Vote for a topic!

College Essays
1

<p>So I'm about to finish my junior year and plan to write my essays over the summer.
I've been thinking about 2 topics and plan on writing both and then letting my english teacher help me chose which to send. But in your opinion which of the two is better?</p>

<p>Both will be funny, I'm trying to find something unique. </p>

<p>*My experiences as Junior Class president and planning Prom, with funny ancedotes as well as what makes me a good leader.</p>

<p>*My experiences working at the Daytona Speedway during the big Nascar races for the past 3 year, alot of funny stories, and then tying in things that I learned by being WAAAY out of my comfort zone.</p>

<p>for the supplemental essays like, Why do you want to attend ______ University?</p>

<p>I plan on writing about how idyllic my high school experience and how much I loved it but how I can't wait to get out of my comfort zone and be challenged and stretched.</p>

2

<p>b u m p</p>

3

<p>Write about NASCAR</p>

4

<p>ok, anyone else</p>

5

<p>Ormand Beach - represent. </p>

<p>All things being equal, I’d go leadership over anything else and STILL use NASCAR as a hook. Something like:</p>

<p>*While narrowing down the subject for my essay, I wondered whether anything could be more interesting or share more about me than my amazing experiences working races at Daytona International Speedway. Yet two words emerge and resonate as I look at the photos of classmates that cling to the edges of my bathroom mirror; prom planning. *</p>

6

<p>It’s not the topic, it’s what you do with the topic.</p>

<p>Choose whichever topic allows you to write the most personal, detailed, honest and revealing essay.</p>

<p>There is good advice about college essays at</p>

<p>[Essays</a>, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html]Essays”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html)</p>

7

<p>Thanks for continuing to post the link. The article is a good one. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Clearly the author of the UVA article disagrees with you as do I. It’s both picking the right topic (for the applicant) and maximizing what he or she does with it.</p>

8

<p>Yes, one should</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>One should not imagine, as many do here, that topics are inherently good or bad.</p>

9

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<p>That topics aren’t inherently good or bad avoids the real goal. It’s about being effective and reaching your audience. And as the UVA author discusses some topics are harder to pull off then others. </p>

<p>We went to eight college info sessions with our son this year. Four mentioned the difficulty of pulling off the ‘someone that influenced my life’ essay without any prompting from questions from the audience. Of those four, three specifically mentioned that they see so many of them it is hard for any applicant to stand out. All three used “grandparents” as their specific example. Now, I really don’t believe they are specifically overwhelmed only with ‘grandparent as inspiration’ essays but I think it is a lot easier than picking on Mom/Dad essays when they are sitting out there in the audience (and perhaps will be footing the college bill). </p>

<p>So, while topics are not inherently good or bad I don’t think many need to wake up and smell the coffee to realize that they are topics they are quite sick of seeing. If you want to believe that yours will be the exception AND that the admissions reader will even read the whole thing to realize that fact … go for it.</p>

10

<p>NASCAR topic is the better of the two</p>

11

<p>I disagree with attempting to conjoin the two–how exactly again, poster above, will you tie that together successfully in 500-700 words?</p>

12

<p>ctyankee, it’s ormond :slight_smile: haha you from around here?</p>

<p>and thanks all, I think i’m going to go with nascar.</p>

13

<p>nascar is a lot more original; good decision</p>