Don't open your essay with a childhood memory

Why?

  1. It’s the most common opening paragraph. Full stop. So you’ll sound like everyone else.

  2. You’re applying to study with brilliant college professors. AOs don’t want to hear about an experience from when you were ten years old. They want to hear about your current intellectual interests, experiences, and why they’re important to you. (Hint: This is why they ask for LORs from 11th and 12th grade teachers.)

  3. When you open with a story about when you were a kid, you usually rely on your memory. Your essay becomes general, vague, boring. You want to be as interesting as possible. That comes from being specific. And that requires doing some research.

So trust me, whatever you do, do not open your essay with a childhood memory.

I think the answer is…it depends. It depends on how this ties in with what you are currently doing. If it does, it can be a good way to show how you have grown and changed with whatever that memory is…to the high school student you are now.

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There is no clear cut moratorium on starting an essay with a childhood anecdote. It’s about the skill of the writer and the context in which the anecdote is written. For many students, it might be a good idea to avoid the topic.

I had a student who wrote her whole essay about how she loved doing something as a kid and still does it now. She is at HYP.

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@anon45019500 , both this thread and your last are very absolute “do this!” “do not do that!”. I would argue that reality is grayer. In many cases you are right, and it’s important that the student knows that what they think is clever and unique was thought clever and unique by millions of past students. But I would not be prohibitive.

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IMO there is no correct “one size fits all” piece of advice regarding college essays. My S"s essay did begin with a memory and it was effective and successful (in that be got into his top choice college.)

As he has done with other posts, I fear the OP is looking to “stir things up” by creating “rules” he deems to be absolute.

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A commandment that one must avoid certain elements in essay writing is just as bad as saying that one must follow a mandatory formula. Of course there are times when an opening with a childhood memory would be trite, but there are also times when opening with a childhood memory would be a perfect start to an essay. It all depends upon one’s topic, and how the essay is written. Another supposed 'no-no" is don’t write about a forbear, write about oneself. Well, my kid violated both those rules with his essay, and he wound up at a tippy-top school.

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Almost agree.

I think when someone writes an essay about childhood, and it is not well written, it can sometimes give off the impression like nothing significant has happened in all those years.

The opening, and whether it is about a childhood experience, may be much less important IMO. Like with anything written, if the opening is good, grabby - no issue from my experience.

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As always, this is the best, general guidance I can offer to the majority of students. It’s not a commandment; it’s a best practice based on my individual experience readings hundreds and hundreds of essays. FWIW.

I’d suggest readers evaluate the strength of the predictable, anecdotal comments:

“But Joey wrote about X and he got into Y college.”

To my ears, that’s a Logic 101 causation-correlation error.

Sure, lots of paths to the top of the acceptance mountain. But if my logic makes sense to you, consider another path.

-MCS

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I tell young people to look through photos of childhood to find inspiration for essays. I know two who are close to me who got into Ivies and their essays started with a childhood memory. As usual the OP posted in a way that will draw debate. Not posting again on this thread.

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Rosebud.

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I thought that the most common opening sentence for the “elites” was “I have always dreamed of being a student at [insert name of college here]”…

Most of those “brilliant professors” couldn’t write themselves out of a wet paper bag, and could not tell a good essay from a piece of trash if you wrote “GOOD ESSAY” and “TRASH” on them with big red letters.

Most “brilliant professors” at the colleges that spend time reading essays barely teach undergraduates at all, and when they do, they are not actually reading anything that a student writes. Unless a student is attending a LAC, grading will be done either by a graduate student TA or by some underpaid adjunct who was willing to teach English Comp 101 for a pittance.

The famous professors at places like Harvard and Yale never have to read something written by an undergraduate. If they do, they must have messed up somewhere, because one of the perks of being thought of as a “brilliant professor” at these colleges is never having to read anything by an undergrad again.

Also, “brilliant professors” would be a huge overstatement, in my pretty wide experience across a fairly large number of universities and a pretty large number of faculty. Famous, good at getting research funded, have the “right” pedagree? Certainly. Smart enough to have done a PhD in the first place, and to continue doing research? Most likely. Brilliant? Maybe a few.

So, AOs want a student to repeat what is written in the LoRs and in the resume? Now THAT is boring-to-tears. Besides, if that is what is supposed to be written by adults in the LoRs, what is the entire purpose of demanding an essay from a kid?

Only if the writer is boring. But if the writer is boring, than it doesn’t matter what they write.

Besides, considering how many kids who were accepted to “elite” colleges are writing papers starting with “from time immemorial”, I can say, categorically, that boring writing doesn’t keep students out of “elite” colleges.

I mean, why do “elite” colleges even have courses like English Comp 101, if all of the accepted students are such great writers that their admissions is impressing AOs with their originality and excellence.

Finally, I am pretty sure that the AOs at colleges to which the large majority of HS students are applying are not rejecting applicants because they started their essay with a childhood memory. That is not how admissions work outside of “elite” colleges.

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I’m trying, but I can’t follow your logic MWolf.

Here’s what you’ll hear from AOs at Information Sessions at all types of schools around the country right now: Since you’re applying to study an academic subject with scholars at our research university, we’d like to hear about your most recent academic interests–from both you and your teachers.

My claim is a simple extension of that point: Avoid opening essays in ways that fail to do that. One common culprit: Opening with a childhood memory.

My claim isn’t: If you write about a childhood memory you will not get into college. Where did I write that?

The claim is, you shouldn’t. Students get into colleges for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes in-spite of bad writing; sometimes great writing pushes them over the edge. That’s why this argument is invalid: “I had a student who wrote an essay about a childhood memory. She got into HYP.” It’s just a form of the post-hoc fallacy. No student got into HYP because they wrote about a childhood memory.

MCS

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What’s missed in this argument is the power of storytelling and metaphor. A good writer can tell a good story about childhood and bring a reader to their knees. A good writer can use a childhood anecdote as metaphor. Writing is art. Is it a good idea to apply formulaic rules to kids who are trying to express themselves?

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Really? Neither of my kids wrote about academic achievements in their essays. Neither. Positive comments about their essays were hand written on some of their letters of acceptance. Their essays were their voices speaking….and that was very clear.

One of my kids was an engineering major in college and she had ZERO engineering related things she did in HS. Or before. So she wrote about something else that was actually very interesting and spoke to her leadership skills.

The second kid wrote about an experience at age 12 and how that influenced his interests.

No academic anything in their essays. And they both got accepted to great colleges.

Two points…most applicants aren’t applying to Stanford. And second…from my kids’ essay experiences, there are at least 12 adcoms at 12 different colleges who don’t share your opinion.

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I feel like I’ve been clear: Kids get into schools for lots of reasons. Testing, Activities, LORs, Essays, Affirmative Action boosts of all kinds. (And many people won’t admit some of those publicly.) If you’re the International Physics Olympiad Gold Medal winner–your essays don’t matter. If you’re the next Peyton Manning, your essays don’t matter. Etc.

Here’s the issue to me: Are anecdotes like yours helpful? Like, can you use them to offer a majority of kids some working rules on general do’s and dont’s? I’d say you can’t.

But it seems to me you can offer kinds working rules based off of my logic that all turns on the basic premise you’re applying to study academic subjects at a school. And you should advise students based on the Ratings in the Admission Officer Handbooks they use to evaluate applications.

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You asked me a question: [quote=“Search2022, post:13, topic:3592669”]
Is it a good idea to apply formulaic rules to kids who are trying to express themselves?
[/quote]

So I gave you my best, most thoughtful answer. I thought you raised an interesting issue worthy of debate: Should we offer kids rules or standards to help them with their essays?

I’m in the “rules” camp. I think a rule is often more specific and therefore more helpful. You’re in the “standards” camp it sounds like. Again, an issue that to me, seems worthy of discussion. I haven’t heard a helpful “standard” offered that I would advise a kid to follow.

Does a single profession exist, within any industry, that someone with 1 year experience feels confident they are a true thought-leader.

Before you make such statements, you really should do a basic Google search. Spending those five minutes can help a person not make statements which are provably wrong.

Of the best 10 essays of admitted applicants to Harvard in 2019, four, I repeat, four used childhood anecdotes.

These four were accepted because the wrote about childhood memories.

From Harvard Successful Essays | 2019 (Harvard Successful Essays | 2019):

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Nvm

From the 10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | 2021
https://www.thecrimson.com/topic/sponsored-successful-harvard-essays-2021/

This year, the great majority used childhood anecdotes.

So I think that I CAN claim, with pretty strong evidence, I think:

The good AOs at Harvard actually like essays that start with a childhood anecdote.

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