Potential College Essay Topic: Quadruplet Establishing a Personal Identity

College Essays
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Hi, I’m new to College Confidential (this is my first post, actually). I figure that the best way to start this post is to provide a bit of information about me and my situation:

I am 17 years old—going to be a senior in high school starting this fall. I’m also African-American and a quadruplet, and my brothers and I have our sights set pretty high as far as our “dream” schools go (my top two schools are Vanderbilt and UPenn). At the same time, we understand that financial aid will play a very, very large role in our college decisions, so we’re working to ensure that each aspect of our applications is a strong as it can be. At our high school, my brothers and I hold a reputation of being high-achieving students as well as skilled athletes. Sure, this sets us apart from other students, but we are still more than mere reflections of one another.

I was thinking of developing my essay around the process of establishing myself as an individual among 3 others whom people perceive to be “just” like me. My ability to think and act creatively has been the driving force in this process. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been labeled the “talented” brother (in reality, we’re all very talented in our own ways). But until relatively recently, many of my peers didn’t know the extent of my passion for music in particular. I possess absolute pitch and color-tone synesthesia (although I rarely mention this), play several instruments, and compose pieces of my own. Until my freshman year of high school, I hadn’t really ever performed on stage. When I sang Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” in a school talent show that year, I revealed to others a side of my personality which they had never before seen, shattering their one-dimensional perceptions of me. Since then, I’ve learned to incorporate various passions of mine, such as music, art, and writing, into my personal identity, while balancing my identity as a quadruplet.

This is just a rough idea; I understand that I’m juggling very distinct aspects (intrapersonal vs. interpersonal) of my life here, but I believe that they can be refined into an interesting essay. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I can provide further information (GPA, Test Scores, Extracurriculars, etc.) if needed. Just let me know!

Side Note: I believe one of my brothers @NikkuWadde has already asked a similar question; hopefully our perspectives differ enough to warrant a separate discussion.

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By the way, the prompt is as follows:

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

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@Mr.Me: Some advice from a parent: Please, be very very careful a bout the personal info you share on this board ( or any anonymous Internet forum). Is that your photo? You might want to change your avatar. You have an unusual history and might be easily identified. You don’t want to have a college admissions person ( they do lurk here, btw) or anyone else, really, to be able to ID you and read whatever you might have said in a post… Or to read that you are looking for essay help here! Please use caution. You and your bros sound like an interesting and accomplished bunch, and kudos to your parents for keeping up with 4 of you at once! Wow. Best of luck to you!

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Thank you for the advice.

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I think that’s a pretty dope essay topic. So long as your three siblings don’t write about the same thing for the same schools, that would be a great essay.

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Thanks! It is likely, however, that we will all discuss being a quadruplet in our essays, even when applying to the same schools. As we all have unique perspectives/personalities/interests, would this be feasible?

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I think this is a great topic, and frankly I’d imagine it would be hard to write an essay about who you are and the forces that shaped you without mentioning your brothers. I agree with @cameo43 that it’s important not to reveal too much about yourself here; not because anything you’ve written is inappropriate, but because at some future date you may want to post information you’d like to remain more private, such as struggles in college or ethical dilemmas you’re facing. Good luck to you and your brothers!

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Any chance @NikkuWadde is one of the 4 of you? either way, you might find the responses to his thread useful as well…

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He is my brother @collegemom3717
I mentioned that in my original post, although I admit that I started this thread without really looking much into his… Thank you for your response.

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In the thread started by your brother, I joked that all four of you should get together, write the ultimate quadruplet essay, and make sure not to submit it to the same school. Now, more seriously, I wonder whether you guys might need to get together and agree not to apply to the same schools. My thought is that your situation is so unique that each of you would want to benefit from the novelty value. If two or three or four all apply to the same school that value will be diminished. True, your individual experiences with that group will be unique. But my guess is that the effect will still be diluted.

If you do want to apply to the same schools, here is what I think could be a winning solution, one that would be totally memorable. But it could be epic. What if you found a way for your essays to be a dialogue with each other about your experiences of trying to live as brothers while also trying to individuate from each other? No idea exactly how to structure the dialogue. And it would be risky. But risk and originality is what gets students into college. If you could figure it out it would be next year’s viral “Costco” essay.

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At very least you could each start your essay with an anecdote … the four of you arguing about which one gets to write the “quad” essay. Second paragraph notes how you share this struggle. From there each of you goes your own way with how you have found individuality.

The effect of this is to acknowledge the issue, to do so in a one of a kind way, and then each go on to write a unique essay that admissions officers will read both as a stand alone essay and as a family story. I have zero doubt that this will make both or all of you stand out.

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Thank you for your insight! @Chris63