Write About Something That Matters
Hailey walked into our tutoring session, and her body language and demeanor revealed a teenager who was less than thrilled to be working on her essay. Hailey’s mom, on the other hand, was bursting with fruit flavor, and she couldn’t wait for me to hear about Hailey’s essay idea. I waited with bated breath as Hailey began to speak.
“Uh, okay, so I worked for the citizenship office and, uh, volunteered.” Hailey’s monotone voice droned on about her duties – “filing things, alphabetically” – and a brief foray into coffee machine maintenance. Hailey’s mom beamed. “Ashley, isn’t that incredible?!”
I was not particularly enthused, but I was hungry for more information. I asked about who she worked with, how it felt to be a part of such vital civic work. Hailey’s answers were scant and generalized. When I asked about the frequency of her commitment, Hailey mumbled something about Saturdays. A follow-up clarification revealed that Hailey had spent one (1) Saturday. For 90 minutes. Filing and cleaning the coffee machine at the citizenship office. I was certain that this was not Hailey’s Common App essay topic. I took a quick break to refill my water bottle, and when I returned, it was Hailey who assaulted me with questions.
“Are there chia seeds in that?”
I assured Hailey it was just water. But she continued! “Well, you really need to be looking after your gut’s microbiome. And if you haven’t already gone vegan, you probably have one foot in the grave. Respectfully.”
She was grinning, she was engaged, and I knew we were onto something. I asked Hailey when she got so educated and focused on health, and she promptly began to freak out and talked faster than I could write my notes. I told her, “Hailey! Why don’t you write about this for your college essay?” She brushed me off. “I mean, this is just something I’m obsessed with.” To which I gently encouraged her that this was exactly the kind of topic to jump on for the Common App essay. A legitimate passion! And certainly better than some painfully transparent, resume-boosting one-off.
And this lightbulb moment with Hailey wasn’t a one-off, either. In fact, this exact scenario is one I confront almost daily when I’m tutoring students. The current climate around college admissions has baked into students the assumption that the story they have to tell could only ever be average. This process will prompt countless students to assess the landscape of their life and memories, and they will conclude that there’s nothing special, nothing worth mentioning. And they’re always, always wrong. Sometimes I feel like I’m shining a flashlight into a dark corner of their experience and assuring them that there’s something remarkable there. Sometimes I’m holding up a mirror, imploring them to look again and recognize the value staring them in the face.
There is literally no such thing as a student who doesn’t have a story worth telling. And I promise that the story you’ll build will do more than reveal your value as an applicant – it will reveal your value as an awesome human, too.