<p>Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.</p>
<p>I am a confirmed Filipino Catholic who has been active in the church for the past 14 years. I'm looking into writing about being/growing up as Catholic for one of the UC prompts (repeated below). I believe it would be a good topic for me because I can write very passionately about it-my faith has given me strength in some of my hardest moments and instilled in me a firm set of moral values. However, is this appropriate to discuss on a college essay?</p>
<p>I also plan to include a broader discussion on spirituality in general-though I don't know other religions as well as my own, I have done service projects with other christian churches, mormans, and I personally ran a recycling project at a buddhist temple. Again, this is a really broad topic but I think I can write well about it-I just hope the topic won't shoot me down in the first place.</p>
<p>Help would be very much appreciated for this-thank you in advance for any advice and best of luck to you all on your essays :)</p>
<p>How is it relevant to your college major/career plans?
I personally would never use a religious essay for a public school.
Although I did use one when applying to Princeton (but it was pertinent.)</p>
<p>I consider myself generally undeclared-though my transcript/test scores suggest I'm more inclined towards the sciences =/</p>
<p>If there are too many counts again writing an essay over faith, I may drop the idea but I just want to know if anyone has had any personal successes or failures writing over the topic. I don't think it's horribly common because I would think it's considered a more difficult topic that most people would normally avoid...but could it work?</p>
<p>dude, it's all contingent on how you present it. if you make it a contrived "religious epiphany" then, well, it's not going to stand out as well. but if you inflect a true sense of singularity, if you can make it stand out from the herd of religious epiphanies (and there is quite a herd) then you've got something special on yr hands. tell a story.</p>
<p>If your essay is directed more toward how your faith and religion have developed your character and shaped the way you think, interact, etc... then I supposed there's no harm done. If you plan on discussing religion as a general concept then a lot of harm can come out of that, considering it's a very spiritual thing. But keep in mind that because this topic is so personal, whoever ends up reading your essay may not be FULLY able to comprehend its meaning, so I would stay away from it altogether.</p>
<p>If it's a topic you feel passionate about and can write about in an engaging and specific manner, you should go for it. The main danger with essays on religion is that you'll come across as judgmental, closed-minded, or dogmatic, but as you've worked with faiths other than your own, this probably isn't an issue. It's a topic that's worked for others in the past. As long as you avoid the pitfalls I've mentioned, get beyond cliches about religion, and show some intelligence, the topic can do a good job of showing who you are as a person and what drives you (just the thing admissions committees are looking for). Just be sure to keep it focused--from your original description I worry that you may be trying to squeeze too much in.</p>