Beware the Overshare

College Essays
1

<p>With a quote from Sally Rubenstone from right here at CC</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-oversharing-in-admissions-essays.html?src=recg"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-oversharing-in-admissions-essays.html?src=recg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In some of the essays that students begin to draft and some of the essays that they actually wind up submitting, there are accounts of eating disorders, sexual abuse, self-mutilation, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction. Sally Rubenstone, one of the authors of the “Panicked Parents’ Guide to College Admissions,” has called this “the Jerry Springer-ization of the college admissions essay,” referring to the host of one of the TV talk shows best known for putting private melodrama on a public stage.</p>

2

<p>Many of these essays are written as though they are meant to elicit pity. Not a good strategy since its unlikely that many students are admitted to colleges because the adcoms pitied them.</p>