<p>For the EC essay, are there any topic I should avoid? I’ve written it on football (since I really love the sport and I think it’s a perfect topic for this essay), but colleges will likely see that I am a very sporty person from my ECs, etc. Would having too much emphasis on sports in my application hurt ? </p>
<p>Should I write the essay on something else?</p>
<p>Obviously, I’m not asking people online to tell me what to write my essay about, but does anyone have any ideas?</p>
<p>Write about something that is important to you that completes an application reader’s perception of you. Think about all of the essays, recs, test scores, ECs, and mini-paragraphs the AO will see. Will they get a good picture of you? Will it be a full picture of who you are?</p>
<p>If you play (junior) varsity ball and football and the team is your life and something you love and defines you, then yes, write about it. However, if there is something else that is missing from your file (religion, a club, a way you think), take the time in your Duke essay to write about that.</p>
<p>ArenasField: The EC is a rare opportunity to separate your application from the likely 32,000 other candidates, 90+ percent of whom are so well qualified that they are essentially indistinguishable from those who receive admission and matriculate. Therefore, I respectfully suggest that a football-oriented essay fundamentally squanders your chance to explain to Duke what you will bring to the University’s community – fellow undergraduates, certainly, but also faculty members, senior staff, administrators, and alumni – throughout your long life (not just during your four residential years). How will you make a real difference to those Duke community constituencies, and for the next six or seven decades? I recognize that this is a LOT more challenging than your intended football essay; however, if done well, it could become your key “tie breaker,” which a sports essay is most unlikely to be.</p>