<p>For the extended essay, I was going to do prompt #2 about outgrowing something. I was going to write about how I've outgrown religion and explain how this came to pass/what arguments I've developed against it. Is this too touchy of a subject?</p>
<p>Be careful about writing about religion. You never know who is reading your essay. Many young people question religion.</p>
<p>go for it 10char</p>
<p>Well I had a pretty strong religious background (was an active church goer through middle school, went to a Catholic school…) so it isn’t just a “religion sucks i’m atheist prove me wrong”, it was going to be much more elaborative on my past and how I’ve come to where I am today.</p>
<p>As long as you don’t purposely try to offend anyone, should be alright. </p>
<p>Most of the chicago adcoms I’m assuming are liberal because of their liberal views on the essays. So it should be alright. </p>
<p>Don’t blame me if you don’t get in though.</p>
<p>I was actually going to write something like that for EA, but I decided against it. </p>
<p>You could very easily misplace the emphasis in an essay like that, especially if (since?) you had a very religious upbringing. Personally (and this is only how I felt, not necessarily how you may feel), I was very, very annoyed/irritated/angry at my family for their religious views (for personal reasons that I can’t discuss here), and an essay on religion would only seem to the reader to be venting my frustrations, which I don’t think is a good thing.</p>
<p>If I were you, though I’d still be worried that the reader might disagree with me, I’d be even more worried that the essay ends up misinterpreted (which is very easy with a touchy subject). If you have other ideas for an essay, I’d suggest you go for those. Of course, a religion-centric essay could work, in theory, but you have to be a pretty damn focused writer (or else, slightly apathetic to your parents’ faith).</p>
<p>All of that is, of course, only my opinion. You should use your judgement, I think. Good luck =).</p>
<p>You would have to write your essay such that it wouldn’t be offensive to anybody who reads it. That can be a pretty difficult thing to do. I wouldn’t bank on just happening to get an understanding reader; that said, your application will go through several stages and several different readers.</p>
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<p>Even if you have good intentions offending a reader won’t turn out well.</p>
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<p>Haha.</p>
<p>I could see that estrat. I think I should elaborate further haha.</p>
<p>My family isn’t religious. I went to a Catholic middle school and I was pretty devoted, went to Church twice a week etc. When I got to high school my views changed a little from a strong religious view to a deist view, and I’ve finally arrived at atheism.</p>
<p>I was going to try to capture this process in my essay.</p>
<p>Does that shed better light on the situation?</p>
<p>I mentioned being a freethinker in my personal essay (I talked a little bit about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, just describing what it is, why it is symbolic, etc.) It is a bit mocking, so I tried to sound open to other ideas and frame my position as more of a desire to have discussions on the subject and not as much just making fun of religion. As long as you aren’t too offensive, I absolutely wouldn’t think religion is an “off-limits” topic.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say you outgrew religion in general. That might be taken as you being above a large group of people. I would target it more towards your personal growth towards needing a sense of freedom in what you personally believe.</p>
<p>Make it about you and your growth, not about religion. If you do that, you can write about almost anything. I wrote about some pretty heavy stuff, but I made it about how I changed and grew, so it worked. I’d just be careful about coming off as conceited or supercilious. That can happen easily with writing about religion (no offense to anyone).</p>
<p>^ I agree with katie and would also add that you also have to take care when writing on “issues” to keep it personal and not abstract. You’re not writing a term paper here. Your background in faith should help you keep this personal, but you still need to pay close attention to this.</p>
<p>Just be sure to present it in a reasonable manner. Show how religion was a source of immature in your life, and how you outgrew it personally. Make in an essay about your own experience, not about how religion is foolish in general.</p>
<p>If there’s still enough time, and you have someone available, you might want to let a more conservative or religious person read your essay and see if that person thinks its okay or finds it offensive.</p>
<p>The last thing you want to do is to pull in your horns on something you feel passionately about because you are afraid of possibly offending someone. This kind of essay sounds like a very good way for someone to get to know you and to know how you think, and that’s what they want. A well-written, well-thought-through piece that offends someone is much more likely to get you accepted at Chicago (or anywhere similar) than something that essentially communicates “I am the kind of person who strives desperately to have the blandest, least-likely-to-offend ideas possible.”</p>
<p>I agree with JHS that you shouldn’t be bland, but at the same time I think you don’t want to come off as implying you are morally superior because you are an atheist and others aren’t. Personally, I think it’s as much a leap of faith to be a committed atheist as a committed deist (of whatever flavor). This could be a great essay or it could fall flat. You’ll have to be the judge of that though.</p>
<p>“Personally, I think it’s as much a leap of faith to be a committed atheist as a committed deist (of whatever flavor).”</p>
<p>God, I hate this argument. But not the place, not the time…</p>
<p>Anyway I agree with JHS about not pulling any punches. I’m guessing your transformation was largely intellectual so really chart how and why your mind changed.</p>