Admission essay question -- should DD think twice about her topic?

[Anonymous]

My DD is also at essay time for college apps. I think your DDs essay sounds wonderful. Sure, another topic may be more of a people-pleaser, but another topic is not what she chose to express herself. Applaud her choice!

[Anonymous]

A friend's daughter got into Princeton, and her mom is a Presbyterian minister. The girl sings opera and wants to professionally, although I don't know what her essay said, nor do I know her major.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like a wonderful essay to me. The only thing I'd be a little careful with are the scriptural passages. I think it's fine to have scripture (as long as her own voice comes out too, as a PP said.) But she will want to avoid anything that might be off-putting to an application reader from a different faith or none, although it sounds like your DD is mature enough to understand this already.

[Anonymous]

Does your school have a good college counselor? Ask him/her. I found that dd's college counselor did a lot to reduce our anxiety about the college application process. We were entirely too uptight about it and he had a good idea of what to expect and what was important.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all so much for your positive feedback -- I really appreciate it! DD is our first child to go through this process so it's been a bit nerve-wracking.

I wish so much that DD could write a bit more about the life experience that really cemented her goals: she spent three weeks last summer shadowing with a Chaplain at a women's correctional facility in the Midwest. (One of our extended family members is an administrator at the Institution and helped to make the arrangements). Due to privacy/confidentiality concerns, however, DD cannot describe her experiences there in any kind of meaningful detail, so she and her guidance counselor agreed that it was probably best not to mention it at all. It really is too bad; some of her stories were just extraordinary. No Mother wants to think that one of the primary formative experiences in her child's life would be attending a 12-step meeting in a prison, but there you go.

[Anonymous]

Sounds fascinating, OP, but I heard somewhere that college admissions officers are tired of hearing about volunteer trips that changed kids' lives. Don't know for sure that this would fit into that category but it's possible it would.

Your kid sounds pretty cool to me. I know you're just worrying because you want the best for her but try to let her shine on her own. Sounds like she's a winner!

[Anonymous]

They are tired of those stories - especially of those pay a fee to go help water control in a village in Uganda stories. They know it's rigged to provide the kid with something to write about in the essay.

But OP's kid sounds like she has real stories.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a colleague or friend who is a good writer but doesn't know your daughter, who could provide some objective feedback? It's a great idea but I do think these essays benefit from having strong anecdotal material to drive the narrative. Platitudes are platitudes, what the subject matter. P.S. your daughter sounds like a wonderful kid -- congrats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all so much for your positive feedback -- I really appreciate it! DD is our first child to go through this process so it's been a bit nerve-wracking.

I wish so much that DD could write a bit more about the life experience that really cemented her goals: she spent three weeks last summer shadowing with a Chaplain at a women's correctional facility in the Midwest. (One of our extended family members is an administrator at the Institution and helped to make the arrangements). Due to privacy/confidentiality concerns, however, DD cannot describe her experiences there in any kind of meaningful detail, so she and her guidance counselor agreed that it was probably best not to mention it at all. It really is too bad; some of her stories were just extraordinary. No Mother wants to think that one of the primary formative experiences in her child's life would be attending a 12-step meeting in a prison, but there you go.

The downside of these kinds of essays, aside from the fact that the admissions folks are tired of them, is that they end up being about the people the applicant dealt with and their lives and not about the applicant herself. Her chosen topic is much better.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm a pp -- just out if curiosity, where is your dd applying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not only is it unique but if its a true reflection of what she loves, then she is revealing her authentic self which is the goal in these essays. They want to know something about HER not something she did, this is personal AND interesting. I say go for it!

I have read enough and put three kids through college enough to know what they are looking for in the essays. Something different nearly always is a good idea!

My eldest s who attended an Ivy wrote about how he watched what was perceived to be a 'girls movie" because he connected so much with the story line and how he had to always keep it a secret from his friends. He turned it into a really great essay and one of the officers even emailed him specifically to tell him so. I say keep it!

I just have to ask: what was the movie? Was it 'Say Anything', by any chance? I know DS is slightly obsessed with it but I can't imagine what it would take for him to admit that to strangers, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm a pp -- just out if curiosity, where is your dd applying?

OP here -- DD is applying to several schools, but I think Macalaster and Sewanee ( University of the South) are her two favorites. She also really loved her visit to Bryn Mawr but isn't sure about attending a single-sex college.

[Anonymous]

Yay for Sewanee! Most beautiful campus ever, and a lovely place to grow.

Fingers crossed for your daughter! She sounds like a great kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any decent school would frown upon somebody admitting to organized religion being their main goal and purpose in life.

However, I'm sure your daughter wouldn't be happy at those schools anyways. Tell her to apply to religious schools.

Ignore this idiot.

Let your daughter write what she wants. It will be clear that she conceived and wrote it herself and it is honest and passionate. She will stand out and secular schools will be just as happy to have a strong graduate of their school down the line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm a pp -- just out if curiosity, where is your dd applying?

OP here -- DD is applying to several schools, but I think Macalaster and Sewanee ( University of the South) are her two favorites. She also really loved her visit to Bryn Mawr but isn't sure about attending a single-sex college.

Bryn Mawr is awesome! Plenty of guys around, on campus and nearby, and they will give her a strong education that will create a wonderful foundation for the kind of critical and ethical thinking that she will do if she continues to want to be a minister after college.