“Tell us about a significant challenge you have faced.”
That’s the essay prompt your college wants answered on their application. What do you do with that?
Life is pretty good. You really haven’t had to face many challenges on making great Murale Design. You aren’t an oppressed minority. You aren’t living on the street. You haven’t had to deal with a life threatening illness. Great. But, what do you write about.
Remember what I have talked about before when answering essays. Colleges don’t expect you to have solved the ills of the world at age 17. They want to know something about you. What challenges have you faced? They might seem small to others but if it is something that you dealt with that affected you, talk about it.
Here’s a simple example. Say everyone in your family is a great musician. The instruments vary, but everyone is great at their instrument. Except you have a tin ear. You tried taking piano. You tried the trumpet. You even joined the school choir to see if you could sing. Unfortunately, you are terrible. For many people, that would be no big deal. But in a musical family, that can be difficult.
Want another example. This is one of the things I could personally write about. I was a very strong student in high school. Everything came easy for me. With one exception: foreign languages. I try and I try but I just can’t get the hang of anything more than very basic foreign language skills. And when I went to college, I had to have a foreign language to graduate. I did graduate, but let’s just say I love the option of pass/fail classes. Even then, I almost didn’t pass.
What ever you struggle with is a legitimate topic for this type of essay. What are your challenges?
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