<p>Hey guys, I am working on my Essay A right now, but I am unsure of how to interpret the phrase "the end of the world" experience. I think they might not expect every applicant has a died pet, suicidal friend, or some extreme things like that. So can I interpret this phrase as "a difficult" experience? Since last year's essay topic was along this line, and Ben Jones said the essay topics didn't change this year.</p>
<p>Also, I am not that sure about the essay I am writing too. My essay is about the difficulty I faced as a Gr8 ESL student, and through this process I developed my view of learning's nature and my passion of learning. I realize the "passion of learning" part is pretty generic. But it is really true for me (and also true for almost every MIT applicants) and connects closely to my unique experience as an ESL student. To make this essay sound more personal, I used many vivid narratives and gave it my voice and emotion. So do you guys think writing about this topic is problematic?</p>
<p>I ultimately chose Essay A on my app (I'm a HS senior btw). In deciding what to write about I tried to maximize the quantity</p>
<p>D / T</p>
<p>where D is the difficulty of the experience and T is the time elapsed since the experience (it's easier for me to write about more recent events). I wrote about having a very harsh judge at a science fair and how the experience influenced my decision to pursue a career in research. Personally, I think your essay sounds very interesting.</p>
<p>It doesn't have to be something dramatic, just something that's important to you personally. There's no rubric scoring the awfulness of the event -- you don't get extra points for writing about something extra awful. :)</p>
<p>thanks so much for your help. It's really reassuring since my ED essays are total generic ones. Oh just one more question, do you think generic essays and lukewarm teacher recs would be enough to reject a candidate with nice stats and a lot of math and sciences awards? I EDed at Cornell science. Just want to access chances in the very last second (since like most of you, I am getting really anxious)</p>