<p>There were two essays? </p>
<p>@book05 Yes, kind of. There was a required one that was “Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences.” and there was an optional one (which it seems like everyone is discussing) that was:
"You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:
- Unusual circumstances in your life
- Travel or living experiences in other countries
- What you would want your future college roommate to know about you
- An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
- How you hope to use your college education
- A list of books you have read during the past twelve months"</p>
<p>Lol I just copied those off of the Common App; I thought I would never have to go on there again <em>shoot me</em></p>
<p>Haha thanks @LAMuniv
Yeah, just checked CommonApp again for the first time since I submitted my applications. </p>
<p>I didn’t really consider the first one to be an essay haha. </p>
<p>Yeah the first part was literally 150 words right? My optional pushed 1000 hahaha </p>
<p>My optional was really serious. I wrote about experiencing the Boston Bombing (I’m from the boston area and my boyfriend was .2 miles away from the finish line when the bombs went off) from Germany and how it changed my world perspective because of the apathy of the German people and I connected the Palestinians in it too because of another experience in Germany </p>
<p>I wrote about how community service has shaped me as a person. Looking back it was probably not a strong essay. oh well. </p>
<p>@TheW8iskillingme Do you really think Germans are/were apathetic? Just curious as I happen to live in Germany. </p>
<p>@book05 wow I can tell this will be a great conversation 
I think what shocked me most was the distinct comparison between how affected I was, and my group, and how little the news affected the German people that I met and was living with. I remember staying up so late, with my eyes glued to the TV waiting for news as my host family went to bed. It’s not that, in my opinion, the Germans I knew were apathetic in the sense they didn’t care, it was just… How can I say this? I compared it to the way I would react if I heard about a bombing in Syria. The news was dinner conversation. It made me reflect how present each country and their citizens actually are in international affairs, and it especially made me reflect on my lack of presence. So when I say apathetic, I mean they didn’t have such an extreme emotional response, which was my unfair expectation (though I didn’t even know it was my expectation until then!) </p>
<p>@TheW8iskillingme Haha no way! You were an exchange student in Germany? I was one in California and lived with a host family. </p>
<p>I know what you mean, though. Germans are very controlled when it comes to emotions. They care about it in that they stay informed but it does not affect them. at least if they don’t have any personal connection to it. They are very, very rational. </p>
<p>^ I think I may secretly be German</p>
<p>Oh dear… everyone seems to have written a really good and serious personal essay, I wrote a very YOLO kind of paper for Harvard… it’s basically a “why i want to go to harvard” essay but its pretty personal in the sense that it’s written from the heart and is very sassy and spicy 
</p>
<p>@Jhsu320 My personal essay was by no means serious, haha. It was kind of ridiculous and sarcastic… I say that as long as it is well-written, honest, and reflects who you are, you’re fine :)</p>
<p>Mine was about how I thought moving back to Mexico after living five years in Boston was the end of the world, but over the my four years of high school here, I’ve realized how much Mexico has brought me and made me grow- opportunities that I would never have had if I had stayed in Boston for high school. </p>
<p>Also- does anyone have any idea if being an international student and needing financial aid affects admission decision?</p>
<p>I wrote mine about how debate made me a better person. It’s not super well-written and it doesn’t exactly tug at your heartstrings, but I love it because not letting debate make me a worse person is one of my proudest accomplishments. (My coach and I have talked a lot about how winning can make people worse, and debate is really only valuable if you learn from it instead of becoming overly competitive.) And my debate coach wrote one of my Other recommendations, so I’m sure they complimented each other nicely. Also I got to talk about my amazing teammates.</p>
<p>For the mini-essay (the non-optional one), I wrote about tutoring at the library. Those little kids really changed me.</p>
<p>Hey sass and spice could go a long way… No one wants a campus full of boring people! </p>
<p>I did the age old “letter to my as of yet nonexistent roommate because I am not getting in” and I think it went swell. Showed my awkwardness at least</p>
<p>My CA was about my sophomore year during which I had my first car accident, had my snowboard stolen (while I was working as a snowboard instructor), broke the phone that I paid for with my first paycheck, and during which my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It all happened within two months and I talked about how it affected me (how I was able to persevere no matter how much I wanted to quit) and my perspective.</p>
<p>My optional essay I wrote about how I motivate myself towards self-improvement rather than competition with others using the contrast between my sister’s skill-set (an amazing artist) and my own (more academic).</p>
<p>For the short one, I wrote about giving back to the Boys and Girls Club by volunteering with them (roughly 500 hours over the past three summers) because of everything they’ve done for me. </p>
<p>@brokenandhealed that’s awesome! For basically all of my “describe an extracurricular” short responses, I wrote about debate and it’s impact on my life. </p>
<p>@TheW8iskillingme I don’t exactly have the perfect test scores that a ton of applicants seem to have so I’m relying on that essay to stand out… </p>
<p>@Jhsu320 Same for me. What are your test scores?</p>