<p>Question.</p>
<p>I do not believe that the Admissions Council of each respective college would take the time to be that sly and sneaky to see what topic you can come up with for your essay.</p>
<p>I'm leaning between two topics on the common app and one of them is "Topic of your choice."</p>
<p>Can anyone please inform me of maybe the pros and cons of picking a topic of your choice over one that you could probably write as well as your own topic? Also, why do they even have this in the common app?</p>
<p>it's really not that big of a deal, they just want you to best express yourself and if you can't do that through one of the first five essays then they want you to pick your own topic. as far as i know this doesn't actually make it easier or harder for you, and they won't judge you by what you choose. nothing sneaky about it. they just want you to really express yourself.</p>
<p>do you have to say what your topic is, or can you just write about it and let them figure that out?</p>
<p>norms, just fill in the bubble next to the topic you chose and give your essay a cetchy title that gives insight to what your essay is about (Although some colleges tell you in thier admission policies what to write for the title) but dont say the topic you chose. The adcoms will figure it out.</p>
<p>do you guys think if i wrote about growing up in the midwest and how it gave me a unique perspective would be "other" or the one about experiences/background (i think it's #5)</p>
<p>I think it could count as #5. Either way, it doesn't quite matter. :)</p>
<p>yeah i just don't want to look stupid ha</p>
<p>well. i have a really good idea for "topic of your choice." I'm Muslim, American, and got stuck between bullets and bombs last summer in Lebanon. May seem pretty standard for all Lebanese grads of 2008, but I'm a pretty good writer and I think if I have a focused topic I could make "topic of your choice" work for me.</p>
<p>beirut, I'm Muslim too. I just got an idea. I'm going to Pakistan again in 6 days, so I could use that too. Talk about poverty and all that.</p>
<p>tux, you're in a pretty good position too. i mean, i hate to see all these radicals take over the Red Mosque and there to be a realllllllly long, drawn-out conflict, but I think you could circumvent around that incident and identify yourself as a muslim who is as afraid and as disapproving of radicals as all Americans are. have a nice trip to Pakistan. where are planning to apply to?</p>
<p>I disagree that "Topic of your choice" is just to give you the opportunity to "express yourself." You should be capable of doing that with any one of the options. You have to have a pretty darn good reason for rejecting the choices offered to you. My understanding is that T of your Ch is for the applicant who has something really, really compelling that they want to communicate, but the topic doesn;t fit any of the options. In other words, "T of your ch" is a poor choice if you can't think of anything much to say about anything, and you'd rather just re-cycle that old paper you got an A on, on how you spent your summer vacation. </p>
<p>Now if you spent your summer vacation dodging bullets in Beirut, wow, that's not the same as warmed over remarks about what a nice time you had in Florida! If this had a profound effect on you (how could it not?), made you think about the world or life or yourself or whatever in a different way, and you can put that into words, GO FOR IT. In fact, it's exactly for situations and expreiences like yours that they have that option.</p>