Why the College Essay REALLY Matters
According to one high school senior, “the college application essay is arguably the most difficult and strenuous part of the college application process.” As a college essay coach, I get it. Students learn to write analytical essays in high school (or at least, they should!). After gathering evidence from Moby Dick or the Gettysburg Address to prove a point for four years, writing about oneself is new and can be frightening.
Obstacles. Passions. Questions. Gratitude.
These are the themes of the Common App (and most other portals’) essay questions this year and most years. They seem like great topics for teenagers to mine before leaving the nest, right?
I understand teens’ anxiety not just because I’ve coached scores of students to push through it during the past decade. Recently, I’ve turned to writing about my own life, too. I started small, publishing a “life lessons” piece about swimming through the pandemic in Newsday in 2020.
Yes, that’s ME swimming in the 50-degree waters of Lava Lake, Montana, in 2021.
Dr. P. Puts Her Money Where Her Mouth — or Pen — Is
But I wanted to go deeper, so I enrolled in several creative nonfiction classes. Though I haven’t published anything yet, I’m grappling with my own experience as an Italian American girl from a blue-collar family who graduated from Harvard thirty years ago. I’m exploring old wounds, consistent joys, lingering doubts, and newfound appreciation. (Obstacles. Passions. Questions. Gratitude.) It’s not easy — and it’s often painful. But it’s fulfilling and enlightening.
Hey, it was 1991. Give us a break.
I could tell you that the college essay is important for any number of utilitarian reasons. In this “test-optional” age, a standout essay can make up for quantitative metrics a student chooses to withhold. A killer essay can earn a student tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money. It did for my student Jessica, now a sophomore at Loyola University in New Orleans. It also did for Janet, from Mozambique, now a university student in Lithuania. (She mentions Poland in the video but opted to study farther away from the Ukraine.)
And, of course, an outstanding essay could also help you get accepted to your dream school, as it did for Shai-li, now at Harvard (and also accepted at Princeton after working with me on her essays). As a college essay coach, I’m proud of when my students reach and achieve their goals.
While none of these uses of the college application essay are unimportant, they’re ultimately secondary to its real value. By reflecting on their past challenges, interests, musings, and relationships, students have a rare opportunity to reflect on what’s been driving them and where that road is headed. If they don’t like the reflection staring back at them, college can serve as a course correction. If they do, their four years at school can extend that road farther.
Either way, in a world that seems to run at 1000 miles per hour, writing the college essay can be a moment to pause and take stock. Then, no matter the outcome, the process of writing is a success. As a college essay coach and a writer, I can think of no better outcome.