<p>"Trip to a place where people are less advantaged than you, where you learned that everyone is the same, deep down."</p>
<p>To avoid this, I wrote about my desire to visit Luxembourg, where everyone is probably more advantaged than me. It was really quirky and ended up working well.</p>
<p>You've received a lot of good advice in this thread so far. I spent a lot of time brainstorming about essay topics with my first two (of four) college-bound children, both of whom were accepted to their first choice-schools.</p>
<p>I think the topic(s) should be very focused, and the writing should reveal something about you that cannot otherwise be gleaned from the application. Don't write about awards or accomplishments. My son wrote two "long" essays last fall that were adaptable for ten different applications; one was about "taking a risk" (performing in a talent show) and the other about the experience of a direct hit from a hurricane. It's important to try to inject emotions into the writing, but humor and irony are better-received than drama, sarcasm, anger, etc. It's just as important to let others read the essay to tell you how the emotional aspects come through.</p>
<p>Stay focused and write the essays yourself; parents like me are for editing only!</p>
<p>A topic like Luxembourg, though, works well imo when it ties in nicely with, reveals, the personality and interests of a particular writer. It allows that writer to be personal, detailed, honest and revealing. For someone else, whose interests are nowhere near Luxembourg, this topic likely would not work so well. </p>
<p>The best topics for a certain person may seem "idiosyncratic" or "quirky" to everyone else, but they fit well, they seem natural for that person.</p>
<p>yousonofatree, I get that writing about the need to convert everyone to or totally get rid of a religion would be controversial. However, if my parents are from different religions and I've been raised as a member of both, would that be controversial?</p>
<p>Imo, writing about religion is fine if one avoids being contentious or argumentative in favor of one's particular religion. If religion, like any good topic, allows one to be personal, detailed, honest, and revealing, then imo religion will be fine as a topic.</p>
<p>What about if you wrote about how a particular jazz musician transformed the genre, had his own style (blah blah). And taught you how to be "unique and special"</p>
<p>There really isn't anything that should be totally off-limits. If you were convicted of a felony, but it's a good story and illustrates your personality well, write about it!</p>
<p>In general, remember that college are all asking the same thing: Who are you? If your essay doesn't answer that question, then consider it a bad essay.</p>
<p>a little background info first,</p>
<p>For Photography at RIT a portfolio is not required.</p>
<p>When i visited RIT to talk with a Professor in the field i would like be in (Biomedical Photography), I asked him if it would help at all to show some of the photos i have won awards from right in the essay, or if it would be better to make a separate CD portfolio. He said that putting the photos right in the essay would be a great idea compared to a separate portfolio because they wouldn't even look at that. Do you think i should still show these photos, i have the same award for 3 different photos(Editors Choice Photo of the week), that come from a respected organization (NAPP). </p>
<p>By the way i'm a junior right now and am just starting to think about writing the essay. Thanks for any help, it will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I really think that any topic can be made unique, whether it is written about often or not--but, if you have something that's different and makes you stand out, you should write about that. However, I think it's much more about how the essay is written--could anyone have written it, or is it uniquely YOU?</p>
<p>This is especially true with a topic like community service/service trip if you just talk about how it "changed" you and how you pay more attention to the world now, etc. and are very general, you could be anyone. BUT if you write about meeting a homeless man at a shelter who taught you how to play guitar and then you raised money by playing the guitar at a show or something (and put your own spin on it), suddenly the essay is unique and original.</p>
<p>Two things you should avoid (I haven't written my essay yet, but I've read some written by others.):
1. Big words that you don't know well--chances are the setence will sound awkward or the word will be used incorrectly, or else you will come off as someone who is TRYING hard to use big words. Just be yourself. If you often use the word "ubiquitous," go ahead and use it...if you have to look it up in the thesaurus, then use a word you actually know.</p>
<ol>
<li>Overused words like definitely, cool, fun, interesting, etc. This is an essay, remember, not casual conversation. Also, "interesting" and "cool" (unless you are referring to temperature) are fill-in words. They have far too many connotations. Specifics are always good. Also, try to limit filler words like "very" and "really." Sometimes they are helpful, but more often than not, saying "it was fascinating" is just as good as "it was very fascinating."</li>
</ol>
<p>^
What was it MIT said "And once your unique that's it, we don't want to hear you say that you are REALLY unique or VERY unique?" In regards to essays.</p>
<p>i agree that the topic does not make an essay cliched. It's how you approach the topic that can be very cliched.</p>
<p>however, I don't think the essay has to be explicitly about you. Many times, when you write about your opinions on some other matter unrelated to you, it shows who you are very well.</p>
<p>I agree with the others; any topic is fine as long as you make the essay your own. Often schools have one or two topics that you must write about so it really is difficult to get away from the usuals "Who inspired you the most?" or "Talk about an experience that lead you to choose this career path".</p>
<p>When I was applying for undergrad I used the "who inspired you the most" topic since it applied to every application I had. And yes, I did choose to write about my mom. There's nothing wrong with that. It's more about how you compose your statement and how you develop the topic. By develop I mean, take the initial topic and discuss it in a way that allows you to touch on other aspects that may be more indirect. I used that essay to write about my mother (a minority) working in a field dominated by White men, as well as having a career that forced our family to move often (which caused many many issues academically). It was almost like killing two birds with one stone. </p>
<p>Also, remember not to get too ambitious with your writing. When they say 500 words or less, they mean 500 words or less. Consider having multiple people from different backgrounds read and edit your essay. You may even benefit from having a peer read it just as much as your English teacher.</p>
<p>The word limit is super important. Make sure every word counts, every word is necessary. A problem I had with some of my essays that I wrote really quickly was that I spent too long worrying about what to write and didn't give enough care to how I was going to write it. So I ended up rambling and using boring sentence structure and word choice. My common app essay was way better. I wrote about a random incident involving my grandmother in a narrative fashion and really focused on my wording. Use the word that means what you want to say, not the one that sounds smarter. I remember reading parts of our essays aloud in senior English class and I couldn't help but gawk at the kid who used the word "ameliorate." If you don't say it in real life, why would you use it in your essay?</p>
<p>Is there a word limit for the commonapp?</p>
<p>I'd have to agree with colormehappy. I have a gut feeling that the Columbia reps didn't even bother to read my essay because it was three times their suggested word limit.</p>
<p>I also agree with yousonofatree. I happen to know someone who wrote a compelling argument against affirmative action, but couldn't help mentioning that he was a white, middle-class, conservative, Roman Catholic Republican.</p>
<p>GeorgeOnTheRocks, that could easily become one of the bad essays that talk about someone/something else and don't reveal anything specific about YOU, so be careful.</p>
<p>Write something you are passionate about. doesn't have to be outrageous. Just some personal insight as to who you are. What makes you unique from all the rest.. They need to see why they would benefit from having you as a student. what can you bring to the table.</p>
<p>This is written by a student that just graduated and is going to Yale next year. Its from a blog I subscribe to, but I got in trouble for linking to it, so here are her tips:</p>
<p>1) This is you. Those grades will show you’re a great student and your list of extracurricular activities will show you’re a dedicated athlete or star thespian, but your college essay gives a glimpse into who you really are. So be yourself. Choose a personal, revealing essay topic. I’m not telling you to talk about your parents’ painful divorce or the time you wet your pants in the second grade, but be sincere and show the admissions office something about you they couldn’t get from the rest of your application. The essay that got me into Yale was about helping my dad on the family farm. It showed my rural background, my apprehension of dirty work, and finally the pride I had in the farm after working on it that summer.</p>
<p>2) Avoid clich</p>
<p>There are no cliche topics.</p>
<p>There are only cliche treatments of topics.</p>
<p>It's not the topic, it's what you do with the topic.</p>
<p>Well.. any topic can b made impressive as long as u write it well and it reflects on the person u are. But how exactly do u do tht?? I mean it's easy 2 get carried away with unnecessary stuff while writing.. so wht shud u do 2 ensure tht ur essay turns out well?</p>