I’ve heard that admissions officials hate hearing the “sports injury” essay topic. But this is exactly what I want to write about.
I recently suffered a gruesome knee injury- I tore my patellar tendon, acl, and meniscus. I’ve been playing soccer my whole life and prior to the injury, I had hopes of getting a college soccer scholarship and my senior year was my final year to prove my self to college coaches. However, I realized that the injury allowed me to focus on academics and also opened the door to find a new calling, and I eventually fell in love with biology.
Would this essay bore admissions officials to death? Or would they be intrigued about how I overcame an obstacle?
I’m not sure you can shoot for “intrigued.” They’ve read this essay before.
But if it’s the essay that best portrays what you want to write, then go for it.
I think that sometimes there’s an unrealistic emphasis on “unique” essay topics. The reality is that, as a 17 year old kid, you’ve shared a lot of the same experiences as a lot of your peers. What will make your essay unique isn’t the topic you start with, but the spin you put on it.
It’s late November. I say you get at least a rough draft down on paper, then start to consider whether there are other topics that better showcase what you want to say. But get this essay written, time’s a wasting.
Most essays hinge on the quality of the writing. A gifted writer can take the most “boring” or cliche of subjects, on the surface, and make them interesting.
Look at how often the search for love has been written about in movies and in books. We never get tired of that subject if the situations and the “voice” is different, if the writing is good.
Your take on this subject may be unique and with enough polish, this essay could stand out from the rest.
One thing that may make it unique is your personal voice. Another is the internal journey that you had to make. A third might be other details that others haven’t considered that surrounded this injury.
Humor is always appreciated, including self-deprecating humor. Since humor is the hardest thing to write, run your essay past others to see if they also find it funny, if the joke comes across.
One essayist that turned “boring” subjects into fascinating essays is John McPhee–he’s written about oranges. Yep. just oranges. And tires. again, sound boring? not the way he did it. He wrote about the marble threading beneath a highway he was on. Snoooore, right? Not when he writes about it.
Another essayist that managed to capture people’s hearts and minds was E.B. White. You probably know him as the author of children’s books Stuart LIttle and Charlotte’s Web. He’s also wrote the book on HOW two write, know as Strunk and White informally. He also was an essayist for The New Yorker Magazine, probably the magazine with the best writing of any. One essay of his was called Death of a Pig. Again–doesn’t sound that interesting, right? But the way he wrote it, it’s hard not to find it compelling. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1948/01/death-pig/309203/
These authors used more space than you’re allowed in your essay, but the techniques they used might be helpful for you. They used fiction techniques to tell these true stories. 1) establish in your reader love/empathy for your main character; 2) give that character a goal; 3) and a struggle to achieve that goal; 4) either the character does or does not achieve that goal; 5) genuine emotional change from beginning status quo to end, because of the struggle.
The advice above is good. But be careful in the way that you write and don’t try to follow the style of a literary essay. I have to say that many of the above essays, wonderful as they are, contain a quality that I believe a college essay should not contain: they ask the reader to do some of the work. In other words to be a thoughtful and engaged reader. For most writing that is fine. With masterfully written pieces like this a reader who doesn’t want to pull his/her own weight doesn’t deserve the beauty of the writing.
But I am a believer that with respect to college essays ( excerpt those written specifically to show writing skills… for a creative writing major say) the reader should not have to ANY work. It’s the writers job to do ALL the work.
I think it is a serviceable topic, and will be fine for most colleges. But it will be hard to make it stand out. It tells them how you picked your major – but it doesn’t say much about what is unique about you.