What to Avoid
Some topics, though, are best avoided altogether, no matter how distinctive your approach. You should almost always avoid writing about sexual experiences, rape, incest, or mental illness. Don’t write to express your pain. People feel a little differently about very controversial political and social issues such as abortion. Just be careful that you come across as a person of conviction, which means that you have considered opposing arguments, not as an ideologue, who knows the truth and doesn’t want to hear any opposition. If you can’t tell the difference, pick something less sensitive to write about. You don’t know who your readers will be, and it is foolish to write about a topic that may make someone uncomfortable.
Be sure, though, that you answer the question that is asked, not some other one. Even though the questions are all asking about you, directly or indirectly, they vary in how they frame their inquiry. The only essay that gives you total latitude in responding is the final Common Application essay option of “Choose your own topic.” If you are responding to a more specific prompt, your essay should address the question the way it is asked. An essay written for one prompt can often be reworked to fit another one, however, so you may be able to use a good essay in different ways for different colleges, saving a lot of time and effort. Just be sure to modify your essay carefully each time you reuse it.
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Essay Don’ts
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Don’t write an essay that any one of a thousand other seniors could write, because they probably will (and are probably doing just that at this very moment).
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Avoid writing an essay that will embarrass the reader. While you definitely must risk something personally in order to write an effective essay, the risk should not place a burden on the reader. Don’t confess something too personal that you haven’t completely worked through in your own mind. The risk you take should not make the reader uncomfortable.
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Don’t try to sell yourself. Rather than persuading the college that you are great, just show them who you are, what you care about, what the pivotal points in your life have been so far. Remember you are just a high school senior who gets into a pair of shoes one at a time like everyone else. You are also a person, not a box of corn flakes. You are not “packaging” yourself. This is one of the worst metaphors in the admissions field these days, and we are embarrassed that some writers and counselors don’t see anything wrong with “packaging” yourself.
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Don’t try to write an “important” essay—the definitive statement on the Middle East or race relations in America. These essays tend to come across as much more pompous than the authors intend. Honestly, what do you have to say about the Middle East or climate change that your reader won’t have heard before? On the other hand, perhaps a relative served in the army in Iraq, or you are actually involved in an environmental organization. It is the personal connection that counts, not whether you are on the “right” side of an issue. Don’t assume the reader shares your views, either. You are entitled to an opinion, but be sure it is a reasoned, thoughtful one, even if you take on a hot-button issue like religion, abortion, or gay rights. Colleges are places of debate and the exchange of ideas; admissions officers want students with a variety of views, as long as they are intelligent, reasonable, and civil.
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Don’t set out to write the perfect essay, the one with huge impact, the one that will blow the doors to the college open for you. Think instead of giving the reader a sample of yourself, a slice of the real you, a snapshot in words. Remember, essays don’t often have that kind of impact. They are just one personal piece of a bigger file. Remember also that you can’t put everything in your life into five hundred words. You have to select; you have to figure out what is most important; and you have to leave out some things that you like and that you would like the admissions staff to know. Then you have to make it “sing.”
Annotated in italics and adapted with permission from
“What Not to Do and Why” by William Poirot, former college counselor,
in C. Georges and G. Georges, 100 Successful College Application Essays,
New York: Penguin, 2002. Copyright © The Harvard Independent.
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From Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Needs to Know About Getting Into College. Copyright © 2009 by Sally P. Springer, Jon Reider, and Marion R. Franck. All Rights Reserved. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
