<p>Just wondering, what are some common personal statement topics that people use that colleges frown upon? I don't want to make my topic to make me sound like the kind of student who's trying to write about what the admissions officer wants to hear and use all the fancy words and positive happy cliche things. I want to be true and personal with myself, but I also want to have my topic different and unique from other people.</p>
<p>I honestly think it is less of the topic that is the problem than the way you discuss it and if you say generic things or cliche things or banal things or platitudes. But there are certain themes that ‘they’ say to steer clear of. Winning touchdown/losing the game helped us get stronger/divorce/how I learned that poor people overseas are just like us on my expensive overseas service trip (ouch sorry earnest kids who volunteer in poor countries, that’s just what I read…) </p>
<p>To be different and unique you are going to have to try to look at things differently. Show what makes you tick. That’s why the University of Chicago’s prompts are so cool, they are different and allow you to be more creative if you want. It isn’t a bad idea to use them for inspiration. Problem is you have to then find a way to fit those thoughts into a CA prompt since they don’t have an open prompt anymore. But you can almost use the first one as an open prompt.</p>