By
Kelly Tanabe
, SuperCollege.com
An Essay Writing Absolute Don't
Perhaps as important as knowing what to do is knowing what not to do. With this
knowledge, you will be able to avoid what we call the "90% Trap." You
may think that writing about the jubilation you felt after you scored the
winning touchdown is an original and inspiring essay bound to be your free
ticket into a highly competitive college. But unless the college is recruiting
you for your athletic ability, you will be sorely disappointed.
Believe it or not, 90% of college applicants will write identical essays. They
may not write about the exact same topic, like football, but they will deal with
similar topics and themes (e.g., "winning isn't everything," "we
should learn to appreciate other cultures," etc.) Many of these essays will
answer the stated questions in predictable ways and in nearly identical styles
or tones.
To help you avoid being a victim of the 90% trap we've put together a list of
essay writing absolute dont's. The following is just one example from our list
of Essay Writing Absolute Don'ts which can be found in Chapter 5 of Get
Into Any College: Secrets Of Harvard Students.
DON'T Flex. For some strange reason, many applicants have a tendency to
write about the great mysteries of the world or momentous philosophical debates
in an effort to show admissions officers their intelligence and sophistication.
At Harvard we called people who wrote essays which aimed to impress rather than
educate "flexors," as in people who flex their intellectual muscles.
While these essays attempt to present the illusion of sophistication, they are
usually entirely without substance. Often they simply parrot back the opinions
of others in a slightly different form, and unless the writer is indeed an
expert on the subject, such essays are completely unoriginal.
College admissions officers do not want to read some 18-year-old's diatribe on
the nature of truth or the validity of Marxism. And admissions officers most
certainly do not want to be lectured. Essays that try to impress with
pseudo-intellectualism are definite candidates for the trash bin. Remember the
goal of the essay. Admissions officers want to learn about the kind of person
you are and the things that you have done.
However, if your passion is indeed sociological theory or reading Marx is your
beloved pastime, then by all means write about it, but put it in perspective.
Write about how you became interested in Marx rather than outlining your
interpretation of Marxist theory.
By keeping your essay focused on you and avoiding the temptation to flex you
will have avoided one of the 90% traps.
CampusNut Notes:
If you want to look at some good examples of great and not-so-great essays, read
the following application essays (sent to Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Yale, yada
yada yada). Also, check out the commentary by Gil (went to Harvard) and
Jeyun (MIT).
College
Application Essay #1
College
Application Essay #2
College
Application Essay #3
