<p>ok so i've been working on my common app essay and it's probably about 3/4 of the way to being a completed draft. i chose to write it about how reading the great gatsby changed my perspective on my surroundings and my future....so my mom comes and wakes me up this morning to say she was reading the US News thing about college and they had said something to the effect of "anybody can write an essay analyzing the great gatsby" which she took to mean that writing about this book would be cliche....what do you guys think about that? is gatsby a bad topic, and should i cahnge it?</p>
<p>Write about what you feel most strongly about, and whatever the subject, write it with your own insights and flair. If the subject is "Great Gatsby," go for it.</p>
<p>Your essay needs to be intensely personal. If and only if the subject is primarily you (and Fitzgerald only provides a little flair), it's worth writing about. If you're just dissecting the book or (god forbid) doing plot rehashes, scrap it and think a bit more about who you are and what makes you unique.</p>
<p>-Steve</p>
<p>Bad idea....</p>
<p>A Great Gatsby essay?</p>
<p>Excuse me while I microwave some popcorn to enjoy this because I'm sure it's going to be exciting and original and creative! I mean I've already read the Great Gatsby, but I'm sure another essay will make me even more interested in the most overrated book ever written!</p>
<p>Just about any subject can be turned into a good essay IF it reveals important aspects of the writer's nature and personality. Clearly, a "book report" or even a literary dissection of a classic work would be a poor essay topic. Somehow relating a personal situation to the book, one of the characters, etc., could work.</p>
<p>It's important to remember that the application essay is more than a writing sample (although it serves that purpose, too) - it's the one place on the application where your personality can shine through the haze of dry stats and ECs.</p>
<p>THE FOLLOWING IS OPINION: I think you will have to write a REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY AMAZING essay to get the admission officer to look past the fact that you're writing about the great gatsby. I would seriously scrap it. Then again when I was writing essays I was trying to catch admissions offciers off guard, to shock, and surprise and make sure they remember me -- to haunt their nightmares and fantasies, so to speak.</p>