<p>A couple months ago I went ahead and wrote my Common App essay. It's about failure, it's pretty well written aside from needing some basic editing, and everything's all fine and dandy as far as that goes. But today as I was editing it, I realized that I'm not sure if it's all that great. </p>
<p>I wrote about how I failed my learner's permit test the first time I took it. I said how I was really mad at myself and embarrassed since it's the test that pretty much everyone passes, and how I learned that it wasn't that big of a deal, yada yada yada. Honestly, while I think it's well-written, reading over it, and now writing a summary of it for you good people, it sounds extremely cliche and the main thing is that I don't know if it really tells enough about me as an applicant. So I'm starting to think that it might be better to write a whole different essay (and different prompt).</p>
<p>And that's where my struggle begins. I don't know what to write about. The most obvious idea seems to be doing prompt #1 and writing about how journalism is such a passion of mine. Honestly, it's not an overstatement at all to say that journalism really is central to my identity. I have a fairly unique story that I could write about. So that's an idea.</p>
<p>The other option is to do prompt #1 and instead write about how I've grown up in a working class family and about the lessons I've learned, namely from my dad, about hard work and how he didn't go to college but is successful and so on and so forth. This also sounds very cliche, but I thought maybe I could make it work because while I've always looked up to my dad a lot, in the past 5 or so years we've argued a lot and not gotten along very well at all (due to me, not him). So I thought that maybe it would be interesting because I adored him when I was a little kid, and then the past 5 years or so, we haven't gotten along, but I still look up to him and apply the things he's taught me to how I view the world today, in spite of going through a long rough spot. I think this could be a good essay, but it's cliche and I don't know how adcoms would view me talking about how my dad and I not getting along. I think depending on how I wrote it, it could come off the right way. Or I could leave out the part about not getting along and just write about what he's taught me. I would definitely say that that is central to my identity too.</p>
<p>Maybe I'll just write both essays and then have people read it. I just need some feedback, because I'm really frustrated and am not sure what to do.</p>
<p>before proceeding with the next essay search on the web what is the true meaning for the question asked? once you get the essence of what might be looking for, decide; your first essay is a good topic: what did you learn from it? for example how did peer stuff factor in? does that help you realize everyone gets to diff. points in life at different times and the next time you might feel less embarrassed, less angry? i think the first topic sounds rich; it is the depth of it that counts; the second one, is good too; a bit cliche yes but the outcome and how it transformed you is what counts and how yu will bring these transformations to campus and into your future.
essentially this could be done with essay that is done already</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go with the learner’s permit idea. Here’s a link to a previous thread that analyzed the Common App prompts and it said this about the failure prompt:
“Watch out for
A lack of perspective. This essay can be a dangerous one for some students. If losing that playoff soccer game was the worst pain youve ever felt in your life, then youve had a pretty painless life so far. Similarly, if the lesson you learned from losing was to make sure you never lose at anything ever again, then you really havent learned anything from the experience of defeat and are not prepared to deal with similar situations in the future. Its important to demonstrate maturity and a sense of perspective here. Some setbacks and failures are inevitable and unavoidable in life; we want to know what you learned from this one in particular that can be applied to future experiences.”
<a href=“Pitfalls or Traps in the new Common Application essay - College Essays - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/1526461-pitfalls-or-traps-in-the-new-common-application-essay.html</a>
Like the writer says, if failing your permit test on your first try was the worst pain you’ve ever felt in your life, you’ve had a pretty painless life so far. And if what you learned from it was that it didn’t matter, that’s a pretty surface-level analysis, which is what really makes topics like that not work. Here’s a quote from a Tufts admissions officer (though he’s specifically talking about service essays):</p>
<p>“The problem with the service essays is that it’s really hard to write them without resorting to cliches. Cliches like “I went there to serve them, but really they were the ones serving me” or “that’s how I learned that those people weren’t so different from myself.” If you’ve got an essay that has one of those two lines in your final paragraph, you need to seriously evaluate what you’re doing. It’s not that those sentiments aren’t truly felt, or that we doubt their value, it’s that no one writes an essay that yawns the other way and both of those lessons are surface level and emotionally centered instead of intellectually grounded.
We’re a university, so we want, more than anything, insight into how you think and process problems and/or ideas. If you gained more than you gave, are you ok with that? Is that morally permissible if you pledged to serve others? If you learned that people are the same, why were you surprised? How does this new insight change your goals or perspective on other ideas or issues?
Most service essays never dig deep enough to explore in ways that truly matter beyond the limited experience of a service trip or service project.”</p>
<p>I think learning that it’s ok to fail is a pretty-surface level insight and one that a lot of kids will write about in their essays. And no matter how well-written your essays are, that won’t make up for a lack of content. </p>
<p>I third the journalism idea. It showcases why you are applying in a more subtle way. </p>
<p>I personally like writing about things I feel the most passionately about. There are circumstances where I would like to argue one way because of how I feel, but the idea doesn’t have a lot of substance (not to imply that your ideas don’t have substance, I am strictly talking about myself here). With essays like these, I feel like the best thing to do is go for the one that you can write about forever, because you’ll be pouring the essence of who you are in every word you write.</p>