Should discuss 'a bad grade year' in app essay?

interesteddad
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:41:49 +0000

interesteddad—that’s right! Just now I showed son this thread. I said, “you should come up w/something that’s more ‘you’ than things I suggested.”



Good!

The kids are afraid to cut lose with their essays. They get this idea that college essays should be like school assignments. I kept asking my daughter… what did he look like? How was he dressed? What did he say? Trying to get her to pull me into her story.

The best college essays bring the reader into a story featuring a living, breathing 17 year old interacting with the world in some - hopefully interesting - way.