Liar-Liar Pants on Fire
I never thought this would be an issue to write about. Students have said things like, “Well, if I write about volleyball as my first team experience, it isn’t totally true. I was a cheerleader in the 7th grade.”
It’s fine. The college isn’t sending a team of investigators to verify your timeline and when you did what.
Slight Exaggeration won’t kill you….
HOWEVER……DON’T MAKE THINGS UP Last year a student in Florida wrote an essay about being the Captain of her school’s Debate Team. Not only wasn’t she the Captain….she wasn’t even on the TEAM!!!!!!!!!
After she was accepted to a prestigious college, a serious of innocuous events led back to the high school….and the TRUTH came out.
Her response: “Everyone does it.”
The college’s response: They rescinded the acceptance.
Last I checked: I think she ran away from home, joined a Romanian circus and is shot from a cannon three times a day. (That was a joke).
Not here on Long Island!!!!!!! Sadly, not true. As a caveat, I have thankfully never experienced this type of behavior from the hundreds of students I have dealt with. I also had no other anecdotal evidence about such a thing….until NOW. The same basic plot has unfolded on Long Island. And no….I will not reveal the district, the school, the circumstances etc. (Primarily because I have minimal knowledge myself…but also because it’s unimportant to the larger story…the only thing I’ll say is that it has not occurred in any of the districts that my Patch Blog appears in).
The Bottom Line The essay is about who YOU are. Not who you want the admission’s officer to think you are. SLIGHT exaggeration is fine…SLIGHT…not HYPERBOLE that will have you as the Seal 6 member who killed Bin Laden.
You don’t have to be the captain, the leader, the chief, the boss, the head muckity-muck, the Grand PooBa. If everyone is the leader, who will follow?
This isn’t an Oprah episode….but just be YOU. (Now let’s hold hands and sing Kumbaya)
I will be presenting a FREE workshop on the Top Five Mistakes Students Make on their College Application Essays at each of the following libraries. (Pre-registration is strongly advised. Please call the library if you wish to attend) I am also available to speak at PTA meetings, JCC, etc....
May 16 – Merrick Library
May 21 – Harborfields Library
May 22 - Rockville Centre Library
Sept 16 - Syosset Library
Sept 18 – Manhasset Library
Sept 23 – Bellmore Library
Sept 24 – Jericho Library
Sept 30 – Smithtown Library
Oct 3 – Oceanside Library
Oct 6 – National College Fair (Nassau Coliseum)
Oct 9 – My 55th BD….I’ll be under the bed, curled in the fetal position, crying.
Randy Levin is the ONLY college application essay expert asked to speak at the National College Fair- Nassau Coliseum – Oct 6th 2013. The vast majority of Randy’s clients are accepted to the Ivy League or other prestigious colleges. He has a MA in English and a MFA in Creative Writing. He is a published writer and was a high school English teacher in high achieving north shore Long Island school districts for close to ten years. For FREE information, go to his website: WriteToCollege.com
