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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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....[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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

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