<p>Okay so I want to get a head start on the admissions process so I've been trying to think of topics for my short answer on the Common App. So far here are my ideas:
1) Anecdote about when I cleaned out my bedroom closet and all the stuff I found
2) Story relating falling asleep on the beach in the summer and the quick passage of time between when I was a little kid and now
3) My fear of fireworks as a child</p>
<p>I've been trying to think of more ideas and will post any that I think of. What do you think would be the best topic out of these three?</p>
<p>you do realize that the prompt doesn’t really allow for the topics you’ve posted, right?
Here’s the prompt:</p>
<p>Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below (1000 character maximum).</p>
<p>@mauicougar There’s also a Personal Essay where you can pick your own topic. They all sound interesting, but as long as you have some deep metaphor or other type of connection relating those experiences to your personality, dreams, etc. now, go for it… Number 3 in particular sounds cute…</p>
<p>1 has been done so many times already
2 & 3 colleges want to know what you are like NOW! So talking about how quickly time moves or what you did as a child really don’t tell them what you are going to be like in college.</p>
<p>The long essay (relatively) can be on an open topic, but the SHORT essay is uniformly set for all applicants, as I noted in my post above. I would think that diverging from the specific prompt of the SHORT essay would make you look like you can’t follow directions - not a great way to impress the adcoms… Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Sorry for the confusion, I meant the personal essay. The one where you can pretty much write about whatever you want.</p>
<p>they all seem interesting, but irrelevant. colleges want to get to know you as a person. how you’ve grown, who you are, stuff like that. I don’t feel like any of those topics focus on who you are or who you’ve become. just who you used to be.</p>