<p>Alex, the book to read (and mentioned previously) is called, “On Writing The College Application Essay” by Harry Bauld. </p>
<p>As for the advice given, I suggest you look at #5 again: consider the reader. That’s Bauld’s underlying message too. To answer one of your questions about how much could a bad essay help…it should NOT be boring! That would hurt the most. </p>
<p>You want to stand out. How to do that when you hate writing about yourself using a contrived prompt? Just do it! Every other senior (well, almost every) feels like you. The essays are important and fretting about them is useless.</p>
<p>My added advice to the list: make it specific. Don’t tell a story about some broad topic. Choose a topic you love and write about something specific. (example: you play guitar, joined a band, played a gig once, and suddenly noticed someone you knew in the audience. This was an ah-ha moment because you saw yourself as another HS kid and as a performer. How did that feel?) Okay, this wasn’t a great example, but be specific anyway. Don’t just “tell” about being in a band…or whatever is your passion.</p>