My entire college application has a conspicuous bent towards computer science and all of the work I have done over the past six years. My salient EC is that I have developed over a dozen websites, accumulated millions of views, and have earned $30,000 in advertising revenue.
Given that this is an EC an admissions officer might be interested in knowing more about, would it be a mistake to write my Common App essay about a topic that does not pertain to computer science or coding whatsoever?
I have other ECs that also pertain to coding and the like, and I feel that an essay that overlooks all of it may not be the best decision.
Any opinions are appreciated.
I think it is fine. Colleges expect students to be multidimensional and to have more than one interest. They want people who are interested and interesting.
I always advise focusing on the personal quality the drives the activity. Yours might be diligence, determination, or something like that. Insofar at that quality truly lies at your core, it will drive lots of things you do. So if you could rope in one or two things it would broaden the picture you paint of yourself.
Hope this is helpful.
You could use Addl Info fo a few lines about the CS activities. But the CA essay isn’t meant to explain. Chris63 puts it nicely. I’d add this can be a nice tale that “shows, not just tells” those qualities.
If you think you can express well how much this means to you in other parts of your application (like the EC section), then I think you should aim for another topic. I agree with the person who was talking about multidimensionality.