PSA: Don't write your essay about building huts in Africa!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, our private school college counselor told us decades ago in the nineties that we were not allowed to write "When I stepped off the plane in Third World Country X" essays. Or community service essays. There was a third essay on the list we weren't allowed to write either but I can't remember what it was.

One can write an essay about tying a shoelace if it is done well. And a successful college application essay can be about tying one's shoelace in a third world country or in a closet if it is done well.

Understand that high school college counselors are not the brightest bulbs in the lamp--even with respect to their own profession. Your college counselor offered "backyard fence" type gossip parading as experienced, knowledgeable insight.

Yup!

My kid wrote about their community service in various supplementals. But it was genuine, meaningful community service. Two years of being a camp counselor at camp for disabled kids for week. It genuinely did change my kid's perspective on life---they loved it. Continued to do it summers during college and is disappointed that once out of college didn't have enough vacation days to continue being a counselor. It was hard rewarding work. But really challenging for a kid who had never babysat or changed a diaper on a baby/toddler ever. Then in first 1 hour at camp were changing blowout diapers on a 10 year old and learning to laugh with the camper about it. My kid was a magnet for some of the most "difficult " behavior wise campers and had one who always wanted them and often peed on my kid multiple times per day. My kid had many stories about their growth and perspective on life from these weeks and it made for great essays.
Couple that with their sport of karate black belt and it's genuine strengths.

these are normal things for any carer of people with extreme disabilities - its not medal worthy or rare

Did not say it was "medal worthy" or rare. But it is a genuine volunteering experience and much more in-depth than just showing up at the food bank or the library for 2 hours each Saturday. But for my kid it was volunteering that they loved and genuinely looked forward to each summer and during the school year doing online interactions with the campers. It's a wonderful week of hell with no sleep, having to be constantly on both day and night and way more bodily fluids than most 16yo will ever experience but so rewarding for the counselors as well. My kid did it for 4 years and online for another 2 during covid. When a kid continues the volunteering even after they get into college, it is a meaningful experience for them.
And at the several Jesuit universities my kid applied to, it was definately something well received by admissions.

I'd argue this is much more genuine than a trip to African village or orphanage. No pay to play with this---the organization struggles to get counselors willing to do this for 7 days.

Said someone extremely privileged. You know what would have helped more for that orphanage, money - they could do a lot with the thousands you spend to send your kids there. Volunteering locally at a food bank is important, if not more as it shows an ongoing commitment to your community.

The problem is that each school only takes so many kids per high school. Many of the kids were probably similar but for what ever reason the school choose another child over this one.

What are you talking about? The pp's child volunteered at a camp for kids who wanted to attend camp, not an orphanage. The camp needed volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, our private school college counselor told us decades ago in the nineties that we were not allowed to write "When I stepped off the plane in Third World Country X" essays. Or community service essays. There was a third essay on the list we weren't allowed to write either but I can't remember what it was.

One can write an essay about tying a shoelace if it is done well. And a successful college application essay can be about tying one's shoelace in a third world country or in a closet if it is done well.

Understand that high school college counselors are not the brightest bulbs in the lamp--even with respect to their own profession. Your college counselor offered "backyard fence" type gossip parading as experienced, knowledgeable insight.

Yup!

My kid wrote about their community service in various supplementals. But it was genuine, meaningful community service. Two years of being a camp counselor at camp for disabled kids for week. It genuinely did change my kid's perspective on life---they loved it. Continued to do it summers during college and is disappointed that once out of college didn't have enough vacation days to continue being a counselor. It was hard rewarding work. But really challenging for a kid who had never babysat or changed a diaper on a baby/toddler ever. Then in first 1 hour at camp were changing blowout diapers on a 10 year old and learning to laugh with the camper about it. My kid was a magnet for some of the most "difficult " behavior wise campers and had one who always wanted them and often peed on my kid multiple times per day. My kid had many stories about their growth and perspective on life from these weeks and it made for great essays.
Couple that with their sport of karate black belt and it's genuine strengths.

these are normal things for any carer of people with extreme disabilities - its not medal worthy or rare

Did not say it was "medal worthy" or rare. But it is a genuine volunteering experience and much more in-depth than just showing up at the food bank or the library for 2 hours each Saturday. But for my kid it was volunteering that they loved and genuinely looked forward to each summer and during the school year doing online interactions with the campers. It's a wonderful week of hell with no sleep, having to be constantly on both day and night and way more bodily fluids than most 16yo will ever experience but so rewarding for the counselors as well. My kid did it for 4 years and online for another 2 during covid. When a kid continues the volunteering even after they get into college, it is a meaningful experience for them.
And at the several Jesuit universities my kid applied to, it was definately something well received by admissions.

I'd argue this is much more genuine than a trip to African village or orphanage. No pay to play with this---the organization struggles to get counselors willing to do this for 7 days.

I’m an anti sports and hut building essay person but think this is good. Not many people are willing to do this work. And it’s tough.

+1. Not many teenagers would stick with that job.

[Anonymous]

You’re all placing way too much of an emphasis on the essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our nephew had a terrible college app season. Despite good grades, activities, and being a generally nice and well-liked kid, he was RJ or WL everywhere except one safety. We were really surprised and sorry for him. We just found out he wrote his essay about building huts in Africa on a service trip. The kid goes to a private school and had a private essay counselor. How could no one have told him what a bad essay topic this was? I'm posting in case one of your kids wants to write an essay like this - DON'T LET THEM.

In the end, our nephew came off the waitlist at a terrific, big state school that probably doesn't even read the essay, so all's well that ends well, but beware....

If he worked a part time job the whole school year to fund this trip himself because he thought it was a worthwhile cause and a good use of his hard earned money, I would 100% recommend he write about it (and how he got himself there). If not then agreed that this topic screams privilege.

It's still not a great personal statement essay (maybe a supplemental that directly asks the question). In theory, you will list that you went to build huts in Africa and the name of the organization in your ECs. The college will have seen that and it is not a hard thing to understand...even in the 150 characters you can mention that you paid for the trip yourself from a part-time job.

If you want to write about building huts in Africa...then your personal statement should be about your fascination with hurricanes...and then you mention how hurricanes usually start off the Coast of Africa...and then you can mention how hurricanes pull moisture from Africa and cause droughts on the West coast of Africa (which may or may not be true...but just go with it)...and then you layer in that through your fascination with hurricanes you realized how much pain they cause Africans...which then led you to getting a part-time job so you could save up and send yourself to Africa to build huts.

Holy shit. Well done. Even better if kid wants to be an African studied major

[Anonymous]

Of course they can write about building huts in Africa. Write about anything. Just do it well.
— reader

[Anonymous]

People are criticizing tests for prepping

You can have the entire essay written by a professional writer.

What a joke of a system.

[Anonymous]

They should stop asking such shitty essay questions then. “What experience changed your life?” F@ck off with that BS. They’re just asking kids to make s9mething up. Let’s face it, the average kid applying to an 80k + a year school has been coddled their whole 17 years of existence. They don’t have any real life experience yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
People are criticizing tests for prepping

You can have the entire essay written by a professional writer.

What a joke of a system.

or ChatGPT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should stop asking such shitty essay questions then. “What experience changed your life?” F@ck off with that BS. They’re just asking kids to make s9mething up. Let’s face it, the average kid applying to an 80k + a year school has been coddled their whole 17 years of existence. They don’t have any real life experience yet.

Especially when my coddled kid applying ED to a $90k school can’t write about his world travels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our nephew had a terrible college app season. Despite good grades, activities, and being a generally nice and well-liked kid, he was RJ or WL everywhere except one safety. We were really surprised and sorry for him. We just found out he wrote his essay about building huts in Africa on a service trip. The kid goes to a private school and had a private essay counselor. How could no one have told him what a bad essay topic this was? I'm posting in case one of your kids wants to write an essay like this - DON'T LET THEM.

In the end, our nephew came off the waitlist at a terrific, big state school that probably doesn't even read the essay, so all's well that ends well, but beware....

Did he just say Africa? Where in Afirica?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading this thread I still feel like I have no idea what they are supposed o write about or not write about. My kid spends a lot of time on a sport they are not very good at —- it was a lifeline during the covid shutdown and so they became very invested in that community. But I guess that’s terrible to write about? She does have interesting thoughts but like most teenagers, they are on pretty circumscribed topics — eg why Snapchat is bad, how HS should be different than what it is, political viewpoints, etc.

Both my kids wrote an essay about a favorite work of art/media/literature that had an impact on them and the lesson/insight they learned from it.
Both were accepted everywhere (each had a balanced list of schools) and now attend a well-ranked SLAC and a top state university.

The advice they got from their English teacher (who assigned this and helped them edit) was to "not write about the time you tore your ACL". Apparently that was the overdone topic at their (pretty sporty) HS.

Any time you can write about something that 50%+ of the applicants are not doing is beneficial. Your goal is to catch someone's attention, so it needs to be unique to you and genuine. Even then, it's still a crap shoot at a top school....but they definately don't want to read more basic sports stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wrote about her experience volunteering weekly at the children's hospital and how it made her want to become a nurse. Specifically, she wrote about an experience she had with a patient her age at the time (16) - she was tasked with spending time with the girl during her shift, who was severely disabled, and even though the patient did not talk to or interact with anyone at the hospital, DD built enough rapport that by the time the patient was discharged the two would be laughing hysterically and sharing fun experiences together. DD didn't apply to any crazy competitive schools (because those tend not to have undergrad nursing to begin with!) but did get into all 8 of the colleges she applied to - including Georgetown, UVA, Boston College, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Love it! She took a common volunteering experience and made it genuine, personal and showed how she grew from the experience to be a better person. That's what essays are supposed to be about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe he literally had nothing better to write about and as such, the "everywhere" schools he applied to saw through it?

+1

Or maybe he applied to only Reach schools and no real targets and only the one safety
I've heard way too many say "I got into only 1 school" and then look at their list of 15 schools, all with less than 20% acceptance rates. And you have to wonder how smart they really are.

Sorry, I wonder how smart you really are. They were applying to 15 schools and were presumably satisfied with either of those 15. They got into one from their list. How is this not a good outcome?

The only ways your logic would work are if you believe that a) being admitted to more than one school is somehow a better outcome even if those additional schools are less attractive to you or b) adding more lower ranked schools to your list somehow increases your chances of being admitted to a higher ranked school.

It's an issue because a student with the resume for T20 schools should easily get into many in the 30-60 range. If they design their college list properly, they should get into more than 1 safety. Yes, they are going to college, but let's face it most kids would much prefer to get into some of their "targets" and have a choice to make in April. It's all about the balance.
We read/hear about too many who only apply to Highly selective schools and then get denied at all of them, and are left scrambling in the spring, or left convincing their kid that they actually like their safety school. So those schools should not be "less attractive than their safety". But a kid with those stats should get into 50%+ of their targets if they do it correctly. The fact they did not indicates they likely did not have any targets.

You can do you, but most high stats kids would be severely disappointed if they only get into their bottom safety. And it didn't have to be that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but if you believe that one's college essay topic has any effect on admissions, you are misinformed.

So much misinformation in this thread !

Private schools love "rich and privileged"--that is why they have development offices/officers. (Not sure about the status after the admissions scandal involving celebrity parents.)

+1 Just look at the thread about which schools have the highest percentage of students going to top schools -- dripping with wealth and privilege. They could write about toenail fungus ruining their choice of prom shoes and get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe he literally had nothing better to write about and as such, the "everywhere" schools he applied to saw through it?

+1

Or maybe he applied to only Reach schools and no real targets and only the one safety
I've heard way too many say "I got into only 1 school" and then look at their list of 15 schools, all with less than 20% acceptance rates. And you have to wonder how smart they really are.

Sorry, I wonder how smart you really are. They were applying to 15 schools and were presumably satisfied with either of those 15. They got into one from their list. How is this not a good outcome?

The only ways your logic would work are if you believe that a) being admitted to more than one school is somehow a better outcome even if those additional schools are less attractive to you or b) adding more lower ranked schools to your list somehow increases your chances of being admitted to a higher ranked school.

It's an issue because a student with the resume for T20 schools should easily get into many in the 30-60 range. If they design their college list properly, they should get into more than 1 safety. Yes, they are going to college, but let's face it most kids would much prefer to get into some of their "targets" and have a choice to make in April. It's all about the balance.
We read/hear about too many who only apply to Highly selective schools and then get denied at all of them, and are left scrambling in the spring, or left convincing their kid that they actually like their safety school. So those schools should not be "less attractive than their safety". But a kid with those stats should get into 50%+ of their targets if they do it correctly. The fact they did not indicates they likely did not have any targets.

You can do you, but most high stats kids would be severely disappointed if they only get into their bottom safety. And it didn't have to be that way.

This is simply not correct. Look, even kids who balance the list perfectly end up in the same boat. You truly cannot guess which school is going to take you. Look at all the posts kids rejected from true safeties, let alone targets. Targets just means you are just like most of the kids they will accept, but they will also reject a lot of similar kids.