Which of these sounds interesting?

College Essays
1

<p>I’m in the process of writing and have narrowed it down to 5 very rough essays. Which of these do you think would work in the college list below? I’m talking about the common application. And would some of these work for uncommon applications of the schools I listed also?</p>

<p>Essay titles:

  1. A Birthday Forgotten (in the style of Faulkner): talks bout how not having a birthday party made me a social person. Flashbacks through time.
  2. Second (in the style of Joyce/Poe): talks about different times and places I’ve been to, in the beat of a clock.
  3. E=c/a girl (eccentricity is focus over a girl): talks about all my pubescent idiosyncrasies using math puns.
  4. Vinegar (my “ghetto” nickname): talks about local tutoring with low income kids.
  5. Chicken Scratch (handwritten): talks about how the ugliness of my printing and the prettiness of my cursive equate to my ambivalent nature. </p>

<p>College list:
MIT (EA)
Harvard ¶
Stanford
Yale
UPenn
Brown
Cornell (ED)
Boston C (EA)
UC Berkeley
USC
Tufts
Boston U
UConn (EA)</p>

2

<p>Chicken Scratch or Vinegar because they seem more focuse, although second seems like a cool idea.</p>

3

<p>I think the e=c/a would be good for MIT</p>

4

<p>a birthday forgotten.</p>

<p>definitely an essay college admissions officers will not see often.</p>

5

<p>The one that will be the most interesting will be the one that allows for the most personal, detailed, honest and revealing writing.</p>

<p>Only you will be able to make that determination.</p>

6

<p>dont use puns</p>

7

<p>I would say Second :D</p>

8

<p>I also like Second, it seems original and creative!</p>

9

<p>Why would you want to borrow a famous author’s style, especially when it is so easily recognizable? I would not recommend doing that. If you don’t develop your own voice, your essay might sound distanced by sentences and structures that are foreign to you.</p>

10

<p>The first and second one sound like excellent choices - the rest might come off as either slightly unoriginal or trivial.</p>

11

<p>i like the handwritten one</p>

12

<p>To olgita:
My style of writing is very influenced by the Romantics and the stream-of-consciousness people.
I’ve gotten some of the rough drafts done already.
I’m probably going to do Second (it’s the second one on the list lol) as my supplemental, and probably #1 or #4 as my main essay. I’m leaning towards the first one myself because it’s not as formal. #4 is definitely going on UC Berkeley’s, though.
To radionowhere:
The handwritten one is still in rough draft form. I’m not sure if it’s strong enough, though. I’ll do it for Brown, if I have time.</p>

13

<p>it would work well for brown.</p>

14

<p>Any of them are good, but I think #4 and #5 are the most unique.</p>

15

<p>i agree, all of them sound really interesting but the last two really stand out</p>

16

<p>I like the ideas of 3, 4, and 5 myself. I’m not so sure about second, but that might just be because I tried writting an essay about places I’ve been to and things I’ve done there (which was important to me because I did a lot of study abroad things), and I had trouble making it work… just make sure that the essay you settle on tells the reader about yourself, above all else.</p>

<p>I have to say my favourite is e = c / a (what can I say, I like a good math pun :slight_smile: ), and I think that would work really well for MIT’s optional essay (among others).</p>

17

<h1>4 seems the safest. All the other ones could end up doing really well if you’re exceptionally confident in your abilities, but otherwise, a lot of them sound like they could fall flat on their face. Although #3 does seem somewhat less risky than the other three.</h1>