<p>Would it be okay if I took a fiction character I read about and make up an influence it had on him? This being I dont really wanna write about my parents or teacher as an influence. Would colleges smell my bs? I mean how many people are influenced by a fiction character…</p>
<p>Many people are influenced by fictional characters, including myself. However, I strongly recommend against just making things up. Adcoms don’t just read your application to see if they like you or not. They’re also looking to see if you and the college would be a good fit, and that is incredibly hard to gauge if you’re lying.</p>
<p>On most apps, I think you have to sign a page at the end saying that you didn’t make up stuff on your application. Obviously people can lie about that too, but I like to think that page actually means something, lol…</p>
<p>Think hard about who has influenced you and write about that. It doesn’t have to be a parent or a teacher, but this is <em>your</em> essay. Write about you.</p>
<p>The collective wisdom on CC is that you really, really should take the essay very seriously. A good essay won’t resurrect a dead app, but the essay can make or break your application. A bad essay will easily push you from the admit pile to the waitlist/rejection. The essay is your chance to talk to the application reader in your own voice, and you’ll be judged by its tone and content.</p>
<p>With that said, writing about a fictional character is fine, even creative. How you write to present yourself is more important than the topic. Also, even though the essay might have asked for an influential person, make sure that the essay shows something about you: your character, personal qualities you admire, etc.</p>
<p>I see two challenges with this type of essay. The first challenge is credibility. To convince a reader that a fictional character has influenced you, you will probably have to provide some context regarding how you discovered the work of fiction. For example, an essay in which I discuss the influence of a character in a book my grandmother gave to me is going to be more convincing than an essay in which I discuss the influence of a character in a book I had to read in English class (e.g., Lord of the Flies).</p>
<p>Assuming you successfully address the credibility issue, the second challenge is uniqueness. To make your essay stand out, you probably have to identify a unique characteristic that you share with a fictional character. Again, citing a character trait that is obvious (think something you could find in Cliffs Notes) is probably not going to help you stand out. But if you have your own take on a familiar character or can introduce the reader to an unfamiliar character, that approach can be a good way to hook the reader. </p>
<p>After the reader understands the character, it is up to you to include the specific, detailed examples to support your contention that the character influenced you. One way to get started with the brainstorming for the influence question is to finish the following sentence: “If I had never encountered this character, I never would have _____.” If your answers to that fill-in-the-blank tie in with 2-3 specific examples in your academic, extracurricular and personal story, then you are on your way to writing a credible and unique essay.</p>
<p>JP</p>