Updated: 23 October 2026

Brainstorm a college application essay

This prompt helps you brainstorm a personal essay for a college or programme. It asks ten questions about specific moments and then suggests angles. Write the essay in your own words.

text-college-essay-brainstorm — chatgpt — 57 words

Help me brainstorm a personal essay for [COLLEGE OR PROGRAMME].

Prompt: [ESSAY PROMPT]
About me: [INTERESTS, CHALLENGES, EXPERIENCES]

Ask me ten questions about specific moments in my life, then suggest five essay angles with a possible opening line for each and what each says about me. Do not write the essay; help me find my own story.

Edit in the builder Copy & open ChatGPT ↗Copy & open Gemini ↗Copy & open Claude ↗

Choose a small, specific moment instead of a big achievement; small moments feel more genuine.

Get a better result

What you will get

A guided interview: ten questions about specific moments in your life, then five possible essay angles, each with an opening line and a note on what it shows about you. It does not write the essay for you.

Common mistake

The AI starts drafting the essay anyway.

Fix: Reply “stop. Do not write any paragraphs. Only ask questions and suggest angles.” The point is to find your story, which only you can tell.

Also watch for

The angles are the usual ones, such as a sports win or a volunteering trip. Ask “which of these angles would a hundred other applicants also choose, and what is a more unusual one from my answers?”
Your answers are short, so the ideas are vague. Answer each question with a scene: where you were, what you said, what you saw and what you felt. Details give the AI something real to work with.

Try a variation: short answer

Run it again with “help me find a specific reason for this college, using what I told you, in about 150 words of notes, not a draft”. The same method works for a supplement.

Still not right? Reply with this

Do not write any paragraphs. Drop the angles that most applicants would choose and give me three smaller, more specific ones from my answers.