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

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been following Application Nation and the leader of it is pretty militant that kids should not write about an activity for the main essay. My DC has a very time-intensive activity that is really their passion (100s of hours a year). D[b]C wants to use what appeals to them about that activity to explain their overall approach to life and what drives them. [/b]Is this really a no-no?[/quote]

AN alum here with our experience.

I think it depends on the activity. Is it #1 on the activity list? How deep are you going into it for the essay? Will it show personal qualities, leadership, community impact, or something else? Have you read through all of the model essays out there - many of them are not about an "activity" - often a narrow moment in time/hobby/event. Is that how your DC would frame the essay? The current approach just doesn't seem memorable or differentiating. What types of schools is your DC targeting?

Our DC similarly had a huge activity: covered in 2 places in EC list, in Addtl Info and in a few honors/awards. Did not write about it in the main essay after thinking about it because it just seemed too one-dimensional and felt like it made DC seem like they had no other interests or sides to them. Had stellar T10/T20 app cycle.

I think you can break the rules if you go in narrowly - "not an approach to life and what drives them" which seems like a sports essay.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics