ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

College Creative Writing Prompts

Updated on January 9, 2018
tamarawilhite profile image

Tamara Wilhite is a technical writer, an industrial engineer, a mother of two, and a published sci-fi and horror author.

Introduction

College creative writing prompts are similar to job interview questions and scholarship essays. They are intended to force you to reveal information about yourself that is not included in forms, checklists or easily quantified. While the ideal answer in your case depends on the image you want to convey to the college, knowing what they are likely to ask allows you to prepare essays in advance and practice answers in case asked in an in-person interview.

Below is a list of commonly asked college creative writing prompts, whether used in admission essays or directly asked in student interviews.

College essays are intended to reveal the aspects of a student's personality that test scores won't show, as well as test someone's writing skills.
College essays are intended to reveal the aspects of a student's personality that test scores won't show, as well as test someone's writing skills. | Source

College Creative Writing Prompts

  • Why should we admit you over all of the other applicants?
  • What would you do if we did not admit you?
  • What contributions would you make to this school if admitted?
  • Describe what drives you.
  • What contributions can you make to society after attending this school that you could not make after graduating from other schools?
  • Why do you want to attend our school and not other schools?
  • What do you want to be when you grow up?
  • Describe an experience that marked the transition from child to adult for you.
  • Where do you see yourself in twenty years?
  • How do you think you will look back on your college experience in ten years?
  • How will you look back on it in twenty years?
  • Describe a time that you challenged a belief or idea. What belief did you challenge? Why did you react and how?
  • What makes you a better fit with our school than the ten applicants you are competing against?
  • Why did you pick our school?
  • How will your presence enrich the lives of students and instructors here?
  • How will this school help you achieve your long term objectives?
  • What would you consider the ideal student at our university to be like?
  • How will attending our school help you succeed in life?
  • Describe a time that you failed. You may describe what you learned from this experience or how you recovered.
  • What do you consider the defining moment of your life?
  • Describe a time you took a risk. What risk did you take, and why did you take that risk?
  • What experience changed your outlook in life and how?
  • If you could change one moment in your life, what would it be and why?
  • What differentiates you or makes you unique?
  • What have you accomplished in the past two years that had nothing to do with academics?
  • What would you consider your personal motto or personal statement?
  • If you could be any animal in history, what animal would you be and why?
  • What do you consider the most important social or political movement in history?
  • What advice would you give to your eighth grade self?
  • What is the best advice you've ever received, and how have you applied it to your life?
  • What would a page in your autobiography say?
  • What is the most embarrassing moment in your life, and how has it affected you?
  • What political or social issue today matters the most to you and why?
  • Who is your role model and why?
  • What historical person has had the greatest impact on your life? What was that impact?

Give Your Input

If you were asked a different question on a college essay, tell us about it in the comments.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)