<p>Quick, relevant background info: I am a senior about to graduate high school, and I applied to college as a physics major to mostly tech and research universities this past fall and winter. I realized later that I wanted to major in English, though, so I am taking a gap year and applying to different colleges in the fall.</p>
<p>I wrote a personal essay about my change of mindset and major in response to this Common App prompt:
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<p>My question: is this change important enough to be considered “central to my identity”? I think it is, but do you think it will seem important enough to the reader?</p>
<p>I just want to make sure I’m okay with this topic and prompt. If you have any other tips, I’d be very grateful. Thank you in advance. :)</p>
<p>The problem I could see with writing your essay about that is that it is very common for college students to change their majors many times before finally settling on one. So you run the risk of admissions officers doubting the significance of this change in mindset…</p>
<p>Something central to your identity should have more longevity than a recent change of heart (like what you intend to major in). </p>
<p>Honestly after reading a few of your previous posts, I would encourage you to consider enrolling at a local CC to do some more exploration about what you might want to study. As @OnMyWay2013 says, most college students change their majors (some several times). </p>
<p>It’s perfectly ok to use your college experience as an exploration of where you want to go, but with limited resources CC is the most economical way to explore. I realize you think you have new insight about your goal but you have so much yet that you haven’t even been exposed to. The subject that may ultimately intrigue you the most may be something you won’t discover until you’ve taken more college-level work. </p>
<p>I think you’re a promising young person with a great future ahead of you. Few students have the capacity to consider both physics and English as their prospective major. Good luck and best to you with your pursuits. </p>
<p>No. Your major is just an academic thing you have only fixed on lately. Central to your identify is something deeply ingrained in you, where it came from, what you make of it–perhaps a compelling personal backstory this prompt gives you leeway to address. Application essays are much more than just what you want to study in school.</p>
<p>@Mondut As I will be holding a full-time teaching job, a part-time volunteer position, and taking an online language course, I realized that I don’t have time to take classes at a local college…</p>
<p>Would any of you actually mind if I sent my essay to you? I think it’s much more broad than just describing my change in major… it’s kind of hard to describe.</p>
<p>Thank you very much to you three who have responded, I really appreciate your input. :)</p>
<p>@Luciferin I want to make sure I’m understanding you right - are you saying that if I have to ask other people if it’s significant enough, it probably isn’t?</p>
<p>If the above is what you mean, then I agree with you, but I guess a better and more general way of phrasing my question would be “How ‘central to one’s identity’ does an event have to be in order to justify writing about it in response to this prompt?” My change in the way I view different fields of academia and the way this change of view occurred are certainly very important to me and a story I feel I need to share, but I’m not sure if it seems important enough to an outside reader.</p>
<p>The prompt kind of feels like it’s asking for stories about major hardships or experiences (the death of a loved one, growing up in a 3rd world country, overcoming major obstacles, etc.), but I’ve read elsewhere that even the stories that may seem insignificant to an anonymous onlooker can also work if you communicate how much they impacted you on a personal level. I’m just a tad confused about the prompt and what is acceptable.</p>
<p>“do you think it will seem important enough to the reader?”</p>
<p>That’s entirely up to you as a writer. It’s easy to take an aspect of ones life that really is important and waste it by telling it in a maudlin or arrogant fashion. Likewise, as you’ve already mentioned, a good writer can start with something that might seem small and help the reader discover the profundity in it.</p>
<p>So far, people on this thread have been framing your topic as “changing your major,” which of course makes it sound like a typical thing to do. But it’s certainly possible that a switch from the sciences to the humanities represents not just a change of interest but a change of world-view. Frame it that way, and it <em>could</em> be central to your life – for all I know, the culmination of an existential crisis that kept you awake for months. It’s all in the telling.</p>
<p>I think if you wrote in a certain way, you could make it work for the prompt about challenging an idea or belief. You’d probably want to mention how other people encouraged you to major in physics and how you decided not to anyways, or something like that, something that shows that you actively challenged others’ beliefs about your future. I think it fits that prompt a lot better. </p>
<p>I think that a change such that one take a year off and applied to totally different schools is quite significant could well be central to your identity. </p>