My long essays were either about how a book influenced me and then show how through my ECs and the other one was about public speaking and how I failed at first and what I learnt from that experience. My short ones were about artistic roller skating, car rides with my dad, letters to the future…
i wrote my long essay about how i learned to deal with being a minority in an area where there weren’t a lot of people that looked like me and one of my short essays was a little thing about perseverance and how i applied it to my writer’s block : P
1 Like
mine were mainly about overcoming my stutter or my work with refugees.
Essays were kinda being the glue to the community, and a specific quote that one of my mentors told me (basically about community etc), and some other things like math, music, etc.
for choate, i wrote about an influence that shaped my goals which was an experience with someone on a plane when i lived in the UAE.
for exeter, i wrote about my decision to travel & step out of my comfort zone, and how i would spend the day with plato in new york city.
for andover, i wrote about the value of different cultures and how i incorporate that into my life. for the short essay i wrote about how i display the non sibi spirit.
for lawrenceville, i wrote about a time when i faced adversity, which was about my struggle as a biracial muslim and daughter of a refugee while having an islamophobic grandmother & struggling with internalized racism and how that inspired me to help muslim and arab refugees and inspired my goal to become a physician working in arab countries in the future. idk i think it’s kind of weird how these kinds of essays force you to romanticise things like this. but the toxicity of boarding school and college applications processes is a conversation for another day lol
for hotchkiss i wrote about the same thing as lawrenceville, but with more emphasis on what i learned from it.
1 Like
Everyone’s essay topics are so amazing… I reread my Cate essay which I absolutely loved and it’s so damn crappy I don’t think things are looking up for me with bs apps. Oh well! 
I wrote one of mine about my childhood fear of rain and how I grew from that. Looking back, it was cringey towards to the end but there’s nothing I can do about it now.
I had a ton so:
- I wrote about labels and how I let other people’s expectations rule my life until I finally reached a breaking point. Then I talked about what I’ve done to develop a healthier mindset.
- How I’d spend the day with one of the most influential but controversial figures in history to learn what he thinks about modern interpretations of him in popular media.
- A quote about evolution and how it became my mantra as I began a new school this year (a bit on the nose about adaptability but it works).
- The fact that I’ve grown up in a very small isolated country with little to no diversity and how I’ve had to overcome prejudices that stem from ignorance rather than malice.
- The greatest influence in my life being my best friends, but more because they are also my greatest rivals. Basically talking about healthy competition and community.
- My experience as a club president and how that year challenged me but also allowed me to use my talents and make a lasting impact in my school.
- My passion for architectural preservation and what I’m already doing to make a difference in my country.
There’s a few more but they’re generic, these were the ones I had to reach into the depths of my soul for. I think for all of them I had strong intros and bodies but weak conclusions.
1 Like
I say don’t worry about it, one because apps are already in, but also because we are literally the worst judges of our own work. Apparently to literally everyone I asked the essays I liked best were the weakest and those I thought were weak actually worked 
It seems like you really put a lot of thought and effort into perfecting your essays (just reading through this thread) so I’m sure you’ll do fine.
2 Likes