<p>I have an idea for my common app essay, but I'm not sure it'll stand out. I was going to do the 1st prompt and write about how prior to middle school, I went to a Montessori school and talk about how different the teaching methods are and how it shaped me as a student/person, etc. I have a funny beginning about how on my first day of public middle school, I asked my math teacher if I could do my work while sitting on the ground (not kidding!). Writing is my strong suit so I know it'll be written well, but I'm not sure if the topic is too bland or boring. Any advice? Thanks!</p>
<p>A story about you asking to work on the floor is central to your identity?</p>
<p>Theoretically, one could make any story entertaining. The question is what, if anything, would this topic reveal about you?</p>
<p>No, that’s just an intro idea. The actual essay would be about how my early childhood education shaped who I became as a student and person</p>
<p>How did it change you? Would you have turned out vastly different (almost a different person, even) if you had attended a regular public school? Do you think other students who attended similar schools would also write about the same subject? If so, what will make your essay different from theirs?</p>
<p>Just some questions to think about.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely consider those questions when writing. Thanks!</p>
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<p>Regardless of whether it’s true for the OP, I don’t think that’s an absurd idea. Little things can be very significant.</p>
<p>The reason colleges want your teacher recommendations to be from your sophomore and junior teachers in high school and not from your elementary or middle school teachers is that your elementary and middle school years are too far away from who you are now. I would imagine the same thing can be said for your essay. Colleges don’t want to hear about something that occurred in your elementary and middle school years, UNLESS whatever happened continued to happen throughout your high school years. If the OP is still doing his high school math sitting on the ground because that’s the way s/he has done it for the last ten years and it all started way back when – well then I guess that would be acceptable. Odd, but acceptable.</p>
<p>Thanks, but no one is getting the point of the essay. My essay will be about how the way I was taught in elementary school shaped me as a person and a student, not an essay about how I do math on the ground (which I don’t). If you don’t know what Montessori is, look it up. The teaching methods are very different from those of public school and I think I wouldn’t be the student I am today if I had not attended that school.</p>
<p>Every student has been shaped by how they were taught in elementary and middle school. Why is your experience different from another student who also went to a Montessori school? If your experience is not that much different from another student, then your essay is not really going to stand-out in the crowd.</p>
<p>FWIW: According to wikipedia, there are between 4,000 to 8,000 Montessori schools in the US – so, I imagine many students have had the same experience as you. Why was yours unique? That’s what you need to answer.</p>
<p>I think your essay would be interesting if you delivered it well.</p>
<p>Yes there may be 4,000 to 8,000 Montessori schools and another person may write about the same topic, but if you’re not going to write about the Montessori schools what are you going to write about? Sports? Music? Traveling? Your parents? And I don’t want to seem insensitive, but poor background or an accident or death?
Literally millions of people write about these topics, and still do, and they still can still get accepted into top schools. The key is that they just wrote their essay superbly.
I know this because I review some of this graduating class’ essays’, and they ended up getting accepted to Harvard, Georgetown, UPenn.</p>
<p>Honestly, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter what you write about if you’re an excellent writer. If it’s important to you, and you want to write about it, and you can write it in a powerful way that makes it unique to other essays and showcase your very best writing and composition skills, then give it a try. And see if you like it.</p>
<p>I think it’s better to send in an essay that you like and are confident in, rather than an essay that you shape based on the opinions of others.</p>
<p>I posted the below on another thread and I think it very much applies to this thread, so I’ll repost.</p>
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<p>I think in some cases this results in unnecessarily contrived essays.
There are six billion people in the world, and that’s just the ones who are currently alive. Nothing is ever “specific only to you.”
The problem isn’t unoriginality, per se. The problem is people writing in a cliche way because they don’t really know their subject matter.</p>
<p>I think it sounds like a good idea as long as its constructed well. I relate to your experience, although the two methods are actually almost complete opposites besides what a lot of people seem to think, I know what it feels like to have a completely different education to the mainstream as I have gone to Steiner school my entire life</p>
<p>halcyonheather: Permit me to digress for a moment to make a point. </p>
<p>There is a famous television screenwriting book that is the bible for Hollywood folk called “The Eight Characters of Comedy” by Scott Sedita. The book breaks down the eight characters of television comedy into:</p>
<ol>
<li>The Logical Smart One</li>
<li>The Loveable Loser</li>
<li>The Neurotic</li>
<li>The Dumb One</li>
<li>The B*tch/■■■■■■■</li>
<li>The Womanizer/Manizer</li>
<li>The Materialistic One</li>
<li>The In their Own Universe One</li>
</ol>
<p>Every television character from The Honeymooners to Arrested Development is based upon just those eight characters. Yet, hundreds of TV sitcoms have been made from those classic archetypes. And each successful TV show is different enough to make each show unique. How do TV writers do it? Specifics. Each television character is given a specific set of circumstances, and each character has a different WOFAIM. That’s an acronym for Want, Obstacle, Feeling, As if, Intentions and Moment before.</p>
<p>Now, here’s my point: Even though 2 students, or 200 students, or 2000 students may potentially write about the same topic – to craft an essay that is significantly different from anyone else’s, a student must not write in general terms. They must infuse their real-life story with specific circumstances and WOFAIM that only exist in their world. Good college essay writing is in the details! </p>
<p>In the OP’s case, why is his or her experience different from another student who also went to a Montessori school across town and across the country? That’s the question the OP needs to answer. If they can’t come up with WOFAIM and circumstances that are different, then I would recommend they, like TV screenwriters, move on to another topic.</p>
<p>Some people here are saying that elementary school is too early to write about, but if it’s significant and you tie it back into your recent choices, it should be fine. My Princeton supplement was about my first grade teacher. Yes, first grade. The topic was someone who inspired you, I think. I opened the essay by setting it in one long volunteer day (24 hours of collecting/sorting donated goods during a drive) that I had recently participated in, during which I reflected on why, exactly, community service was so important to me. Since my first grade teacher had significantly affected my drive to do community service from an early age (which was reflected in my high school ECs), I wrote my essay about her. </p>
<p>I was accepted to Princeton. So don’t think adcoms will think it’s not relevant to write about early experiences just because they happened a long time ago.</p>
<p>Adcoms have said that any essay can be an interesting one, even sports, if taken from a different angle. I get the overall story, it depends if u can write it. Little anecdotes do help, it makes ur essay more personal. Do include the floor story</p>
<p>I’m on the fence about this one. I think you intend to make the connection to how you relate now in the world, so I see your point. It doesn’t sound especially interesting, though I guess that’s all in how you tell the story. I did always kinda wonder what are Montessori methods for older kids, as I thought it was developed for age 3 to 6. (My daughter went from 3 yo to K).</p>