<p>I chose to write on this prompt for UNC Chapel Hill's supplemental essay:</p>
<p>Tell us about a time when you failed. How did you react? What, if anything, did you learn?</p>
<p>The thing is, I'd like to write about the period of my education in France when I failed to be as hard working as I could have, and didn't work to my fullest potential.
The only issue I have with writing about that, is that in my CommonApp essay I talk about diversity and experience I would bring to a college community, I talk about my experiences growing up in France, my education there, the social/cultural influences, the experiences I went through and how they changed my life.</p>
<p>Would it just be "too much" to ALSO talk about my french education in this supplemental essay? Or would it be fine as long as I just don't repeat or focus on things that have already been said in my previous writing?</p>
<p>It’s okay, but you might want to narrow the lens and focus on a specific incident or activity where you failed at something important to you rather than suggest that you slacked off on everything for a period of time and got pounded academically. It would make for a tighter and more interesting essay and enable you to highlight some particular aspect of your life not already discussed. You also don’t want to leave the impression that you were an immature slacker who finally got it together.</p>
<p>This question, in my opinion, is very specific. So I’d focus on one such incident. It could be academic or otherwise. Don’t be generic. Dont say you didnt do as well as you could have. That is still not a failure in most cases.</p>
<p>Great advice, I see your point there. I wasn’t an immature slacker so I should indeed be careful to not give that impression, the thing is now I can’t seem to figure out one particular thing that I failed at to write about, because it was really just a period in my life where I lost faith in myself and motivation, I felt like I didn’t have a chance anyways, and my grades went down.</p>
<p>I guess the wording of the prompt kind of confuses me as well, there are things that I didn’t “fail” at, but just didn’t do as well as I would have liked to, but I guess that wouldn’t work?</p>
<p>fall2016parent: that answers my confusion about how specific they are being with the term “failure”.</p>
<p>Would it be a good idea then, to change this entirely, and speak of a time I believe I failed as a friend? Rather than try to find a specific failure in my education, since I can’t seem to do so?</p>
<p>I agree with M’sMom–Can you think of something you REALLY failed at? but it seems possible it need not be a crucial failure (failed to see a banana and slipped? kidding, but sort of. failed to get somewhere on time? failed to set your alarm . . .your printer wouldn’t print … .car ran out of gas . . .) A minor failure could be lively to write about and could let you make a good point of some kind. or even show a sense of humor. whatever it is you think they want to see . . . try to think of something different!
I’d avoid writing on the same subjects you already addressed.
best of luck.</p>
<p>Yes, failing as a friend . . .that’s a very worthy and serious subject.</p>
<p>I agree with writing on failing as a friend. It doesn’t have to be an essay on purely academics; failing as a friend can show deep insight into your character and show the impact of that event and how it changed you.</p>
<p>If there was an instance that you think you failed as a friend, you can write about it. Make it end on a positive note and like the other post said, something that shows a different side of you and written in an engaging way would work (whether it is you failed a friend or you got a C in some french class or forgot the lines of a recitation/poem…)…you get the gist :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys!</p>
<p>I think I might really consider writing about the “failing as a friend”, it was pretty major in my opinion, my closest friend was in a relationship I didn’t “approve” of with a terrible guy, and I wasn’t as good and supportive a friend as I should have…maybe that could be an insightful essay about my personality? I know i’d write about it with passion because she is still my closest and best friend, and that period was very hard on both of us for many reasons.</p>
<p>fall2016parent: Yes, definitely, I feel I could end the friendship essay on a great note, that could be really insightful, and hopefully it would stand out in my application because it would be very different from anything else i’ve shared so far 
Thanks!</p>
<p>your idea sounds excellent, Nina. interesting, demonstrating maturity and kindness, and revealing a lot more about who you are.</p>
<p>I just wanted to say I think it sounds like a wonderful topic. Make sure to give specific examples and also to show what you learned from the experience. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Thank you guys! I’ve finished writing a “rough draft” of it, and it’s actually been quite an awesome experience just writing about the “experience”, ha! I might post it for opinions/corrections, being that i’ve been so worn out that my writing has been poor lately.</p>