essay topic ideas!! what do y'all think??

College Essays
1

essay topics for national merit scholarship essay and/or common app:

  1. experience in a club focused on world issues/poverty. talk about how i never thought of myself as like a leader since im not super outgoing and talkative, but my experience with that club showed me that i can be a leader and i dont have to be super loud and outgoing to do it if i'm still friendly, confident, passionate, organized, etc.
  2. i was homeschooled until i started 9th grade full time. so would talk about being alone and quiet freshman year to joining more clubs sophomore year to becoming president of clubs junior and senior year. idk the whole 'clubs' part sounds fake and cheesy but it represents a change from a really hard and lonely time for my in 9th grade to my shift in confidence and involvement in later yrs.
  3. talk somehow about how i'm asian but i dont feel like it. i also dont feel white or american. so i don't really belong anywhere. so basically my identity is ???... yeah this is kinda a bad one but maybe if i develop the idea more and make it not cliche which is gonna be the hard part
  4. experience going to music camps every summer in high school (classical string music lol i'm a nerd, full scholarships, not that im that good im just poor lol). i love music but i realized i can't and don't want to be a professional musician and dont want to major in music.
  5. more ideas?? cant think of much else, but all my other ideas are crap so i should start thinking LOL

THANKS! rate from worse to worst!

2

These are pretty cliche. #2 would be the only one I could see turn out ok. I’d focus on making your essays different / interesting, many of these essays can be written by others. Find a unique story that no one else could tell.

3

Another poster stated it nicely: unless you’re Mark Watney, it’s unlikely you’ll have a totally unique story.

Pick a non-taboo topic, then tell the story in an ENGAGING way. The biggest essay crime us putting the reader to sleep.

4

Make it relevant to what those colleges want to see in you, the attributes they value and want in their community. (Yup, you have to really know what those colleges want, to do this.) You really don’t need to write something “unique,” as much as something effective. The essay isn’t a hs writing assignment, it’s part of a presentation to the folks who will make your admit decision. I don’t see what 3 and 4 accomplish. 1 gives you a chance to show reflection, grounding, and perhaps some leadership. Seems to me, 2 is pretty much the same theme.

But remember, “show, not just tell.”