help please! just ideas not actual essay!

<p>So it's obviously that time of year and I have been thinking about which essay topic i could write about. I might consider a few of the actual common app prompts, but this thread is more about the "choose your own topic" prompt options:</p>

<p>First here's a bit about me:
My academics and test scores are the strongest part of my app (4.0, 34 ACT, good class rigor). I should have good recs as well. However my EC's are kind of weak. I was involved in a decent amount of things and they are by no means bad, but I don't have AMAZING ECs like many kids at the schools I'm applying to do. The schools I am planning to apply to are Michigan(In-state), Duke, Emory, and Northwestern and if I don't get into Michigan Early Action then some other safeties. </p>

<p>Option 1: I moved from connecticut to michigan the summer between my soph. and junior year. I went to a very large (1,800 students) liberal public school in CT to a small (550 students) conservative Catholic high school. I was thinking about writing about how i encountered differences and how i learned more about myself, changed for the better, adapted to the move even tho it was hard blah blah blah. In one sense I'm worried that this may be a generic and boring topic, but then again (and my parents want me to do this topic) I think about how many people had to move halfway across the country halfway through high school and I would think the answer is not a lot, but you never know. The thing that I could see this topic helping with is displaying my scattered EC's, ex I decided to switch sports when I moved (tennis and soccer to running), and lack of a lot of leadership positions, it's pretty much impossible to really become a leader during 11th grade when you have just moved and don't know anyone, i will be president of student gov senior year but junior year i was pretty unleaderly. I feel like they will look at my EC's through an easier lens if they realize how difficult it can be to move halfway through high school(yet this WILL NOT be a pity me story at all, rather how its made me better and how I wouldnt trade the experience)</p>

<p>Option 2: spring of sophomore year I was cut from the tennis team at my old school(extremely competitive program, even tho I was ON varsity and got a letter freshman year). It was a pretty depressing time in general, I had just found out I was leaving all my friends and going to a less academically strong school, and I was thinking about writing about how I had limited running experience in the past(only indoor track which i didnt take seriously and did for fun/friends/stay in shape) but how I decided to pick it up and start anew and now I am a serious runner and I love it, its how i have made a ton of new friends, blah blah blah. Again, I'm worried it might be kind of generic. </p>

<p>Option 3: Another interesting(maybe) thing about me is that Im gay...I havn't actually come out to anybody yet and due to my conservative catholic high school environment I don't plan on it until either after I graduate or right before during the last quarter of the school year. I have read that colleges get a lot of coming out stories and that it can be generic, but I havn't come out yet so I dont even have a story to tell. However I was thinking about writing about how even though being in the closet is a horrible experience overall that nobody should have to go through, that I could write about the good things for me personally about being in the closet and how these transfer into my life, maybe using real life anecdotes, Independence, strength , etc. If I wrote this essay I wouldn't show my parents or anyone for that matter and would probably have to write another essay to show them and then send this one( I would probably mention this). </p>

<p>Option 4: Choose a prompt from common app. </p>

<p>What do you guys think? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>Out of the 3 options, I like the first one the best. The second one is kind of whiny. The third one is too personal and you are not ready to make the information public.</p>

<p>Why don’t you write a personal statement? This way you can be forward looking about the person you want to become.</p>

<p>hmmmm… i also like the first one most…
but I think it’s important to remember that colleges are looking for diversity, not only in ethnicity, but in personality and background, experiences etc. So make sure you write about something that helps add to that diversity in a college :)</p>

<p>Thanks for the feedback!
The more i think about it I think the first one is probably best too, and the most comfortable for me to write about.</p>

<p>@LGSmom what do you mean by personal statement? you mean in place of the actual essay?</p>

<p>Bad advice fairy here: (No pun on the fairy party).</p>

<p>For fun; write an essay about how people in your school will react when they find out the class president is/was gay. Think it through and consider the people that will get angry and the people that will want to deny it (including the beautiful girl you are currently dating) and the people that will say ‘i knew it’ and the people that will accept you with open arms. Make it funny and fast and sweet and uplifting. Dont use it for your college essays; use it as a way to develop the skills and courage to write something personal and meaningful that is joy to read. Then write your essay topic #1 and realize that the sports angle is not as important as you think but the personal angle is.</p>

<p>Just some bad advice! :)</p>

<p>@ Imontoya thanks so much a sent you a PM. </p>

<p>do people think his idea is good? once i read it i knew exactly who/what to write about and im actually EXCITED to write it. i feel i can be funny and passionate writing about it.</p>

<p>I would at least say that Imontoya’s proposal sounds like a great writing exercise. And if you’re excited to write about it then that could be the most important part. Whether or not you keep it as an actual essay…matters after you write it, but at least it sounds like writing it would help you put your voice onto the page, so to speak.</p>

<p>The one I’d be most interested to read about is the third. And it seems like, just in summarizing the first two ideas, you are boring yourself. </p>

<p>Don’t write an essay because your parents want you to. Don’t write an essay because you think that is what colleges want to hear. Write the essay that excites you the most. At the very least that essay will be genuine.</p>