Free Common App Essay Grader

What the Common App essay has to do

The personal statement is not a résumé in paragraph form. It is the one place where an admissions reader hears how you think, what you notice, and what you would bring to a campus community.

Most strong essays do four things: start inside a moment, use details only the writer could provide, show a change in understanding, and sound like a person rather than an application.

• A central scene or thread, not a list of accomplishments
• Reflection that is earned by the story, not appended to it
• Specific details that make the reader believe you were there
• A voice that stays consistent from the first sentence to the last

The seven Common App prompts

Pick the prompt you actually answered. The grader uses it to check alignment — whether your essay addresses the question, not just whether it is well written.

1. 01

   Prompt 1 — Background, identity, interest or talent

   Share a part of who you are that your application would be incomplete without.

2. 02

   Prompt 2 — Challenge, setback or failure

   Recount a difficulty, how it affected you, and what you learned.

3. 03

   Prompt 3 — Questioning a belief or idea

   Reflect on a time you challenged a belief. What prompted it, and what happened?

4. 04

   Prompt 4 — Gratitude

   Describe something someone did that made you grateful in a surprising way, and how it affected you.

5. 05

   Prompt 5 — Accomplishment, event or realization

   Discuss something that sparked personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

6. 06

   Prompt 6 — A topic that captivates you

   Explain an idea you lose track of time thinking about, and how you pursue it.

7. 07

   Prompt 7 — Any topic

   An essay of your own design. Alignment is judged against the story you set out to tell.

How this grader reads your Common App essay

Each report scores six dimensions, weighted for the personal statement: voice 20, reflection 20, storytelling 15, specificity 15, character 15 and writing 15. The total is 100, calculated on the server from the dimension scores.

Every deduction includes a quote from your draft. If a quotation cannot be found in the text you submitted, it is removed before the report is generated.

Common App essay mistakes the report catches

• A lesson announced in the final paragraph instead of shown in the story
• Adjectives (“passionate”, “driven”, “always”) standing in for evidence
• A chronological list of events with no scene and no reflection
• A second story introduced so late that neither story has room
• Sentences that sound like an adult wrote them, not the applicant