<p>Common App Prompt 1: Story/Experience Central To Identity</p>
<p>General idea:</p>
<p>[Volunteering opportunity] that [made me realize a flaw in our system and a need unfulfilled as pertains to the relationships between nonprofit organizations and government] and [how that made me decide my major and briefly how I'd strive to fulfill aforementioned need]</p>
<p>Sound interesting enough to make it a truly great essay? Sound topical enough to be an individual story central to my identity?</p>
<p>It sounds like it’d be a great editorial piece or blog entry, but probably not an application essay. You’re dealing too much with ideas and concepts - and too little with your personal life. </p>
<p>I know you feel passionate about these opinions - I’ve felt the same way after my own volunteering experiences when I was younger - but your sentiments deal too much with issues that go beyond you as an individual. Realize that your reader is much more interested in your personality than your beliefs.</p>
<p>In general it sounds like a good essay, but for the prompt, I think that you would have to be convincing that a one time event seemingly is central to your identity and that sounds like a tall order unless you are now living and breathing this subject ever since. It more sounds like you want to talk about your major instead of the prompt.</p>