We at Ivy Coach have seen our fair share of bad college essay topics. Students applying to highly selective colleges tend to focus on the same predictable topics, such as community service, grandparents, travel, sports, music, or illness. We like to liken these topics to the third rail because if you choose one of them, you’ve essentially killed your chances of getting into a top school. But there’s one more topic we’d like to cover today — a topic that is less popular than these clichéd ideas but that is just as ineffective nonetheless. Admissions officers at highly selective schools don’t want to read about a teenager’s love life! So leave this touchy subject out of your college applications!

Don’t Write About Love, Even if It Seems Like the Most Important Thing in Your Young Life

One’s teenage years are often plagued with heartbreak, intense emotions, and new experiences that are hard to process alone. While there is no doubt love is a significant topic for many elite college applicants, this doesn’t mean it should make its way into your application. Students tend to bring it up in a few common ways, but they all fall flat. So don’t write about when you first kissed your girlfriend under a moonlit suburban street. Don’t write about that time when you had the courage to go up and ask a boy out. That’s great that you did that. But don’t write about it in your college admissions essays. Don’t write about falling in love. Don’t write about how a breakup changed your life. Don’t write about how much your girlfriend means to you.

Some students may believe they can write an essay about love without falling into clichéd patterns or overstepping boundaries, but we promise this is not the case. Admissions officers frankly shouldn’t be privy to what’s happening in their applicant’s love lives. Writing about significant adversity you’ve faced because of your gender or sexuality is one thing (although not always an advisable essay direction!), but describing a scene of intimacy is entirely inappropriate. What’s more, it distracts from the focal point of your college essays: your singular hook!

Focus on What Admissions Officers Love: A Strong Singular Hook

College admissions is not as wholesome as it used to be. In the 1980s, you could frame yourself as a well-rounded applicant, write a heartfelt essay about how volunteering at the homeless shelter with your girlfriend brought you closer together, and secure admission to the school of your dreams. Things are very different nowadays. Today, students entering the likes of Harvard and Yale have distinguished themselves as experts and specialists in their chosen field, cause, pursuit, or discipline. 

Perhaps you’ve transformed your school’s garden with an innovative hydroponics system you’re bringing to disadvantaged communities in your hometown. Maybe you’ve collaborated with a faculty member at your local university to research feminist history. Whatever it is, your hook is the unique and often small way you plan on changing the world. This should be the focus of your college essays, not love! Why? Because your singular hook is your game plan for engaging with your future campus community. 

Stand Out in Competitive College Admissions with Ivy Coach’s Expert Guidance

In a world of unprecedentedly competitive college admissions cycles, every admitted student takes the place of someone nearly as qualified. To show admissions officers that you’re worth the risk, use your singular hook to prove that you will take full advantage of all the resources and opportunities your prospective institution offers. Remember, in the competitive world of college admissions, every word in your essay counts. There’s no room for love, no matter how much of a romantic you are.

Love may not be the answer, but there’s no need to lose hope in the admissions process. If you’re interested in optimizing your child’s odds of admission to a highly selective school with the help of one of our former elite college admissions officers, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our services.