riting your college essay is a true challenge. As they begin the process, many students struggle to develop an effective ‘pitch’ that demonstrates to colleges both how they are unique and why they deserve admission. Indeed, some students feel tempted to go with attention-grabbing, self-congratulatory, or even downright inappropriate topics in a bid to win admissions officers’ attention and approval. Unfortunately, this usually backfires—sometimes spectacularly. So as you start to brainstorm possible subjects for your essay, keep in mind these subjects to avoid. While none of these topics is ever 100% off-limits (well, except maybe for sex and drugs), they are extremely difficult to write a college essay about in an effective and compelling way—so much so that we really think it’s not worth it. Consider yourself warned.
Sex and Drugs (you are allowed to write about Rock n’ Roll)
Writing about sex, drugs, or any other inappropriate topics in your college essay isn’t edgy, it’s disrespectful, and it shows that you’re someone who is thinking more about getting a reaction than about communicating something truthful and helpful to the admissions officer reading it.
- Sex: Seriously, avoid it. You may think that it could be attention-getting, raw, truthful, and unique, but it could also be cringe-inducing, somewhat trite, and deeply icky. Admissions agents know that high school students sometimes have sex, and that that experience can be a formative one; they don’t want to hear about it. Do you want to read an essay written by an admissions officer about their first time? No. They don’t want to read about yours either.
- Drugs: See “Sex,” above. You may have a hilarious, touching, and powerful story involving drugs and you, but you know what? Save it for your memoirs. Admissions officers are looking for students who will be good community members, not potential felons.
The Time You Saved the World (or, The Pitfalls of the Community Service Essay)
You went to Costa Rica, and built houses with Habitat for Humanity? Fantastic. That is a really great thing to do. Do not write your essay about it, because a) everyone else you know has also done that and b) they could probably write the exact same essay.
You’re trying to stand out with your college essay; to show the colleges who you are, and why you’re special. Community service is a wonderful thing, but it is a pretty tricky topic for an essay. Here are the potential pitfalls:
- Obviously embellishing a minor community service experience: These admissions officers have been doing this for a while, and they can smell BS a mile away. You spent a few hours at a soup kitchen one Thanksgiving? That did not change your life, and you’re not fooling anyone.
- Sounding self-important: There is a danger, when talking about community service experiences, to fall into descriptions that imply that you and your work at the soup kitchen that Thanksgiving was pretty much on a level with what Mother Theresa did in Calcutta, and that you personally changed these people’s lives. That, probably, is not the case, and if you make it sound that way, it makes you seem like someone who isn’t very self-aware.
- Sounding naïve and/or over-privileged: Particularly in places like New York, where many of us are very fortunate, it’s hard to write about traveling abroad, and seeing places where people are not so lucky for the first time. Being shocked by extreme poverty certainly doesn’t make you naïve or necessarily privileged, but writing about that experience in five hundred words without sounding that way is pretty tough. It is easy for that essay to end up sounding like “the time I left the Upper East Side and realized there are poor people.” You aren’t that guy, so don’t take the risk of sounding like that guy.
- Sounding preachy: You learned a lot through your community service experience, and you want to share that knowledge—that’s good. What isn’t good is when it starts to sound preachy. Do not lecture the college admissions officer about poverty, or about the dangers of over-consumption, or about anything else. Talking about what you learned is fine; talking about what everyone else needs to learn is not.
None of this is to belittle your community service experience, at all, and if you really did have a transformative experience; a moment where you stepped back and saw yourself in a different light, or learned something new about yourself, then go right ahead. Just make sure it is about YOU — a struggle you had that brought about a change in you, or what a personal connection or relationship meant to you—rather than about community service itself.
Looking for more college essay faux pas? Check out Part II and Part III of the series!
If you’d like an expert’s guidance with your own college essay, please get in touch to schedule your free consultation.
Alternatively, check out our College Essay Workshop, running in NYC this August! The workshop assembles a team of admissions experts and writing gurus to take you from concept to polished essay—in only three days.
