The Importance of the College Essay

By the time your child is ready to fill out their college applications, two thirds of the key components are already set in stone—standardized test scores and GPA. They are a done deal. The third key component—the one that will often make or break the acceptance or rejection-- are the essays—on both the common application as well as the supplemental for individual schools. Essays serve to humanize your child. They are the only qualitative opportunity a candidate has to showcase why the school should choose them.

And fortunately for my girls they received first-rate advice from their guidance counselor as well as had a parent who studied up on how to write a winning college essay. And the simple fact is that every article or book you read on the subject essentially says the same thing—do not write about the mundane. Do not write an essay that even one other candidate may have already written. Stay away from “the big game” or “why I admire my teacher” or “how I overcame adversity.” Write about something specific to you and allow your words to reveal who you are. Good essays allow the applicant to stand out from the pack.

When Kara made her official visit to Bucknell it was primetime application reading season for their admissions councilors---February break. And after the information session both she and I hung around to speak with the admissions counselor who had just made the presentation. And in between the chit chat the Long Island admissions counselor, who had befriended my older daughter saw us standing there and came over. And I asked the two counselors how the application/essay reading was going. And the one counselor said  Oh my God if I read another essay about building houses post Katrina I am going to kill myself. And the other councilor smacked his knee, howled with laughter and said That was my day yesterday—I must have read 10 of them--so far today I only got one. I have gotten to the point that if I even see the word Katrina it’s all over.

And the most awful part of hearing that conversation was that I knew a kid that year who had applied to Bucknell and had gone with their church the summer before to build houses in New Orleans. The topic of that kid’s common essay was “My Trip to Rebuild Houses after Katrina.” I felt a little queasy. I suspected that admissions councilors all over the country felt the same way as those two Bucknell councilors did. They were bored to death reading the same essay over and over again.

And while that conversation confirmed what I had already suspected about the importance of the college essay I was still stunned with their candor. I was stunned at how easily an application got tossed from the” maybe” pile into the “it’s all over” pile. It happened that quickly—with no regret. A trite essay was the quick road to rejection.

And that student that I am referring to ended up being one of those kids who based on SAT scores and GPA should have gotten into more schools but didn’t. And no one could understand why. But I suspected why and said nothing. There was no need to rub salt into the wound. It was water under the bridge.

And my research on how to write a winning college essay was not wasted. Knowledge never is. All learned ideas can be applied to other subject areas. It’s why my blog posts have a distinct and personal style. And when I choose to write about the big game or someone I admire or how I overcame adversity I write it so my readers are interested enough to get to the last sentences—like you just did—and just like the college admissions councilors who read my daughters’ essays did too.