<p>my essay is an analogy between my exploration of music beyond country music (after the country music radio station for my area was cancelled) and my open minded academic interests. my school's college counselor gave it a "go", but i am concerned that not focusing on a singular, life-altering experience will hurt me. i feel my essay shows who i am, but isn't about how i've changed in some big way, or how i'll bring amazing things to campus. compared to my peers, who are writing about big crises and events that have changed their lives, i fear that i will fall short</p>
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<p>Truthfully, essays about ‘big’ topics like this can easily degenerate into platitudes and overly dramatic prose.</p>
<p>My kids both wrote analogy type essays, and neither really discussed personal changes. One wrote about the similarities between two apparently unrelated interests, hiking and baking. The other talked about playing Scrabble. She discussed the beauty of words, both strategically and in their cadence and appearance; and she compared certain words to scientific concepts since that’s her academic interest. Both did very fine in the admissions process.</p>
<p>It’s not the subject matter that counts, it’s what you say and how you say it. It sounds like your essay is about how your world view has opened up both musically and academically, that’s a change in how you think and experience the world, can’t get much bigger than that. Get the details in there that show who you are and will stick in the minds of adcoms as they read umpteen grandiose, generalized essays. Believe me, smaller can be better in an admissions essay.</p>
<p>I definitely agree about the platitudes. So many people think they’re so different because they learned the meaning of community service and now they appreciate their life… “I now realize how lucky I am and I never ever take anything for granted anymore”. I’d rather see some weird essay with an interesting lesson than one of those.</p>