I’ve been looking at lists of topic that adcoms are tired of seeing, and it seems like everything that makes me an interesting person, everything that forms the core of my identity, is considered dull and overdone as an essay topic. Being an immigrant? Cliché. Writing about your cultural background/heritage? Cliché. Moving to a new place? Cliché.
Will writing an essay on a supposedly cliché topic really hurt my application that much, especially if it’s a decently written essay and a solid application in all other aspects? Like, is this a make-or-break thing or do they just want to see that I have personality and that I can write (I’m not applying to any hyper-selective, Ivy-level schools)? Seriously stressing out about this.
No, writing on a cliched topic can be done, and done well. If you can take a mature, introspective, or creative perspective on an experience that you’ve had, then you’ll stand out. The example I gave in another thread was this:
Maybe you volunteer at a food pantry. You could write about that. Or you could write about how the food pantry is an hour away, and you have to take the bus to get there once a week. And at first, you thought, “Why am I giving up so much time to help people load carts of food, when I could be doing something closer to home?” But then you realize that you live in a pretty affluent neighborhood, where there is a huge stigma against the poor. This food pantry is your only chance to get out of your little bubble, do something about the issues in the city you now consider part of your community, and learn humility through service.
That focuses on an aspect of the experience that you wouldn’t expect the essay to be about. But it does so in a way that still shows the importance of the experience. So you might need to do a little deep thinking about why having been an immigrant is so central to who you are, or what the hardest thing about moving was, or what elements of your culture you had to let go of / hold on to.
Regardless, college adcoms know that most students won’t be writing stellar essays. Moreover, most teenagers haven’t done extremely deep thinking about why they do what they do. So it won’t hurt you, I don’t think, unless it’s really bad and you’re already a borderline applicant.