Is music a cliche topic for college applications?

Hey, I am currently brainstorming ideas for my college essay and am starting to narrow down my ideas and begin writing soon.

Would the topic of me and music having a love-hate relationship throughout my life seem overdone?

I want to write about how I am constantly getting in trouble for having my AirPods and how music is a constant throughout my highs and lows - I listen to music before/after my basketball games and have a vivid memory of listening to a certain song after finding out of my grandfather’s passing. I would also like to shift the essay to quitting the piano at 13 and later regretting it as it showed how I was not the best student/child at the time, and how I picked up the clarinet in middle school and became a person who always tries to do their best.

Is this idea too overused? Could I incorporate these ideas into maybe another topic? I plan to use this for Common App prompt #1.

Thank you!

The topic is not nearly as important as what you are saying about yourself and how well the essay is written.

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I imagine, but don’t know, that a school like Ga Tech gets more than others. The reason - engineers are often musicians. There’s a commonality there.

Agree with @happy1 though - if you are bringing insight to yourself, that they don’t see elsewhere, it can turn out fine.

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Colleges are interested in who you are now, not who you were in middle school. It’s fine to mention those things, but I wouldn’t focus your essay on that. If you go with that idea, be sure you are moving the narrative forward to who you are now.

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Thanks a lot! I will keep that in mind and focus my essay on that.

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I wouldn’t focus on all the negatives related to music…like getting in trouble, for example. Your middle school experiences are also not going to be relevant to college adcoms.

If you want to write about your music, it’s my opinion you should make this a positive essay that highlights the positive things about your music…I don’t see that on what you posted.

But agree…you can get essay help using the link posted above.

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