College Application Essays - Avoid the Stress

I never thought this would be an issue to write about.

Students have asked me things like, “Is it alright if I write about volleyball as my first team experience when I was a cheerleader in the 7th grade and technically, that was my first team experience?”

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 wrote an essay about being the Captain of a particular team. Not only wasn’t he the Captain….he wasn’t even on the TEAM!!!!!!!!!

After he was accepted to a prestigious college, a serious of innocuous events led back to the high school….and the TRUTH came out.

His response: “Everyone does it.”  The college’s response: They rescinded the acceptance.

Last I checked: I think he ran away from home, joined a Romanian circus and is shot from a cannon three times a day. (That was a joke).

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 Team Six 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)

 My FREE presentation on the Top Five Mistakes Students Make on their College Application Essays is available for libraries, PTAs, organizations and prison release parties.  

Randy Levin has a MA in English and a MFA in Creative Writing. He is a published writer, an editor and former high school English teacher who taught in high achieving Long Island districts. He is also the ONLY college application essay adviser asked to speak annually at the National College Fair- Nassau Coliseum.  For FREE information, go to his website: WriteToCollege.com