@Kingtape Yeah the third one is a really hard prompt to delve into
@creativewalrus big mood, procrastination is really killing me here
ugh i feel u so hard. have any tips for overcoming procrastination??/ sos
@geemssi the best advice i’ve ever received (from a columbia freshman!) was this: done is better than perfect. get a draft done, and leave it for the day. go back the next day and start editing. good luck!
What did you guys write your second essay on? I feel like all my opinions on issues have been developed as I grew and matured as a person, as well as learning more and more information. There really is no one text that changed my mind on an issue.
ALSO, when I read something political social-cultural, I usually do not have an opinion on the matter beforehand. So, rather than changing my mind, it is just making my mind up. i NeEd hElP
Doesn’t have to be socio-cultural.
Don’t remember if this was mentioned on this thread or not yet, but there’s the classic legend of a TASPer who got in while analyzing Justin Bieber lyrics.
It’s not exclusively limited to social issues
I would advise social issues with a slight aspect of politics, but it depends on the seminar you chose, i suppose.
@UesugiKenshin @5toryt3ll3r 's prompt was different when she was applying. It simply asked for a text that changed her mind. This year it’s specifically about an issue.
@mullophone both hers and ours are about issues and using texts to describe that issue
yeah, I don’t think the issue has to be a social issue.
I think @5toryt3ll3r is a bit of an exception. Her essays were pretty liberal with their interpretations of the prompts… it’d be interesting to see how one would do a more straitlaced response
@UesugiKenshin Yes, my essay was about a personal transformation that stemmed from an ‘issue’ of sorts for me, but it wasn’t about a social or political issue. The newer wording of the prompt (the one that you guys are addressing) does specify an issue, but doesn’t necessitate that the issue be sociopolitical in nature. Back in my day (so to speak, lol), there was a combination of personal and more far-reaching topics - I remember reading one essay on a book about human trafficking, for example - and I think that the expectation remains similar with the new prompt. A social or political issue is fine to write about, but so is a more personal matter - an ‘issue’ isn’t exclusive to only one person versus many people, if that makes sense 
For reference, this was the wording of my prompt:
At TASP, you will discuss texts and ideas in a college style seminar. You should feel comfortable thinking deeply about an issue, communicating a well‐reasoned stance, and genuinely engaging with others’ positions. To that end, tell us about a time a discussion, piece of writing, movie, work of art, or other life experience changed your mind. What did you believe at first, and how were you persuaded to adopt your new viewpoint?
And here is the wording of y’all’s prompt, based on this year’s TASPlication as well as the essays I’ve critiqued this year for some of you:
At TASP, you will discuss texts and ideas in a college-style seminar. You should feel comfortable thinking deeply about an issue, communicating a well-reasoned stance, and genuinely engaging with others’ positions. To that end, tell us about a time a text (a piece of writing, movie, song lyrics, etc.) changed your ideas about an issue. What did you think at first, and how did your thinking change? Refer to specific parts of the text to analyze how it affected your ideas.
So as you can see, there are several changes! The specification of a “text,” for example, seems less broad in your prompt than it was in mine. Moreover, referring to specific parts of the text is highlighted in your prompt more than it was in mine, and the part of the prompt that is the actual question has different wording.
Sheesh, that was a long post! I hope that it was helpful for you guys, though. I would also add that I think my essays were, like @Kingtape said, an exception in some regards - I didn’t write about an actual conflict for my third essay, for example. However, at the same time, my essays were arguably completely within the norm for an accepted TASP student, since all I did was write honestly. If you guys focus on ‘writing your truth,’ trite as it sounds, you’ll have a far better chance than if you try to pick topics that you think the admissions officers are expecting, since they like to be tricky and unpredictable, haha. You can’t predict what they’re looking for - you can only show them exactly who you are, which in and of itself raises your chances.
@Anonymousia Well, they were actually slightly different. The 2019 TASP Application asks for a time something “changed your ideas about an issue.” The 2017 TASP Application asks more simply for a time something “changed your mind.” Its only a slight difference, however.
Edit: Whoops, didn’t see 5storyt3ll3r’s post. She already mentioned this.
@5toryt3ll3r
Can you message me? I have a question to ask about what topic I should write about but I don’t have the privilege to ask yet.
Do you think it would be okay if I mention science olympiad in my first essay or should I leave it out?
@UesugiKenshin Just did!
@emmm16 If it played a role in your education, and you feel like it taught you important and personally meaningful lessons that you can get some meat out of for an essay, then absolutely go for it!
I submitted and I was reading it and I saw that I wrote “when it the time came” instead of “when the time came”. I also put “actual” instead of “actually”. Do you think this will mess up my chances of being interviewed?
Does anyone else have the problem that their “hurt someone” essay is literally blank, while everything else seems mostly straightforward?
I have literally nothing, and furthermore I can’t think of how I would even think of something. I could do what @5toryt3ll3r did and not really write about having hurt someone, choosing instead to “go meta,” but I dunno.
For the “place of birth” thing, how specific do I have to be? Like the city and state of the hospital is fine, right?
@QuestionCactus u probs dont need the hospital part lol