<p>I'm highly uneasy over my Common App essay. For whatever reason, this is the hardest part of the application process for me. </p>
<p>I chose the "Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you and describe that influence". My problem is that I didn't choose one person, I chose a very large group. Do you think that it's acceptable for me to do something like that?</p>
<p>they don't care if you follow the prompt or not. this isn't about english. it's about you</p>
<p>i think its fine as long as u dont generalize too much. be very personal to show who u are bc thats what theyre looking for in these essays</p>
<p>you can always just pick 'topic of your choice'</p>
<p>I've always heard, "Rule 1: answer the damn question" from everyone I've talked to. You could always do the "topic of your choice" option.</p>
<p>I don't know about Chewie's Rule 1: Answer the damn question. It seems to me that if a school if offering the option of "Topic of your choice," they are essentially allowing an applicant to write about absolutely anything. Even if you choose the topic that you mentioned and write about more than one person, the college isn't going to reject your essay, given that they have already essentially given you license to write about anything.</p>
<p>That explanation was quite poorly-formed and likely made little sense. The point is that I don't think they'll care.</p>