<p>UVA Supplement Topic- Too Risky?
I'm writing my UVA school-specific supplement, and the prompt is ""What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?" </p>
<p>The only thing that has really come to mind while thinking about this is writing about Lolita. Obviously I'd have to be super conscious about making it clear I'm not in support of Humbert Humbert, but more interested by how he nearly appears as a sympathetic narrator. I feel like this might be too risky, considering I don't know who would be reading it. Or, it could be seen as not being afraid to discuss that sort of thing, but I'm not sure which way it would be more likely to lean.</p>
<p>My Common App essay is pretty personal, and my other supplement covers social media/some foreign affairs stuff which is what I'm interested in, so I'm not sure there's a specific base left to cover and am just going for whatever I feel like I could write an interesting supplement about.</p>
<p>In general, it is good to try to pick an essay topic that most other people are not writing about. After all, how would you like to spend the month of January reading 100 essays that all talk about the kids’ expensive “mission trip” to Costa Rica? </p>
<p>Also, don’t let a parent or other adult force you to re-write an essay in a way that removes your personality, in order to make the essay overly academic. Your essay should show careful thought and insight, but shouldn’t read like a research paper you would write for a college course.</p>
<p>Valid points all round! After taking them into consideration and struggling a little, I abandoned that idea. It doesn’t work on multiple levels. </p>
<p>Now, I’m going with my problems with implicit differentiation in Calculus. I’m sure writing about having issues with math is no new idea either, but it’s absolutely personal and significantly easier to write. </p>
<p>charlieschm, I’m not even letting my parents read my supplements until after I’ve submitted them haha. Thankfully, they’re totally on board with that as they know they’d probably try and change things.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking time to answer me, everyone! I really appreciate it</p>
<p>Everyone should have at least one educated adult read their essay carefully before it is sent. There may be grammatical errors that you may have missed, and they may identify points that do not come across the way you had intended. Any attempt at humor definitely needs a second opinion, to make sure it is not horribly misinterpreted. </p>
<p>My point was to avoid letting someone pressure you into changing your essay into something that does not show your personality.</p>
<p>Oh of course! Both my college counselor and former teacher I’ve got a great relationship with have seen my essay writing at all it’s various stages. I won’t submit anything unless at least my counselor has looked over it.</p>
<p>@trenchlord I would say no as that’d be a kind of loose interpretation of work of art. I wanted to do the same thing but decided against it. I wrote about a very mainstream song though, so maybe !</p>
<p>Some films truly are art. Others are just formulas.</p>
<p>(One of my favorite films is Pleasantville).</p>
<p>As Dean J emphasized above, you are not writing a review or a summary. You are saying how this work of art influenced you or otherwise shows your personality.</p>