Ok…so I just wanted to get a feel for this topic that I thought was unique and interesting for college app…I was ruminating over what I should write about (past experience, cool things during childhood, etc.) last night and…viola! It struck me like a lightening and thousand lightbulbs flashed in my brain at once!
I had a unique and cool experience during my 5th grade in elementary school (at a foreign country…im a US citizen but spent quite a bit of time overseas as a child and moved around at least 6 to 7 times). My teacher was pretty bad, and she didn’t do anything and didn’t even follow the proper curriculm for some subjects throughout the entire semester! Shew as an old hag who was a bit of an eccentric to put it midly, and one day decided that she would implement some new policies in the class room because of some complaints she has been hearing. At the time I was well-liked by my classmates and was thought ‘unique’ cuz I was from America. Well, she decided that a student should put him/herself in her seat and teach a subject to the class for a week! As if she intended me to do it all along, she immedately told me to take the task. So I did. I followed the text book and taught the social studies/history subject to the class for the entire week and couple days beyond. Entirely on my own, without intereference or any hand-holding from the teacher. At the end some of my friends and class mates were talking about how much better it was with me than the teacher, who usually left the class in turmoil and chaos. Overall, it was a great experience for me and I loved every minute of it.
I hope to major in History at princeton/Stanford/UCB or other schools I can get into, but is this topic unique and interesting enough to grab the attention of admin officers? I intend to weave together this story with my passion for history, my achievements in subjects of history after coming to US as a high school freshman, and how it opened my eyes to new possibilities as a child at a young age. If any of it sounded like I was bragging or something that I apologize…That was not how I meant to say it…but the story itself is true! What do you think of this idea and topic? Please, help me out and comment on anything you would like to say. Any help from my fellow CCers and parents will be greatly appreciated!
<p>The answer to your question of whether your essay topic is "unique enough" is best answered by no one but you.</p>
<p>Ask yourself: "Can anyone else write about this as personally as I can?"</p>
<p>Basically, you want your essay to be as unique as your genes. Write about something that an extremely small number of other people, if any, could write about. Show your true and individual colors. You want to stand out!</p>
<p>I doubt anyone could truly tell you if your topic is unique or not, as YOU are the one who had the experience. ;-)</p>
<p>yeah i agree with darqblue...i guess if you want to write about it because it was a very memorable experience, you'd have to be careful. even though you were just explaining your idea, you wrote a "disclaimer" of sorts about bragging..and i don't know if you could write a caution like that for your essay. i don't relaly know if anyone wil understand what i just wrote.</p>
<p>I don't like it as an admissions essay. Now for the constructive criticism part....</p>
<p>The goal is not to have a unique essay. The goal is to write an essay that makes you look unique so that you stand out from the crowd in a positive way. The topic of your essay could possibly be used, but you don't explain how it made you realize anything, or how it changed you as a person. I think that the fact that you remember it six years later probably does mean that it affected you in some way, but there is none of that in your essay. Your main concentration is on how bad the teacher was, and I can not see why an adcom would be interested in that. If the essay says anything at all about you, it is that you are very critical of teachers.</p>
<p>lol.......well about the teacher: I know I wrote some derogatory things about the teacher and all but the point I want to make is that I will in NO WAY write such things on the essay.......like calmom said, this is just the outline of the SITUATION, not how I will write the essay. Of course, I will concentrate far more on how this experience affected me than about the teacher.........at most such minor detail would be told in a off-hand sort of manner at most in a sentence or two. I do not intend in anyway for that things to even be emphasized in smallest way........just a minor background detail if I mention it at all.</p>
<p>It would be less about what I did or what others thought of me than what I thought of myself and the whole experience..........so the essay would not be critical of teachers and any thing of that nature. If my first post was a bit arrogant sounding in that manner than sry for the miscommunication.</p>
