Title says it all.
I think that the timeless classics will always be the most popular – The big sports win / loss, the I-learned-to-be-proud-of-a-trait-that-I-was-always-ashamed-of, the first encounter with less fortunate people, how my friend / sibling / mentee with a disability inspires me, the coming to America story, the my-life-has-been-filled-with-obstacles narrative, and always a few “I am a piece of string” types of essays.
However, I know that personal identity is becoming an increasingly huge value. And that topics that would have been considered taboo a long time ago aren’t so much so now. So I think that more people will be writing about being LGBT, or an atheist, or similar kinds of identity essays that they also perceive as defying some norm.
Music and passion for music is a big topic. Also sports. Vacations too, which sometimes are a turn off to readers I hear. There’s always special essays that relate to specific people, like a battle with a medical issue or a revolutionary experience.
“I am a piece of string”? Not me. I am a bag of mostly water. So applicants who are pieces of string would definitely get diversity points.
Seriously, @OnMyWay2013, what is an “I am a piece of string” type of essay?
I love reading and editing essays and the ones I saw the most (this year at least) were essays about mission trips/vacations. It’s ALWAYS “I went to [impoverished country here] and saw that the people had an incredible resilience and it inspired me to become [irrelevant trait here]” It’s ALWAYS the same thing. Sometimes people can take an old hat essay topic and make it new again with unique storylines or an interesting writing format, but not usually. Try to avoid the essays that are like “wow I saw a homeless person in the digs of Ghana and I felt so inspired because they were able to smile through everything they’d been through.” So typical.
@MomOnALaptop I had to Google search to find an “official” name for it. Huffington post calls it the “cringe-inducing metaphor” essay:
I always see a few of these. Some good, mostly just weird. Unfortunately, I was guilty of that back when I was applying to colleges… 