Hello! I’m applying to colleges this fall, and I’m trying to figure out what to write my essay about.
I plan on majoring in Political Science, and I am an URM (black, Muslim, immigrant parents). I plan on applying to some selective schools, where my stats are slightly lower than average, so my essay is quite important to my applications.
I already wrote a Common App essay for a class about my experiences with losing school/club elections, and how I learned from it and still lead my peers even though I don’t have a title. My teacher really liked the essay, aside from grammatical errors. I wanted to write about it because I feel like it shows who I am as a person and somewhat explains the lack of executive positions on my application. I wouldn’t mind messaging it to anyone if you would like to read it.
Overall I like the idea of my essay, but I’m afraid that it might not be the best possible essay, due to the fact that I’m admitting that I did lose elections quite a lot compared to other applicants. Also since I’m a minority, it might be strange not to write about my experiences.
Any suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated. Again if anyone wants to read my original essay, I wouldn’t messaging it to you. Thank you!
Make sure only to send your essay to a trusted longtime poster. And NEVER post the entire essay anywhere on this forum or any other. Once you post it, its public property.
Good luck!
Why not brainstorm a few ideas on each Common App prompt, and see what you come up with.
While you’re a statistical minority, I’m not sure that there aren’t lots and lots of other applicants who share a very common background-- and I am positive that there are a bazillion writing about pretty much the same topic.
That’s not to say that your essay can’t be great, merely that it will be hard to make it memorable.
I was thinking more about essays and thought of writing about my experiences with education in an African household as a first-generation American. I think it might be a more compelling story than losing elections and could better compensate for the rest of my application, but I’m not sure if it would be adversely affected by the fact that my dad did go to college. Thoughts?
Your dad did go to college; that’s probably on the app somewhere anyway. So I don’t see that as a negative.
To be honest, I would look for a smaller story. Find some small event in your history that had a real effect on you, and write about that.