<p>For common app "topic of your choice" (or whatever it is) are you supposed to write out some prompt you could be responding to right above your essay ?</p>
<p>It wouldn't hurt. That's what I would do.</p>
<p>Wouldn't that make the admissions officers wonder why you didn't just choose the one above, and thus wonder if you were afraid of not being able to stick to a general question topic?</p>