<p>One S wrote about trying to find a particular book that had gone missing in his room. His sister wrote about writing her first, extensive research paper. Both topics provided avenues for each to show something about themselves that wasn’t really obvious in the rest of the application. My advice is to always go small…find something that in and of itself seems inconsequential, but when it’s fleshed out tells something about you that isn’t available to the reader in any other part of your application.</p>
<p>I remember I wrote about “the intricacies of nature” for my common app essay (I know, I know, it’s so cliche) and about shopping and making a dress for several of my supplements. I personally liked the science one slightly better, as I thought it was better written and more heartfelt, but it was actually the dress one that received a note of praise from admission officers of two different colleges, not the other ----> write about something unique.</p>
<p>S wrote about his experience playing taps at a young fireman’s funeral. S was a HS student
and an excellent trumpet player, so he was asked to do this. He was young and inexperienced in such matters, so his essay was particularly poignant.</p>
<p>D1 wrote about her life as a dancer. Her essay started recalling her first performance at age six to her being captain, choreographing and teaching her HS dance team. This theme has probably been seen many times by adcoms. But she did get accepted to an Ivy, one of her first choice schools.</p>
<p>D2 wrote about(senior HS program she was in) her experience witnessing, first hand -meaning at the table-autopsy. She wrote about her interest and excitement about the science, yet she also acknowledged the death of the young homeless man they were cutting up and that he had a life.</p>
<p>You really need to write about something very meaningful to you. Make it personal and make it you.</p>
<p>digmedia-THANK YOU</p>
<p>Advice to parents of rising HS seniors: Order the cheap, short, but very insightful book by Harry Bauld from Amazon. It is not available in stores.</p>
<p>^ Harry Bauld? What kind of parents would give their kid a name like that?</p>
<p>Here’s the first line of mine:</p>
<p>“The sharp metal edge glinted in the sunlight beaming in through the window. I stood back, observed the scene in front of me, then lunged forward, plunging the knife into the mass of flesh lying there.”</p>
<p>It’s about being veggie and loving biology.</p>
<p>D wrote about her love of roller coasters and the road trips to different parks throughout the US.</p>
<p>My D wrote about the day she decided to sit at a different table in the cafeteria and how this tied into her friends’ nickname for her.</p>
<p>Digmedia, great examples. My son’s main essay pretty much followed your formula. It’s very effective.</p>
<p>S wrote about entering a digital art competition. It was a humorous essay–he got into some trouble during the process. He ended up with 3rd prize–$25, some software, and a t-shirt (probably not worth it. . .) </p>
<p>D wrote about decorating a cake. It was descriptive, symbolic, somewhat humorous. At the beginning it was sort of mysterious because a reader can’t tell exactly what she is doing at first.</p>
<p>They both wrote about very specific experiences with a hobby.</p>
<p>Great examples/topics. Thank you. Hopefully, this will give D enough ideas to get started!</p>
<p>mathmom - What did your son write about? </p>
<p>Also, I got the formula from an essay my son wrote for a scholarship competition (he won), but for his college essays, they looked NOTHING like the formula. He asked me to look them over. I gave him some grammar corrections, but told him he should change nothing in the way it was written. It was not fancy or clever or showed great intellect. But it was an extremely clear representation of who he was and what he was interested in doing.</p>
<p>My younger son wrote about origami. He started with a description of being bored at a Japanese paper museum. Then moved on to how he learned to like origami later and what he learned from it. (The magic of patterns, the frustrations teaching yourself with only books and youtube videos, moving on to teaching seniors and selling your designs.) He ended envisioning himself back at the Japanese museum, and admitting he’d still think I was too slow though he would appreciate it more.</p>
<p>Not all his essays followed the formula, but the Common App main essay did. My favorite essay was his alternative history of the US he did for Tufts, in retrospect, he should have sent it everywhere as an optional essay.</p>