Liberating yourself from “expert” advice
High school students receive a lot of advice about the college admissions process from a wide range of people in their lives: parents, teachers, college counselors, peers, the Internet, and more. Much of this advice is sound, or at least well intentioned. But it can create a lot of noise, and therefore, considerable stress.
In addition, some of this well-intentioned advice is, in my opinion, wrong. Nowhere is this more evident than with the Common App personal statement. Several of my clients report being told a series of “don’ts” by teachers and other adults in their lives: don’t write about anything that’s too personal; don’t write about traumatic events; don’t write about experiences that are too common. Rightly so, my clients come to me bewildered. “I can’t think of anything to write about,” they report. “I’ve been told that all my ideas are bad.”
What I tell them is simple: be yourself. Write about something that is genuinely important to you. The prompts on the Common App are framed in a way that is intentionally broad, so that any student can find a story to tell that meets the requirements. I encourage my clients not to try to guess what admission committees want, but rather, to write a compelling story that reflects who they truly are. That way, once they are accepted to a college, they’ll know that the college really wants them, and not the person they were pretending to be.
Some of my competitors have their clients write thousands of words in preparation for the Common App personal statement, and then work with the student to shape these multiple essays into something they think admissions committees will like. My approach is different. I work with my clients through one-on-one conversation to help them discover their own stories. Then they write multiple drafts, with my role being that of questioner and respondent. This isn’t boot camp. This is a journey of joyful self discovery and storytelling. My clients leave our sessions feeling energized and excited to work on their essays—not demoralized.
Seniors across the country are working on their personal statements, supplemental essays, Common App activity pages, and other quirky elements of the college application process. If you already know where you’re applying, but want help refining and polishing your applications, consider my Essay and Application package for seniors! You’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ve put forward the best version of yourself for colleges to see, and that the ideas in your essays are yours alone.
