Challenge essay -- is time-management trite?

[icecream334]

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[gyngyn]

Academic challenges like getting a B in organic are trite.

 

[DingoPingo]

I like the idea. You can talk about how exactly you prepared for the concerto and how that demonstrates your tenacity.

 

[icecream334]

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[Stagg737]

I think the fact that you seemed to be doing the competitions and concertos "on the side" as opposed to the students who had that as their only primary focus could be a good essay if written properly. It doesn't have to focus only on time-management, but you can use that as a factor that played into why it was such a challenge as compared to your competition and discuss it as a skill you had to become proficient at in order to succeed.

 

[Goro]

You can do better.

Hey all,

I know this has been asked a million times before, but I'm at a loss as to what to write for the challenge secondary essay. The most significant challenge I've faced is overcoming a pretty rare mental disorder -- but I'm not going to write about that for obvious reasons. Other than that, I've had a pretty fortunate life and haven't faced challenges like a lot of folks have.

In college, I did study violin performance in addition to my actual major (I could have gone to a conservatory but didn't want to do music as a career). My violin professor like it when I did competitions, and one semester I ended up performing a concerto (after I won one competition) and learning an additional 45 minutes of music for a different competition. It was certainly a challenge (and stressful!) to memorize and polish all that music on top of my schoolwork and other extracurriculars - I was usually competing against music performance majors or kids from conservatories who could practice 8 hours a day. I got very efficient with time management that semester...

But I've heard that writing about academic challenges is trite. Should I try and find something else to write about? Another idea would be to focus on the concerto itself. Playing with an orchestra is a completely different ballgame than solo work. You have to both lead and follow the orchestra, and you learn to be more of a team player as a result.

 

[icecream334]

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[icecream334]

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[Goro]

Sorry, you're going to have to think of this on your own. EVERYBODY has had disappointment their lives, and I don't mean getting a B for the first time either.

Thanks for the response. What are some successful topics you've seen people like me write about, then? I realize that I (along with probably a decent number of other applicants) have been fortunate to live a pretty cushy upper-middle class life. I was thinking of writing about the concerto because I grew a lot from the work that went into it.