I had several things I wanted to talk about in my college essay but its turning out to be too much into one essay or if I separate a theme on its own, it ends up being not that impactful but really personal. I was going to talk about the ideas of reconciling the fact that I’m gay and Jewish, how I am making my conservative parents more open to LGBT issues and people without coming out to them, how I knew I was gay but pretended I was straight so my friends would relate to me and be comfortable and how I’ve changed personally because of me coming out to my peers. I know this is a lot but I really don’t know how I can focus on only one, or combine all of them to make a coherent, flowing essay. Any advice?
If I may, which essay prompt are you trying to answer? How you approach your topic could change depending on which one, but just going by what you described, it sounds like your topic could satisfy common app prompt 1 or 5. In either of these prompts you would want to try to highlight how being in the closet negatively affected you. Think about how your personal relationships suffered as a result of not being true to yourself. Perhaps your grades suffered or your performance at your part time job or sport. This will give you a point of contrast to then showcase how coming out to your friends has been life changing for you.You could reference in your conclusion how this experience has given you the courage to educate your parents on more LGBT issues and perhaps even reference a future goal of building your confidence up to eventually come out to them too. In any case, it looks like the crux of your journey will be in describing how being in the closet was detrimental and how being out has helped you become a stronger person. I hope this helps!
One risk you have is that admissions sees LOTS of coming out/wrestling with gay identity/etc essays. This may feel like a huge deal to you, but it is honestly a bit of a yawner for admissions officers these days. I wouldn’t worry so much about what you want to tell admissions and trying to craft an essay with that info.
Do you have any other topics in mind? Your sexuality may not be the most interesting thing about you, nor the thing that sparks colleges to see you as interested and interesting.
intparent is correct in that a coming out essay may be a familiar one to admissions officers, but you could work to tell it from a unique angle if it is a story that you feel defines you more than anything else. For instance, did being in the closet affect your performance in an important area of your life? Or maybe you aimed to earn a certain position or role but not being true to your sexuality held you back. Telling a coming out story that isn’t just a coming out story could help to make it less common. If you can’t think of an interesting angle to approach this essay from, I would most definitely agree to consider changing your topic to something more interesting.
I agree with the previous poster…the LGBTQ topics aren’t so interesting any longer. In many ways that ship has sailed…ok, you’re gay and it wasn’t always easy. Next.
Think about who you are beyond your sexuality. Who are you and what would you add to a college campus?
Which prompt are you responding to? Make it about your values and who you are, not what you are.
I think you may want to take a step back and think about the purpose of this essay.
It’s not True Confessions. It’s not therapy. It’s not Dear Diary. It’s not the Op Ed of your local newspaper.
It’s part of an application. You’re trying to present a new, different wonderful side of you that will make the reader think, “Oh, now that’s a kid we want to meet! We want him/her on our campus.” And they give you a maximum of 650 words in which to give them that insight into why they should accept you.
An essay about making your conservative parents more open to LGBT issues isn’t an essay about how wonderful you are. I understand that this is an important issue to you, but it doesn’t give any real insight into you. It doesn’t show all those things about you that makes your close friends want to hang out with you, that makes your grandmother smile, that will make your mom cry when she drops you off at school.
Find a topic that shows us all those things.
At our conservative shul a few weeks ago was a talk about a young women coming out years ago. The only difference was her father was the head of the Libubvitch. She told her story about being rejected from her faith and making herself anew. I am sorry but forgot her name. This would be a great essay.
I don’t see the correlation with your story and being Jewish. Many kids come out and our shul has a gay Rabbi and programs for lgbtq. Look up Anshe Emet in Chicago. Being gay is more mainstream now and that is a good thing.
I would either go in a different direction with it or pick another topic.