Reply to Should you really avoid an activity as a main essay topic?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think the idea is that most schools have a lot of secondary essays and the kid will probably use their activities to fill in those areas.

FWIW, with my older kids I read a bunch of those 'essays that work' from Johns Hopkins and the like and the were never about activities.  I was really surprised.  To me, they seemed vacuous, but schools were promoting them as what they wanted.  That was what told me I needed to get an essay editor for the kid rather than do it myself.  I can write pretty well, but I have no idea what these essays are about.

If you don't like that approach, then one thing I'd suggest is that you scope out what the secondary essays will be at a few of your kid's top schools.  There's probably a 'Why this school' or 'why this major' essay.  So you don't want to cover those topics in the main essay.  And in fact, a lot of times kids will use their activities to build out those essays (I knew I wanted to be a doctor when I did my first shift as candy striper at the hospital.). There's often a 'tell us about a meaningful community you belong to' and the kid will probably talk about a team or club there.

So I think that's why people make the main essay kind of generic-- telling some insight about thte person's personality or history or story-- but nothing that will overlap with the secondary essay topics.  [/quote]

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