So a quick backstory: I have been trying to write my common app essay since the start of the summer but to no avail. In the summer I tried writing about Model UN, which I had the most success in. That idea turned out to be a generic, failed and got better story. Since the start of the school year I have written about how I like lying down(which turned into an essay without any aim), how I was socially awkward for 1 year(which didn’t have any momentum, how I brush my teeth for ten minutes(which turned into a one paragraph essay), etc. So right now I’m trying to either write about the mundane which doesn’t seem to be working or about what I like to do. Problem is, I don’t know what I like to do. I kind of enjoy playing basketball and playing tennis but those ideas seem to be fruitless too.
Please help me find a GOOD topic for my essay that I have a lot to write about. I am applying for National Merit Finalist and the essay is due, for me, on September 30th.
I don’t want any generic words of advice or consolation. I have spent at least 2-4 hours on it the past few days and my essays have all been crap. It is very frustrating. Please help me. Thank you.
Has anything odd happened to you in the last few years? Were you robbed? Did you break a leg? Wreck your moms car or set her house on fire? (Yeah, I did that). Did you get or lose a friend or pet? Did you meet anyone by chance that stuck with you, even though only talked to them a moment? Did you try a new food and love it even though you thought you’d hate it? Ask someone to prom who said no? Or yes?
Wait, how can you apply for NMF as a senior? Are you a senior?
NM students take the PSAT in the fall of their Jr. year to qualify. Then your school is notified. You fill out all of the paperwork and the NM contacts the semi-finalists and then the finalists and winners. I don’t understand how you will be applying if you are a senior?
@HRSMom Well yes but I think everything that I can write about would just be one paragraph long.
@“aunt bea” I don’t understand your question. I qualified as a semifinalist so now I have to write an essay to become a finalist.
Then give your topic a twist. What did you learn from the event? What did it change for you? How has it impacted you? For instance, if you got mustard on a sandwich by accident, you hate mustard, but you tried it again and it’s not so bad. Lead you to question other preconceived notions…etc.
You have to brainstorm…no one here can tell you. Whatever we say, you can only do a paragraph. You have to deem it worthy of more internally. This is kind of like asking how you can be happy!
Just work with the ones you have and ask yourself question about it. Something will click.
@HRSMom But the problem with brainstorming is that it seems like no idea seems worthy to me. I have no idea how I am unique from another guy who’s applying to the same college. I have a general guess about my personality but I don’t think I feel strongly enough about anything, or at least I haven’t found anything that is strongly related to me.
Why was the Model UN topic a failure? What approach did you take to it? What were you trying to convey and say about yourself with that essay? Your approach may be off, because writing about Model UN seems like a perfectly good topic for an essay, depending on how you write it.
You may be trying to hard to be quirky, as your other essay topic tries sound a bit off-the-wall and I can see where they fizzled for you. The right topic should be broad enough to write 600+ words on, but specific enough to you that it says something about you and is interesting. What do you want to convey to the admissions officers that read your essay? Brainstorm a list of the 4-5 things about yourself you want them to know–it could be why you’re perfect for XYZ major, or your key traits as a person, or the thing about you that would make you an ideal fit for that school. Make them key things they otherwise will not be able to glean from your application. Then, start with a story. Narrative openings, IMO, are always more interesting than a dry essay opening. Narrative opening should dovetail into a thesis of sorts. Then your next few graphs should build on that and be specifically about you. Then I would either come back to the story, or drop in a related one, followed by a conclusion–you want to wrap up the story with the topic with the thesis with the parts about you.
Feel free to message me if you’d like help brainstorming or want me to look at your Model UN attempt. You basically either need to find the marketing message you want to convey, re: fit for major or school and/or the one or two super unique/interesting things about you that make you stand out. Sometimes both are in the same essay, but sometimes it’s either/or.
@HRSMom A couple of odd things happened actually. I put way too much emphasis on getting a girlfriend and creeped out a girl. I tried to become someone who I wasn’t and I facepalm when looking back. I got insomnia cause of anxiety. I did bad on tests and clubs because of lack of preparation. These events aren’t really memorable though. I have so much more fond memories from my childhood. I ran into a couple of trees while biking down a hill and I almost(but not actually) got arrested by the Mexican government for swimming in a pool near Mayan ruins.
“I tried to become someone who I wasn’t and I facepalm when looking back.” That one works for me. I’d go with it. Showing growth and self-awareness are not bad things.
@AboutTheSame My mom thinks it was just the awkward period of life that everyone goes through and that it wasn’t unique. I agree with her. I don’t think I fixed it myself or at least it might’ve been too easy to fix. Honestly all I did was start laughing at what embarrasing things I did and then I started to improve.
If you take the expectation off of yourself about trying to impress, and speak like someone who has taken wrong turns, made confusing choices, fallen and then gotten back up again, you tell the committee that you have enormous growth potential (i.e., plain old human and not uber-).
As you make your way on all the winding pathways, your true compass never has you stray too far off course: you’ve kept up your grades enough to qualify as an outstanding student on a national level, etc., and you have started and completed (at the very least) those things which your job as student has required of you. All the while being a gangly(?), awkward, self-effacing, introverted creature who would curl up in a pool of sunlight if the day required no more of you.
Your internal engine compels you to do more, and so you do. You don’t have the answers, but you are filled with questions. You’re an honest-to-God high school kid, ready to take some giant steps forward.