How big does the failure have to be for the common app essay?

College Essays
1

<p>Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?</p>

<p>I am now writing up my third essay topic. The first was too cliche, the second was too controversial, now this one is innocent, simple, but I can make it deep. But the "failure" is just messing up the instructions on a car part. That is as vague as I will go for now, as I barely started on the essay.</p>

<p>Do you think the failure needs to be something more significant?</p>

2

<p>No, I think they are open to interpretation. I think messing up is very real failure.</p>

3

<p>I think the point of the essays is how you grew as a person. If you can make it seem like this small failure made a huge change in your life, then I think it’s a good topic. Basically: what makes this make YOU, the applicant, stand out with this failure?</p>