<p>Hi. Would it be OK to use an essay prompt from a college's supplement for the main essay of the Common App for the other schools am I applying to? I wrote a response I like for a prompt from the Bard supplement, and I would like to use it for the 'come up with a question of your own' option of the Common App main essay. I am having trouble coming up with a main essay topic I like, and the essay I wrote for the prompt would be a good main essay. I just don't know if it would be seen as inappropriate/weird. What do you think? </p>
<p>Thanks for you help!</p>
<p>BTW: I don't even know if I am going to apply to Bard.</p>
<p>If you’re sending it to Bard, then no, you can’t do that. If it’s some obscure question where you’d actually have to tell them what the prompt was, it’s probably a bad idea. “Choose your own topic” doesn’t mean “make up a question.” It means “write about anything you want.”</p>
<p>Thanks RedSeven; sorry I wasn’t clear. No, obviously I couldn’t use the essay for Bard as the main essay - it would just be the supplemental essay for them. </p>
<p>To make it easier to judge, here’s the prompt:</p>
<p>“The first-century Roman philosopher Seneca wrote a set of letters of advice to a young friend. In the 23rd letter he wrote, ‘Make this your business: learn how to feel joy … true joy, believe me, is a serious thing.’ Write a short response to these thoughts, indicating if you wish, the extent to which you have come to realize that Seneca was right.”
I realize that responses to this question could easily be smarmy, but I think I have avoided that in my response. I would like to use the essay I wrote because I have to write about some health issues that this question allows me to address in a manner that puts the focus on who I am rather than what has happened to me. </p>
<p>Would anyone else care to weigh in? Thanks.</p>
<p>You can certainly write your common app essay on what makes you feel joy and how you have decided to pursue that. You can then put it in the context of your health issues and how your activities or frame of mind helped you overcome things.</p>
<p>Actually, that is a fairly common essay theme.</p>