n a previous blog post we talked about some things that you should avoid in your college essay, these are things that you may be tempted to write about, but that for different reasons does not make a good topic for this essay, you can save some of these topics for self discovery papers that you are bound to write in English 101. Here are a few more topics that we recommend you avoid in your admissions essay.
Sob Stories
Many people, teenagers included, have had tragic things happen in their lives that have changed the way they see the world, and influenced the way they choose to live. Students who have experienced tragedies often really want to use them as the topic of their college essays, but essays that deal with tragedies are very tricky. These essays can work, but be careful, and avoid these traps:
- The Bid for Sympathy: Essays about tragic events, if they focus too much on the negative, can sometimes seem like sob stories, or bids for pity.
- The Downer: College admissions officers are plowing through thousands of applications, and reading essay after essay. You want them to feel interested and excited to keep reading, not exhausted and ready to put down your application and reach for the tissues.
- The Essay that Goes Nowhere: “Here is a terrible that happened to me” is not an essay about you; it’s an essay about the terrible thing. If you write about a difficult time or event, you also need to write about how you dealt with it, and what you learned from the experience.
Excuses, Excuses
Things may not always have gone the way you would have liked, and your high school transcript and record may not be spotless. You may feel the need to explain yourself, show where you went wrong, and explain why you’re very, very sorry, and why that will never, ever, ever happen again. Your personal statement is not the place to do this. This is the place for admissions officers to get to know you, and you are not your mistakes. Keep it positive here, and use the option of attaching an additional information essay if there’s something (a criminal record, a major slip in school) that truly needs explaining.
The “Big Game”
If your college essay has a lot in common with the plot of The Bad News Bears, it is probably not going to break a whole lot of ground. Winning a big game that looked like it wasn’t going to go your way is a good story, but it’s well-worn territory, and every college admissions officer has heard it before.
Summer Camp Tales of Growth
The story of what you learned during the best summer ever at camp is as old as the story of the big game, and it’s equally used up. We’ve all seen The Parent Trap already. You can write about summer camp, but don’t be generic.
Looking for more college essay faux pas? Check out Part I 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.
