Mention controversial interest in essay - or sanitize it?

compmom
Sat, 26 Jul 2025 01:32:04 +0000

Posting this again for emphasis: I really enjoyed it.

True story: in third grade I wrote a scathing review of the Magic Treehouse books. I found them unbearably predictable. But a real question: I have always done the deep, deep dive in my areas of interest over the years. I knew a ridiculous amount about deep sea creatures. I could give you the specs on every Italian supercar. I was intense with Magic the Gathering and could suss out an opponent’s strategy after the first couple plays and spot a card that would hold its trading value even before I played it. But those interests are well in the past - fond memories now. Isn’t that just stuff I’ve abandoned and that doesn’t show anything useful to the AOs? (I hate that I know that acronym).

When my 3 kids were writing essays, I suggested they look at photos from childhood. One wrote about Legos, one about blueberry muffins, and one wrote about their childhood fascination with rubber erasers. With a twist at the end to relate it to college. They did well with admissions. I strongly suggest you use specific “fun” details as you did when writing to us. Maybe a survey of those times when you “dug deep” as a sort of review of your life. Your twist at the end could be that now, in college, you want to dig deep into neuroscience etc.