<p>Please, pretty please. I’ll even bake chocolate chip cookies. </p>
<p>Seriously, my D is having a hard time. She has too much going on, too much homework, trying to have a social life. Besides she wants to be an engineer, not a profession known for introspection. Or speed. Tends to skew more towards perfectionism.</p>
<p>Here’s some support from ParentsOfEngineers. Not only is WashDadJr not a naturally introspective writer, he refuses to do anything that isn’t uniquely his own. In other words, he wouldn’t take essay ideas from others (that would be “his parents”), and he wouldn’t write until he had a clever angle. It nearly killed me. Ironically, he is attending a college that didn’t even require an essay.</p>
<p>Some of the essay topics are practically hostile towards engineer brains. The UW topic was especially bad. Something like, “Describe how you felt about some example of discrimination you’ve experienced or witnessed.” He said, “Dad, how would I know? I can’t even tell when someone is insulting ME! If I noticed this sort of thing I’d go into sociology, not electrical engineering.”</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>Washdad:</p>
<p>ROTFL!</p>
<p>This is the sort of writing prompt that encourages people to look for insults when none is intended. Some wiseacre applicant could have had a great time challenging the premise of that prompt such as… “I’ve led a sheltered life in a suburb where everybody looks and acts like everybody else. I can’t wait to go to college to experience diversity and the discrimination to go with it.” :)</p>
<p>We went through this last year. It’s no fun. Since nearly all the applications seemed to have “or choose your own topic” as one of the choices Mathson started with the EA application that had more defined topics. Then those essays went everywhere, slightly modified if necessary. My son had a couple of false starts before he found an approach he could live with. It was still pretty much - I’m a geek essay. It started off with a bit of humor, but then was just a pretty dry recitation of all the fun things he’s done with computer programming. It was not the little slice of life where making waffles with your Dad is a metaphor for life. It probably hurt him at some schools that were looking for a bit more personality, but he got into a nice range of schools and even though his first choice rejected him, we have a sneaking suspicion the second choice might be better in his field.</p>
<p>Another fun essay topic is Caltech’s “tell us about a moral or ethical dilemma.”</p>
<p>deb
Your essay is included in your question. Why D wants to be an engineer–role models, what it has been like for her to be good in sci/math, how she perceives the sterotype, how she fits and how she doesn’t (like enjoying an active social life), …</p>
<p>Mathmom,
The older version of Caltech’s random Q was to fill in the box with anything you want. That was a great prompt for some and difficult for others.</p>
<p>They still have the box, or did last year. My son didn’t mind that one at all - he put the Linux source code in it. Last spring some of the kids shared what had been in their boxes - huge variety of approaches.</p>
<p>This is a good Essay Fairy:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html[/url]”>www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html</a></p>
<p>WashDad I didn’t really enjoy the milk I just spit out of my nose when I read your post, thanks.</p>
<p>I have a son applying for engineering. :)</p>
<p>Surely the people reading the engineering apps must understand the engineering brain. If not, you don’t want your kid to go there. There must be an engineering way and an artsy way to answer any question. What it boils down to is, “Who are you?” </p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>Your daughter is a rare jewel. Schools should be falling all over themselves to get her. Help her see that she just needs to say, “Here I am!!” If she can’t say it in words, maybe she can design something that says it.</p>
<p>Another MomOfEngineer here. Oh, the painful memories this brings back from last year! My son, while an excellent writer, struggled with finding his “voice” in his essays. He was definitely NOT used to writing about his feelings (much less talking about them). He also works much differently than I do – he’s a procrastinator and I’m a planner. In the end, it all worked out, but I was a little stressed. I don’t have any helpful advice, unfortunately, because I’m not sure we figured out anything that helped (other than the pressure of the looming deadlines).</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>If you have a procrastinator I highly recommend applying to at least one school early action.</p>
<p>Other Parent-of-Engineer saga. I got a glimpse of the completed essay with a request to “help with the commas”. I’m thinking commas??? How about the topic or the structure or the non-conclusion? True, his own twist on the world was obvious, but I was convinced there’s no bloody way the kid’s getting into any college using this essay. WRONG. Glad I kept my mouth shut. Have faith their unique voice will sing even if we don’t hear it.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, WashDad, always love your S stories. I always think when I read your stories, god love the engineer brain. I’m sure that there are other kinds of people who go into engineering but I haven’t met them.</p>
<p>I came home last night and she brainstormed ideas for the essays. She has her common app essay done, I’m not wild about it. I love the idea but she is having problems making it personal. My D writes a great report, her writing is full of facts and very concise, her Model UN advisor loves the reports she writes, she’ll be a great engineer. </p>
<p>It’s not the common app essay that is giving her problems. It’s some of the supplements, most notably the one that advises her to be “wildly creative”. She can build a mean balsa wood tower, do you think that would enhance diversity or build bridges in the college community?</p>
<p>Well then her essay should start with something along the lines of “What does an engineer think when he/she hears the phrase ‘wildly creative?’ Of course, it’s building a balsa wood tower.” Successful engineering involves making things do what most people assume they cannot. What could be more wildly creative than a suspension bridge?</p>
<p>Along the same lines as cartera45 says, for the question about ‘building bridges in the college community’, perhaps she could play on words and draw parallels between physically building bridges, as in something engineers do, and socially connecting people, which the question is refering to? It wouldn’t have to be a dreadfully serious or worthy or introspective essay then: “As a prospective engineering major, I hope to be doing a lot of bridge building at school X” and then talk about how the physical construction of bridges connects previously separate groups, reaches out into the unknown, whatever other stuff engineers do that fits in with what one might do to bring together diverse groups of people.</p>
<p>She would have to be quite careful it didn’t become an essay about engineering, but I think it could produce quite a clever essay that wasn’t so difficult for her to write.</p>
<p>Another MomOfEngineer here. One of DDs essays was read by English teachers who hated it and her Math and Physics teachers who loved it. It was about her relationships with writing and math/physics. She explained how she didn’t like writing because there wasn’t always a clear or right answer, but math and physics did. She included that I constantly remind her that she smiled when she did algebra in 5th grade. </p>
<p>deb: Your daughter will be very popular in engineering if she can write a good report. DD is sought out for her ability to organize and rewrite for the group projects. (At her school, she is always the only girl in the group.)</p>
<p>The classes DD is taking this qtr: Never mind, I can’t even understand the course titles…</p>
<p>The one my Son had a problem with was “Tell what diversity you’ll bring to campus.” I’m sorry – he’s a white, middle-class male who is smart in math and loves chemistry. OK, that describes 75% of the male engineering students!</p>
<p>peggy – my son had that essay too. It was actually one of the few that he didn’t struggle with, even though he’s also very mainstream in many ways. He talked about his diversity of thought (as in how he approached problems).</p>
<p>Thanks great suggestions, I’ll pass them on to my D. peggy, that is exactly the type of question that has my D stuck on. What diversity? She a middle class white girl from the midwest who plays the flute!</p>
<p>She is a GIRL in engineering. ;)</p>