Too Many Ideas

College Essays
1

<p>I can't figure out what I want to write about for my CommonApp Personal Essay. I have two passions and three topics:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Fencing (passion): I teach private lessons, substitute for group lessons when my coach is away, and am nationally ranked. I wrote about this in my short answer, though.</p></li>
<li><p>Writing (passion): I do 'group collaborative novels' online. I've done this for 2-3 years now, and have almost finished two novels with two partners. These stories have probably consumed over 340+ hours of my life with 350k+ words per novel, (180kish of them mine). I absolutely adore writing; I've even participated in (and completed) the National Novel Writing Month contest (50k words for any type of literature in the month of November; 1.67k words a day). I'm obscenely proud of these literary accomplishments. This passion is a secret. Even my parents don't know how much I write.</p></li>
<li><p>Volunteerism at Three Hospitals (it looks good for a pre-med/biomedical engineering major): I... like it, but I don't love it. It's grunt-work, like... cleaning up rooms after the real techies and scanning bar-codes on pill-packets for four hours a day. It's okay. I'm not passionate. It's something I do in the summer. 200+ hours of volunteerism. And it sounds great. I can easily make things sound great: "Emergency Department Aide; Candy-Striper; Hand Center Assistant (Occupational Therapy); Animal Research Facility Assistant; Alternate Healing Techniques (Reiki) Assistant; Nutritional Services Assistant; Floor-person at Gift Shop "Treasures"; Child Care Aide; Pharmacy Robot Assistant."</p></li>
</ol>

<p>But I don't love it. I would feel like a liar writing a glowing essay about it.</p>

<p>All of the colleges I've been visiting keep saying "be yourself in your essay! Be unique! Be special!" I don't see how my love of writing or my fencing passion would get me into college (I'm aiming for top schools: Dartmouth is my number one fit). Volunteerism sounds best, doesn't it?</p>

<p>I tried to reconcile all of these topics into an essay, but there really isn't a neat, combining theme that would create order from my chaos. D:</p>

2

<p>I’m a writer too! Somewhat. I don’t really write online that much, even though writing is my strength. </p>

<p>My advice: go with the writing passion. It’s real, it’s you, and it’s much more impressive than volunteering hours in my opinion. If you already wrote about fencing, then you don’t need to write about it again. I’m sure if you can manage to pull off a good writing essay, it will most likely help you at top schools and definitely will not hurt you.</p>

<p>good luck!</p>

3

<p>Writing online is something I do only because I enjoy the interactive part of it. The back-and-forth type novel really keeps my interest!</p>

<p>My problem is that I don’t know how much they really want to know ‘me.’ Me the giving person who spends her spare time in the hospital talking to people, or me the recluse who likes writing a-freaking-lot.</p>

4

<p>Adcoms probably don’t want to hear about your sex life, your pot habit, or your penchant for alcohol-saturated Saturday nights. Other than that, you are free to explore any side of yourself in your essay. </p>

<p>It sounds to me like you want to avoid discussing your reclusive writing self, as if adcoms would be turned off by an introvert. Not so. They want to know about you and what you would bring to the campus, and if that’s a talented, devoted, and less than chatty writer, so be it. This isn’t to say you should frame your essay to depict yourself negatively; rather, discuss your writing and its importance to you. Don’t be shy.</p>

5

<p>Haha, you say that like I have a sex life or frequent the party scene!</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice, guys. I wrote one on writing and one on volunteerism, and the difference between ‘I don’t really give a crap’ and ‘I adore writing’ is awfully clear. <3</p>

6

<p>My D ( junior in college) also spends a LOT of time on that collaborative writing online thing (and the National Writing month contest); Surely you must be able to do something creative and unique with that for a nice sample of your writing!</p>

7

<p>I think you should write all three, then see which is best. Have others read them and give you their opinions.</p>

<p>Personally, the second sounds better to me, and you can list #1 and #3 elsewhere.</p>

8

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<p>Ha, no, I just meant that there are few taboo topics for college essays, and that an essay about your writing, even if it reveals introversion, comes nowhere near taboo.</p>

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<p>It looks like you have your answer :)!</p>