<p>For what kind of hooks are colleges looking? Are they looking for things that have made you more mature, or more along the lines of family situations?</p>
<p>My first sentence was “I like Rebecca Black.”</p>
<p>It worked out pretty well for me, actually. Something that grabs their attention. But the essay as a whole should be something that shows what kind of a person you are and what makes you different from your friends or the thousands of other kids in the pile next to you. Obviously they want you to seem mature (as opposed to immature), but you can really write about anything as long as it’ll tell them something about you. If you’ve never had any complicated or traumatic family situations, don’t try to write about it. If you have and you’ve learned something from it or come out a different person, that may be something you could use, but I’ll also say that they get a fair share of sob stories too, so don’t make it a “poor me” sort of thing. Sob stories and the life-changing community service trip essays are pretty common— meaning, you won’t stand out. You want to stand out.</p>
<p>I’m an incoming college freshman, so I just went through this process. Like my college counselor said, somebody who knows you should be able to read that essay and figure out immediately that it was written by you without having to look at the name. For your main essay, I personally believe you can never go wrong writing about something that you are passionate about and how you have gone about pursuing it, as well as how it has helped to shape your life. It gives a picture of how that person will contribute to the college. </p>
<p>Many colleges will ask for supplemental essays, though, and depending on the college you’ll have a wider degree of “creative license”. I sent an essay about my love of cheese pizza to a college that is known for accepting students with a, um, quirky nature, and I was fortunately accepted. I think that in such cases, the key is making sure that the essay is well written. I went into excruciating detail about how I like my cheese pizza, from the texture of the crust to the specific amount of tomato sauce, and spent days agonizing (in a good way, this was fun to write) over the final draft before hitting the submit button.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for your advice.</p>
<p>So writing a college application essay detailing how a Moby song changed my lease on life is okay?</p>