So I have a couple ideas for my Common App essay, which revolve around different topics, namely my interests in languages (I speak English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Czech to some degree and devote a large amount of time to studying them) and urban planning (I have wanted to be an urban planner since around the third grade, have been recognized by my city for my involvement with the planning department through an internship, and have held an internship with my county’s department of transport while being an avid reader of several urban planning blogs and creator of transit maps and of redevelopment plans for various areas of different cities) and my tendency to be a hard and diligent worker (I will have taken twelve APs and their exams by the end of this year, have been in a multitude of clubs, and been recognized for many different measures of academic achievement). The essay prompts I am considering, as well as the topics I would write about, are below:
1, Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story:
I would probably not do this one, but if I were to do so I would probably discuss my interest in urban planning (or languages?) here
2, The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?:
I would most likely talk about junior year (I had to work very hard and learned to deal with new levels of stress and how to better manage my time despite already being good with time management) or about learning to study in middle school (when I first encountered something difficult, Algebra, and needed to learn to deal with it)
3, Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
I would write about discovering various urban planning blogs and communities which caused me to think about suburbs and whether their pattern of development was good or bad differently than those in my community
4, Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution:
I would most likely write about suburban retrofit/growing poverty in suburbs, a topic of great interest to me which I would like to solve
5, Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others:
I doubt I would do this one
6, Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?:
I would write about either urban planning or languages
7, Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design:
I doubt I would do this one
My question is, regarding my interests and my ideas for each topic, which common app essay would, in your eyes, it be best for me to write? I feel that my essay concepts for 1, 2, or 6 are strongest, but I am unsure of what exactly makes a “good” college essay. Thank you for your help!
Cross out 2, tons of students have the same experience. Urban planning and languages both sound interesting, especially the former.
The essay isn’t meant to justify, clarify, or re-state the major you hope for. It’s meant to be a narrative that, in the tale, shows attributes or qualities the college wants in its students, its community. It’s not like a high school essay where you follow the prompt or lose points. And one principle is to “show” these traits, “not just tell.”
Do you have a feel for what qualities your targets look for? And how you can show them?
Exactly. Pick the prompt that best allows you to show things about yourself to the adcomms that doesn’t come through elsewhere in your app. We can’t decide that for you.
I think an interest in urban planning might be something you could use. It isn’t a very common interest, so might help you write an essay that is different than a lot of others they see. But you need to figure out more of a “show” than a “tell” approach for it. Can you brainstorm specific stories or examples of when you first developed an interest? One of my kids wrote an essay about an unusual subject they studied. They introduced it with an anecdote from middle school, but that was a small part of the essay. They talked about how that interest had grown, morphed, gone down a dead end during HS, and how it stood as they planned to head off to college. But they used stories/waystation sort of descriptions to take the reader along with them. It wasn’t a dry laundry list of activities or proclamations about how much they liked this thing.
You can write about multiple languages and urban planning in the same essay, or pick one of them. It is very likely that admin officers will have seen both successful and unsuccessful application essays on both topics. The reason some are unsuccessful may be that they end up talking mostly about the activity, and less about the person.
I agree that urban planning may be a bit more unique than multiple languages, but both can be successful. You are still a 17-18 year old kid, trying to figure out what you want to do. Schools don’t expect you to completely know everything at your age. No essay will be perfect, it just has to ring true to who you are now.
Google “Hacking the College Essay 2017” and read it.
Write the Essay No One Else Could Write
“It boils down to this: the essay that gets you in is the essay that no other applicant could write.
Is this a trick? The rest of this guide gives you the best strategies to accomplish this single
most important thing: write the essay no one else could write.
If someone reading your essay gets the feeling some other applicant could have written it,
then you’re in trouble.
Why is this so important? Because most essays sound like they could have been written by
anyone. Remember that most essays fail to do what they should: replace numbers (SAT/GPA) with the real you.
Put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer. She’s got limited time and a stack of
applications. Each application is mostly numbers and other stuff that looks the same. Then she picks
up your essay. Sixty seconds later, what is her impression of you? Will she know something specifically
about you? Or will you still be indistinguishable from the hundreds of other applicants she has been
reading about?”