Help me choose my essay topic (and I'll read your essay)

College Essays
1

<p>I come from a small, rural public school which RARELY sends students to top/Ivy schools so I don't have many people here to advise me. I've been brainstorming essay ideas all over the map and would love some feedback on them. Let me know which you think are good/bad/horrible. You can also pm me your essay and I'll give you feedback.</p>

<p>Political (I plan on majoring in Political Science and I'm really passionate about it.)</p>

<p>"Being a Blue Dot in a Red State"
(I'm a democrat in Alabama and its been incredibly difficult for me to develop and voice my opinions. I've been bullied by students & teachers because of this. Essay about how I decided not to stay silent and how that shaped me and those around me?)</p>

<p>Academic</p>

<p>"An Austen Lover in an MTV World"
I love reading Jane Austen and its turned into a favorite study and passion of mine. How Jane Austen has shaped how I view my generation, romance, and the world around me.</p>

<p>Extracurricular</p>

<p>"A Ten Second Walk"
I'm SUPER involved in FBLA (Two Time National Winner). This past year I got to watch 3 of my best friends who I had to nearly drag into FBLA walk across the stage at Nationals and win top awards. About how FBLA shaped me, gave me my opportunities to succeed, then how I passed those opportunities to the friends I love.</p>

<p>Personal</p>

<p>"Twins in Tuscaloosa"
My brother and sister are students at the University of Alabama and were in Tuscaloosa when the April tornados hit. They're both ok and their property survived but it came within 400 feet of my sister's apt. and 6 of her friends died. Personal story about the worry I felt as I waited for them to call me and say they're ok, the relief, how it made me appreciate my family and life. Also, how proud I was to watch my state and community react, clean up, and rebuild. I understand this my sound like a "sob story" but I'd try to keep it light, passionate, and inspirational.</p>

<p>Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I doubt this is what you were looking for, but I would suggest writing all of those essays and deciding which you like best at that point. Sometimes you have a good idea but it winds up not being displayed on paper quite how you’d intended.</p>

3

<p>I was planning on doing so but I was wondering if I should rule any of them out completely. Thanks for the advice :)</p>

4

<p>The first and last topics are my favorites.</p>

5

<p>Thanks Passenger, they’re kinda mine too. I have another thats kinda a travel story but its more than just “my great trip.” It would be about the emotional reaction I had to visiting Omaha Beach. Most people would encourage the FBLA one, and I could probably write a great essay about it, but it just seems uncreative to me.</p>

6

<p>The best topic is the one that allows you to be the most personal, detailed/specific, and revealing. The one that you, and/or people who know you very well, can look at and say that it is you.</p>

<p>Which topic best allows for that essay?</p>

7

<p>Any of the first 3 would be great. The last one, although I’m sure you have good intentions, is just so freaking overdone. My two cents, best of luck. I’m especially intrigued by the Jane Austen one.</p>

8

<p>@ADad, almost all of them are personal to me in some way (even the extracurricular one). I would just like to have something unique and memorable.</p>

<p>@addymithas. Thank you for the advice. With the tornados only being 3 months ago I’m not sure how overdone it would be. and I love the Austen idea because her books have really shaped how I view the world.</p>

9

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</p>

<p>Every essay is personal in some way. Which topic allows for the most personal, the most you?</p>

<hr>

<p>What makes an essay “unique” and “memorable”? Not the topic. What makes an essay unique and memorable is what you do with the topic.</p>

<p>You have something that is unique and memorable: your self, your unique personality. A main purpose of the essay is to reveal as much of that as you can. Which topic will allow for that? </p>

<p>Don’t let strangers on the internet, people who don’t know you, decide or unduly influence your choice of topic. It isn’t easy, but the fact is that only you can decide which topic, in your hands, can be the most revealing of yourself.</p>

<hr>

<p>With regard to supposedly “overdone” topics: </p>

<p>There are no “cliche” topics, there are no “overdone” topics. There are only cliche, overdone treatments of topics.</p>

<p>When addymithas says that the tornado topic might be “overdone”, I suppose that the suggestion is that the theme of recovery from devastating loss is a common theme. Maybe people haven’t written about the Alabama tornadoes, but they have indeed written about other natural disasters. </p>

<p>Here is a sketch of a cliche about disasters: something bad happened, I helped out, I learned to appreciate the good things I have.</p>

<p>An essay about disasters, though, does not have to follow that framework. It can be personal, detailed/specific, and revealing. It can set you apart. It all depends on how you write it.</p>

<p>I have read spectacular essays on pretty every supposedly “overdone” topic: travel, immigration, loss, helping others, sports. It is not the topic, it is what you do with the topic. </p>

<hr>

<p>It is not a problem that other people may have written about your topic. Do not imagine that you must find a topic that no one has ever heard of, like, say, gecko racing in Antarctica, in order to have a strong essay. If your essay is personal, detailed/specific, and revealing, it will be memorable, no matter how many people have written on your topic or something like it.</p>

<p>Here is some excellent advice btw: [Essays</a>, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html]Essays”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html)</p>

<p>At that link, you’ll find sample essays. There is a strong essay about death, and a weak essay about death. You can easily see that it is not the topic, it is what you do with the topic.</p>

10

<p>Thank you for the reassurance ADad. That’s great advice.</p>