Philosophy as an interest?

College Essays
1

I love philosophy. I’ve literally taken full length online philosophy classes from Yale / Harvard (shoutout to my main mans Michael J. Sandel). Is it unique enough as an interest? I feel like no one in my school is interested in it, but that might just be my school.

2

while i’m sure colleges will be lining up at the door for someone who believes watching free videos online is grounds to boast their intellectual superiority (FULL-LENGTH online philosophy classes from YALE and HARVARD? how IMPRESSIVE!), i’d stray from writing about something that by default makes you sound like a douchelord. as for originality, there are plenty of pretentious 17-year olds who think dicking around about nietzche and kierkegaard somehow makes them more intelligent. if you’re going to write about philosophy, i’d try to distinguish yourself from such asshats. best of luck, though.

3

tru. I mean I’m really considering majoring in philosophy so it’s not like I"m just doing it to show off what I learned by watching a 5 minute summary of Nietzsche. I know name dropping philosophers left and right is definitely pretentious AF, so I’ll try to steer away from that, but do you have any other tips on not sounding pretentious?

4

These days yeah its a worthwhile interest.

But I’d go beyond online courses if you want to show you have a real interest in that area of study. And definitely go beyond your school. Its no more pretentious than those who drone on about “wanting to change the world” , pursue “social justice” or are interested in “neuroscience”. They’re all bad cliches but are all probably “spun” to an applicant’s advantage if one is clever enough.

5

I’d want to read an essay about how something as abstract as Philosophy is grounded in your life / character. The essay isn’t an opportunity to rave about something you love, though, so don’t go too deep into the intricacies and nuances of Philosophy. The essay’s still about you.

6

@OnMyWay2013 I like that advice. I’ll keep it in mind. In avoiding being pretentious I probably won’t go into specific philosophies as much.