I'm working on the Common App and was wondering what you think of these essay topics?

College Essays
1

<p>I have some ideas for an essay topic, but I was wondering what you guys think. Are these topics to cliche or would they make a good essay?</p>

<p>Any input would be wonderful! :)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>My experiences moving when I was 7 years old. I was going to make the theme about change and how I've grown to accept that it's inevitable. I think I have a lot to write about for this one, which may or may not be a good thing for an essay that's supposed to be less than 2 pages.</p></li>
<li><p>My experience at a school ropes course program. How I feared climbing the ropes and in the end overcame the challenge and got strapped in. This can relate to facing challenges in life as well.</p></li>
<li><p>An influence essay. I could write about how my oldest brother has influenced me to do better based on how he has achieved himself.</p></li>
<li><p>An essay on public speaking. On how it was such a problem for me before, but now it's not as hard.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So opinions? What do you think?</p>

<p>Also how formal/ not formal should the essay be? I was going to write mine in a way similar to a story..</p>

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<p>I’m in the same soup as you, and will be making a similar post soon too… but here are my 0.02$</p>

<p>3: I was thinking of an influence essay too, but when i visited tufts the adcom lady who was giving the info session explicitly said you should avoid that one… why? cause often it becomes more about that person in particular than on you… just a though.</p>

<p>Also, i’m tending towards an essay in which I talk about my passion and thus string in my experiences with my ECs, maybe you could think of something similar ?</p>

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<p>Don’t worry yourself so much with the theme or topic of your essay. It will emerge in the writing process; if it doesn’t, that’s what the free choice is for. Just write about a particular moment in time–any moment–and you should end up with something moderately compelling. An essay that starts out with the goal in mind (eg, INFLUENCE ESSAY) is likely to prevent themselves from really exploring the depth of the experience, instead trying painfully hard to stay inside the lines of the topic.</p>

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<p>@goodwood- I kind of wanted my essay to steer clear of my extra curricular activities since that is already focused on in the application.</p>

<p>@glasses- thanks! And I wasn’t really feeling the influence essay, anyway.</p>