<p>Sex and astronomy.</p>
<p>Well, actually, on the centrality of food and how my own wacked interaction with it reveals the innate self-destructiveness of human nature. With a positive ending, of course.</p>
<p>Are you serious, Guitarman?</p>
<p>Yes. I found it quite amusing, myself. I think PorSK and corranged did as well.</p>
<p>Hot dogs aren't a bad idea. People on here are just boring and have no sense of humor, not to mention people will tell you they're a bad idea to make you feel bad (a lot of people on here don't have good social skills) because they're paranoid.</p>
<p>Jawohl. It depends what you do with it. Can I read it, ~CollegeBound~? That's really the only way to tell.</p>
<p>If you want to write your essay on hot dogs, then do it. People have written creative essays and gotten into Harvard. Others have tried and failed. Ultimately you owe it to yourself to apply your way with your personality and your style, not the way other people on this board would approach the essay. Think of it this way: would you want to write a more conventional essay and get rejected, then wonder if you would have gotten in had you followed your original, unique idea? Or even if you got in with a more conventional essay, would you want to wonder whether it was others' ideas that won you admission and not your own for following their lead and their directions? When decisions arrive, it comes down to you and Harvard, and all we CCers fall away in significance. Wish you the best of luck!</p>
<p>If her hot dog essay doesn't say anything meaningful about her, which it doesn't sound like it does, then it's a bad essay for the purpose. End of story. </p>
<p>Guitar did do that, and I personally found it quite amusing. </p>
<p>I have no idea if mine was creative or not. It's hard to judge from the outside, I guess.</p>
<p>It's really easy to do an "original, creative" essay and have it turn out gimmicky; I've certainly seen plenty of those. It's possible to do one that's good, though, and a well-done, original essay is much better than a well-done cookie cutter one. I was once on a hiring committee, reading writing samples from hundreds of applicants, and one of the best ones I saw was about a broken sink--it was not only funny and well-written, but demonstrated a lot of admirable personal traits on the part of the writer. Your essay should give the admissions committee a sense of why they ought to admit you. If it's fun and interesting on top of that, it's icing on the cake.</p>
<p>My own essay was, I suppose, sort of creative. I chose the common app prompt to write on a person or a historical or fictional character who has had an influence on you (or something like that) and wrote on Captain Hook.</p>
<p>if it's witty go for it!</p>
<p>omg, Phoenixy, when i was little i so wanted to marry Captain Hook. i'm totally serious. wow i was a strange child.</p>
<p>I say-- go for it.</p>
<p>Hot dogs are amazing. Especially with relish.</p>
<p>Obviously, we need to see the contents of the essay before we can make a judgement. However, I will say that from your original description, it sounds very gimmicky. There is no point in being funny for the sake of being funny. You shouldn't write about hot dogs simply to say "look at me I'm so creative because I write about hot dogs." They'll see through that and while you may want to come off as humorous, you'll probably come off as someone TRYING to be humorous, and there's a very big difference. Of course you can write a good essay using hot dogs, but from your description I don't think that's what you did. </p>
<p>However, I did do a funny essay for my Harvard supplement. It was a description of me dressing up as a girl for a spirit rally. I think you can write about creative things, but you have to do it right (I'm not even sure that I did). But whatever, it's too late now, so why mull over it?</p>
<p>Me? The awesomeness of typewriters.
Typewriters are awesome.</p>
<p>After I submitted it, I realized I should have written about Duct Tape.
It's got a dark side, a light side, fixes everything, but if you use it wrong, you could get into a sticky situation. :-)
Duct Tape is a wonderful thing.</p>
<p>I was flippin through one of those books on inspirational/famous
college app essays and one was about typewriters . . .</p>
<p>I wrote an essay once comparing an eraser to Jesus.....</p>
<p>Collegebound -</p>
<p>I think a good essay needs a certain amount of risk. How you think and how you express yourself can be far more revealing than content. And if I were an admissions committee member, I would definitely enjoy reading a well-written essay about hotdogs. </p>
<p>(btw...my daughter also wrote a very unusual essay....said she was going for it and que sera.)</p>
<p>i don't think i tried to be funny. i think its natural funny. i included myself a little but not in a "gimmicky" kind of way. the essay shows my creativity and original thought.</p>
<p>I didn't know that good essays had to be that original. Mine, in comparison, are too realistic. I simply didn't know. I read lots of essays in Princeton Review and 50 Essays Admitted! None of them was as original as the ones Guitar and others brought up. Argh, I feel cheated.</p>
<p>You'll stand out, but you'll stand out as an idiot.</p>
<p>^^ lol</p>
<p>hideANDseek: you definitely don't have to write about a unique topic. Think of it like you would think about a movie. There are so many sports movies out there: Rocky, Coach Carter, Space Jam, Glory Road, Remember The Titans, Rudy, The Program, and so on. These were all great movies though, because each was unique in its story and direction.</p>
<p>Similarly, you can write about a very traditional theme, and if your voice and personality come out through the essay, it would have to be considered a success. You definitely don't NEED to pick a unique topic, or at least that's what I've always thought.</p>