Essay Subject

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My son told me last summer that he didn’t need to start on his college application essay because they do them in Sr English. His English teacher had them write a “Who Am I?” essay the 2nd day of school, my son whipped it off in 20 minutes. A few days later he found out the teacher means for these to be edited and turned into college application essays. So he said, “I guess I’m writing it on my own after all.” But then he worked with it and came up with 500 words on skiing: how he’s obsessed with skiing, how much he enjoyed a trip to Utah last winter, and pondering WHY he likes skiing so much. With some work I think it has potential, but I wonder: Is it a “serious” enough subject for the application essay? </p>

<p>He is interested in some pretty selective colleges: Lafayette, Union, Providence, Colby, Trinity, Stonehill, (UVM as safety). He has a weighted GPA of 3.9 and unweighted of 3.5, and SAT scores of 740 Reading, 630 Math, and 710 Writing. He’s going to make Eagle Scout this fall, that’s his biggest extracirricular. </p>

<p>So is “My Obsession with Skiing” an ok topic? Is it good because it’s a little bit different? Or too flippant?</p>

2

<p>The topic does not have to be serious. It’s all about how it is approached and what it reveals about the kid. Humor is difficult in an essay and my own son’s attempt at it in one of his essay drafts came off as just the word you used, “flippant.” He hadn’t intended it, but when I told him it came off that way more than the humorous way he intended, he chose not to revise it but to choose a different topic.</p>

<p>This is NOT to say that “my obsession with skiiing” will necessarily lead to a flippant essay. Just that there is almost no topic which couldn’t work. It just all depends.</p>