<p>what kind of essay topics are too cliche?
you know...the type that college admissions officers read and say "omg another one of these...."</p>
<p>There are no cliche topics.</p>
<p>There are only cliche treatments of topics.</p>
<p>It's not the topic, it's what you do with the topic.</p>
<p>in the book by Harry Bauld, he mentions travel essays (traveling to Europe this summer...) and the sports success stories (i learned how to be a hard worker during my time on the football team) as cliche. </p>
<p>but as the above poster said, a good essay eliminates all worries about the topic.</p>
<p>As ADad said, great writers can pull of any topic. But yes, there are a lot of topics you should generally stay away from. My friend always says to avoid the 3 D's: "Death, Disease, and Divorce." Travel, community service, and sports also fall flat. I also think doing ones about historical figures are silly ("I admire Ghandi because...") unless you really have a strong interest and passion about whatever historical dead guy's principles.</p>
<p>You don't have to be great to write on these topics.</p>
<p>You just have to be personal, detailed, honest and revealing. </p>
<p>I've read a lot of college essays and I've seen many kids admitted to top 10 schools with essays on virtually every supposedly forbidden topic mentioned here and on other threads. </p>
<p>Pick whatever topic allows you to be personal, detailed, honest and revealing, and write as suggested here:</p>
<p>U.Va</a>. Office of Admission Essays</p>
<p>(where, incidentally, they include examples of "good" and "bad" death essays).</p>
<p>I think ALL that matters is how you treat the topic. Travel essays have a tendency to be prosaic because a lot of kids use them to make cliched statements about themselves ("Everyone is the same deep down") or they produce great prose about their destination and forget about themselves. The same holds true for community service essays. BUT if, as ADad said, the topic you think allows you to truly encapsulate your soul is "forbidden" by the unworldly powers who write admissions advice books, I say you should still go for it.</p>
<p>Should i be worried that i wrote about my grandfather smoking? I mean, it is honest and personal as heck. </p>
<p>Anybody care to read it over? It's a work in progress. I'm not sure it reveals enough about me though.</p>