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There is a myth that if you haven’t faced adverse experiences like family illness, you can’t write a great college essay. That’s BS.
You can write a great (college) essay on literally anything (and I rarely use the word “literally”). But at its center, the essay is about you. Everything else is a window to you.
There is another equally problematic myth that if you’ve faced a family illness, that’s automatically great topic for your essay. It might be. It might not be.
One of the biggest issues I see in student writers is reluctance to throw out a college essay (or frankly any piece of writing) that isn’t working. But this is one of the most liberating and helpful things you can do.
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Every year, I see a whole bunch of well-meaning students who want to write their college application essays about playing video games, their talent, bliss, hard-earned improvement over time, frustrations when they just can’t beat XYZ and– PSA, please rethink this college essay topic choice, friends. Maybe the topic feels oh-so-right to you, and you’re […] Contiune Reading
The admissions readers have heard your story 10000000 times, maybe literally. They know you mean it– but everyone does. They also know, because they have lived a little longer than you– that those take-aways are often temporary. So they are looking for something more. Sorry to say: Not the cliched journey with its predictable life-lesson.
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Last year I was a contributor at TeenLife Mag and got to offer some advice on one of my favorite subjects: relationships. In particular, how parents and kids can avoid losing it over the college essay.
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Why is it so hard to value NOW? Learning for its own sake is profoundly rewarding. It’s also a process of self-knowing rather than pure projection. I’m not against having goals. I’m just against living every aspect of our lives in subservience to them.
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