Common App Essay??

After watching countless videos on You Tube about tips and what to write and reading essays from the CC forms, I’m still a bit confused what to write about. I’m probably just overthinking it, but am I suppose to write specifically about me and how I view things or can I write about and experience I’ve had. One of my ideas is writing about the greatest moment I had with my dad, but would that just be talking more about the experience and not me? Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks

The idea of the essay is for colleges to gain a better understanding of your character and personality without meeting you in person. The essay shouldn’t include cliché topics or messages, as colleges get thousands annually. Try and make your essay personal and about you. Sure you could write about that experience, but try and connect the story to a central message that improves the look of your character and helps the colleges understand what kind of student/person you are.

Try the essay on you and your dad. Describe the moment in the first paragraph or so. Then, spend the rest of the essay telling how the moment changed you, what you’ve learned from the moment, how it will make you a better person or friend or parent down the road.

Most great essays aren’t about something that happened in a vacuum-- the stories almost always involve someone else. But the trick is to have the reader finish the essay and want to meet you, want to have you on his campus.

So use the dad story as a springboard to tell the reader more about you.

Does that make sense?