Essay topic - help needed!

College Essays
1

I have been through a lot during my high school years, and want to write an essay that sums up myself and how those experiences have shaped me. Here are the topics that I’m considering and I would love advice on which one could make the best essay:

  1. Having to switch schools my junior year. The high school that I attended from my freshman year to February of my junior year was forced to close due to low enrollment, so I had to switch to another school. Obviously, this is a very rare experience that few other students can write about. I think it’s good because it show my flexibility as a student and a person to have to start at a new school so close to being finished. If I don’t do this one, Common App has a section to explain why I transferred schools and I can explain it there, so nothing would be too lost.
  2. Books and how reading is a vital part of who I am. I have always loved books and I was considering writing my essay about how they’ve been a constant in my life through change. Specifically, I want the focus of the essay to be one specific book that I was in the middle of reading when my dad left us to go to rehab for alcohol addiction. The book mirrored the situation with my dad - and, in a bigger sense, mirrored a lot of my life - and I could say a lot about that. However, I’m a little weary on this one because I don’t want writing about everything with my dad to be viewed in a negative light or taken the wrong way and prompt rejection from schools.
    Any advice on which essay topic would be best is greatly appreciated!
2

Your first prompt sounds good. The only issue is that while it isn’t common for students to transfer for your specific reason, it is pretty common for students to change schools for other reasons like moving. That does not mean you can’t get a unique essay out of such a prompt; you just have to take care to avoid cliches and include lots of specifics that personalize your essay.

Your second prompt piqued my interest more than the first, but you are right to be wary about it. A topic like that requires a lot of nuance because you have to take care to keep the focus on yourself and not delve too much into things your father might not be comfortable sharing in an essay. It may be worth writing a draft and getting feedback on how your story sounds to an outsider.

Ultimately, either idea could make for a great essay. It might be a better approach to consider what exactly it is that you want to express about who you are as a person, your passions or values, and why colleges should admit you. Then use that to determine which idea expresses that most clearly.

3

I agree-- I like number 1 better. You had to transfer through no fault of your own. And the entire essay can be about YOU-- how your grew and learned.

Number 2 requires you to talk about the book, about dad, and also sell your application to the reader (because that’s the point in the essay in the first place)— all in 650 words.