youch

Hi, I'm preparing for junior transfer to a number of universities in the East coast and have been preparing for the common app essays for days. There is a short response asking to elaborate on one of my activities, and just after that response comes the personal essay which says,

"Please provide a statement(250 words minimum) that addresses your reasons for transfering and the objectives you hope to achieve." Your essay will appear... etc.


I took those words at a face value and went on to detail in explaining the reasons why I made such a decision and what affected me in the course of deciding my major. But today for some reasons I copied the entire writing section in Common App and pasted it on MS Words and it turned out there are actually "essay topics" below the exact question! I thought I was allowed to write just about any topic, but now it seems they GAVE us the topics.

- Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
- Discuss some issue of personal, local, national or international concern and its importance to you.
- Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence
- .... so on and so forth for three or four more topics

What happened to my personal essay question, and were these topics there from the beginning? How couldn't I ever notice this before? I am deadly sure that they weren't there when I first checked the Q.

youch

Oh and the worst thing is, I still don't see those six topics in my Common App writing section. They are simply not there. I can see them only when I copy and paste them. I may be able to upload my file, but cannot check any of those topics since there isn't any checkbox. What's wrong with my common app?

youch

B u m p