<p>I'm a rising senior, and had to give a speech to about 300 people last year. I worked really hard on it, and it's one of the (very, very) few things I've written that I can look back on much later and not cringe at. :]</p>
<p>For colleges that let you "choose your own question," is it possible to tweak and edit the speech a bit and use it for the essay? I don't want to do this out of laziness, but only for the fact that I really like it and I believe it portrays who I am well.</p>
<p>FYI, the speech was given to incoming students to leadership positions. I guess you could consider it as similar to a valedictorian's speech (no cliches, though!) or a speech a college dean gives to incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>Would this work, or come off badly?</p>