What is your experience this year? Essays sharing race, gender and immigration status could hurt the applicants

[Anonymous]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/us/college-admissions-essays-affirmative-action-racial-identity.html

"Colorado College previously asked students to write either about antiracism, sustainability or wellness. This year, the school invites students to write about a time when they were deeply immersed in a subject or passion."

[Anonymous]

DD shared ethnicity in her essays and has been admitted to 4 schools and deferred at one. Still waiting for more early action decisions.

[Anonymous]

Don't send an application to a college in MAGAland ie red states problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Is that all the applicants have to write about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD shared ethnicity in her essays and has been admitted to 4 schools and deferred at one. Still waiting for more early action decisions.

ORM? Colleges in the northeast?

[Anonymous]

CommonApp essay centered around LGBTQ+ identity. Admitted to an Ivy, and the AO wrote a very nice handwritten message at the bottom of the printed acceptance letter that was mailed. My suggestion is to just write essays that speak authentically to who your child's identity is. It might be about sexuality, race, religion, culture, etc, but it can literally be whatever. Authenticity trumps (for lack of a better word) all else.

[Anonymous]

Too early to tell. Every advice I've heard is "don't go there if you're Asians or immigrants" and "mentioning race can only hurt you." My kid did touch upon that in a small number of his essays and I didn't stop him.

[Anonymous]

Mine didn’t write about race but it came up in an EC essay. Figured their name made their race clear anyway. But essay didn’t revolve around race.

Wrote one about difference in opinion with some classmates around abortion. Didn’t say what their view is- that wasn’t the question. Question was what did you do when you faced someone with different values. The topic was just mentioned but topic itself was not debated.

[Anonymous]

^^ in early at ivy.

[Anonymous]

I don't work in admissions but do review applications for summer programs for college students. Many write about their race or sexual orientation related to underserved communities. But there are so many essays like this now that they don't stand out. I'm pretty liberal and I find it tiresome. Agree with pp that you are looking for authenticity not hot topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine didn’t write about race but it came up in an EC essay. Figured their name made their race clear anyway. But essay didn’t revolve around race.

Wrote one about difference in opinion with some classmates around abortion. Didn’t say what their view is- that wasn’t the question. Question was what did you do when you faced someone with different values. The topic was just mentioned but topic itself was not debated.

I’m an essay reader and we don’t even get the name or any other part of the application when we evaluate essays. The identifier is a number. Each part of the application is evaluated completely separately. Academics- ECs- Essays. Each of the 3 areas are scored and the scores added up. You can graduate top of your class, but if you bomb the essay your score will
never make the cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CommonApp essay centered around LGBTQ+ identity. Admitted to an Ivy, and the AO wrote a very nice handwritten message at the bottom of the printed acceptance letter that was mailed. My suggestion is to just write essays that speak authentically to who your child's identity is. It might be about sexuality, race, religion, culture, etc, but it can literally be whatever. Authenticity trumps (for lack of a better word) all else.

Your reply sounds like you assume the parents write the students essays. Mine wrote their own (submitted it and was done without telling me) and did well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't work in admissions but do review applications for summer programs for college students. Many write about their race or sexual orientation related to underserved communities. But there are so many essays like this now that they don't stand out. I'm pretty liberal and I find it tiresome. Agree with pp that you are looking for authenticity not hot topics.

Essay reader here and I agree. For some reason applicants have the notion that they need to trauma dump or talk about race/sexuality.

I had an essay I read this year that had me laughing so hard, it was about this applicants job at CVS. They took the most mundane and made hilarious observations and wove in what they had leaned and it was most certainly that they didn’t want to work at CVS as a career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine didn’t write about race but it came up in an EC essay. Figured their name made their race clear anyway. But essay didn’t revolve around race.

Wrote one about difference in opinion with some classmates around abortion. Didn’t say what their view is- that wasn’t the question. Question was what did you do when you faced someone with different values. The topic was just mentioned but topic itself was not debated.

I’m an essay reader and we don’t even get the name or any other part of the application when we evaluate essays. The identifier is a number. Each part of the application is evaluated completely separately. Academics- ECs- Essays. Each of the 3 areas are scored and the scores added up. You can graduate top of your class, but if you bomb the essay your score will
never make the cut.

In committee they get the name on a slate. Plus the LOR reference the name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine didn’t write about race but it came up in an EC essay. Figured their name made their race clear anyway. But essay didn’t revolve around race.

Wrote one about difference in opinion with some classmates around abortion. Didn’t say what their view is- that wasn’t the question. Question was what did you do when you faced someone with different values. The topic was just mentioned but topic itself was not debated.

I’m an essay reader and we don’t even get the name or any other part of the application when we evaluate essays. The identifier is a number. Each part of the application is evaluated completely separately. Academics- ECs- Essays. Each of the 3 areas are scored and the scores added up. You can graduate top of your class, but if you bomb the essay your score will
never make the cut.

How bad is the AI in the essays this year? Is it the tone? Em dashes? Tricolons?