If you’re applying to college soon, odds are, you will be filling out the Common Application. The Common App has made some changes for the 2025-2026 cycle. The previous “community disruption” and COVID question have been replaced by a new prompt that has expanded to capture a broader range of impacts students may experience.
Students might wonder whether they should fill out this section. Use this guide to figure out whether it makes sense for you to add anything beyond what you’ve already mentioned in the rest of your Common App profile.
The Common App “Challenges and Circumstances” prompt
In 250 words or less, you have to answer the following prompt, if it applies to you.
Sometimes a student’s application and achievements may be impacted by challenges or other circumstances. This could involve:
- Access to a safe and quiet study space
- Access to reliable technology and internet
- Community disruption (violence, protests, teacher strikes, etc.)
- Discrimination
- Family disruptions (divorce, incarceration, job loss, health, loss of a family member, addiction, etc.)
- Family or other obligations (care-taking, financial support, etc.
- Housing instability, displacement, or homelessness
- Military deployment or activation
- Natural disasters
- Physical health and mental well-being
- War, conflict, or other hardships
If you’re comfortable sharing, this information can help colleges better understand the context of your application. Colleges may use this information to provide you and your fellow students with support and resources.
As you can see from the prompt itself, admissions officers might be looking for students who have experienced a disruption due to a wide variety of reasons. Now the question is, should you write it?
When Common App first used the COVID/community disruptions question in 2020, students from a wide range of demographic backgrounds responded with reflections on how Covid-19 impacted their lives, but students from some regions reported “major community disruption” more than others.
Universities want to understand applicants’ experience, which is why they’re asking the question. But unless you truly experienced extraordinary hardships, there’s no need for you to respond to this prompt. If you do opt to write the “challenges and circumstances” essay, use the space to talk about the challenges you faced, how they affected you, and what you learned.
If you can use the essay to shed light on something else in your application, such as a pause in extracurricular activities, a dip in grades, or low (or altogether missing) test scores due to a disruption because of health, natural disasters, housing instability, etc., then by all means, tell your story! And in the event that you need more than 250 words to explain your experience, the Common App includes an “Additional Information” section, where you can tell admissions committees whatever else you feel they need to know with up to 300 additional words.
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