About University Essay Helper
University Essay Helper is a simple, free tool built to make the college application process a little easier. Instead of hunting through dozens of websites, portals, and PDFs, or being surprised when a new prompt suddenly shows up in the Common Application after making a selection in a dropdown menu, you can see the prompts for major U.S. universities in one place. This website is developed and maintained by a private education consultant to fill a void observed over their decade+ of experience.
What this site does
The site aggregates essay prompts for U.S. colleges and organizes them by school. For some universities with college-specific or “choose your own adventure” prompts, you can select your program or college to see only the prompts that apply to you and get a sense of the total writing load.
How the data is maintained
Prompts are collected from publicly available sources and manually checked as new application cycles open. Because colleges can update their prompts or word limits at any time, you should always confirm details on each school’s official admissions website before submitting your application.
Who this is for
This tool is designed for students and counselors who want a clear overview of essay requirements across multiple schools. It’s especially helpful if you’re applying to many colleges and want to plan your writing workload or how to reuse essays.
Future plans
This website will be updated over time to include additional resources, such as writing advice and other tools that can help you navigate the college application writing process. If you have ideas or notice missing or outdated prompts, please reach out via the contact page. Please be aware that this website is maintained by a single developer and thus responses cannot be guaranteed; that said, all feedback is greatly appreciated.