<p>@bu2015jr I am passionate about cancer, founded a club for it, and got my school to raise $10,000. So I thought that would have some significance.</p>
<p>@Daddio3 I know. I am taking that into account. I think people put Ivies on a pedestal on here when schools like Northwestern and Duke are just as competitive.</p>
<p>@Skyrior By strong I mean they were effective as colleges essays by portraying who I am while also being a good sample of my writing. They were also unique. Most of my essays either focused on my passion for cancer research and my goal to make a difference in that field. If that was not a prompt (such as EC essays) I wrote about my experience on cross country as that has had a large impact on me. I explained my research in the additional information section on the common app. I already know about college essays. I also know I can chance myself best out of everyone, but I like hearing objective opinions. </p>
<p>uhh…Passion for cancer research essay is quite common. You may think “well, I could still write it originally”, but it is very hard to pull such a topic off that shows a unique essay. Cross country is fine as a topic though.</p>
<p>@Skyrior I put a different spin on it with my current research. In my Cornell essay I coupled cancer research with global health and wrote about how I want to combine those two interests. I think it was somewhat unique.</p>