

Interview Checklist

Recommendation Checklist

Junior Checklist

Senior Checklist