By jay mathews thursday, july 1, 2010 i had lunch recently with two rising 12th graders at the potomac school in mclean. There is enough competition for us newspaper columnists already: bloggers, tv commentators, former presidential advisers, college professors. The idea that 17 year olds are getting graduation credit to learn how to do my job fills me with dread. Their real purpose is to show students how to write their college application essays. Think about it: college essays are essentially columns, little bits of persuasive prose designed to be both personal and instructive, without too much wear and tear on the reader. This reminded me, once again, that i have not matured at all, intellectually or emotionally, since i was 17 and a heck of a college essay writer.

My favorite part of being the parent of college applicants was the chance to lecture on the principles of college essay writing to a captive audience. I wrote a book about college admissions in order to inflict my views on a wider audience. The first rule is, do not dwell on your good grades, top scores, club presidencies and other triumphs.

Elements of Art - Sketchbook Assignments

The essay is supposed to reveal something the college admissions people have not already learned from the rest of your application. If all you do in your essay is talk about what a star you are, you will be rejected, because no one wants to inflict such a bore on an unsuspecting freshman year roommate. What else should you do? write about something you care about, some quirk or habit or interest that defines you in ways not obvious from the rest of your application.

One described her talent for identifying a song on the radio from the first few notes. They found ways to use these themes, even the odd ones, to reveal a personal value that was important to them and, hopefully, impressive to admissions officers. I advised them to take one more step, the only original suggestion you will find in this essay. Reveal an endearing flaw, i said, some bit of self deprecation that will convince the college that you would be a pleasant person to have around. Is the essay about your love of chess? describe the day you set your high school team's record for being checkmated. Are you writing about your effort to ride every bike trail in the state? say how you felt when you got hopelessly lost in the woods and had to be guided to safety by a passing cub scout troop. I am sending this column to that teacher at potomac who seems to think he can teach anybody to do what i do.

Emerson College Application Essays

If he gives me a grade, i may tell you what it is, as long as it doesn't rupture my adolescent level of self esteem. October 13, 2011 word limits on college essays arent suggestions even it it says suggested. When there is both a word limit and a character count limit on a college essay, the character count usually takes precedence as you wont be allowed to put in more words if the character count is already exceeded. We know that this is really gripping but, the fact is, its important in the college admissions process.

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Do you think a college admissions counselor will really be happy reading more information than you were supposed to provide? no. Youre only making their work more difficult to get through! word counts and character counts on college essays arent suggestions even if the prompt says theyre suggestions. You should interpret the word suggestion rather as this is as many words as i can put in this essay. Thats the kind of thinking that needs to go through your head when you sit down to write your college essays.