Want to find your best material to start your college essay?

x

Enter your email address, and the guide is yours, free!

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Essay Intensive

  • About EI
  • Services
    • Admissions Essay Support
    • Tutoring Plus
    • Homeschool Reimagined 2020-2021!
  • Featured Essay
  • What They’re Saying!
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Login

panic

10 Senior-Year Conversation starters NOT about College applications!

November 9, 2017 by Sara Nolan

Please Don't Make this conversation about College Apps! To make friendly conversation, it's tempting to ask seniors in high school how the college application process is going, or where they are applying.  They MAY be tempted to strangle you, but they'll probably act decently about it and politely recite their list.  Maybe even tell you it's going OK. What they really want to do is go to the closest room and scream so loudly that the Common App site crashes (or so they tell me, but it's kinda obvious if you just look closely at their faces). Think about it this way: if you were applying for a high stakes job that took many hundreds of hours and every time you saw anyone THAT WAS ALL THEY WANTED TO TALK ABOUT WITH YOU IN ALL CAPS. Arg. Ick. PSA, Care Elsewhere! This post is a PSA from someone in the industry, moi (I SEE YOU, TEENS!): if you are hanging out with high school seniors these days and strike up conversation TRY REALLY HARD NOT TO ASK THEM ABOUT COLLEGE/COLLEGE PROCESS. Like, AT ALL. I know you really care, but unless you're their guidance counselor, care about something else.  Really, you will get so many cool points for not making the conversation about C-O-L-L-E-G-E.  They need the mental break.  They need to know they are interesting and valuable and very awesome BEYOND this demanding process. At this point in the fall, COLLEGE CRAP (that's how they are thinking of it) is all anyone asks about (Not you? Cool, you should run a tutorial for other adults!).  It gets Teen-TEDIOUS. Branch out the conversation Rule of thumb: No college crap. While you are at it, avoid school generally. Ask them, like, what they had for lunch, or to tell you about something weird they noticed on the street. Here are 10 suggestions to start up a real conversation with a teen in the middle of college applications. What's the last thing that really got you mad? What's the last thing that made you feel completely relaxed? What makes you want  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Solutions, State of Mind, Students, Uncategorized, Wisdom Tagged With: college application, conversation, panic, relief, senior year, stress, talking with teens, topics

Primary Sidebar

About Our Conversations

At Essay Intensive, we are listening for the Big Challenging Questions to arise–physically, mentally and emotionally. We jump, word-ninja style, at the chance to be stimulated and engage in a true conversation.

Our bodies are holistic, courageous homes with a singular mission (in a multi-faceted world): live! It’s up to us to realize and share the rich outcomes of that drive. “A conversation” is a place for members of our community to do just that.

Think, feel and write deeply. Question. Sweat. Speak.

Find a topic

Tags

admissions officers advice anecdote anxiety attitude authenticity college acceptance college admissions essays college application college essay college essay tips college essay writing Common Application Essay Writing exercise Free-writing freewriting ideas inspiration Letter from Birmingham Jail Listening love Martin Luther King Jr. meditation parents personal essay perspective poetry prompts revision sample essay self-awareness stress stress reduction student stories supplemental essays teachers topic choice topics voice writer's block Writing writing process writing prompts writing tips

Recent Posts

  • Writing About Your Weaknesses in Your College Essay
  • Frog and Toad Write Your College Essay
  • Strategies for College Supplements
  • Apologies Accepted
  • I promise you don’t have “Nothing To Write About”

Subscribe below to receive new posts in your email

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn