Advice on Your College Essays

Here’s some advice on your college essays: Try to change the emotions of college admissions counselors.

Here’s some advice on your college essays: Your goal should be to change the emotions of the college admissions counselor reading your writing. Does that mean you should make them mad at you? No. But it does mean that you should try to inspire them. Or make them go, “Awww.” Or make them smile…or even better laugh out loud (or if you’re a student reading this, LOL). Or make them cry.

Movie and television writers, novelists, advertisers, magazine columnists – they all get paid big bucks to change the emotions of readers. Going to an Ivy League college will increase your earnings. So you should think of it like this: You’re going to get paid big bucks to change the emotions of highly selective college admissions counselors. That’s right. Change their emotions, improve your odds of admission. Save the cheerleader, save the world.

So just how can you change their emotions? Share a personal anecdote that can shed light on who you are and what you’re all about. Make sure it’s the right anecdote. And, most of all, make sure it’s not trite. The story about getting over Grandma Mary’s death at 98 just isn’t going to cut it. Neither is the story about how you saw a homeless man and decided to give him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Be original. Make it fresh. Make it stand out from the pack and do this through the powerful medium of writing, a medium that can indeed change the emotions of college admissions counselors!

Take this advice on your college essays. If you adhere to our advice correctly, you won’t regret it.