<p>What if this essay's topic screams out the college's name? Johns Hopkins' $10 essay is the essay I'm talking about, I think when people read the topic, they know where it's from. I wrote a very good essay for JHU, and I want to use this same essay on my U of Vermont application. I don't know how I should, though... Should I write the question down and just paste the essay under it, or should I explain how I loved this essay question from another application and wanted to use it with Vermont, too? U of Vermont has a "Whatever topic you want" option in its essay section, btw.</p>
<p>The $10 prompt is too obviously JHU's. I wouldn't. Unless you can change it around so that the essay doesn't seem to be about the prompt so much.</p>
<p>But I'm no expert. Just saying what my opinion is, and what I would/wouldn't have done.</p>
<p>So, me sending them another college's essay would tick them off? I was thinking maybe I could be like "Johns Hopkins University's essay question was one of the best essay questions I've ever seen, and I think I really poured my heart out while writing it. I thought this would be a good opportunity to show the folks at University of Vermont a less generic personal statement." and paste my essay there. Besides, one of their essay topics is "Please send us a graded writing assignment (it can be a copy) from an English or history class."</p>
<p>Maybe this being the VIP application helps my case. Does it really?</p>
<p>............bump!...</p>
<p>Just send it.
I wrote an open-ended topic for Common App and sent it everywhere.</p>
<p>So, I shouldn't try to explain it?</p>
<p>It's fine. I used my JHU $10 essay as a supplement to my Duke app last year. The quality of your essay matters a lot more than the topic, IMO.</p>
<p>You could just change it to planning a days adventure and skip the $10.00. I myself, wouldn't want to send that my JHU essay to other colleges, I don't think it was all that good (though it was kind of funny).</p>
<p>Funkdoc,</p>
<p>you do not have to re-invent the wheel with your Essays. NYer is right the common essay allows you to write about the topic of your choice, with a little tweaking to the essay, you should be fine.</p>
<p>If JHU is a good essay you should be able to easily modify it to use for other schools. Overall, unless you are filling out an application with a million short answer questions, you should be able to write 2 to 3 good essays and with minor modifications, use them for all of your applications.</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>guys, i think that sending it is a horrible idea; it's the equivalence (IMO) of saying, wow...I can tell you guys why I want to go to [insert college name here], but I already poured my life out into my why I want to go to [insert another college name here]. So anyway guys, lemme tell you why I wanna go to [insert second college's name here] because I managed to pour my heart and soul out there. BTW, I'm too lazy to pour my heart and soul out on another essay...even if it is for [insert first college's name here] because even though I can write well, I'm freakishly lazy. </p>
<p>That's why they make the commonapp essay IMO. That way, you can send it to multiple places w/out this discrimination.</p>
<p>If I was an adcom at [first college] I would, as I looked through the applicants file, realize that the applicant obviously doesn't care about my college enough to write his own essay for it; rather, he cared enough about [second college] to send that essay here...autoreject IMO</p>
<p>I think it's the eqivalence of having college x's name on the top of college y's app</p>
<p>I'm not 100% sure about this one, but JHU strongly discourages applicants from using the commonapp essay topics when applying there (even though they accept the commonapp) b/c they want to see creativity and diversity for their own topic; i'm sure that other colleges wanted you to write your essays with them in mind, not another college</p>
<p>sorry for the ranting, but I think sending the JHU essay to Vermont is a bad idea...</p>
<p>What if I put it in another way. I mean, I could say "my friend was applying to JHU a few weeks ago, and he wanted our opinions on their essay topic. I really loved the topic, so as your third option, which is writing an essay of our choice, I thought it'd be a perfect essay." I'll rephrase but you know what I mean. </p>
<p>That did happen, but I didn't really "write" the essay when my friend asked me what I would do.</p>
<p>No. I think that sounds pretty lame and idiotic.</p>
<p>Either submit it and take the chance they will reject you for using them as a clear safety, or suck it up and write a new essay.</p>
<p>**** it I'm sending that ****. God dammit, I have no time for all these essays. I got a synopsis to write for English. Sorry, Vermont.</p>
<p>...Why didn't you just plan earlier? Or get off CC to write an essay? Or find one? I'm sure you're applying to more schools than JHU and Vermont. Why can't you just use that, less obvious essay?</p>
<p>I would write another essay...no matter how crappy it is...well, that's not true...but anyway, as corranged said, if you want, you can go ahead and let them know that they're your clear safety; if I was Vermont, I would reject you in 20 seconds; or, I would call up JHU on the college grapevine and see if they're accepting you..if they are, I'd reject you; if they're not, I'd still reject you cause I'd still be disgusted--I try not to let my safeties know that they're my safeties...</p>
<p>pshhhh, planning. Procrastination is the way to go! The time is later!</p>
<p>On a related note (so I don't waste a whole new thread) if Pomona has an open ended question, would it be obvious to use my pluralism essay from Amherst? would they recognize it as amherst's prompt, comsidering i didn't use the quote or anything?</p>
<p>I have a ton more colleges I am applying to, and honestly, I'm tired of essays. Vermont sent me an email telling me I have a VIP application with no fee, so I said why not. I wasn't really happy about my other essays, so I decided to send the best one out of the bunch. I wouldn't really care if this destroyed my chances at JHU, because I already know they're not accepting me with my low stats. And if UVM doesn't want me, fine. They accept a freaking writing sample from English or History classes, I don't think they'd care about me using another college's topic. </p>
<p>Sorry if I'm contradicting myself. I'm a bit stressed out. Apologies to everybody who's trying to help.</p>