<p>Are they helpful/harmful to an application? If you hypothetically write one of your essays about your own personal grief over the loss of say..a mother, is that overdone?</p>
<p>Does it tell much about you as a person? Does it distinguish your character from thousands of other applicants? Essays are entirely about interesting narrative – in the end you want the show what kind of a person you are through your prose. With that said, if your answer to the two questions is the affirmative, and you write authentically and truthfully, I do not see any reason not to choose such a topic.</p>