Common App: Engaging Topic or Concept
250–650 words5 review areas
This rubric looks for an essay that lets the reader see you absorbed in a specific interest, then understand what that interest reveals about your questions, choices, and way of learning. It also checks that you show how the interest has grown, name real places or people you turn to for more learning, and support your fascination with concrete pursuit rather than prestige or achievements.
What the 5 review areas check+−
- 01
Lost in It
Whether the essay shows the lost-track-of-time experience the prompt asks about: at least one scene of the student mid-absorption, anchored in a time and place…
- 02
What It Shows About You
Whether the essay is about the student's relationship to the topic, not the topic itself.
- 03
Who and What You Turn To
The prompt's third clause: "What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?"
- 04
How the Interest Grew
Whether the interest has a history: two distinguishable stages of understanding — a naive starting point and a later complication, reframing, or deeper question.
- 05
Genuine, Not for Show
Whether the fascination claim is backed by pursuit the reader can count — time, actions, artifacts — rather than by the topic's résumé value.