<p>Is it better to write on a topic like overcoming a physical handicap (requiring surgery and painful physical therapy) with detail and emotion or on a broad topic such as diversity (common app essay topic)
with multiple examples drawing on ethnicity, very minor physical handicap, study abroad experience ...</p>
<p>The first essay will be more powerful... my voice ... makes me a strong person who can handle adversity in a meaningful way.
The second tells how my diversity can contribute to the college student body...</p>
<p>Please help me decide. This will be my common app essay.</p>
<p>Write drafts for both topics, then see which turned out better. Even a really good topic can be hard to turn into a good essay, and a boring topic can end up great. You might have a feeling of which will be better, but you can't really know until you have written it.</p>
<p>The topic that allows you to be the most personal, detailed, honest and revealing about yourself is the better topic imo.</p>
<p>From the way you described both essays, it sounds like the first one--the one that has "my voice"--may be more promising.</p>
<p>(Note also like that discussion of a physical handicap in topic #1 will also show, without so stating explicitly, that you will contribute to diversity.)</p>