<p>that applicants use in abundance and adcoms are tired of seeing. In other words, what should one avoid writing about/doing in an essay? And what SHOULD they be doing. =]</p>
<p>AVOID:
my mom/dad/sister/brother died and it affected me.
my mom/dad/sister/brother has a disability and it affected me.
i went abroad/my parents paid for me to do community service and it taught me a lot about the world and other cultures and blah blah blah</p>
<p>true^ but what if your prompt is like on the common app: describe a person who has had influence on your life and describe that influence?</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think that it’s the topic itself that matters so much, it’s the way that the student writes it. That’s why some authors can never write interesting novels, no matter how interesting the basic concept of their story is.</p>
<p>I was just about to say this. The same topics are used over and over because a lot of colleges ask for the same topics year in and year out. What matters is what you do with the topic – make it interesting, make it personal, make yourself stand out among the thousands of other students competing for a spot at the school.</p>
<p>But I agree that those topics mentioned are very common, especially the “I went to a foreign country for a volunteer experience and this is how it affected me!” For some reason upper-middle-class college students think visiting a foreign country to volunteer is a unique experience, when it’s not. You can write about that, but you also have to make it interesting and make it clear that the reason you did it wasn’t so that you could get into college, but because you wanted to help people in that community.</p>
<p>(Personally, I want to see an essay about a kid who <em>did</em> go abroad because he knew it would look good on his application and had a really selfish approach to the service project, but turned around later and ended up learning a lot. THAT would catch my attention – all the essays I edit on this topic make the kid out to be a saint, and half of them aren’t even about the applicant at all. Admissions officers don’t want to hear you wax poetic about India or China or the people, they want to hear about YOU.)</p>
<p>For the best (and funniest) guidence on writing the essay, read Harry Bauld’s book, On Writing the College Application Essay. I quote from the back of the book:</p>
<p>"If you see you initial idea reflected in this list, think again.</p>
<p>-The Trip (“I had to adjust to a whole new way of life.”)
-My favorite things (puppy dogs, freedom and Mrs. Field’s cookies)
-Miss America (“I think World Peace is the most important issue facing us today”)
-The Jock (“Through wrestling I have learned to set goals to work with people”)
-The Autobiography (“Hello, my name is…”)
-Tales of My Success (“But, finally, when I crossed the finish line…”)
-Pet Death (“As I watched Button’s life ebb away, I came to value…”"</p>
<p>You can feel the admissions officer’s gorge rise as they pick up one more essay on these topics…not that he says they can’t be done well, but only that you’ll have to work hard to differentiate yourself with these topics.</p>
<p>H’m. Considering that the essay’s meant to be a personal thing, and that if people write about themself they can only talk about their failures or successes, wouldn’t quite a few essays be about “Tales of My Success?”</p>
<p>-currently writing my Personal Essay-</p>
<p>^
yes they would.</p>
<p>17 year olds only have so many experiences as well.</p>
<p>its the “telling” that will differentiate.</p>
<p>Another version of The Trip: I traveled to some place very different and eventually realized that deep down foreign people are really just like us.</p>
<p>“Why this school is the best school ever, oh how I love it.” Ugh, the gushing . . . ugh.</p>
<p>To quote UVA’s website:</p>
<p>*–The bad: From an early age, we accept death as the inevitable, but do not comprehend its actual denotation. Death is the impending future that all people must eventually grasp. In my early teens, my grandfather tragically perished. As a youth who did not identify with such a cataclysm I was saturated with various emotions. Initially, I was grieved by the loss of a loved one and could not understand why this calamity had to befall upon my family. I always considered death to have a devastating effect, but was shocked by the emotional strain it places upon an individual.</p>
<p>–The good: The coughing came first, the hacking in the middle of the night. Then there were the multiple doctor visits, each one the same: the little white rooms with magazines where I tried not to stare at the bald, gaunt woman across from me. One of the white coats finally said something, steadily, forecasting an 80 percent change of rain. The list of second opinions grew too long to count, looking for someone to say the right thing. Finally, there was relief in hearing the name of a kinder killer: lymphoma.*</p>
<p>As you can see, one topic, two treatments. One is a horribly vague and impersonal cliche, the other is personal, descriptive, and interesting. I don’t think there are really cliched topics as much as there are topics that have a large potential to be cliches.</p>
<p>Anyone want to share some good tips for writing essays?</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>going off what dwighteisenhower posts, don’t try to be sophisticated and philosophical. Try to infuse the paper with your emotions. Don’t treat it like an english literary analysis, but rather a memoir.</p>
<p>Well to once again reiterate the cliche, it is about how you write…as a large number of those same “success stories, family illness/deaths, etc” still are successful.</p>
<p>It may not hurt to have an original topic, though, provided that you can write genuinely about it…this guy that got into Stanford from my school last year wrote about how good looking/handsome he was and, uh, got accepted…he showed me his essay and he personally showed me his acceptance letter.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what the topic is… </p>
<p>If you’re a master writer, you could write about a sponge and get in. </p>
<p>If you can’t write to save your life, then you could write about the time you single handedly flew a Battlestar into combat against an alien armada, captured their leader, nuked their homeworld, saved humanity… and still get rejected.</p>
<p>I think alot of people in general try to have a “happy ending” to their story, which in turn usually leads to a cliche. </p>
<p>Life usually isn’t roses, butterflies and making the game winning goal…</p>
<p>The ugly:</p>
<p>Life is __________. </p>
<p>Adcoms hate being lectured on what life is by a teenager.</p>
<p>I disagree with the statement to “infuse your paper with emotion” rather than “logical and philosophical thought”. It ultimately depends on what you’re writing about. For my personal common app essay, I wrote an emotional essay. When I was asked “Why do you want to pursue a degree in engineering?” I responded with a logical, well-thought out response. Context, think in context. Oh and be yourself I guess.</p>
<p>^ I thought dwighteisenhower was talking about common app personal statement. I based my comment on his examples. And I never said anything about logical. Yes, I realize that logic is a branch of philosophy, but I meant philosophy as in, trying to write as if you know what life is all about. Like writing in a third person tone that sounds as if you’re trying to write an english paper (the UVA Bad essay introduction). What I mean by “sophisticated” is that you try to use a ton of big vocab words that you are not used to. Sorry for not clarifying.</p>
<p>i naturally write in that “the bad” intelligent sounding kind of way. i have no idea how to write in “the good”/descriptive/“show them how u feel” way.
crapppp.
i feel like my essay will naturally be slightly cliched, albeit well-written. i’m hoping on just going to the grocery store one day & getting this amazing pang of inspiration to write the most original essay ever. <em>sigh</em> :
can we get some random original topics listed? like, i heard a bunch of people who were applying to MIT one year wrote about the toilet seat, but in the end, it was seen not as original, but rather creepy 
so i guess things to that extreme would work against us? ;)</p>