<p>So MIT has 2 short (100 word) answer questions
1 required longer essay
and 2 optional essays</p>
<p>I am not quite sure how I should go about selecting topics and how narrow to make them. There seems to be a couple possible topics and points that i want to write about, but I am not sure how i should decide what exactly to write.</p>
<p>any thoughts? what should i keep in mind when selecting topic ideas?</p>
<p>You have a couple questions and points you should think about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Are you good with words? Not just writing good analytical papers, I mean can you write a speech to move people? The application essay is not an objective assignment, it's suppose to be subjective.</p></li>
<li><p>Be a kid. You're not some 50 year old professor making profound insights about the meaning of life and such, just focus on expressing something like "I'm a curious kid excited about computers and airplanes!" </p></li>
<li><p>Project yourself. When people on these boards say the essay should reflect your personality, they don't mean that if you're into computers you have to write about computers. It's a tricky subject, but you have to let the style of the essay reflect the type of person you are. </p></li>
<li><p>Slash through your essays. Whatever you write , at least 25% of it will be unnecessary. You have to be able to cut out stuff that isn't essential. They don't give you a word limit so it gives you more freedom to write the perfect essay. Of course no essay is perfect.</p></li>
<li><p>Be confident. I have no doubt that at least someone will not like your essay. They will say to be more conservative in your expression, or do this or that, or maybe the admissions officers will not like that. At some point you have to ignore people! They don't necessarily know what's best, and this is your essay! You have to have confidence that your ideas and essay will work out. Yes writing the essay is stressful, but so is college and the rest of your life. A strong personality is one that shines through whether in stress or peace. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I hope this helps. Write A LOT!!! Good essays are written, not dreamt up. You will see that the words that go through your head when you are lounging don't seem so good when put on paper, so you have to write A LOT!!!</p>
<p>If you're really having trouble deciding what to write about, why not pick a few topics and write short outlines or first drafts of all of them, then pick the one you like best?</p>
<p>would it be okay if i tied together different parts of my life to show a couple of points?
or might that seem choppy and i should just have 1 main point?</p>
<p>because right now, i have several experience through out my life that really defined me and i want to show as many of them as possible, but since i moved around a lot, they aren't really all that interrelated</p>
<p>always try to write something that you yourself would enjoy reading</p>
<p>if you think you can get away w/ a bunch of points, then go for it</p>
<p>the admissions overlords are people just like you =)</p>