<p>so for my common app essay, i think im going to write about an experience i had over a 3 day grueling 25 mile hike. my main concern is i dont want to sound too cliched. im afraid that its going to come across as the classic i had a very difficult task at hand but worked hard and overcame it. am i being too common in this essay topic?</p>
<p>All topics are probably pretty cliche at this point, considering the number of applications each college receives. I think it could come out nice if you talk about how it affected YOU and how YOU grew as a person and how this hike affects YOUR outlook on life. Not just, “I did something challenging and overcame it” but “Because I overcame something challenging, I know I’m capable of overcoming other future challenges (elaborate more… that sentence sounds pretty cliche as well with out some specifics).”</p>
<p>a bit. what does this experience tell us about you??</p>
<p>Is it ok to have a traveling essay but its not that you overcame anything, instead you learned something new and it gave u a new perspective?..is that cliched</p>
<p>everything is cliched LOL.
I say just go for it and write the best essay you can, without worrying about being cliche. If it’s a good essay and says something about you, they’ll like it.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about being cliche. Just write what reflects YOU, and write it well (so not what you write like on CC). Schools, especially the top schools, have seen everything possible before. They just want to see how well you can do it. </p>
<p>It’s never the topic that will bore a reader (excluding the really stupid avoid-at-all-costs topics like girl/boyfriends or something ridiculous like that), but the treatment of the topic. The best advice I heard about the essays was this, I think from a Vanderbilt admissions officer:</p>
<p>“We should be able to take all the names off the essays, throw them in a gigantic pile randomly, and then be able to pick out your essay and know it was written by you. That’s a good college essay.” </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>