<p>for the optional essay on something you created..
would writing a research paper on history for the national writing board count as such, or are they mainly targeted towards math/science...</p>
<p>Anything you have created would work for this topic.</p>
<p>Could you discuss multiple projects that you have undertaken during high school?</p>
<p>I think it’s much better to write it on ONE topic since you would be able to give much more detail about it and tell the admissions officers your thought process as opposed to giving them a laundry list. Also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be RESEARCH. For example, I wrote my essay on a vegetable garden that I helped cultivate with my grandparents.</p>
<p>Every piece of writing serves to give a better overall picture of you. I would not submit something you created for a class or a contest; you can send those in separately. I also would write about any topic you want, but the more nonacademic, the better, IMO. Someone once wrote about baking a cake. My son, a sophomore, wrote about a genetic algorithm he created on his own.</p>
<p>I wrote about working on my school’s FIRST robotics team. (I did most of the work on the control panel, so that’s what I wrote about.) It really doesn’t matter if it was a school project or not, what matters is what the experience can demonstrate about you, your learning style, your characteristics, etc. Just because you “could” send classwork in separately doesn’t mean you should or need to; more is not necessarily better.</p>
<p>The trend I’ve seen or heard about on this essay is people either writing something about their research or about some unique thing that has zero relation to academics and is unique. Think of stuff you’ve done that not everyone necessarily has.</p>
<p>The way I see it, they want to see that you have a pulse.</p>
<p>That is, you’re not a mindless drone.</p>