<p>I used my Common App essay to showcase my passions, and I feel it'd be redundant to do so again in the Supp essay. I would really appreciate it if I could learn what others chose to write about. I'm not going to steal your ideas, so don't worry about plagiarism. I just have no clue if this essay's supposed to be one of passion, personal story, interest in school, a political polemic, etc. The prompts are very out of the blue, and I wish they'd provide a little more direction.</p>
<p>PS The only idea I have so far is writing about my favourite teacher who taught me back in grades 2 and 3, usimg prompt #5 ("I am not a machine..."). I don't know if this is too cliche, or too irrelevant, or completely off topic... Please help.</p>
<p>My son used that prompt to write about how he was different from his classmates at a conservative, religous school and how he always was true to himself even when it was unpopular.</p>
<p>The Amherst supplementary essays last year were the most obscure I have ever seen. I didn't want a college that small anyway, but I definitely decided not to apply when I saw those.</p>
<p>Yes, luckily he is in. I am certainly no type of expert in this, but my impression is that they want you to write from the heart and have your essay reflect your personality. Good luck.</p>
<p>I almost considered not applying because of the essay prompts. It's absurd.</p>
<p>I did talk to my parents though and they threw some good ideas out there. I think I know what I want to write about but I haven't started yet (this is my last application, yay).</p>
<p>My impression with those Amherst quotes is that you can be fairly liberal with following the quote. Use the quote as a starting point for an essay, as inspiration rather than a sort of clear cut demonstration.
They are strange though...</p>