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

430ktk
Mon, 14 Jul 2014 03:43:28 +0000

I found the quote from the admissions officer at Tufts, I think this is ver helpful. When asked what the most common essay topic was, his response was:
“The service essay.
But, it’s not the topic that makes the essay stand out, it’s the execution. Any topic, really, can work and work well. One of the biggest mistakes I see students making is they pick the topic for their essay first, and then try to mangle some lesson about themselves into that topic, which is I think why we get so many service essays. I think you need to pick the piece of yourself you want to convey first, and then find the topic that allows you to convey that idea or characteristic.
The problem with the service essays is that it’s really hard to write them without resorting to cliches. Cliches like “I went there to serve them, but really they were the ones serving me” or “that’s how I learned that those people weren’t so different from myself.” If you’ve got an essay that has one of those two lines in your final paragraph, you need to seriously evaluate what you’re doing. It’s not that those sentiments aren’t truly felt, or that we doubt their value, it’s that no one writes an essay that yawns the other way and both of those lessons are surface level and emotionally centered instead of intellectually grounded.
We’re a university, so we want, more than anything, insight into how you think and process problems and/or ideas. If you gained more than you gave, are you ok with that? Is that morally permissible if you pledged to serve others? If you learned that people are the same, why were you surprised? How does this new insight change your goals or perspective on other ideas or issues?
Most service essays never dig deep enough to explore in ways that truly matter beyond the limited experience of a service trip or service project.”