<p>What did everyone here write about in their supplemental essay? I’m a junior right now, but I was looking at the Amherst app (I’m applying this fall) and the quotations for the supplemental essay look scary! :S
I’m not out to steal ideas, but I would like to get an idea of what kind of essay topics can be derived from Amherst’s extremely vague quotes. Also, does Amherst change its supplemental essay question/prompt every year?</p>
<p>I found those prompts pretty hard to deal with myself. I chose the 4th one about diversity, and I wrote an essay on how important diversity is as a concept, not only for the US but for my country as well. I just reread my essay after getting in, and it is deffinitely not my best. I think Amherst's topics were the hardest to deal with in my application process - on the other hand all the other applicants had to do an essay.
You should just do your best, the ambiguity of the quotes is to your advantage because you can shift the topic to many places (although "squirelling" is not an option).</p>
<p>bogororo, your approach to Amherst's supplement essay coincides with mine.</p>
<p>I chose the what I believe was the first choice. The quote that went something like "I am not a machine...". And I essentially made the entire essay one big satire (largely political). Basically, I ignored the prompt and just tried to write something comical that related vaguely to the quotation. Personally I think I succeeded with flying colors and view it as my best college essay. I'd recommend being creative, as it will distinguish you from those who take similar, well-worn routes.</p>
<p>I wrote a topic about the "photograph" quotation. I talked about my science research pediatric AIDS project and how it has affected me greatly.</p>
<p>At least I think it's #4... can't remember, don't want to check right this second. I wrote about how the important thing about science is that it enables us to enjoy other aspects of the universe more fully. I kind of combined science and art in my supplemental.</p>
<p>i chose the last quote, "i am not a machine..." and wrote about how unstimulating school has been thus far, but i'm looking forward to college because it'll allow me to break away from this crappy system</p>
<p>I didn't like Amherst's topics too much, but I wrote an essay on diversity that I was pretty satisfied with. I did it at the 11th hour, though, and I put off the essay writing for Amherst cause I disliked the topics so much.</p>
<p>dude, just remember - you don't have to address the quote specifically. i never referenced the quote once in my essay. i picked a topic i really wanted to write about - my spiritual development - and then i found the quote which sort of described the sort of course it took ("the i am not a machine..." quote). my essay didn't contain particularly profound philosophical musings but it was insightful and revelatory and got me in.</p>
<p>i'd say don't get caught up in trying to explain the quote and writing impersonally about it. try to apply the quote to your own life and go from there dude. and don't worry about college essays now, haha, you have all of your first semester senior year to do that! just kidding. hope that helps.</p>
<p>I really hated the essays, too, so I put it off for last. Still had time to get it revised by a teacher, though. I picked the 4th one. I didn't relate the essay to anything about me. I just picked a couple of science ideas in physics, chemistry, and biology and wrote about how these showed that the world has harmony, beauty, complexity, dynamics, whatever. I got in, so I can PM anyone who wants to read it. Just don't PM me for an essay, ask me in a post b/c my PM box is filling up and I'm too lazy to clean it out.</p>
<p>Obilisk - The adcomms try to pick deep, meaningful quotations, and they may find it a tad offensive that you made light of their choices. I agree that uniqueness is good, but comical isn't the only way to be unique. Those quotations are traps for superficial and cliche writers, who will see a topic like "I'm not a machine..." and go loquacious and crazy on the response. Writing a concise, introspective, and meaningful essay will be off of the "similar, well-worn routes" plus less risky. There's nothing wrong with taking the prompts seriously.</p>
<p>That said, if you've been accepted into Class of 09, congrats! check out the MSN AmherstClassof2009 group. PM me if you want the link.</p>
<p>-Andrew</p>
<p>hey goalie - my essay shared a theme with yours - I'll show it to you sometime. I incorporated my interest in philosophy and the academic ideal.</p>
<p>I referred to the "machine" quote a few times throughout my short (345 words) essay, mostly to contrast the elements I thought made me seem human, questioning, and interested.</p>
<p>rayxcappo ~ yeah, I didn't mention the quote. I just plunged into it.</p>
<p>Hmm. I didn't get an early-write from Amherst, but at this point, it doesn't matter anyway.</p>
<p>Again... Amherst's problem was that the quotes/topics were in a strange realm between normal and weird... neither normal enough nor strange enough for me to feel good about the topics.</p>
<p>I wrote mine on the talk and talk one.... I just talked about the effect of languages on my life.</p>
<p>Hmm, fire. Never really considered that they might not have a sense of humor. That said, I sorta felt, and still feel that the particular quotation i responded to, was designed for creative, off-center responses. After all, the quote was from a Creative Writing professor...But, if they reject me on the basis of that essay, I'm fine with it. I just felt that it would make a nice contrast to my serious and introspective common app essay.</p>
<p>in that case, it probably will. the supplementals are supposed to give a different angle to the adcomms, since Amherst doesn't do interviews.</p>
<p>I also selected the "talk and talk" option...I wrote about communication and how it has forged such a strong bond between myself and my grandma. I hope they like it, because I actually regretted not using it for my actual college essay. The essay I was most distressed by actually turned out to be one of my favorites!
Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>I wrote about the one with the Kruschev kid and his mom or something along those lines.</p>
<p>i did the diversity one... i went on a rampage. it was a fun essay to write.</p>