<p>College application essays! </p>
<p>How do you start? Where do you start? Does it have to be personal? Did inspiration just strike you? One of my relatives wrote about why toilet paper must be right side up, and got into MIT.</p>
<p>Yes, I've read all those books like "The College Admissions Essay: How To Write It" but reading Harvard acceptees essays and the like simply destroys my creativity (if I had any in the first place)</p>
<p>What were your topics?</p>
<p>For me it just struck, we had been reading Siddartha in class and I based the body of my essay on that. </p>
<p>My essay itself was how I saw Bizet's Carmen and turned to a life of meditation.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have that problem too.</p>
<p>I'm so used to journaling online that everything I write just feels too personal. It's not the actual content of the essay that bothers me, but the way I say things. I write like I speak.</p>
<p>It's uncomplicated, not frilly, and yet fairly compelling. But I don't know... are they supposed to be formal?</p>
<p>just make a list of books, works of art, experiences, things, people, TV shows, foods, activities that interest you, and pick one to write about</p>
<p>write a personal essay</p>
<p>The essay shouldn't be too formal. I think one of my greatest problems was that I overthought my applications. One of my favorite essays, which surprised me when it succeeded, was a half-rant/half-narrative that I wrote in 45 minutes.</p>