<p>So i am planning on applying ED to Penn...I have an idea for my common app essay but i just want to know if it is worth writing about..</p>
<p>my freshman year of HS i went to India to visit family and during my month long stay i witnessed the poverty and destitution that plagues the country...i met many "street people", as they call them, and saw many others who were sick or had physical disabilities living on the street. Seeing this made me realize that I dont want to go to school and get an education if i can't make a difference in society. So, now whatever i pursue in college (mostly leaning towards the med school route) i want to make sure that i can travel back to india and put my education to good use....</p>
<p>is that a good common app topic? is it too "common" or "over-done"?</p>
<p>it really isnt a terrible topic…but it is VERRRRRY overdone…it really depends on how well you write. If it is a cliche extreme poverty essay that it will get over looked…make it unique</p>
<p>I think too many people use the angle of “let me in so I can give back to the world later”.
The number one goal is to make it believable. (And the truth isn’t automatically believable).</p>
<p>One strategy is to be PAINFULLY specific (details prove truth) on what you plan to get from Penn and what you will do with it later.</p>
<p>Great advice for the Penn supplement, but OP is asking about their common app essay. </p>
<p>Make sure you are clearly addressing the prompt on the common app. If you can pull something from your experience in India to do that it should be OK. But, try to pull something from your experience that is unique, not something anyone who visits there and sees what you see would pull from it also.</p>