chaseholl

It certainly depends what you mean by "risks." I don't know that it's important or necessary to choose a "risky" topic (in the sense that it could be really good or it could just be a total flop). Some people might take risks by choosing an unusual POV. Others may use mild profanity or slang, which could be "risky" if poorly thought out.

glassesarechic

In my opinion, trying to write a "risky" essay is generally a bad idea. Most people, in my experience, use "risky" to mean "gimmicky," and that's the last thing you want to be in a college essay.

Put another way, you should never be able to deem your own essay risky before writing it. Don't start from any One Idea that you think will be unique or catchy--it almost never is.

BrownEyesChick

an unique essay contains an exclusive story which can only be told by YOU!

SgtDonut

I wrote a draft of an essay about why I went to a town meeting to support the building of a shooting range in my town despite my anti-gun beliefs. Is that too controversial?

ptontiger16

Admissions officers are only human. It is best to not give them reason to find a flaw in your application. Second amendment issues are one of the most hotly contested in America today - controversial enough for you?

kittylover

You need a sob story about how pathetic your circumstances are and how you've overcome your difficulties.

SgtDonut

But isn't the essay not really about the actual topic, but what it says about you?

chaseholl

Alternatively, one could just take advantage of the great free advice and guidance offered by the CC community.

Sob stories usually end up cliche. And SgtDonut, if your essay was less about politics and more about something you learned in that experience, I think it could be a very intriguing topic.

ryanans

Some colleges read tens of thousands of essays a year and have been doing admissions for more than a decade, anything that you find "risky" they likely find pompous or just boring. The majority of colleges where the essay matters have tons of applicants that are all perfectly fine applicants. The admissions officers are looking for one of two things: either a reason to reject you, or a reason to admit you. If you come off as boring or arrogant, then you are hurting your cause. If you give them a true, honest story about yourself, and make them feel like they know you and you give them a reason and details to vouch for you then you have done your job.

legendofmax

***Write an anecdote about something seemingly mundane but with clever underpinnings.***

I can't stress this enough. You'll get stellar essays that people will actually want to read.

Nobody wants to read an essay about how you trained really hard and scored the final touchdown. Nobody wants to hear about how the icy wind nipped at your limbs as you tried to scale a mountain. Nobody wants to hear a cliche story about how you volunteered your time to help build a house in Africa and how people-all-around-the-world-are-actually-the-same, etc. They've all been done to death, and they're boring.

It's much more interesting to read a story about, say, your pogo stick. Or maybe your failed lemonade business (during your junior year, no doubt). Or maybe a random night full of hilarious consequences involving you pursuing an unusual hobby. The subject itself should be as unique as you can make it -- something only you could write.


***Show, don't tell***

Don't tell me about how nasty it was to be forced to eat the squirrel that you hunted. Describe the agonizing details instead so I'll get the idea without you handing your opinion to me on a silver platter.


***Variegate your sentence lengths and don't use big words to try to sound smart***

It sounds better and it's easier on the reader's brain. Short sentences can be profound. Powerful. However, if perchance you find yourself invoking long sentence structure too often or if you succumb to the impetus to leverage superfluous verbosity purely for the sake of artificially augmenting the external perception of your vernacular prowess... it'll sound like you're trying too hard. It'll feel awkward and out of place.

Like Hemingway said, "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" Intelligent essays don't rely on big words. Intelligent essays are written intelligently.


***Spell/grammar-check your essay***

Just do it. No mistakes.


***Get a bunch of people to read your essay***

If quite a few people are telling you that your essay sucks, then it sucks. Take criticisms seriously and honestly. However, do not allow anyone to actually write/edit your essay (unless it's a grammar/spelling correction). Otherwise, you risk disrupting the flow-of-voice. It needs to be all you.

SgtDonut

^good advice.

asianeekamkee

tagging this

YoHoYoHo

Legendofmax offers excellent advice. Follow it closely.
Other things that I would add:
1. For the common app, don't follow the prompts 1-5, just write what you want to write about, following legendofmax's advice
2. At the most basic level, the essay has to be entertaining. Entertaining doesn't have to be funny necessarily, but it should make you stop and say, wow, I really want to meet this person.
3. Voice should ring thru loud and clear. If it sounds like an analytical high school essay, then you've probably done it incorrecly.

I personally read approx 50 essays in evaluating applicants for residency programs, and they all start basically sounding alike. Yes, everyong is an academic superstar, does charity work, wants to help others, had sick family members who influenced them, overcame some obstacle, were sports superstars in addition to grades, etc, etc. It's all boring (think of everyone wearing a navy colored suit). Your own quirky view on some aspect of your run-of-the-mill life is what makes adcoms want to meet you.

msteiny1212

Glad this is featured. Some great advice here.

legendofmax

Wanted to add a little more advice:


***Don't take huge risks***

I'm sure you've all heard that urban legend about the guy applying to Harvard/Yale/some other top school, responding to the essay prompt "What is courage?" with the single-sentence essay: "This is," and getting accepted. As far as I can tell, it's all myth: snopes.com: One Word Exam Answer

Of course, I'm sure people have tried it since those stories have gone into circulation.

Anyways, there *are* going to be cases where students take risks on their essays and get in, but such acceptances are rare. You have to consider that taking these kinds of risks only really work at less-selective schools that focus more on your academic stats in the first place. However, if you've already got the goods to warrant an acceptance, why even take the risk? At worst, it can signal to the admissions officers that you're being lazy and not taking the application process seriously. At best, you're taking a risk that gets you a result you didn't need the risk for in the first place. Just write the essay instead of trying to game the system with gimmicks. You don't need risks in order to stand out.


***Don't write a sob story***

Sob stories put the reader in an uncomfortable position. The reader has to wonder if the story is simply meant to garner sympathy, or if it's meant to genuinely reveal something about the applicant's voice/personality.

Like YoHoYoHo said, the point of the essay is to make the reader enjoy the experience so much that they want to meet you. Sob stories make this goal very hard to pull off.

Sob stories, typically, are seductive options to the writer because it's a chance to show a unique instance of overcoming strife and adversity (and believe me, I know the feeling -- I lost my father to a car crash back in the day). However, the essay is not the best place to demonstrate this. It's important to let the admissions officers know of huge setbacks, but it's something best left to your guidance counselor/teachers/etc to mention in their recommendation letters. Put your essays to better use.


***Word limits, do they matter?***

In a word, yes.

It's like that old quote, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." Good writers know how to edit/cut/say more with less. Have you ever tried that experiment where you write a two-page paper and then try to cut it down to a one-page paper without losing any crucial content? The smaller essay is almost always superior. Furthermore, staying within the word limit shows that you can follow directions.

Will it hurt if you go over by a little bit? If it's just a couple words, then probably not. If it's entire paragraphs, then it's much more likely. Either way, why take such a needless risk? Play it safe. Stay within the limits.


***Is it OK to write about something controversial like religion/gun control/some other hot-button topic?***

I'd advise against it. While it's possible to write good essays about these things, you don't want to take the risk. Admissions officers are human -- not infallible pinnacles of objectivity. Besides, there are better things to write about for a college essay anyway, in my opinion.