<p>joelyam2 YOUR ESSAY CHOICE IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. ADCOMS WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU AS A PERSON NOT THAT YOU WANT TO HELP PEOPLE UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE THAT CONTRIBUTION</p>
<p>I wrote one about the animal heads hanging on the walls of my house. Accepted to Yale, Harvard, Cornell (only apps).</p>
<p>I think my son's best essay was about delivering Mobile Meals every other week in a high-crime area and some of the quirky people he regularly encounters on that route.</p>
<p>My D began her application essay, "All my life there have been bugs." She is about to begin her sophomore year at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>spsdds- OMG CAPS LOCK MAKES ME FEEL POWERFUL!!!</p>
<p>er... yeah.<br>
My JHU communities essay (the 'any medium') was written in all pictures with a few captions to explain it. Not all that quirky, but fairly fun I'd say, since I love photography.
My main essay wasn't all that quirky really, but I poured my soul into it and the topic really was a defining moment in my life... I got into every school I applied to though (including JHU).</p>
<p>I stole Chicago's essay prompt about who you would invite to a tea party. I invited Alice and the Mad Hatter; Sir Robin's Minstrels (from Monty Python) and Teddy Roosevelt; Giuseppe Verdi, Igor Stravinsky, and Winnie the Pooh; and Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. At the end of my essay, Grendel came and ate everyone. I got accepted to Brandeis, New College of Florida, Scripps, and Tulane. I'll be attending Scripps this fall.</p>
<p>Oh I just remembered some more interesting essays from my friends.</p>
<p>The scent of grass on different days - Cornell, NYU, a host of UCs, UPenn
Winnie the Pooh - most Ivies, with Y and P</p>
<p>Planetary princess- I am not up to speed with tea parties- but do they usually have a lot of guests?</p>
<p>A friend's daughter wrote about flip-flops. Waitlisted at Holy Cross; went to Stonehill.</p>
<p>My S wrote about his obsession with skiing. Got into Lafayette, Union, Providence. Waitlisted at Colby.</p>
<p>Admissions counsellor at Union told us the worst essay topic she remembered was the one titled, "Why It Wasn't My Fault that I Got Arrested for Shoplifting." Student was rejected. I wonder why.</p>
<p>I wrote about a circus and used it as an analogy relating to my junior year in high school. I got into Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, and waitlisted at Princeton.</p>
<p>Queen Victoria used to have tea parties with dozens of people, so I believe the number of people at a tea party is unimportant.</p>
<p>^LOL ok. Where did she get in?</p>
<p>I wrote an essay describing me as a function of two variables. I only submitted to University of Chicago and Harvey Mudd, but I got accepted to both as a transfer ^^. Like PlanetaryPrincess, the prompt was stolen from UChicago.</p>
<p>PlanetaryPrinces ... great topic ... how long was the essay? My DD hopes to be in Claremont next Fall .... have fun and please keep us all posted.</p>
<p>Someone i know wrote about his nipples... </p>
<p>He got in to columbia.</p>
<p>Its a MYTH that an essay can "recover" from mediocre grades or SAT scores. Its important to write a good essay....even a clever one, but it will NEVER replace the numbers. Colleges that tell you that are being disingenuous. They are numbers driven.</p>
<p>Wow. I feel so boring.</p>
<p>My friend wrote about her belly button and she got into Columbia. :)</p>
<p>I wrote about how being an only child led to me being more creative (yeah not as exciting) but in my first paragraph I mentioned that if you were to lock me up in just a room with a rubber ball I can amuse myself for hours. I got in Wellesley/Scripps/Whitman/UW/Lewis & Clark/etc.</p>
<p>PS: Just read Quix's comment....I guess Columbia has a thing for body parts.</p>
<p>For the college I chose to attend, I wrote about why I hadn't wanted to attend the school, but why I felt that it was the perfect place for me...</p>
<p>I got in.</p>
<p>I haven't sent in applications yet (since I'm going to be a senior in HS in the fall), but my personal statement was about the Weather Channel and a placemat.</p>