Note: Post 1 should take about an hour to complete. Post 2 should be done in 30 minutes. These are not polished final drafts but rather quick-writes that should help build your general knowledge and spark your creativity. If you are taking more time, well, you need to improve your reading and writing.
Note 2: At the end of the school year, you will have your college essay. Guaranteed. OK, fine, maybe not. But you will have, at the very least, dozens of drafts that can be eventually turned into a college essay.
What have you undertaken or done on your own in the last year or two that has nothing to do with academic work? (Northwestern)
Imagine that you have the opportunity to travel back through time. At what point in history would you like to stop and why? (Swarthmore)
What is the best advice you ever received? Why? And did you follow it? (University of Pennsylvania)
Select a creative work – a novel, a film, a poem, a musical piece, a painting or other work of art – that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself. Discuss the work and its effect on you. (New York University)
What do you think has been the most important social or political movement of the twentieth century? Do you share a personal identification with this cause? (Trinity College, CT)
If you were to look back on your high school years, what advice would you give to someone beginning their high school career? (Simmons)
It has been said [by Andy Warhol] that “in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Describe your fifteen minutes. (New York University)
What single adjective do you think would be most frequently used to describe you by those who know you best? Briefly explain. (Stanford)
Describe an intellectual experience of the past two years that has given you great satisfaction. (Amherst)
Create a question we haven’t asked and then provide the answer. (Something to that effect anyway. Dartmouth used this a few years ago. I had a student who posed the following question and wrote a seven-page response: “Write about a time when life threw you a curve and how you handled it.”)
If you were to describe yourself by a quotation, what would the quote be? Explain your answer. (Dartmouth)
Tell us about the neighborhood that you grew up in and how it helped shape you into the kind of person you are today. (Yale and the University of Chicago)
You’ve just written a 300-page autobiography. Send us page 217. (University of Pennsylvania)
If you could be a “fly on the wall” to observe any situation – historical, personal, or otherwise – describe what you would choose to observe and why. What would you hope to learn and how would it benefit you? (University of Pittsburgh/94)
If we could only admit one more student to the University of Pittsburgh, why should it be you? (University of Pittsburgh/94)
Describe a risk that you have taken and discuss its impact on your life. (Kalamazoo College/93)
If you could spend a year with any real or fictional person in the past, present, or future, whom would you choose? Why? (Kalamazoo College/93)
What invention would the world be better off without, and why? (Kalamazoo)
Write you own essay question and answer it. (Kalamazoo College/93)
If you had the power to change three things in your community or in the world, what would you change and why? (Middle East Technical University in Turkey/93, provided by an exchange student)
If you had the gift of telepathy, the ability to read other people’s minds, would you use this gift or not? Explain. (Middle East Technical University/93)
Tell us about one of the best conversations you’ve had. (Stanford/93)
If you were to write a book, on what theme or subject matter would it be based, and why? (Stanford/93)
Tell us how a particular book, play, film, piece of music, dance performance, scientific theory or experiment or work of art has influenced you. If you choose a novel, film or play, assume we know the plot. (Notre Dame/93)
Select a technological innovation of this century and discuss its effects on your family, local community or nation. (Notre Dame/93)
Read Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood. Choose one of her observations or ideas and write a creative, reflective or provocative essay. (Notre Dame/93)
Read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Drawing upon personal experience, write a creative, reflective or provocative essay. (Notre Dame/93)
Attach a small photograph of something important to you and explain its significance. (Stanford)
Tell us about a conversation you’ve had that changed your perspective or was otherwise meaningful to you. (Stanford)
Evaluate a significant experience or achievement that has special meaning to you. (Harvard)
Tell one story about yourself that would best provide us, either directly or indirectly, with an insight into the kind of person you are. For example, the story can simply relate a personal experience, or a humorous anecdote; it can tell about an especially significant academic encounter or about an unusual test of character. The possibilities are unlimited (well, almost so). You choose. Just relax and write it. (Princeton)
Sartre said, “Hell is other people,” while Streisand sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” With whom do you agree? (Amherst)
If you could hold a conversation with someone (living or deceased) you consider significant, whom would you talk to and what would you talk about? Describe your conversation. (University of Oregon)
Describe your hometown and how you are a product of this environment. (Puget Sound)
You are on your dream vacation and have just finished shooting a roll of film. As you go to develop the film, the local merchant offers to make a postcard of one of your photos. Describe the photo, why you selected it and write a brief note to your friends back home. (Be sure to include where you are and what you have been doing there.) (University of the Pacific)
Select any issue that is of importance to you and discuss your views. (New College of University of South Florida)
Describe how a piece of art, a work of literature, or a dramatic presentation has had a significant impact on your intellectual development and your appreciation of the fine arts. (Santa Clara University)
If you could go back and change one day in your life, what would you change and why? (Santa Clara University)
Tell us about the most embarrassing moment of your life. (Santa Clara University)
Seattle Pacific University seeks to admit students who will best succeed in and benefit from an environment where learning and Christian faith are integrated (although a profession of Christian faith is not required for admission). How would enrolling at SPU help you accomplish your educational and personal goals? (Seattle Pacific University)
Why are you interested in attending [this university]? (your top choice)
What are the responsibilities of an educated person? (University of Puget Sound)
Explain how your experiences as a teenager significantly differ from those of your friends. Include comparisons. (University of Puget Sound)
Who are the people who have done the most to influence your personal development and in what ways were they influential? (Carleton College)
Ask and answer the one important question which you wish we had asked. (Carleton College)
If you had a day to spend as you wish, how would you use your time? (Carleton College)
At Colorado College, diversity is considered an integral component of every student’s liberal arts education. Discuss your division of “diversity” and the ways in which you expect it to affect your college experience. (Colorado College)
Name one book you have read in the past year, describe your reason for considering this book significant and what you gained from reading it. (Lewis and Clark College)
Describe your most important academic accomplishment or intellectual experience to date. We don’t want to know about test scores or course grades, rather we want to know about your creativity, your willingness to take intellectual risks or your affinity for scholarly endeavors. (MIT)
Tell us about yourself. (University of California)
Please provide information that you feel will give a more complete and accurate picture of yourself, e.g., background, personal philosophy or traits, goals, etc. Be sure to describe the influence of these factors. Please be concise and limit your response to one or two pages. (Pomona College)
The subject of food is never far from our minds here in College Admissions. It is a topic of serious conversation this year on campus, too, with the publication of a book called The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature, by Leon Kass, M.D., a Chicago faculty member who teaches in the College. The book takes a philosophical look at what food, eating, and table manners have to tell us about our human estate. Compose an essay about a memorable meal you have eaten. We are especially interested in the details: the occasion, your company at this meal, its physical setting, the kinds of foods you ate, or their preparation. (University of Chicago)
Discuss a significant experience or achievement that has influenced your life.
Discuss how some negative experience (disability, illness, failure) has had a positive influence on your life.
Discuss an important personal relationship you have had and explain how it has changed your life.
Discuss how your travel experiences have affected you as a student and a citizen of the world.
Describe a personal habit that helps to define you as a person.
Discuss the most important piece of advice you have ever received and explain its effect on your life.
Discuss how a specific place can be used to help illustrate your personality.
Select three adjectives that describe you and explain.
Describe a fictional character. Be sure to point out what you do or do not like about the character and relate these attributes to yourself.
Discuss how something you have read has affected you or changed your mind about something.
Discuss an activity, interest, experience, or achievement in your life (this could be a book, movie, or an activity or experience at work, home, or at school) that has been particularly meaningful for you. (University of Florida)
How has your family history, culture, or environment influenced who you are? (University of Florida)
What qualities or unique characteristics do you possess that would allow you to contribute to the University community? (Florida State)
Pick a story of local, national, or international importance from the front page of any newspaper. Identify your source and give the date the article appeared. Then use your sense of humor, sense of outrage, sense of justice—or just plain good sense—to explain why the story engages your attention. (University of Chicago)
At a crucial point in his career, the African-American writer James Baldwin withdrew to a secluded spot in the Swiss Alps. “There,” he later wrote, “in that absolute alabaster landscape, armed with two Bessie Smith records and a typewriter, I began to try to recreate the life that I had first known as a child and from which I had spent so many years in flight … It was Bessie Smith, through her tone and her cadence, who helped me to dig back to the way I myself must have spoken…and to remember the things I had heard and seen and felt. I had buried them very deep.” Inevitable, certain things—songs, household objects, familiar smells—bring us instantly back to some past moment in our lives. Start an essay by describing one such thing and see where it takes you. (University of Chicago)
Modern improvisational comedy originated in Hyde Park on the campus of the University of Chicago with the Compass Players. Some of the Players went on to form the Second City comedy troupe, precursor to the Saturday Night Live show on TV. With this essay option we invite you to test your own improvisational powers by putting together a story, play, or dialogue that meets all of the following requirements:
A. You must begin with the sentence, “Many years later, he remembered his first experience with ice.”
B. All five senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell—have to figure in the plot.
C. You have to mention the University of Chicago, but please, no accounts of erstwhile high school students applying to the University—this is fiction, not autobiography.
D. These items must be included: a new pair of socks, a historical landmark, a spork (the combination of spoon and fork frequently seen among airline flatware), a domesticated animal, and the complete works of William Shakespeare. Have fun, and try to keep your brilliance and wit to three pages max. (U of Chicago)
One of Ramapo’s goals is to increase your capacity for learning and to teach you to think “outside the box.” Describe an experience that has had a significant impact on your intellectual development. (Ramapo College)
React to a crisis or critical moment in your life at which time thinking as usual was no longer possible. Such a situation may have occurred after the death of a loved one, a drastic move from one part of the country to another, or during a public catastrophe. Do not feel limited by these examples. Describe the event and tell us how it changed your thought process. (Ramapo College)
Write about a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. (Hope College)
There are many ways to define words like diversity and multi-cultural. However, what defines our culture as much as anything is the food we eat. Please explain how food plays an important part in your family’s culture. Provide examples as to how food defines you, your family, and your ethnicity. Be as specific as possible.
Write about some issue of local, national, or international concern and its significance to you. (Hope College)
Write about something that is important to you. (Hope College)
Community service can be a valuable part of the college experience. If you were to devote one year of service to a volunteer project, what would it be, and what would you hope to accomplish? (Goucher)
What do you think has been the most important social or political movement of the 20th century? Do you share a personal identification with this cause? (Goucher)
Discuss some issue of personal, local, or national concern and its importance to you. (Hood)
If you could travel through time and interview any historical figure, whom would you choose, what would you ask, and why? (Hood)
Explain why and how you would, if given the opportunity, change a decision you made in the past. (Salisbury State)
Describe how the character of a literary work you have read recently has made a lasting impression on you. (College of Notre Dame of Maryland)
Optimistic futurists envision a world without boundaries; an interdependent global society. Write about your personal impression of this idea. (College of Notre Dame of Maryland)
Select two people who have been role models in your life and describe why. (College of Notre Dame of Maryland)
State in a well-written essay: a) your reason for selecting Loyola College and b) your personal goals and professional plans upon completion of college. (Loyola)
You are encouraged to use the space below to supply any additional information or background you believe will be of assistance or service in the consideration of your application. We would also be interested in knowing how you would analyze your academic strengths and weaknesses as a potential University student. (Towson State University)
Please complete a one-page personal statement and submit it with your application. (James Madison University)
How would you describe yourself as a human being? What quality do you like best in yourself and what do you like least? What quality would you most like to see flourish and which would you like to see wither?" (Bates College)
Do you believe there's a generation gap? Describe the differences between your generation and others. (Denison University)
Write a brief essay about your activities, interests, achievements and talents.
The goal of the essay is to help us to get to know you as an individual. Point out your strengths, and explain any inconsistencies in your record.
Describe a humorous experience you have had.
Please write about a life experience that has influenced your intellectual and personal growth.
If you had to formulate the perfect admissions question, what would it be, and how would you answer it?
Briefly describe how [the name of the college] can help you to achieve your academic and personal goals.
Choose one of the following topics about which you would like to write: your family, friends, or another person who has influenced you, the best and worst features of your secondary school, a recent development in your community, a scientific or other problem which you would like to solve, travel or living experiences in other.
Select a technological innovation of this century and discuss its effects on your family, local community or nation. (Notre Dame)
Look through old family photos and pull out a few that remind you of important times or significant moments. (Remember that the impact of a moment is what makes it significant. A hike through the woods can sometimes be more significant than a birthday.) Choose one of these "Kodak Moments" to describe and explain its significance to you. Speak about the photograph and your feelings about what you see in it.
If you were to develop a Mt. Rushmore representing the 20th century, whose faces would you select and why? (William and Mary)
History has recorded the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Sexual Revolution. Today we are witnessing a revolution in the way we receive information. What do you think will be the next great revolution, and what will be its impact on you and your society? (Northwestern)
Using a piece of wire, a car window sticker, an egg carton, and any inexpensive hardware store item, create something that would solve a problem. Tell us about your creation, but don't worry: we won't require proof that it works. (Johns Hopkins)
Princeton’s unofficial motto is “Princeton in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations.” In what ways do you imagine using your talents and convictions in service to communities—large or small—during your lifetime? (Princeton)
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.” ~ Albert Einstein. Write about a personal experience or an aspect of the world that has engaged your curiosity or inspired awe in you. (Princeton)
What historical event of the 1990’s has most influenced your perspective on the world or your approach to life, and how? (Princeton)
Tell us about a person who influenced your life in a significant way. (Princeton)
What is your favorite quotation and why? (Princeton)
Elvis is alive! Okay, maybe not, but we have been persuaded that recent Elvis sightings in highway rest areas, grocery stores and laundromats are part of a wider conspiracy involving five of the following: the metric system, the Mall of America, the crash of the Hindenberg, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, lint, J.D. Salinger, and wax fruit. Construct your own theory of how and why five of these items are related. (University of Chicago)
- Of everything in the world what would you like to be doing right now? Where would you like to be the most? Who would you prefer to be with at this moment?
- What is your approach to life? Reveal your life philosophy.
- How have all your acquired experiences shaped your career goals?
- Have you ever met with "Triumph and Disaster"? How did you meet those two impostors? Can you tell that you have faced them in a worthy manner?
- Have you ever struggled for something and failed? How did you respond? Have you experienced a feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction of yourself?
- Imagine yourself being an actor/actress. Tell about your feelings before the opening night of the performance where you play the title role.
- Evaluate a significant experience, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
- Talk about how a person can change his direction.
- Have you ever struggled mightily and succeeded? Describe what you have felt at the glorious moment of victory? What does a winner feel?
- What is the major contribution you've made in any field of your life?
- What is a major achievement in your life? Who and what assisted you in reaching your aim?
- Hiking to Understanding.
- Reveal your personality by naming all the positive and negative features you possess. Which of them you'd like to get rid of and which you'd like to promote and enhance.
- What is your strongest and most determined trait of character? Do you maintain strong beliefs and adhere to philosophy?
- Tell about the most unforgettable experience you've ever had.
- What are the most important extracurricular or community activities? What made you join these activities?
- What would you like to study? Describe your academic interests.
- How do you feel about Wednesday? (U of Chicago)
- What outrages you? (Wake Forest)
- In the year 2050, a movie is being made of your life. Tell us the name of the movie and briefly summarize the story line. (NYU)
- Are we alone? (Tufts)
- Describe a daily routine or tradition of yours that may seem ordinary to others but holds special meaning for you. Why is this practice significant to you? (Barnard)
- Make a bold prediction about something in the year 2020 that no one else has made a bold prediction about. (U of Virginia)
- How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be. (U of Chicago)
- Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they? (U of Chicago)
- Salt, governments, beliefs, and celebrity couple are a few examples of things that can be dissolved. You've just been granted the power to dissolve anything: physical, metaphorical, abstract, concrete ... you name it. What do you dissolve, and what solvent do you use? (U of Chicago)
- "Honesty is the best policy, but honesty won't get your friend free birthday cake at the diner." —Overheard in the city of Chicago. Does society require constant honesty? Why is it (or why is it not) problematic to shift the truth in one's favor, even if the lie is seemingly harmless to others? If we can't be "conveniently honest," what other virtues might we take more lightly? (U of Chicago)
- French novelist Anatole France wrote: "An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." What don't you know? (Brown)
- Imagine looking through a window at any environment that is particularly significant to you. Reflect on the scene, paying close attention to the relation between what you are seeing and why it is meaningful to you. (Williams)
- Find x. (U of Chicago)
- Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own. (U of Chicago)
“What does Play-Doh™ have to do with Plato?” – The 2011 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt List. Every May, the University of Chicago hosts the world’s largest scavenger hunt. As part of this year’s hunt, students raced to find the shortest path between two seemingly unrelated things by traveling through Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is so passé. Without the help of everyone’s favorite collaborative internet encyclopedia, show us your own unique path from Play-Doh™ to Plato. (U of Chicago)
Observation, Hypothesis, Experiment, Analysis, Conclusion; since the 17th century, the scientific method has been the generally accepted way to investigate, explore, and acquire new knowledge. The actual process of intellectual discovery, however, is rarely so simple or objective. The human mind often leaps from observation to conclusion with ease, rushes headlong into hypothesis-less experiments, or dwells on the analysis, refusing to conclude. Tell us about your non-scientific method. (Diagrams, graphs, and/or visual aids allowed within your essay.) (U of Chicago)
Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote, “Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.” Give us your guess. (U of Chicago)
While working at the Raytheon Company, Percy Spencer noticed that standing in front of a magnetron (used to generate microwave radio signals) caused a chocolate bar in his pocket to melt. He then placed a bowl of corn in front of the device, and soon it was popping all over the room. A couple of years later, Raytheon was selling the first commercial microwave oven.
Write about a time you found something you weren’t looking for. (U of Chicago)
In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun. (U of Chicago)
Don’t write about reverse psychology. (U of Chicago)
- First experiences can be defining. Cite a first experience that you have had and explain its impact on you. (University of Pennsylvania)
- Recall an occasion when you took a risk that you now know was the right thing to do. (University of Pennsylvania)
- Tell us what you think about a current scientific or social controversy. (William and Mary)
- Most people belong to many different communities--groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.
- Northwestern is a community of individuals from diverse cultures and regions of the world and with a myriad of interests and talents. Is there a type of individual you have not had much contact with in your community whom you would like to meet on campus? What do you think would be the outcome of that meeting, and what would be its effect on you? (Northwestern)
- Respond to the question: How can I prepare educationally for a global society? (Hampton University)
- Once you have completed your education, would you return to your hometown to begin your adult life? Why or why not? (William and Mary)
- Names have a mysterious reality of their own. We may well feel an unexpected kinship with someone who shares our name, or may feel uneasy at the thought that our name is not as much our own as we imagined. Most of us do not choose our names; they come to us unbidden, sometimes with ungainly sounds and spellings, complicated family histories, allusions to people we never knew. Sometimes we have to make our peace with them, sometimes we bask in our names' associations. Ruminate on names and naming, your name, and your name's relationship to you. (University of Chicago)
- The late William Burroughs once wrote that "language is a virus from outer space." We at the University of Chicago think he's right, of course, and this leaves us wondering what else came here with it. Could this finally explain such improbable features of modern life as the Federal Tax Code, non-dairy creamer, Dennis Rodman, and the art of mime? Name something that you assert cannot have originated any other way. Offer a thorough defense of your hypothesis for extraterrestrial origins, including alternate explanations and reasons for eliminating them from consideration. (University of Chicago)
- What effect has any voluntary or independent research, reading or study, work in the arts, science project, etc. (outside of school), had on your intellectual and personal growth in recent years? Discuss what influence this involvement has had on your academic goals. (Northwestern)
- What has been your most profound or surprising intellectual experience? (Duke University)
- Anatole France said, "If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." On what subject do you disagree with most people, and why? (Northwestern)
- According to Stephen Carter, we can admire those with integrity even if we disagree with them. Are there people you admire even though you deeply disagree with them? What do you admire about them? How do you reconcile this apparent contradiction in your assessment? (Duke University)
- Who is the secondary school teacher who has had the greatest positive impact on your development? Please describe the ways in which this teacher has influenced you. (Bowdoin College)
- Reflect on these words of Dorothy Day: "No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless. There's too much work to do." What is "the work to be done" for your generation, and what impact does this have on your future as a leader? Write a creative, reflective, or provocative essay. (University of Notre Dame)
- What do you think people who know you would be surprised to learn about you? Limit your response to one page.(Rice University)
- "The instructor said,/Go home and write/a page tonight./And let that page come out of you,/Then, it will be true." The second line of this poem by Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B," goes on to ask: "I wonder if it's that simple?" We ask you here to write a truthful page about yourself, beginning where Hughes begins: "I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem./I went to school there, then Durham, then here/to this college on the hill above Harlem./I am the only colored student in my class." That is to say, each of us is at a certain stage of life and has a history. Each of us has lived somewhere and gone to school. We each are what we feel and see and hear, as the poem goes on to say. Begin there and see what happens. (University of Chicago)
- At Colorado College, diversity is considered an integral component of every student's liberal arts education. Discuss your division of "diversity" and the ways in which you expect it to affect your college experience. (Colorado College)
- As a prospective 21st century college graduate, you will enter a workforce and live in a society with an increasingly global perspective. How will your current knowledge of international issues and cultures influence your undergraduate study? (NYU)
- If you could invent something, what would it be, and why? (University of Virginia)
- What is your favorite word, and why? (University of Virginia)
- Do you believe that your academic record accurately reflects your abilities? Explain.
- What confuses you most in life, and why? (University of Virginia)
- George Washington said, "Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; it is better to be alone than in bad company." About which of your friends do you and your parents disagree? Why do you feel that the continued company of this friend is a good thing? (Northwestern)
- Imagine you have written a short story, film, or play about your last four years. Briefly describe the moment or scene that you think your audience will most remember after they have finished this autobiographical piece. What will they learn about you from that moment? (Northwestern)
- Imagine that you are a "hero" or "heroine" for one day during any time period and under any circumstances. Write a creative essay describing your experience. (Notre Dame)
- Of all the things you hope or expect to gain from your college experience, which two or three would you place at the top of your list? Explain what you want to gain and why these experiences are most important to you.
- You are about to write your future college roommate a letter. Please provide the roommate with a personal story that will give him/her some insight into your personality. (St. Mary's College, MD)
- Create a metaphor for yourself using something you would find in your kitchen or your garage. List as many similarities or relationships between yourself and this object as you can think of, then elaborate on this comparison in an essay. Why is this object a good representation of you? (adapted from U. of Chicago)
- Discuss how some negative experience (disability, illness, failure) has had a positive influence on your life.
- If you had to describe yourself as an animal, what animal would you select and why?
- If money and family obligations left you entirely free, how and where would you spend the summer before college?
- If you were given the opportunity to spend one year in service on behalf of others, which area would you choose? Explain what you would do and why.
- If you could change the course of a singular event in history, what event would you affect, and why? In addition, please provide insight on how you would implement your decision. (St. Mary's College, MD)
- "Human rights" is a term frequently used but seldom defined. What rights should belong to every human being? Discuss.
- What do you hope to accomplish within the next ten years? Explain.
- Should college students be required to take physical education courses? Why or why not?
- If you could ban anything in the world, what would it be and why?
- Should prison inmates be allowed to take college courses? Explain why or why not.
- If you were awarded an expense-paid trip to any one place in the world, where would you go? Why?
- Do you think that you have the qualifications of a good parent? Discuss.
- What do you consider the most important event of the past decade? Why?
- If you were guaranteed a steadily improving standard of living (in terms of buying power, free time, quality of goods and services, etc.), would you be willing to give up your right to vote? Explain.
- Jogging has become extremely popular. Explain why you jog or why you don't.
- People attend school for many different reasons (for example, expanded knowledge, societal awareness, and enhanced interpersonal relationships). Why do you want to attend university?
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Coaches are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
- It has been said, "Not all learning takes place in the classroom." Compare and contrast knowledge gained from personal experience with knowledge gained from classroom instruction. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?
- How does advertising influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.
- Some students prefer to attend a small university. Others prefer to attend a big university. Discuss the advantages of each. Then indicate which type of university you prefer. Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.
- "When people succeed in life, it is because of hard work. Being lucky has nothing to do with success in life." Do you agree or disagree with the quotation above? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Universities should give the same amount of money to their students' sports activities as they give to their university libraries. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
- What are the qualities of a good neighbor? Are you a good neighbor?
- Imagine that you are going to open a restaurant. Describe it and the menu.
- What are some important qualities of a good supervisor? Would you be a good boss?
- It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city. Do you agree or disagree?
- We all work or will work in our jobs with many different kinds of people. In your opinion, what are some important characteristics of a co-worker?
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Television, newspapers, magazines, and other media pay too much attention to the personal lives of famous people such as public figures and celebrities.
- Some people spend their entire lives in one place. Others move a number of times throughout their lives, looking for a better job, house, community, or even climate. Which do you prefer: staying in one place or moving in search of another place?
- Is it better to enjoy your money when you earn it or is it better to save your money for some time in the future? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
- How can a person get along with an enemy?
- Describe your bravest moment
- Describe how you met your best friend.
- What makes your mom or dad special
- When your life changed forever
- How you overcame a fear
- Why you will succeed
- Why you made a difficult choice
- A special place
- A place you try to avoid
- When a friend let you down
- Your favorite time period
- A disappointment you've experienced
- A surprising turn of events
- What you would do with power
- What super power you would choose
- If you could change lives with someone
- How money matters in your life
- Your biggest loss
- Where you go to hide and why
- If you had a do-over
- A book that changed your life
- Words that stung
- When you had the desire to run
- The 100 percent perfect ...
- The best things in life.
- Three wishes
- What do you do on a rainy day?
- Invent a game and explain the rules.
- Ten things you do when you procrastinate.
- Ten simple rules for dating me.
- Create a new class for your school.
- What is something that used to worry you but no longer does?
- What are some things you observed today?
- Describe your favorite time of the day.
- If your entire memory were wiped out except for one experience, what would you choose to remember?
- Describe a time someone was jealous of you.
- Is it better to give or receive gifts?
- If you knew you wouldn't fail, what would you do?
- Describe a recurring dream.
- Describe the perfect home.
- Write down 20 questions or concerns you have about college. Then try to answer them.
- What advice does the teenage-you have for your future 35-year-old self?
- What I think about when I'm not listening.
- Write an imaginary dialogue between you and a roommate late at night when the lights are out and neither of you can sleep.
- Make up five band names. Choose one, and describe your songs and your life as a musician.
- If you had to give away a large sum of money, how would you do it?
- If animals could talk, what would your pet say about you?
