COVID and college essays

[Anonymous]

I have a rising senior and we were discussing potential topics of college application essays at dinner last night. I suggested that a lot of kids might build an essay around the pandemic experience. My son countered with "I think too many kids will do that and admission people will get sick of reading them. I'm going another direction."

What do you think? Are COVID/pandemic based essays a horrible idea?

[Anonymous]

just don’t
Admissions officers are going to be so over it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just don’t
Admissions officers are going to be so over it

+1

All 7 billion of us are experiencing the pandemic. Unless your child has an extraordinary story, no one wants to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Any topic can be good if well done. What will his pandemic story tell the reader about him as an individual?

[Anonymous]

That moment you realize your kid is right and you are wrong.

[Anonymous]

Google common app 2020-2021. It is going to have a shorter add on question about how COVID affected you. Unless your COVID story is amazing, that should cover it.

[Anonymous]

Unless your kid had unique hardships just don't. It's going to be overplayed and will sound ridiculous if they are writing about how hard it was to stay home and not see friends. And how distance learning made her persevere.

Your son is 100% right.

[Anonymous]

Listen to your kid. They are super smart.

Not to mention it's their essay.... Stay out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising senior and we were discussing potential topics of college application essays at dinner last night. I suggested that a lot of kids might build an essay around the pandemic experience. My son countered with "I think too many kids will do that and admission people will get sick of reading them. I'm going another direction."

What do you think? Are COVID/pandemic based essays a horrible idea?

PLEASE NO MORE. GOD BLESS THE Admission officers

[Anonymous]

Imagine reading all of these “Covid was so hard” essays from privileged kids who are trying to find trauma to talk about while other kids have read tragedy in their lives.

Skip the Covid essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine reading all of these “Covid was so hard” essays from privileged kids who are trying to find trauma to talk about while other kids have read tragedy in their lives.

Skip the Covid essay.

This. I can't get over how tone deaf OP is.

[Anonymous]

Np here, what do kids normally write about?
My kid was deeply involved in a specific unique olympic sport from early elementary. In middle school, he lost a coach to suicide and he had a dramatic injury that required surgery and ended the sport for him. He had to completely refocus and fell in love with a new sport, etc.
Is 8th grade too early in life to write about for a college essay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np here, what do kids normally write about?
My kid was deeply involved in a specific unique olympic sport from early elementary. In middle school, he lost a coach to suicide and he had a dramatic injury that required surgery and ended the sport for him. He had to completely refocus and fell in love with a new sport, etc.
Is 8th grade too early in life to write about for a college essay?

No. My older DD wrote about her 7th-8th grade experience going from middle class to poor when I divorced. She wrote specifically about how this shaped her experience with teachers and guidance counselors and how she came to realize the impact poverty has on what opportunities you are offered by public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np here, what do kids normally write about?
My kid was deeply involved in a specific unique olympic sport from early elementary. In middle school, he lost a coach to suicide and he had a dramatic injury that required surgery and ended the sport for him. He had to completely refocus and fell in love with a new sport, etc.
Is 8th grade too early in life to write about for a college essay?

No, childhood incidents are fine, but it’s all in the handling of the material. Having to give up a sport is a common narrative, so the question is whether your child can write about it with insight and maturity. It’s also fine to pick a less freighted topic and write well about that.

[Anonymous]

My kid and I did a webinar with admissions officers at Case Western. They said generally don’t write on COVID unless your experience was really unique.

Aside from the essay, they would like to lsee what you DID during COVID, especially since so many extracurriculars, summer jobs etc are not available.

Said it doesn’t (obv) need to be ‘I developed a cancer treatment or wrote a play’ — but it is a good time to dive deeper into an interest independently AND have some sort of product or something to show for it. They intimated there will be a supplemental essay that asks for this.

Take from that what you will. No clue if other colleges will follow suit.