<p>I don’t think you have to write about “doing things”. You can write about things you feel and decisions you’ve made. Some of the best essays are about things that seem trivial, but the student managed to take a small vignette and give a meaningful insight into something important to them.</p>
<p>An essay can be about ANYTHING. But it’s got to be done well.</p>
<p>Not all colleges care about essays. For those that do, you either reveal the qualities that they feel work best at their college-- or you don’t. Ime, they are not looking for introspection. Show, not tell.</p>
<p>Show, not tell.</p>
<p>There is one main essay in commonapp. I would never let my kid write the thinking essay with no action. It is just easier to go a State school not on commonapp.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You don’t get it. As I envision OP’s essay, it is not about the label, but the process. It’s about OP’s personal growth and the risks and challenges of coming to terms with being a member of a small, hated minority, but willing to stand up for your principles. Maybe it’s because I can relate to OP (I rejected my religious upbringing and announced my atheism to my family shortly after my bar mitzvah), but I think it could be an awesome essay. </p>
<p>[And if you write it, OP, but decide not to submit it on the common app, you might instead submit it to the Freedom from Religion Foundation (ffrf.org), which sponsors an annual essay competition for HS seniors. 1st place is a $3,000 scholarship. There are several smaller awards as well.]</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thinking and reflecting are things people do, especially at college.
Soup kitchen essays just look like sucking up most of the time. “I started an unnecessary niche club” just looks frivolous unless you can write it well. And a lot of times people do those things because they think they’ll look good on college apps…so the fact that they did those things doesn’t tell colleges much about them. And part of the point of the essay is to see the person behind the actions that are described in other parts of the application.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>They don’t want essays that are purely descriptive, do they? The introspective process you went through to write the essay doesn’t have to be explicitly shown, but what good is a description if there’s no deeper thought behind it?</p>
<p>Whose essay are you writing, DGDzDad?</p>
<p>I won’t quibble with the assessment of atheists as a minority, but with the number of Americans who are religiously “nothing” growing rapidly, I think it’s kind of a stretch to portray atheists as marginalized. Even when the characteristic religious idiom of America is some bland sort of Protestantism. (And, yes, I agree that there shouldn’t really be any characteristic religious idiom in a country that specifically prohibits the establishment if a state religion.)</p>
<p>I suppose atheists are hated in some quarters–as are Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, Jains… Personally, I have a problem only with atheists who are hostile to the religions of others, or to the rights of others to practice a religion. Same standard I have for religious people.</p>
<p>And I would be highly skeptical about any pronouncements about the nature or existence of God from an 18-year-old (much less a 13-year-old). I know my own thinking about God has changed many times since I was a teen. I find it remarkable that any teen could already have thought everything worth thinking on a subject that Maimonides and Aquinas could not exhaust in their lifetimes.</p>
<p>I’m pretty much with most of the adults here.</p>
<p>"Soup kitchen essays just look like sucking up most of the time. "</p>
<p>Ok, what is your commonapp essay about before you encourage someone to take a risk of a lifetime?</p>
<p>"(I rejected my religious upbringing and announced my atheism to my family shortly after my bar mitzvah), "</p>
<p>FWIW, I have been an atheist, an agnostic, and now whatever and don’t find it a big deal that you came out to your parents about being an atheist. Tell me when you convert Sikorsky to your beliefs and then I will think it is a big deal.</p>
<p>Oh, man. Nothing wrong with working at a soup kitchen. Honestly, it’s good to do and crazy to take a stand against community service, just because someone on some forum will label it sucking up for college.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why would pronouncements have to be made at all? You can say you believe something while also acknowledging that your thinking could be flawed and your views could change. People don’t sit around impartially reading books until they finally know enough to form beliefs. </p>
<p>(I’m seventeen, and there are very few topics I can speak intelligently about. But colleges are asking me to try anyway, which in my mind means they’re asking for it and deserve whatever trash I send them. What kind of topic would be okay?)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Dying my hair. I know, I know…now I’m a hypocrite for saying the quidditch club was frivolous. </p>
<p>I’m not encouraging the atheism essay…I realize that most people wouldn’t write it very well. (But I guess there’s some remote chance someone could, so that’s why I’m not discouraging it either.) I’m just saying a soup kitchen essay isn’t all that great either, because most people just volunteer at soup kitchens because they think it’s what they’re supposed to do.</p>
<p>I can only speak for a certain level of colleges: it’s a college app, not an open-ended writing assignment, as in hs. They don’t want to know, so to say, your favorite color- and Susie’s and Bobby’s. They want to see how you approach the prompt, what (college-relevant) judgment you show in selecting the theme, how your thinking (ie, approach) reflects maturity, perspective, flexibility, how you tackled a challenge, came through it more open-minded and resilient, now make some positive contributions or have some positive impact- and more. A nice little tale can do it. You are applying to a college community. </p>
<p>The new CA is a headache. Kids are taking the prompts so seriously and missing the point. </p>
<p>I hope you aren’t serious about writing about dying your hair.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, why?</p>
<p>But I am, for better or worse. None of the colleges I actually expect to get into care much about the essays.</p>
<p>Heather, fair point. I did not intend to address the OP, who has never shown any signs of making pronouncements, so much as DGDzDad, who seems to have settled the God question once and for all while in the seventh grade.</p>
<p>But seeming to make pronouncements is, I think, one of the potential pitfalls of this topic if the essay is not well executed.</p>
<p>I think there’s no problem with dyeing your hair as a topic. Or recognizing that you’re an atheist. It’s all about execution.</p>
<p>My wife tells me she wrote her main essay for Harvard about wanting to be on Johnny Carson.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Essay reader: I just read Heather’s Common App essay.
Other essay reader: What do you think about her execution?
Essay reader: I’m all for it.</p>
<p>Irrespective of how banal it might sound, working in a soup kitchen takes a lot more effort than most other volunteer work. You are also dealing with some of the hardest hit people in the society and you will understand how fortunate you are compared to them. </p>
<p>There is a kid who is applying through Questbridge who has been discussing her experiences having been homeless on and off for several years and living in shelters, car, here and there. Reading what she has had to overcome to be even applying to college, I would be real concerned about how an adcom would perceive reading her essays followed by someone saying they came out to their parents that they don’t believe in god. Big whoopee.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>haha. try this.</p>
<p>One day while a specialist was dying my hair, the specialist used one gradient instead of another. As a result, all my hair turned into pink instead of brown. When I looked at the mirror, I had a terrible heart attack but I didn’t lose hope. The specialist tried again and this time the hair had a terrible time and I found out later that the specialist was a mental patient. After sorting out this, I took him to nearest hospital for treatment. Although I missed all my hair that time, I sorted out the value of being good to people and not becoming rude. some people in our society need serious help from us. in that time, I have decided to sacrifice my life for mental patients and set my goal to become a doctor. </p>
<p>:D :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Then what would you suggest as a topic for someone relatively privileged?
I don’t want to trivialize anyone’s experiences, but bad things aren’t unworthy of discussion just because worse things happen.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ha!</p>
<p>When my daughter was applying to college, we wrestled some with the issue that the greatest obstacle she had had to overcome was her thoroughly bourgeois, suburban upbringing. She got into college anyway. Several of them.</p>
<p>“someone relatively privileged”</p>
<p>You go work in a soup kitchen to understand there is a big world out there and write about it. </p>
<p>I really don’t see how one realizing they don’t believe in whatever is a bad thing. OTOH, if you wrote about how hard it was to start an atheist club in a bible belt high school, …</p>