The Coalition Application is relatively new on the college admissions scene compared to the well-established Common App. The essays for both platforms are very open-ended, so it can be overwhelming to get started. In this post, we’ll give you suggestions on how to approach the Coalition Application’s essay prompts.
By the end of this article, you’ll be equipped with admissions essay advice that will be useful no matter which application platform you use, and you’ll be ready to start writing!
What is the Coalition Application?
The Coalition Application was created by a group of college administrators as an alternative to the Common Application. The 2023-2024 application cycle is the fifth full cycle in which the Coalition Application is available. See if your schools are among the over 150 schools that accept the Coalition Application.
Many colleges ask their applicants for the same basic information: your name and address, the classes you took in high school, your GPA, and your test scores. The Coalition Application, like the Common Application, lets you enter all that information into a single platform without having to re-enter it for each new school that you apply for.
One of the unique features of the Coalition Application is its Locker system. The Locker is an online storage space that allows you to collect and organize your application materials. These materials might include traditional essays and letters of recommendation, but they also could include audio files where you show off your saxophone playing skills or a high-resolution image of your latest experiment in watercolor portraiture.
This aspect of the Coalition Application is especially useful for students applying to majors in art or music because these programs often want to see and hear what their applicants have already done. Also, some colleges are starting to experiment with alternatives to the traditional “admissions essay.” Instead of 650-word response essay prompts, some schools will allow you to submit a photo essay or a short video clip. Note that when you store something in your Locker, schools will only see it if you specifically permit them.
More information about the Coalition Application, including tutorial videos that tell you how to navigate its interface, can be found on their website.
Strategizing Your Essay Responses
Before digging into the Coalition Application’s individual essay prompts, let’s take a step back and talk about the role your Coalition essays will play in your application as a whole.
Before you start writing your essays, it is a good idea to look at the essay requirements for all of the schools on your school list, together. Some of your target schools might just want you to respond to one of the prompts from the Coalition Application. Other schools might want you to write an additional essay that is specific to that school. And some other schools might be using the Common Application instead of the Coalition Application.
Once you figure out which schools require which essays, you can figure out the exact number of original essays that you will need to write. An essay that you’ve written for the Common Application might work perfectly well as a response to one of the Coalition Application’s prompts. A supplemental essay that you’ve written for a school may also be a good response to another school’s supplemental essay prompt. With some careful planning, you can minimize the number of essays you will need to write and give yourself more time to produce high-quality work.
After you have looked at the big picture (all the essays that you will need to write), you should focus on the essays for each individual school. Between the Coalition and the supplemental essays, some schools might want two, or three, or even four essays from their applications. Ideally, each essay will help the admissions committee learn something new about you that they would not be able to get from looking at your test scores and grades.
As an example, a student could have one essay where they discuss their time in the Model United Nations club. In another essay, they might shift the focus from their interest in international relations to their own personal history—maybe they grew up in Brazil and you want to write about the moment when their father first taught them to make abará (a popular dish). A common theme holds these essays together (interest in and connection to cultures that reach across national boundaries), but the focus of each essay is distinct.
You don’t want to write two or three essays all on the same topic, but you do want your essays to connect to create an image of a complex and authentic individual. The trick is to think about your essays as complementing each other to build a multi-dimensional picture of you. Pick and choose anecdotes and experiences that will make an admissions committee want to invite you to their campus so that they can learn more.
One last note on word count: The Coalition Application suggests that your responses be between 500 and 650 words. However, some individual schools have specific word count limits that are higher or lower. Before you start writing your essays, you’ll want to check the length requirements of the essays for all of your target schools. Want to know your chances at hundreds of different schools? Calculate your chances for free right now.
Coalition Application Essay Prompts
Prompt 1: Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.
Prompt 2: What interests or excites you? How does it shape who you are now or who you might become in the future?
Prompt 3: Describe a time when you had a positive impact on others. What were the challenges? What were the rewards?
Prompt 4: Has there been a time when an idea or belief of yours was questioned? How did you respond? What did you learn?
Prompt 5: What success have you achieved or obstacle have you faced? What advice would you give a sibling or friend going through a similar experience?
Prompt 6: Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.
The first thing to notice about this prompt is that it encourages you to do something that you should be doing in all of your essays. By asking you to tell a story that “demonstrates your character,” this prompt is asking you to show rather than tell. When writing personal essays, it is easy to list and describe qualities about yourself, but readers are looking for something deeper than that.
You can approach your ‘brainstorming’ for this prompt in one of two ways. If a unique story (that you think you can tell well) comes to mind, start there and consider the ways it could connect to your character. On the other hand, if you don’t have an immediate idea, write down some things about you—your values, your goals, your morals, your family history—that are important to understanding who you are and how you approach the world, then identify some stories that prove your point.
In either case, your essay itself should use the story to show the character trait. When writing your first draft, you might find yourself writing things like “I always work well with others” and “Family is really important to me.” These are natural to include in your draft, but it’s important to remember that readers won’t be convinced of these claims without a bit of evidence. The admissions committee cannot see how you interact with your friends, family, and co-workers, so the best you can do is give them a story that helps them conceptualize the kind of person you are.
For your story to be convincing, it must be detailed. It must be written in a way where readers understand the plot (i.e. what happened) and your role within the plot. For example, if you want the admissions committee to know that you are exceptional at thinking quickly to solve problems, you should share a story about a time when you did that—maybe you were holding a carwash fundraiser for the choir in front of your school, but the city cut the school’s water off that day, so you had to think quickly and convince the restaurant across the street to let you hold the car wash in their parking lot. Here, you might want to include your own in-the-moment thoughts when the problem arose, the various people who doubted you when you were trying to solve the problem, some dialogue with the restaurant owner, and some of your personal feelings. These details will humanize you in the eyes of admissions officers.
In the end, the goal of this essay is to tell the admissions committee about you and make them think you would be a valuable addition to their school’s campus. While this prompt asks you to center your essay on an anecdote, it is important not to become trapped by your anecdote. Make sure to connect your anecdote to your overall character, values, morals, or goals.
This can be done by reflecting on your growth—for example, the student’s success during the carwash could have led to increased confidence, which then helped with their public-speaking skills. It can also be done through references to other values—for example, when the student heard that the power was shut off, they might have remembered their grandmother’s favorite phrase being “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Reflection can even be achieved through anticipating potential situations in the future where the same character value will come in handy. Just make sure that your anecdote is portrayed as emblematic of your overall values, rather than simply an instance where you showed a value.
Finally, you may want to note that this is one of the more flexible essay prompts, and a good response might also fit with many different prompts from the Common Application like the prompt that asks, “The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?” and the prompt that asks “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
