Hey guys I recently had an idea for a college essay topic:
So when I was a freshman of highschool I went on a trip with my club Amnesty International, to a regional confrence. At the conference, a girl my age was passionately speaking about how in her town her doctors and her nurse and guideline counslers were not educating or providing access to birth control or teaching them how to be safe sexually and how to deal with cases of rape without feeling ashamed. The highschool I go to provided a very strong sex Ed currciculm and there were always people to talk to. And seeing a girl my age suffer because of their poor resources only fired my passion to be a doctor because one day if any young girl or boy comes up to me with any questions regarding rape or their sexual rights and questions, I wouldn’t bat an eye to help them to prevent them from feeling as helpless as that girl at the conference was.
My parents feel that my essay may be contreversal because there are topics like birth control and rape and I know while these topics are important to me I don’t want to come off as too liberal or too one sided in my essay. I am definetly going to avoid name dropping abortion or gun control or other highly controversial topics. But ideas of birth control and rape aren’t too contreversal right? I just don’t want jeapordize my chances by being too controversial. All help is much appreciated!!
Well, these are some sensitive and controversial topics… What do you intend to apply as an undergraduate for? And would you write about this topic in your common app or for a specific school?
I don’t think your topic is that controversial, however, I would suggest you think long and hard about how to position it; with the rise of the #MeToo and the #Time’sUp movements, your essay may be ‘flavor of the week’ in next year’s round of college essays! Your essay would really need to stand alone and pack a punch.
@klbmom18 Agreed. I was gonna mention that later but now that it has come up I will throw in my full two cents. The topics mentioned are quite controversial. How it will affect your admissions decision I don’t know. It depends on what type of essay it’s for. It could go either way. My point is that your essay has to be about you and what you have done. I’ve read many college essays and the big issue I have with many of them is that it’s not about the applicant. That’s the purpose of essays: to show colleges who you truly are.
Be authentic and make your essay about YOU, not an issue. Your essay should not be “about” birth control or rape. It should be about you. One approach you might try is to take a small moment to describe in detail, not a grand theme. Use the small moment to reveal something about your character or the development of your character.
Yes, unless you are applying to a very conservative, religiously affiliated college, they probably won’t wilt away at a reference to the subjects you named. But your essay should not be an opinion piece or a persuasive argument. It should be a personal narrative.
Want a model of how to write about a small moment? Hamilton and Johns Hopkins post “essays that worked” on their admissions sites.
Are you female? It shouldn’t make a difference, but I think it kind of does. If you are female and include this anecdote in your essay, I think that is fine. I think college admissions would generally admire this as a reason to go into the health care field. But follow @TheGreyKing’s advice, too.
Thank you for the reply. I know I wasn’t that clear but basically I want to write about how it inspired me to be enter the health care field so i could help young kids by educating them on being safe sexually I won’t talk about wther birth control is right or wrong because obviously that’s personal preference but rather providing safe options to young kids and educating them on how to be safer and healthier independent kids. So more about how that incident impacted me. Is that more clear? If I wrote it like that would it be okay?
Today at 7:37 pm
Thank you for the reply. I know I wasn’t that clear but basically I want to write about how it inspired me to be enter the health care field so i could help young kids by educating them on being safe sexually I won’t talk about wther birth control is right or wrong because obviously that’s personal preference but rather providing safe options to young kids and educating them on how to be safer and healthier independent kids. So more about how that incident impacted me. Is that more clear? If I wrote it like that would it be okay?
@BuBbLeS_26 okay, but how exactly did it impact you? Did you join new activities as a result or simply decide to enter the healthcare field? There’s a difference between what you want to do and what you actually have done.
OP, I think your topic is great. Several colleges actually specifically ask questions along the line of “what inspires you” and they want to see passion. Going to the Amnesty event and being inspired to pursue a career in healthcare and feeling passionate about helping young girls all say great things about you as a person.
Your challenge is not that the topic is ‘too controversial’ (adcomms have seen much, much more ‘controversial’ essays than wanting young people to be able to get information and support on dealing reproductive issues- they have read essays by women who have been raped and who have had abortions, and about nearly every possible permutation of sexuality).
The challenge is that it is too conventional: young person goes to an event and is inspired to help others who are less fortunate. I do not mean to mock: it is genuinely a wonderful thing. But to work as a college essay you have to go several steps beyond that (how many depends in part on the colleges you are applying to). As post #2 asked, what have you actually done with that passion?
You mention that this experience ‘fired’ your passion to be a doctor. In fact, there are a lot of ways that you could do much more to help young people with this issue than being a doctor, including becoming an educator, a social worker- even being a member of the school board would arguably put you in a position to reach more students.
The push to write an essay that will stand out is one of the toughest things about college admissions, and I understand the difficulty of finding a topic. Imo your best bet is to start with the truest things. In real life, what makes your heart sing? can you write about that? over and over again adcomms readers say that the best essays are those that make them feel as if they have learned something about the person. Several posters upthread have made this point as well: it is important that the essay is about you, not the issue.