@Violinist143
Here are the topics I wrote on, and how I responded. Hope this gives you some ideas for your own college essays! I abbreviated most of the topics to there main point as each question had lots of unnecessary fluff, the exception being the questions from the business school at USC.
For USC-Columbia and Honors College:
Which academic or personal achievement best showcased my abilities?:
I managed to say that all of my personal achievements did, and showed how each of them made me into who I am.
Which academic or personal achievement is most significant and why?
I talked about choreographing a dance, and making it the best one we’ve ever done.
(Doesn’t sound great, but the essay explains its personal significance to me)
Top 20 books I’ve read over the last year and which was the most impacting.
(I listed a couple of series and books I read, but as I was doing this app the night before it was do, and only had 2 hours to do all of these essays I skipped over the second part of the prompt. (Which probably hurt my scholarship money))
Discuss your depth of involvement in a activity that is of greatest significance to you.
I talked about my involvement with my Boy Scout Troop, and my role in the troop, as well as what I’d done to change it and make it better in various leadership roles and my Eagle Scout project.
Discuss your most significant leadership role.
Talked about my role as captain of the Academic Team.
If there was a parallel universe and everything about it was the exact same except for one surprising thing about me what would it be?
I kind of stretched the meaning on this one and said I would have the ability to make a clone of myself. I then discussed various benefits of the clone.
There was also two areas, one was a personal statement, and the other was about why I chose USC.
USC-Columbia, Business School Cohort Program:
Describe your previous Chinese Language and cultural study (if any).
I talked about reading the Art of War by Sun Tzu and how I studied its relevance to business. I also described my coverage of news regarding the region.
Describe any previous abroad experiences (highlighting Asian travel if any). If you have not yet been abroad, describe any experiences you have had in different cultural settings:
I described various experiences I had abroad. (Kinda obvious I know)
Why are you interested in the IBCE program? How will this program and a degree in International Business from the Moore School of Business help will you reach your career goals?
Talked about three main areas, Chinese culture, a global view of Supply Chain Management(a area I’m quite interested in), and the networking and unique opportunities offered.
Based on your knowledge of China, what do you see as the differences between Hong Kong and Mainland China in regards to business, politics, and/or socio-cultural issues?
I answered the question based on trends i noticed through my research of news articles.
These were all pretty straight forward questions so there wasn’t much creativity needed. There was a 3 minute video presentation as well, it required me to brand my self with 3-4 key words, and then describe a situation when my values and culture were different from the norms around me. This sounds easy enough, but 3 minutes goes by REALLY fast. I believe I talked about my high-school and how the ‘normal’ populace is much less refined, and for the lack of a better word, ghetto, vs. the more intellectual and well off magnet students.
Clemson:
Just a short personal statement for the main app
Honors:
What experience distinguishes you from others?
Boy Scouts again
What is a course topic you would submit for a new course? How would you convince others from various majors to take it?
I talked about programming Android phones.
College gives you an opportunity to grow, what is one opportunity you’ve had to grow?
I talked about my AP Physics class, specifically my amazing and quirky teacher and how he taught us. I compared the relationships between gravity field equations as well as electrical, and magnetic field equations and how these comparisons helped me view the world around me differently.
Georgia Tech:
Personal Statement
Letter to Future roommate, using a personal story to give insight.
Talked about an amazing backpacking trip I went on, and the priceless experiences I had on it.
Hope this helps, and if someone wants the actual essays NO I will not post them on here, but you can PM if you have any questions regarding apps or essays.
