<p>So her school sends messages about SAT prep, financial aid, campus visits, etc. via Naviance. Today I saw a note that talked about the common app essays, urging rising seniors to get started, etc. Then, after they listed the prompts, they had some tips about the essays. The first one read:</p>
<p>
[quote]
1) With rare exceptions, your main essay for the Common Application should be about your main academic interest, with added information on your research, writing, courses, & college-level work that connects to that main academic interest. Become a defined, standout scholar in the field of biophysics or art history or classics, for example, and then have work/writing/courses/research/labwork to back up that interest.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Huh???? Everything I've read about answering these prompts - a story central to your identity, a place where you are content, etc.-- emphasizes that you show them something about yourself, something interesting, something that defines you. I didn't think that "something" had to be connected to your main academic interest.</p>
<p>Or are the five prompts for a different essay? Is the "main essay" something else? I've never actually seen the Common App. How many darn essays are there? lol</p>
<p>Op,
You can go to common application website to see the prompts for the essay. In the past, there was a short essay (150-200 words) and long essay (500 words). I know the long essay was increased to 650 words, not sure about the status of the short essay.</p>
<p>As for topics, what you read from before your HS about voice, show not tell, etc now applies to prompt 1. (It used to apply to prompt 7 or 8). The instructions from your HS GC are clearly some someone who has never spent time on the other side of the application process reading the essays. Other people who HAVE spent time reading essays from the other side would say that the GCs advice is ill advised.</p>
<p>This is my long version of saying just ignore it.</p>
<p>The advice runs counter to what my son’s counselors have said, as well as every admissions rep. who has discussed the essay. It sounds formulaic at best and slightly deceitful at worst.</p>
<p>I think it’s misguided too. Mind you, for some super academic types it may still be the best way to go, but most students will do better with something that has more potential for making them seem interesting and someone you’d want to be around. I actually think the best approach is to write some great essays and then to see what prompts they will go with. </p>
<p>That said, I really liked one of the essays my younger son wrote. He was writing about a volunteer job helping archive neighborhood association papers. He talked about what he found out and how only getting part of the story from these primary sources made him feel like a real historian. He managed to show his academic side, but in a light way - it was actually a short prompt for “What was your favorite EC and why” that led to this essay. He didn’t think it was enough about himself for his main essay, which was about what he learned from origami.</p>
<p>Terrible advice. Every college admissions officer I have heard (and I’ve heard a bunch) said that the essay is a time where an applicant can talk about something that is interesting/important to him/her. Both of my kids wrote pretty personal essays about something important in their life and they both got into their top choice school.</p>
<p>Ignore it. The student should right about themselves. Something important that shows what kind of person they are and what they have learned about life.</p>
<p>Holy cow, bopper. That music themed essay had some parallels with one my son wrote for his engineering apps. (An English teacher roped him into being music director for class play… and it blossomed into a passion for composing.) Brought back some memories for sure! </p>
<p>DD the Harvard admit wrote in response to the first prompt, and her essay had NOTHING to do with her academic interests. I’ve always considered it one of the strongest parts of her application.</p>
<p>@Periwinkle, they copied ALL the points from that link. And, no, they didn’t credit their source. It’s a pretty highly ranked school that so far has been very helpful and given good advice. But this is crap. Most students are not “defined, standout scholars”, anyway. And it would really cut down your options if you had to talk about challenging a belief or where you feel content or an event that marked your transition to adulthood only in an academic context.</p>
<p>Op,
I would add that the essay can be the defining factor or the tip factor in highly selective colleges. However, for the majority of colleges out there, the essay does not matter at all and thus could be written in almost any fashion including the boring and rote “why I want to be an anthropologist.”</p>
<p>In support of my previous post on this thread, I do read apps and essays in a medical related fashion so I know what it is like to read 30 essays in a day and how mind numbing it is. My game is to predict what the whole essay will say just by reading the first sentence. I am correct 95% of the time. It’s the 5% of the time that it is unpredictable that interests me.</p>
<p>YHYH. so now you could start a second career advising young adults on writing their essays.
I’m curious about the 5%, but don’t know if you can share on a public forum.</p>
<p>@YoHoYoHo - too funny. Way back when I was a student member for the admissions committee at architecture school. Reading the essays was the worst. One student claimed she couldn’t find a typewriter and presented her essay in illegible handwriting. (Her Dad was a famous architect and I always wondered if she was just deliberately sabatoging the thing.) I gave up trying to read her essay about half way through. It’s hard to believe that Brown used to insist on handwritten essays!</p>