I’m having difficulty writing two of the Caltech essays. I’ll address each one separately.
The first one is “Members of the Caltech community live, learn, and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; ‘No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.’ While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes puzzling. Share a difficult situation that has challenged you. What was your response, and how did you arrive at a solution?”
I don’t know what to write about. While the question could be interpreted in a way that isn’t focused on ethical issues, it’s pretty clearly framed in a way that nudges and winks suggestively in the direction of ethical conundrums. Hence the problem: I’ve never really had to deal with a difficult moral situation. My morals are clearly defined. I don’t agonize about questions of ethics. It’s not something that comes up very often. I don’t put myself in those situations.
And so I’m left wondering about what I should write. I’ve got next to nothing.
The other question is “In an increasingly global and interdependent society, there is a need for diversity in thought, background, and experience in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. How do you see yourself contributing to the diversity of Caltech’s community?”
This one is obviously a “why should we take you as opposed to the next kid who has the same stats” questions, and again, I’ve got nothing. Actually that’s not true, but what I do have is nearly the same answer to the “What three experiences or activities have helped you explore your desire to study and possibly pursue a career in STEM?” question. The problem is really that I have an answer for one, but not the other, and the answer that I do have could be applied to either of the two.
Can anyone give me some advice?
Your response on item one sounds like you never take a risk or are not very introspective on the gray areas of life. Or both. I think they would hope you do both of those things.
Regarding the second, think about whether you can revise the 3 experiences essay and replace one with another experience so you can use that item in the other essay.
Take a risk. Write about taking a risk by writing that you have nothing risky to write about. No ideas about the second one, sorry.
Do you play sports? Have you been in a situation where you or your teammate tried to win by making a wrong call? Even if you always behave ethically, did you have a teammate who may not have behaved that way and how did you respond in such a situation? You may want to talk about your upbringing which has helped you behave ethically all the time.
Have you been in situations at school, where you were able to look at a problem from a different perspective and which helped with the discussions etc.? If so, write about those experiences.
Regarding the risk question: I recommend against writing that you have nothing risky to write about. I expect that particular theme has been done before and isn’t particularly new/interesting.
Some things to consider: Have you ever been in a situation where your ethics have conflicted with someone else’s? Why do you have the morals that you do? For each moral that you have: is it the undeniably correct one, or are multiple morals equally acceptable? If the latter, why do you choose yours? Do your own morals ever conflict? Have you ever seen someone do something and at first been morally disgusted, only to later on morally accept whatever that person had done? Can you envision any situations where you would change or lose your morals? At what age(s) did you first acquire the morals you do have? Do you have any memories from before that (or those) time periods, and how did you act? Have you ever acted against your morals? Do you have any regrets, and are those regrets in any way linked to your morals? What exactly are your morals (I recommend listing them to yourself)?
If you need more help brainstorming (through the asking of questions), I’d be glad to help.
This might be too late for the OP, but may help someone else with a similar question. I think the key comment from the OP about the first essay is “I don’t put myself in those situations.” Many people don’t. However, you can find yourself in such a situation, without wanting it and without hanging around with people who don’t share your moral values. Life happens. If you truly cannot think of any situation where you faced a moral challenge, you could write prospectively about what you could do. But I imagine that if you think harder, you will come up with a real-life example.