Stuttering as a college essay topic

[strat728]

Hey guys, I'm a junior in high school and we're working on our college essay drafts in my AP english class. I've written a number of drafts regarding my ongoing battle with stuttering, and I was just wondering what you guys thought of writing about stuttering as a topic and if any of you can speak from experience.

Thanks

[emily445455]

I never have, personally....but I think it's a great idea for a paper.

[BenLZ]

I did it as mine. I can't tell if it worked as a positive or a negative. Regardless, the administrators are going to know because of teacher recommendations.

[peebee]

I'm not American so I dont know much about how your school system works but is this something you plan on giving Colleges for admission purposes? If so, I don't think it's a very good idea unless you wanted to study an area that would be somehow related to stuttering. The only other justification would be if you were applying to a more prestigious school and admissions wanted more then a good SAT and grades... you might be able to impress them if you wrote about how much you've overcome with stuttering. If you're just applying to a state school, a standard essay on a topic related to your field of study complimented with decent scores will do.

[grantM]

It is a nice topic as you can easily relate it from the heart.

[spacebow]

LOL deja vu! I posted this same topic on this same board back in like September of last year. I did end up writing my college essay on my speech impediment and how hard I tried to overcome it.

My advice? find a better topic if you can because a lot of people write about overcoming obstacles aand it has become way too cliche. If I have the chance to go back in time and resubmit my college essay, I would have picked a much more creative topic.

[grantM]

Perhaps you just have to make your topic a creative stuttering based one?

[strat728]

Thanks for the responses, I've written a few drafts and what I've found is that maybe this isn't the cliche story. And Spacebow, I think me and you chose to write about stuttering just because it's so easy to write about and it's so close to the heart. The story that I'm telling in my essay isn't "All my life I struggled, and found a way to overcome the obstacles" it's really that as a result of stuttering I still haven't figured out the answers yet. Spacebow, would you say it hurt your application? Because I just feel like colleges are looking for that "hook" that makes you unique, and maybe I'm just cynical but to write about my passion for baseball or the outdoors just seems stupid.

[spacebow]

Thanks for the responses, I've written a few drafts and what I've found is that maybe this isn't the cliche story. And Spacebow, I think me and you chose to write about stuttering just because it's so easy to write about and it's so close to the heart. The story that I'm telling in my essay isn't "All my life I struggled, and found a way to overcome the obstacles" it's really that as a result of stuttering I still haven't figured out the answers yet. Spacebow, would you say it hurt your application? Because I just feel like colleges are looking for that "hook" that makes you unique, and maybe I'm just cynical but to write about my passion for baseball or the outdoors just seems stupid.

Well, I wouldn't say it hurt my application since I still got into a pretty good school (University of Michigan). But honestly, I really don't think what you write matters; it's how you write it. One of my friends wrote about videogames, but in a sophisticated way. He got into Harvard. So if you want to write about stuttering, baseball, outdoors, or whatever, it's fine as long as you can make it sound sophisticated so that your reviewers know how strong your writing ability is and can see that you can "think outside of the box."

If you're writing isn't strong enough to merit sophistication, you can still show that you can "think outside of the box." You'll just need a really creative topic.

[cristina02]

You are very advance because you are only junior in high school but you are studying college essay? Well, the concept of stuttering and the theories behind the origins are of great interest to me. Not only is stuttering one of the most well known speech dysfluencies but also has a personal meaning.