Please comment on my essay topics!

College Essays
1

<p>Here's a reviewed list of my essay topics. I'm not sure which one to use for the Common App. Please tell me what you think about them.</p>

<p>1.A while ago there was some misunderstanding between me and a classmate. She really hated me for a while, but my sincerity and efforts to reconcile with her eventually moved her and we became close friends. She helped me learn about the value of sincerity and forgiveness. I'm thinking about using this one as my Princeton essay on a person who influenced me.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I have always felt a compulsion to help and befriend the lonely people around me. In this way I have formed a few lasting bonds. Maybe this can work as a Common App.</p></li>
<li><p>Attending the London International Youth Science Forum. It was an intellectually challenging experience. I can also elaborate a bit and link this to my lifelong love for science and the small lab I built at home. Science is one of my strong points. Should I emphasize this in my essay?</p></li>
<li><p>I moved to South Africa from China a few years ago and had a hard time fitting in in the beginning. People saw me as an alien. Now I have many friends here and embody both South African and Chinese culture. But I'm worried that colleges might think I have difficulties adapting to new environments, and in fact I'm still not completely happy here.</p></li>
<li><p>While in Grade 10 I was invited to attend a national maths camp that was intended to prepare us for the International Mathematics Olympiad and served as a process of selecting members of the South African team. I felt very intimidated by the difficulty of the work we had to do in the beginning, but soon I began to enjoy the challenge and pushed myself to my limits.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So, what are your thoughts? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Use whichever topic allows you to write the most personal, detailed, and revealing essay.</p>

<p>The essay that is so you that only you could write it.</p>

<p>Only you would know, or could figure out, what that topic might be.</p>

3

<p>Thank you. I was wondering which one might be overused.</p>

4

<p>It doesn’t matter whether or not a topic has been “overused”. It’s not the topic, it’s what you do with the topic.</p>

<p>In other words, there are no cliche topics.</p>

<p>There are only cliche treatments of topics.</p>

<p>If your essay is personal, detailed, and revealing, if your essay is you, then it will not be cliche.</p>

5

<p>True. I think you are pretty unique. Smart, and from a unique background (Chinese living in SA). Either way, make sure your essay is all about you, presenting yourself as attractive to the essay committee in the process.</p>

6

<p>It’s true that the most important aspect to a college essay is that it sounds like you. However, I thought several of your essay topics are overused and trite. That’s not to say that you can only write about some devastating event in your life. But, think about what makes you unique. Reconcilling a friendship is really overdone.</p>

7

<p>Thanks everyone. I once read that you must identify your niche and focus on this niche in all of your essays. Is that true?</p>

8

<p>yea I’m curious about that too</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>I don’t think that’s true. Each essay can be personal, detailed and revealing in its own way. To insist that everything must fit into the framework of a certain “niche” strikes me as rigid, Procrustean. Successful applicants that I’ve worked with did not do this.</p>

10

<p>Great, then it means I can have more liberty. But do you agree that writing many essays on the same topic wil make you appear “flat” and not well rounded?</p>

11

<p>I generally discourage writing multiple essays on the same topic.</p>

12

<p>thank you very much</p>