If I’m going to centralize my common app around a particular motivational event during an extracurricular, should it be ranked highly in my list of activities? I currently have it listed as sixth. Does writing a good essay about a lower ranked extracurricular demonstrate a personal investment in all of them, or does it question my decision to not write about a “first-ranked” extracurricular (which in my case is a self-made business). Thanks for the help!
They care about what you write, how it shows the attributes they want. Not whether it’s about a top listed EC. Please be sure you understand what the essay is meant to show. And I hop you don’t mean “centralizing my common app” around one event. Also, “Show, not just tell.”
re-posting for emphasis!
Just to emphasize the above comments, your essay – the point of your essay – is to tell a compelling story. What kind of story? Imagine meeting a person and you’re trying to decide whether to invite them to your party this Saturday. To figure that out, you ask Potential Friend to write an essay. Potential Friend’s essay is so compelling and you like her/him so much that you invite them over. That’s the sort of story you want to tell.
- Would you invite someone bragging about their resume? Probably not
- Would you invite someone with mental health issues? Maybe, but you might decide to invite someone else instead
- Would you invite someone who cries about their difficult time in high school? Hmmmm thinking about that.
Or!
- Would you invite someone who tells a good story about almost anything else, even tying their shoes? If it's clever enough, or heartfelt enough, or even just competent, yes you would!
Maybe your 6th-favorite EC has provided a good story. I say go for it.
Google the difference between “showing” and “telling” a story. There should be examples. Basically though, in showing you make yourself the main character of the story and show the MC moving through the action. Instead of “I got a new bike for my birthday. It used to make a clicking sound when I coasted.” showing would be: “My new bike click-click-clicked down the hill as I coasted away from my birthday party.”
In the app essay, showing would be examples. Not just, “And then I changed,” but real examples of how (so a reader can see it for him/herself.) Not just telling how the event motivated you, but showing, somehow. And that’s not just about you. Not, “Now I try and try again, fueled by memories of Mr X’s lecture. It took three tries.” But how this translates to the world and people around you.
Note: I meant to say “centralize my common app essay,” not my overall common app.
I seem to be getting the go-ahead for writing about a less important extracurricular. As for the whole “show don’t tell” idea, I’m trying to use a specific obstacle I faced in a robotics competition which ultimately displayed a few things, one of which being confidence in the face of failure, and how this general mindset has played a role in my life.
You can write about anything you like, if the story is compelling it will help you, if it seems like every other essay then you won’t stand out.
Depending on where you are applying, I might reconsider stating how you have a “confidence in the face of failure” I recall one Ivy-admissions officer practically begging students not to use that exact phrase. He had said that it had been removed from their list of prompts because they couldn’t take it anymore - too many students were trying to write the essay that they thought the admissions wanted to see, while admissions wants to see a real variety of experiences and candidates. The comment that stood with me was “if you are always confident in your failure, great, you can be confident somewhere other than here”
Well, that’s good to know seeing as how my idea for the essay centers around that exact idea. Hmm. Looks like I’ll be rewriting once more 