The infamous Texas common app essay

College Essays
1

<p>Im a freshman at Texas A&M applying for a continuing Aggie scholarship. The topic is:</p>

<p>"Many students expand their view of the world during their time in college. Such growth often results from encounters between students who have lived different cultural, economic, or academic experiences. With your future growth in mind, describe a potential classmate that you believe you could learn from either within or outside a formal classroom environment. "</p>

<p>I wrote one on this exact topic last year as an incoming freshman, but Ive since heard that I and many others approached it wrong. I started talking about the value of diversity, then described a not so well known indian tribe and said id like to have one of its members as a classmate so i could broaden my world view. Ive heard since that this essay isnt asking you to create an imaginary friend, but is asking you to describe what you want to improve about yourself. can anyone confirm or deny this?</p>

2

<p>Uh...I'm interested too. :)</p>

3

<p>That's the way I interpret the question. "With your future growth in mind ..." My guess is that most approached it the way you did. I suspect what they're really hoping for are people who are self-aware enough to understand their own environments, the effects those environments had on them, and what they haven't internalized because of those environments.</p>

<p>Just a guess, but I think it's a decent one.</p>