<p>I'm thinking about writing about how I didn't qualify for nationals in debate last year, despite being the dominant debater in the state, and how I learned a lot from that; eg. you have to take risks and be willing to fail, can never take anything for granted/ applying this to my intention to be a researcher. I know that the whole nationals situation risks being arrogant (wow its the end of the world because he didn't make nationals!) but i worked to ensure this doesn't happen and tried to focus on what i learned. Does an excellent essay have to be creative? Or can it just be something well-written and shows something about you and be equally good as something quirky? Any current MIT students want to share what they wrote about?</p>
<p>Turning the 'end of the world' into 'what I learned' is very creative. Just be sure to focus on what you learned and you probably will not seem arrogant. You have a relevant point and are applying a little creativity to the use of the topic. </p>
<p>But that is just my opinion...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does an excellent essay have to be creative?
[/quote]
All an excellent essay really has to do is show who you are. I think your topic sounds really good, personally.</p>
<p>I wrote about the other topic (the world I come from), so I can't share what I wrote about, unfortunately.</p>
<p>It depends on how you write it. I think this essay could be done well, but I'm going to disagree with the others here and say that it COULD come off wrong. Not so much as arrogant, but like you're trying disguise success as a failure for purposes of the essay so that you have more chance to brag. Like "I am the top debater in the state! Go me! Whoo! This one time I failed to qualify for Nationals, despite being the TOP DEBATER IN THE STATE (can you believe it?) and it was such a tragedy! I felt like such a terrible, no-good failure, I thought the world was ending! Here are some things I learned from this experience."</p>
<p>That is one of the classic failure modes for this essay. Though when I explain it to people I usually use the hypothetical situation of someone who "only" made second chair clarinet in the state honors band instead of first and played this as being a huge failure. You can avoid falling into this trap with your planned topic, but you have to be very careful about what you write.</p>
<p>For avoiding this trap, I would recommend:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Don't harp on your prowess more than is necessary to write the essay.</p></li>
<li><p>You can express your disappointment, but be wary of making it sound like it was a truly major failure (or be prepared to offer an awfully good justification for it being so). Otherwise they will be wondering what you will do when you get to MIT and actually fail a test or a class or get lousy results on an experiment, as opposed to just failing to be the most awesomest evar.</p></li>
<li><p>Discussing what you learned and relating it to your career as a scientist - or as a student for that matter - is good.</p></li>
<li><p>Bring perspective, specifically you having it, into this in some way, even if it's that you didn't have perspective about the initial disappointment but you gained it from reflection on the experience. Actually, that would be a quite reasonable way to do it, so I probably didn't need to put "even" there.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I could probably give you more advice, but I have to think of it. :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Or can it just be something well-written and shows something about you and be equally good as something quirky?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Also, a caveat for the applicants. I've noticed that most people around here take the line of "the purpose of an essay is to show something about you". Well, it is. But while some questions are designed more for you to write a sort of prose self-portrait that will reveal things about you which are useful to Admissions, others are designed to get specific information about you that Admissions wants to know. Creativity is all very well, but make sure that you're giving them the info they want, i.e. answering the question that they asked rather than a related "creative" one that you made up.</p>
<p>thanks jessie</p>
<p>Since you asked, I just worked this out in my mind as I typed it.</p>
<p>I have a particularly significant end-of-the-world scenario (death of my mother ~4 years ago) that I could use for this essay prompt, but I was afraid that saying the way I intend it would end up as something of a sob story, which might look like I'm expecting pity. I knew I could write the where-I'm-from prompt just fine, but it wouldn't really have the resonance I know that and personal depth that my mother's death would. Truth be told, that last year did have a profound effect on my life, and it did, for better or worse, define a large part of who I am. So now I know, since the essay is about getting to know a person, that this really is the best choice.</p>
<p>In case anyone is wondering, it was a very prolonged battle with breast cancer that began when I was 3, then again when I was 6, then again when I was 12; she held on long enough to see my Bar Mitzvah, and died in August of 2003.</p>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p>That is so incredibly sad :(</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don't think I have much to say about the actual essay. I think it's too personal for me to touch on.</p>