How to Write the Colorado College Essays 2025-2026
Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado College is a liberal arts institution best known for the immersive Block Plan curriculum, in which students take one class over a period of three and a half weeks for a total of four classes per semester.
This application cycle, applicants will need to respond to one supplemental essay prompt. You’re asked to write about a time when you devoted your full attention and focus to something. Regardless of your object or topic of focus, you want to make sure your response highlights your experience and personality. In this post, we’ll break down the prompt as a whole, so you can be sure you’re putting your best foot forward.
Read this Colorado College essay example written by a real student to inspire your own writing!
Colorado College Supplemental Essay Prompt
One of the benefits of Colorado College’s Block Plan is the opportunity to immerse yourself fully in a single subject for 3.5 weeks. We see this as the luxury of focus — the joy and value of directing your full attention to one thing. Tell us about a time when you experienced this kind of deep focus in an academic or extracurricular setting. What were you doing and how did it turn out? (300 words)
Colorado College’s Block Plan is all about deep, singular focus. They want to see that you thrive in that environment and that you’ve already experienced how transformative it can be to pour yourself into one pursuit without distractions.
The best answer will tell a story of a time you focused on one thing for an extended period. You should show how you got absorbed in the work and what you learned, while revealing something about your personality (e.g., your work ethic, curiosity, or creative process). A strong response will also tie your experience to the benefits of intense focus (without outright saying “this is why I’ll do well at CC”).
Brainstorming your topic
To start narrowing down your topic, ask yourself some of the following questions:
- When was the last time you lost track of time doing something—academic or extracurricular?
- Was there a moment you worked on one task or problem for hours or days without wanting to stop?
- Did you prepare for something important (e.g., a competition, exam, performance, or presentation) that required total immersion?
- Was there a moment where deep focus let you achieve something you didn’t think possible?
- How did you structure your time and mental energy during that period?
- What was the emotional arc—excitement, frustration, breakthrough, relief?
Tips for writing your essay
There are some things you should try to accomplish when crafting a narrative-style essay.
First off, be sure to use vivid sensory details (e.g., sights, sounds, smells, and textures) to focus the reader on your chosen moment. The admissions officers will read countless of essays about students who tuned out the world around them, put their heads down, and got lost in their work or activity. Generic statements like these won’t do anything to show the admissions officer about your passion or work ethic. Detailed descriptions, internal monologues, and vivid imagery will set your essay apart.
It’s also important that you show progression over time—don’t just state “I worked hard to get better at serving the volleyball,” but instead walk your reader through the experience with you in real time: “The first week was simply dedicated to practicing my form. By week two, I added the volleyball into the equation. It took another three weeks until I got my elbow in the proper position and the right amount of contact before I was ready to try serving over the net.” The details in the revised example help the reader feel like they are going on the journey with the student, understanding the focus it took over a long period of time.
Something to consider is a personal transformation. If you gained new skills, patience, or insight, this essay is a great place to describe that. However, remember you want to keep your focus narrow and specific—don’t include a laundry list of skills. It’s far more impactful to pick one or two and dive deeper into why that’s a meaningful transformation for you.
Finally, include authentic enthusiasm! Colorado College wants to see joy in your immersion, not just something you were obligated to do.
Hypothetical Student Examples
- Sofia, a budding marine biologist, spent two weeks in a coastal lab analyzing plankton samples for a citizen science project. At first, counting microscopic organisms under a scope felt tedious, but by day five she was noticing patterns, hypothesizing why certain blooms appeared, and designing an impromptu mini-study to test her ideas.
- Eli, a theater tech enthusiast, was in charge of building a rotating stage platform for the school musical. He spent 10-hour stretches in the woodshop, tweaking pulley systems and balancing weight distribution. The sense of pride and accomplishment that he felt when he finally saw the platform glide smoothly on opening night was one of the biggest highs he’s ever felt.
- Jane, a math lover, prepared for the American Mathematics Competitions by spending nearly a month solving past papers and reading proofs. She vividly recalls a single afternoon when she wrestled with a combinatorics problem for hours before the “click” of understanding made her leap out of her chair.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Choosing something too short-term: The prompt asks for a sustained immersion, not a single day, unless that day itself was deeply absorbing and meaningful in some way.
- Being too generic: “I studied hard for finals” or “I practiced piano every day” without specific details won’t stand out.
- Skipping the “how it turned out”: They want a full arc from starting point to result.
- Listing instead of storytelling: Avoid “I did A, then B, then C” without reflection.
- Overemphasizing struggle without payoff: Challenges are fine, but the focus should be on engagement and growth.
Where to Get Your Colorado College Essay Edited for Free
Do you want free, nearly instantaneous feedback on your Colorado College essay? After rereading an essay countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. So meet Sage, our AI tutor and advisor, who will rate your essay, give you suggestions for improvement, and summarize what admissions officers would take away from your writing. Sage can improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school by helping you show what you have to offer beyond the numbers!
