One of the essay questions for Exeter is talking about your passion.
I know what I’m going to write about and it’s about basketball (playing and following it) and I know how I’m going to write the essay and show my passion because I’m genuinely passionate about it.
The thing is, although the admissions officer(s) might feel my passion for basketball, since it’s not something others might write about like learning science, math, debating, community service etc… (the more scholarly actives if you will) they might think I’m too invested in basketball (if that makes sense). Too invested that I would neglect my studies but obviously I wouldn’t.
I guess my questions is even though I choose to write about basketball, would admission officers still see me as a valid applicant? The rest of my application shows that it’s not only basketball I care about, my interview went well talking about my other EC’s and my SSAT scores was a 96% overall so I’m hoping that helps me.
Also, have any of you guys (current student at Exeter or applicants) written about passions that weren’t as I mentioned before on the “scholarly” side? Thanks.
Write about basketball. The AOs are going to be bored to death if you write some generic essay on community service or your “passion” for learning. (Unless you are really into those things.) Stay true to yourself and just write what you really know and care about. They know that you are pretty interested in learning, based off of the fact that you are applying in the first place! So just write about what you really want to write about.
You’re fine! I don’t remember exactly what I wrote about but it certainly wasn’t about academics. A passion is a passion. Write about it.