Are service trips a huge "NO" as a Common App essay topic?

intparent
Sun, 13 Jul 2014 16:05:52 +0000

I don’t see how the essay about the river and the woman who returned to it tells an admissions committee much about the applicant themselves. Not sure how your sister did with that application, but isn’t a topic I would recommend.

I don’t think admissions officers exactly roll their eyes about service trip essays. But they are well aware that (1) it was probably a brief experience, not something that tells a long term truth about the applicant, (2) it may very well have been ‘paid for’ and isn’t the type of experience many students of lesser means would get to have, and (3) they ARE tired of the “I saw how little they had and it changed my view of the world and myself” or “I saw the illness and poverty there, and now want to devote my future efforts to humanitarian causes” story lines. In my mind a typical service trip essay on one of those themes is sort of a cop-out on more closely inspecting your day-to-day live and the inner workings of your mind for a better topic.