Hello I have a question about this prompt. So I was considering this prompt and I couldn’t find example essays so I’m not sure if what i am thinking is appropriate.
i was wondering whether the ‘problem’ has to be a specific problem that you directly encountered and can be solved by you alone or if it can be more broad, e.g. poverty, racism, war, a national crisis etc. the problem i am thinking directly affects me but it is not specific to me or something that i can just ‘solve’ on my own, but it is a problem i’d “like to solve” and can suggest steps needed to solve it.
for example, say i was a victim of racial abuse and i wanted to write an essay on how to solve racism though obviously that isn’t a problem i could solve alone, rather than an essay about how i found my way home after getting lost or how there was a problem at work. (btw the problem i am thinking of isn’t racism)
It could be either but the key is to make it personal. The challenge of writing about racism, for example, is the temptation of writing something expository.
I think it is meant to be broad, meaning interpret it as you like. The problem with “broad” is that it is easy to write with sweeping generalizations, and describe yourself in general terms without giving specific examples or telling a story to admissions.
Remember your goals: reveal more about yourself than the standard app does, and make them want you on campus. I say ignore the prompts for a moment and brainstorm about ideas that fulfill that goal. A great essay can turn on a small incident or trait. Then go looking for a prompt that it fits into.
@gardenstategal Yeah racism isn’t what I was planning to write about. And i think it’s supposed to be a bit expository as you need to explain the issue and its significance.
It can be broad or specific: “a problem you’ve solved” is very specific and personal, while “a problem you’d like to solve” admits of a wide range of answers, although I would not recommend writing about a personal problem that you have yet to solve. The second paragraph from @intparent is very good advice.
You don’t have a lot of space. It should explain who you are, so if you need to use a lot of it explaining the issue, pick another topic. @intparent’s advice is spot on.
Either specific or broad will answer the prompt to this question. The problem with going broad is that it is very easy for your essay to become very cliche in nature, so you will have to be very careful to make sure you go against the grain. The way that my english teacher had us select our topic was to pick a quality or trait of ourselves that we wanted to convey to colleges that wasn’t anywhere else on the application, and then think of a few specific instances that relate to that quality. From there you can try to connect one of those experiences to one of the prompts.
I am working my personal essay (on this topic) too. I think a good way to avoid too “broad” is to focusing on yourself. First part is about your peronal opinions and reactions about certain problem. My counselor also advised me to be too emotional towards the problem because in the second part when talking about solutions or “steps”, you need to keep them objective and to show the influences from others’ perspective. Anyway, It’s really difficult to balance them.
Opt for specific. The more specific an example in writing, the more the reader universalizes it.
As for example racism as a topic, if the writer talks about a really specific moment when a racist event happened and how he/she handled it, if the essay drills down there intensely, yeah, the reader would understand that without general commentary about the intellectual underpinnings of the topic. The quality of the writing would speak for itself.
You shouldn’t get tied down by what the prompt is asking. While you want to write an essay that is in line with the prompt, this isn’t like an English class assignment. You will not be docked “points” off your application if you do not literally answer the prompt. Rather, an admissions office wants you to show something about yourself, your interests, your passions, your backgrounds, etc.
So instead of stressing about how well you’re answering the question, you should dedicate the most time to making sure that you’re showing how you’re a unique individual.
I answered this prompt too! Contrary to the previous contributor, I think you should place equal emphasis on making yourself unique AND answering the question, because that’ll demonstrate your ability to successfully complete the task at hand. That being said, specific is the way to go on this one. I’m sure thousands of applicants will write about solving world hunger or racism etcetc., but none of them share your stories and experiences!
If you are writing about a problem that you would like to solve …write about something that you can actually solve…Racism is not a problem that ONE person can solve. If you really want to address this issue maybe you can do it via a different question.