What variables need to be customized?

APPLICATION_TYPE: Where you are applying and through which system. ESSAY_PROMPT: The essay prompt you are answering, or a short paraphrase of it. WORD_LIMIT: The maximum length. MY_MATERIAL: Experiences, interests, habits, and small details about you, unfiltered. ALREADY_COVERED: What your activities list, grades, and recommendation letters already show.

Claude Writing beginner

College Essay Brainstormer

Added Sep 29, 2026

You are a college admissions essay coach who helps students find their own story rather than writing it for them. I am applying to [APPLICATION_TYPE] and responding to this prompt: [ESSAY_PROMPT]. The word limit is [WORD_LIMIT]. Here are experiences, interests, and details about me, in no particular order: [MY_MATERIAL] The rest of my application already shows: [ALREADY_COVERED] Please help me brainstorm: 1. Three possible story angles drawn only from what I have told you, each with the specific moment it could open on and the quality or way of thinking it would show an admissions reader 2. For each angle, what it adds that the rest of my application does not already show 3. The main risk in each angle, such as a topic many applicants choose or a story where someone else ends up as the hero, and how to avoid it 4. Five follow-up questions per angle that would help me recall concrete details: what I saw, said, got wrong, or changed my mind about 5. Which angle you would draft first, and why Do not write any part of the essay, including sample sentences or an opening line. The words need to be mine.

Try in Claude

About This Prompt

This prompt has Claude help you find the story for a college personal statement without writing any of it for you. From a loose list of your experiences, it proposes three story angles, each with the moment it could open on and what it would show an admissions reader, and checks each one against what the rest of your application already covers. It names the main risk in each angle, asks follow-up questions that draw out concrete details only you can supply, and recommends which angle to draft first. It is for high school students starting a Common App or similar essay, and it is told not to write sample sentences or an opening line.

Variables to Customize


[APPLICATION_TYPE]

Where you are applying and through which system

Example: US colleges through the Common App


[ESSAY_PROMPT]

The essay prompt you are answering, or a short paraphrase of it

Example: the Common App prompt about a topic, idea, or concept that makes you lose track of time


[WORD_LIMIT]

The maximum length

Example: 650 words


[MY_MATERIAL]

Experiences, interests, habits, and small details about you, unfiltered

Example: I fix old bikes in my garage and resell them, about 40 so far. I work weekends at my aunt's laundromat. I learned to read bus timetables in Spanish to get my grandmother to her appointments. I was cut from the soccer team sophomore year. I keep a notebook of conversations I overhear at the laundromat. I want to study urban planning.


[ALREADY_COVERED]

What your activities list, grades, and recommendation letters already show

Example: my activities list shows the bike resale business and the laundromat job; my counselor letter covers my grades and robotics club

Tips for Best Results

Put in small, specific details, even ones that seem unimportant. The strongest angles usually come from a habit or a moment, not an achievement.
Answer the follow-up questions in writing before you start drafting. Those answers are the raw material for the essay.
Draft the angle Claude recommends, but if a different one keeps coming back to you, draft that too and compare.

Example Output

**Angle 1: The bus timetables.** Open on the first trip you planned for your grandmother, timetable in hand. It shows you working out how a system actually serves the people who depend on it, which is the question urban planning asks, without you having to say "I want to study urban planning."
Adds: family responsibility and the origin of your interest in cities, neither of which appears elsewhere in your application.
Risk: it can read as a "helping a relative" essay. Keep the focus on what you figured out about the system and what it made you curious about.
Questions: Which route or connection gave you the most trouble? What did you get wrong the first time? What did your grandmother notice that you did not?

**Angle 2: The laundromat notebook.** Open on one overheard exchange you wrote down and why you kept it. It shows an observer who pays attention to how people actually spend their days.
Adds: your activities list shows the laundromat as a job; this shows what you did with your attention while you were there.
Risk: the essay becomes a collection of other people's stories. Keep yourself in it by showing what the notes changed in how you think.

**Angle 3: Forty bikes.** Open on one specific bike that fought you.
Adds: little. The resale business is already on your activities list, so this angle mostly repeats it unless you focus on one bike and what it taught you.
Risk: it turns into a list of accomplishments.

**Draft first:** Angle 1. It is the most specific to you, it explains your interest in urban planning, and nothing else in your application tells it.

college-admissions personal-statement essay-writing brainstorming students