<p>I feel like I can't write a personal essay without talking about either my religious views or my introversion/overcoming shyness, but I also know that these topics can be bad to write about. Would these two topics be harmful to my application? (I plan on applying to the most selective schools, such as MIT and Cornell, since my stats are very good)</p>
<p>1.) I could talk about how I was a very confused kid because of my parents differing views on religion (my dad is an atheist and my mom is catholic). I would relate anecdotes about being forced by my mom to go to Bible school, and then coming home and my dad telling me how wrong religion is and about how evolution and science are the only right things to believe in. (I remember him telling me about black holes, galaxies, how nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, and other cool physics stuff when I was only 6 years old.) I would then describe how that experience gave me the opportunity to see both sides, which lead to my decision to choose atheism. I would then talk about the discrimination I faced when I told people I was atheist (my relationships with my friends changed when they found out, and my neighbors mother wouldnt let her kids play with me because I didnt believe in God I vividly remember these events). But then my other experiences with religion caused me to become agnostic because I realized that no one can ever know for sure and that its not good to discount ideas, although I still think that science and empirical observation are the best. I have little faith in what cannot be proven, but dont count the unproven as false. This would tie in with my love of science and aspirations to have a career in research because I would be helping humankind learn more about the universe (I plan on applying to engineering schools).
2.) I could also talk about how shy I was as a kid, but how I came to overcome my shyness and appreciate my introverted personality type, mostly through academics, athletics, and my job. I actually have this essay mostly written out (does anyone want to read it? Ill PM you). The essay basically goes like this: I recount, in detail, a middle school basketball game (students vs teachers), in which I embarrassed myself in front of the whole school. I was too shy to opt out of the basketball game when I was mistakenly signed up for it, and, being extremely uncoordinated and shy, I made a complete fool out of myself. This represented a low point in my life when I sought to escape reality through books and computers, but I grew immensely since then. I describe how my love of academics and success in school gave me more confidence: my first success at public speaking was presenting my 8th grade science fair project. Then, I was able to go out and try soccer and tennis, which I fell in love with and which gave me more self-confidence. I got much better at tennis, and played #1 singles on my high school tennis team in 10th and 11th grades, and became captain in 11th grade. That taught me how to interact with people more, and I recount a particular experience trying (and somewhat failing) to teach a bunch of loud freshman how to play a tiebreaker. I then got a job at a pizza place. I was extremely and absurdly nervous answering the phones and talking to complete strangers at first, but after forcing myself to do this day after day, I grew accustomed to it. I am now comfortable going up to complete strangers and talking to them, which would have been unimaginable in middle school. The essay ends on a very positive and optimistic note. </p>
<p>My main concern for essay option #1 is that it could offend very religious people, and my concern for essay option #2 is that it highlights my negative characteristics because it basically recounts my main struggle in my life. Here are alternate essay topics that I could write about, but they are vaguer and could easily be cliche:
3.) I could talk about how I was a major tomboy when I was younger, and how that affects me today as a female hoping to become an engineer. I sometimes wished I was a guy so that people would stop giving me dolls and girly stuff I was much more into sports and video games. I remember getting a barbie doll for Christmas while my twin brother got a remote control airplane, which made me very upset (I threw a temper tantrum). I also remember hating when people gave me pink things or typical girly things (like stuff with flowers on them), and how I refused to wear anything with pink on it. All throughout elementary school, I was the only girl that played soccer with all the boys at recess and one of only two girls who like to play video games. I never brushed my hair: my teacher once acted like an airplane and put his hands in my hair and jiggled them around in front of everyone and asked why my hair looked like a plane crash, but I wasnt the least bit embarrassed; I couldnt understand WHY anyone would waste time on their appearance (this was back when I was very naïve I understand now the importance of appearances, but I still dont wear makeup or dresses or straighten my hair or anything like that). I basically didnt fit the mold of a typical girl then, and I still didnt in middle school and high school because of my decision to pursue science and computer science. I remember taking my first official programming class in 7th grade and, as one of the only girls there, the teacher pointed it out and asked each of us (but none of the guys) why we wanted to learn how to code. I was startled and blurted out what difference does it make that we were girls?
4.) For the describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content question, I would describe being able to access the internet and all the wealth of information: I constantly watch documentaries (about science, space exploration, Afghanistan, history, Femen, communism, GMOs, Mali Jihadists, 9/11, etc.), lecture series (MIT Open Courseware, Standfords intro to chemical engineering, etc.), and general informative videos (Ted Talks, numberPhile, Periodic Videos, Scishow, Vsauce, etc.) online, and read tons of online articles, books, etc. So the place where I am perfectly content would be right in front of my computer, but I wouldnt come out and blatantly say this; I would more describe all the things I can see and read about and it would be implied. [yeah, this idea is really bad]
5.) I could show my enthusiasm for science and problem solving by describing specific events in my day-to-day life: racing my friends in calc class to see who could solve the hardest integrals by hand first, racing my friends in math team to see who could solve the problems first, thinking about coding a particular solution or solving a problem encountered while coding all day until I figured it out, explaining to my friends why water from the water fountain looked white and why the acetone feels cold and evaporates quickly, looking forward to working on my month-long AP Chem lab, doing extra problems in my physics textbook for fun, working very hard on building a linguini bridge for physics class, reading about molecular machines and other scientific topics for fun, etc
6.) I could do a mock lab report that is sort of like a write-up of an experiment to analyze me. [This idea is hard to explain].</p>
<p>I have other ideas, but I am getting tired of writing... So what topic seems the best? Should I definitely not write about 1 or 2?</p>