Hi, I am a Chinese Canadian currently studying A-levels in China. I was born in China, but immigrated to Quebec in 2005. I attended grades 1 to 9 in a french-speaking school in Montreal, Canada. So, recently, I’ve been preparing for my college essays (I use the Commonapp) and chose to write about a challenge to which I have found a solution. In one sentence, it is about a class project which turns into a catastrophe due to initial mistakes in planning and an accident (classmate got injured); the role I play in all this is that I did not give up and boosted our class’ morale back to its peak. (I don’t really like my essay cuz i think my topic is too commonplace and I don’t know if I demonstrate insight or anything…)
Yesterday, I read a post from the “Dean” about five big mistakes that international students make and it made me wonder about whether I should make my heritage and childhood the center of my essay or at least add some international flavor to it to appeal to the admission officers.
Basically, do admission officers look for particular things when revising international applications and their essays? Also, please give me some advice about choosing a topic for the essay. Thank you!