There is a panic that afflicts many students when they sit down to write their college admission essay. The blank page mocks them. "Fill me," it taunts. "Cover my crisp white emptiness with a 250-750 word distillation of the value of your entire life. Be brilliant, or you'll be deep-frying frozen potatoes for the rest of your sorry existence."
Under the hostile, reproving glare of their computer screen, the student's brain suddenly does its best Windows Vista® impression and years of valuable life experiences are replaced by a mental "blue screen" of despair. It becomes all too easy to rush it; just hammer away on the keyboard and hope that something worthwhile trickles out.
It usually doesn't. Instead, the essay almost always falls into one of the following categories and is lost forever in the crumpled morass of wasted paper.
So, no matter how panicked you are, don't EVER use one of these topics. They will do you a disservice.
