<p>I was just interested in what everyone used as their essay topics. I've read a couple of UVA essays from other students on this forum and they were fantastic. I believe there was another topic started like this, but it has died. </p>
<p>Questions:
Favorite word
Favorite place to get lost
A piece of art that has moved you
Describe the world you come from and how that world shaped who you are</p>
<p>Yeah I remember that old topic. I did the last two essays “A piece of art that has moved you” and “Describe the world you come from and how that world shaped who you are”. I won’t really go into the specifics of what I wrote though.</p>
<p>Nice Tangent. I have to say, UVA’s essays were actually rather enjoyable to write. It seems like for many of my other college essays, I had a hard time coming up with what I wanted to write about. UVA’s topics were fantastic and really let the writer expose their personalities. </p>
<p>I personally choose “My favorite place to get lost” and “A Piece of art that has moved me” - my English journal.</p>
<p>Very nice theman44. My friend who was going to apply to UVA told me about the “word” essay he was going to do. It was beyond fantastic - but EXTREMELY risky. He discussed a word that begins with f and ends with ck. But in the body paragraph he talked about the power of words and the situations this word is needed. In the end of the essay he told the reader the word was “firetruck”. It was one of the best ideas I had ever heard, but was beyond risky. He didn’t let the reader know what the word was until the end, so obviously the reader thought it was the curse.</p>
<p>@UVAorBust: I don’t think that idea is new. You can ask some kids in middle school or even elementary school. They know about that word. I think if someone in the admission office has a kid then he/she may already know about it. But I still think it is risky.
Source: My niece, 4th grader.</p>
<p>Ohh nd2949, I think it is increadibly risky aswell. I would never do that topic. But I really do think it shows the power of words and perception. </p>
<p>Maybe it isn’t a new idea? I’m not sure, I just think it was very clever.</p>
<p>The one thing I remeber the Dean’s saying in their general presentation when I visited was this essay they said stuck out in their minds. Ready? It’s “Brevity, it’s concise.” And that was the entire essay. NOW THAT IS RISKY! They never said whether this student got in or not though haha.</p>
<p>@brit im not sure if they have a similar reception every time, however they did that exact same thing 3 years ago when I visited. Or maybe they don’t and we just were at the same exact info session.</p>
<p>They do theman44. And I am pretty sure I remember seeing Dean J say the brevity kid was accepted. These are some quotes discussing the “risky” essays from the UVA site:</p>
<p>We all love the “brevity, it’s concise” example because it’s so out there that we hope people will realize that it’s just an example, not something to use as inspiration.</p>
<p>Remember that the topic is not all that important. What’s important is how you write and what we learn about you through that essay. I fear that people spend so much time trying to figure out what the “right” topic is that the writing process suffers.</p>
<p>A risky topic doesn’t equal a great essay. In fact, it takes a lot of skill to pull off a risky topic without sounding gimmicky or contrived. </p>
<p>We read compelling, appealing essays about every day topics (family, hometown, activities, etc.) all the time.</p>
<p>I have to ask, what do you consider a gimmicky essay? Two of my three essays to UVA were, well, different. My favorite place to get lost was in a piece of food, and my CA essay was written in the form of train stops. I tried to use humor in both essays, but I hope that doesnt turn them “gimmicky”. UhOh.</p>
<p>I have read some books about admission essay and understand that my essay should express who I am, in a unique, personal way so that Admission Office can know about me besides the scores. But whenever I want to write something personal, something that I really care about, I’m afraid that I won’t do them justice.
Those essays in the books are personal, but concise, great and touching.
I started writing essay about 4 months ago, and now I can’t even decide what to write about.</p>
<p>nd2949, you can send me what you’ve written thus far and I’ll tell you honestly what I think. Don’t be scared to spill your emotions onto the page. I just read one of Dean J’s tweets that she just read her first essay that made her cry. These are the real essays.</p>
<p>I know these are freshmen essay topics and this is a transfer prompt but how would you guys approach writing about this:</p>
<p>How do the possible career or professional plans you indicated on the Common Application relate to your planned course of study?</p>
<p>It’s the only essay I need to finish for UVa’s app and I’m having a hard time with it. I want to double major in Computer Science and Italian. This is how I wanted to set it up:</p>
<ol>
<li>Talk about why I’m interested in my major</li>
<li>Activities I plan on participating (clubs related to my major and study abroad)</li>
<li>What courses I want to take</li>
</ol>
<p>However, I’m not sure about number 3. Any advice? I don’t want to make it sound like a schedule of classes I plan on taking. Thanks guys. (:</p>
It took me forever it figure out things to write just because I didn’t know where to begin.</p>