Four Tips on How NOT to Write Your 2020 College Application Essays
It’s 2020, and everything is confusing and backwards and wrong, right? (I can’t wait to see in a few years how “2020” will become a general euphemism for “messed up”- “wow, you really 2020’ed that presentation, Carl!”) The college application process has pretty much been 2020’ed: SATs and ACTs are cancelled, nobody can go on a college visit, and spring high school grades are a trainwreck. Has the college application essay process been messed up too? The good news is “no, not unless you mess it up.” How can you do that? Read on.
#1: Write About COVID or Quarantine
First of all, I acknowledge that the pandemic has been personally and economically devastating to many, including the families of college applicants. That being said, you probably still ought not to write about it. Admissions folks are going to have to read THOUSANDS of COVID essays. As profound an experience as this quarantine might be for you, it is for everyone else, too. As a result, it’s going to be extremely difficult to say something new about it. And let’s face it: if you write about the unspeakable tragedy that is the cancellation of your junior prom, you’re going to sound shallow; if you write about the COVID death of a dear family member, your essay is going to be too heavy and raw to make a reader feel anything but sorry for you.
“Admissions folks are going to have to read THOUSANDS of COVID essays. As profound an experience as this quarantine might be for you, it is for everyone else, too.”
And yes, I do know that the Common App has provided a special space for you to write about COVID. My impression is that this is for you to write about ways in which COVID might have affected your academic progress (i.e., “I was scheduled to study in Spain this spring and couldn’t because of quarantine, therefore my transcript shows that I interrupted my language courses”), rather than for your more personal reaction to the crisis.
#2: Write Flippantly About Political/Social Issues
I’ll be very careful with what I write here (as you should be). 2020 is an extremely heightened year, politically, medically, and socially. I am NOT saying to keep your views hidden in your essay. I will say to be both judicious and authentic. You don’t know exactly who’s going to read your essay (or how many people), so don’t just assume that all academics are left-leaning so that you should write about “stupid Trump supporters” or if you’re applying to a more conservative school that every reader will appreciate your reference to “stupid Biden supporters.” Obviously, if you’ve had a meaningful experience attending protests or working for one campaign or another, feel free to write all about it. Just write in such a way that the readers are seeing your commitment and belief, rather than reading your manifesto. A seventeen-year-old who has the solution to the world’s problems isn’t a humble look.
