<p>All my friends wrote about stuff like how they want to help people in their home country or how they want to save the environment, but my essays are generally about my intellectual development. Will I seem too shallow? </p>
<p>Edit: can you please move this to the essays forum?</p>
<p>No. You want your essays to tell the schools something about you that they wouldn’t otherwise know from your application. “Selflessness” isn’t necessary (and sometimes can seem trite and contrived).</p>
<p>maybe; does your essay make you likable?</p>
<p>selflessness, helping the community or society; aiding other people: are generally in successful essays and they are an easy way to come of as likable. </p>
<p>Lots of essays try too hard to portray the writer as selfless, and instead succeed in making the writer look like a suck-up who doesn’t have anything genuine to say. It’s very easy to come across as unbearably pious. Write something a) distinctive and b) genuine that c) doesn’t make you sound like an unpleasant person.</p>