<p>I've been perusing this forum and have seen some people who strongly believe it is bad to write your common app main essay about one of your Extra-Curricular activities since it seems like you are just re-doing your resume. </p>
<p>I know that Pitt's application, which does not use the Common App, has one of their topics that says "elaborate on your participation in a school-affiliated group. talk about leadership positions, etc etc."</p>
<p>So i was thinking to write on that topic for Pitt and then for schools who use the common app, i.e. Penn, Northwestern use that same essay. It would probably fit under "other topics".</p>
<p>My thinking is to elaborate my journey on the Speech and Debate Team. An essay where I describe how I've grown from when I first started freshman year, until now. Would this be a bad choice since its one of my main EC's on my resume?</p>
<p>When people say it’s bad to talk about EC’s in the college essay, that means do not re-list your EC’s in a paragraph form. If you were to pick one activity/event/EC, and talk about how it changed you or your passion for it, then that would be fine. If you talked about playing piano, being in a rock band, being the head of Model UN and student government, and how varsity wrestling all show how “well-rounded” you are, then you screwed up the essay. </p>
<p>For example, I wrote (am writing, I’m applying this year) on writing. My only EC’s concerned with writing are being a newspaper editor junior/senior years and tutoring kids in writing junior/senior years. But, writing is one of my main passions and strengths, so I chose that over anything else that I’ve done. </p>
<p>Debate would be ok, I guess. I personally would not do it as I think it would be hard to pull off effectively. Also, it’s a bit cliche. But, of course, this all depends on your writing ability, your academics, the overall strengths of your ECs, and obviously, what schools you are applying to. If you’re applying to ivy/similar level schools, the essay becomes more important, if you’re not, then the essay is less important. Similarly, the essay becomes less important the better the other parts of your app are, and more important the weaker they are. </p>
<p>Summary: show passion in the essay, be real, be human. Don’t re list your EC’s. If you’re struggling with the temptation to do so, pick another topic completely on the common app. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>thanks it does. looks like im not gonna do the speech team one. </p>
<p>back to square one…</p>
<p>^Do debate if you think you can pull it off effectively. Do something else if you think you can pull that off more effectively.</p>
<p>It seems to me that if it is truly important to you and you feel as though you could effectively convey something that IS NOT already on your resume, go for it!! Whether or not you use it for your main Common App essay, once you have ideas down on paper, it will be easier to adapt it to fit the short answer Common App question. Good luck!!</p>