<p>So I thought of writing about my dad as a person who influence me. The thing is that my thought of him is both negative and positive: Sometimes he is the greatest hypocrite I've ever known and sometimes he give me many valuable lessons. I just want to ask that is it risky to write a college essay in which the first part would portray him in a negative light and then lead to some positive thoughts ?</p>
<p>I would be careful about the part where you portray him as a hypocrite. They may treat that as a rant-like and may take up the space that you would later rather use for other things. A college essay should focus primarily on you though, whichever route you decide. The college is not admitting your dad, but the person who wrote the essay</p>
<p>So… this sounds like an essay that could be a lot more interesting to you than anyone else. Your goal is to write an essay that tells something about YOU, and ideally makes the admission counselor think you would be a good addition to the campus community. This sounds hard to do with this topic. I suspect your dad overshadows a lot in your life, but give some consideration to what you could write about that ISN’T under that shadow.</p>