Perfect Students Have Nothing to Write On: An Education Tragedy
Okay, so this is a bit of hyperbole on my part.
All students have plenty to write about for their college application essays.
However, from what I’ve seen using college-bound students going back decade, many of our most talented, driven and intelligent teenagers are living such parallel, over-achieving lives that they struggle to find an effective essay topic.
These are exactly the same kids, many targeting Ivy League educations, who will need bull’s-eye essays to have even a shot of getting in.
It’s sad, unfair and ironic: The hardest working students have no time for a life.
No Life: No Essay Topic
Here’s an example of a student i worked with recently:
The mom sent me an email summarizing her daughter’s background:
The daughter was interested in history and computer science, and also in theater (worked on every school production since 7th grade). She also did Model UN (with accolades); was editor of the school newspaper and active in debate club.
Also, she was captain of the robotics team, the chess club and some variety of other academic team.
She had built her own computer and the family’s home service.
She also participated in three varsity sports.
The daughter’s GPA was stellar and test scores excellent.
Where did she wish to go to college?
‘Her high school counselor thinks she has a good chance at the Ivies,’ mom penned.
Sure sounds like this girl could have her pick of colleges, right?
Good luck with that!
Acceptance rates at the prestige schools are at all-time lows.
Even if she penned an outstanding college application essay, her chances would be slim to none at the most elite schools.
The real problem, in my experience, is that this student isn’t unusual.
Most of these applicants have similar off-the-charts grades, test scores and extracurricular dossiers.
With everybody at the top of the heap, the focus often turns to their college application essays.
The tragedy I mentioned in my sensational headline is that these are the exact brilliant students who have the hardest time coming up with an interesting and meaningful essay topic.
Why?
These are typically too busy doing the same things.
Team sports, band, drama, clubs, and internships.
Model United Nations. Summer camp. Mission trips. Robotic competitions.
And mostly…studying.
Even though their activities and experiences are truly character-building and lesson-teaching, the highly orchestrated nature makes them difficult to mine for gritty, organic or relevant life-shaping lessons.thesis statement about prejudice
That’s why one of my first questions to students I tutor is whether they had held a job.
Summer jobs. Working part-time during school. Even hourly work.
These are a gold mine for topic ideas, mainly because they fall outside that high school student bubble where everybody does the same thing.
Suddenly student has to deal with getting stiffed by a customer at a restaurant where he waits tables.
Or a student has to find a way to get his lawn mower to job sites with no car.
Maybe a student gets passed over to caddie at a golf club because she’s hispanic.
I advise students to recall ‘times’ they faced problems in their past to discover real-life moments that helped shaped their thinking in some way.
If they can show themselves in action handling that issue, their stories (and essay topic) will reveal a piece of their unique personality.
If they also reflect and expain what they learned when handling that problem, they also can reveal their character.
Personality + Character = Awesome Personal Statement Essay
The sad thing is that the most high-reaching students often have not had a summer job.
Not only have they not had time in their activity-packed lives to hold a job working at Subway, or a clothing boutique or for their parent’s grocery store, but they simply don’t have ANY FREE TIME.
Many of these students are distressed when we start brainstorming an essay topic.
They say the same things as all students ‘There’s nothing interesting about me.’
I ask them what they do when they do get a rare moment of time to themselves.
They pause.
Think.
Think some more.
‘I want to hang out with my friends,’ many tell me.
Oh yea.
Friends.
How sad is this??
Unfortunately, hanging with friends doesn’t often yield great essay topics, so we keep fishing around in their past to find something they’ve done where there weren’t a lot of adults around making sure nothing went wrong.
Perfect life. Nothing happens. No story.
No story. Dull essay.
Discuss pressure!
These students have worked so hard, for so long, and truly sacrificed a lot to be perfect students, the exact kind who should get into the most competitive college and universities.
I believe many should simply let go of the Ivy League fantasy and focus on the several hundred or more outstanding educational institutions that don’t have Ivy status.
Boy, would that chill out this frenzied application world nearly overnight.
I believe the kids would let them go without a second thought if their parents went first.
I know I’m old school, but I have to note that a lot of my achieving students also mention ‘My anxiety’ or ‘My depression’ as possible essay topics.
I don’t think that’s just a coincidence.
I remember one student who was so desperate for an interesting experience that he planned to borrow an experience that happened to his mother when she was young.
And guess who’s brilliant idea this was?
Yup, mom’s.
But for many of these perfect students, who have engaged in more interesting and challenging activities than many people do in a lifetime, they can’t find that magic topic or everyday experience to nail their college application essay.
It’s the overachievers who come from privileged backgrounds who have it the hardest.
Somehow these students do have time for international vacations, second home visits, ski trips, spa outings, sailing, riding horses and golfing (I’m not trying to be snide; this is what they tell me).
It’s possible to extract interesting experiences and write compelling essays that involve these privileged activities, but I haven’t seen many.
Students who have had to part of to aid their family or their particular financial well-being are the lucky ones—at least when it comes to essay topics.
If they lived on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and helped raise the pigs.
If they helped their mom clean houses on weekends.
If they ran the cash register at the family laundry mat.
If they had to get a summer job to earn spending money (HINT: That could be any kid.)
Perfect Students: Dig Harder for Your Essay Topic
This is when ‘real-life’ happens, and no matter how hard you try, it’s much simpler to write about, extract relatable experiences and moments, and draw out life lessons when life involves a degree of struggle.
I feel for these overachievers.
These are typically hard-working, well-intentioned and great children.
For some, this may be their first taste of how life can sometime be unfair.
Don’t despair, though, if you are a perfect student who has done all the right things, plus some.
You can expect to still get into probably the most awesome schools.
When it comes to your college application essay, and finding a killer essay topic, you are going to have to once again be that kid who goes the extra mile.
You are able to and will find great subjects.
They’ll just take more digging and imagination, possibly more research and self-reflection.
I push the idea of the ‘mundane,’ over the impressive.
Works every time.
Even if you are one of those determined students who does everything, along with tens and thousands of others doing the exact same thing, you’re unique.
You just need to work hard to find some type of problem (challenge, obstacle, failure, phobia, conflict, set-back, crisis, mistake, etc.) you faced in order to show how.
Every year, I write a post for all you students who are ready to start your college application essay.
All you need is to find that certain magic topic idea.
There are many methods to brainstorm ideas for college application essay topics.
This time, I’m going for the essay jugular and offering a brainstorm guide to start your college application essay by honing in on your best problems.
If you are new to this process of writing a narrative-style college application essay, let me clue you in to why problems are your golden solution.
I believe the best and most effective essays are those that showcase one of your defining qualities or traits.
And you do this by sharing real-life experiences, moments and events from your past that illustrate (serve as examples for) the quality or characteristic you’re writing about.
Hang in there with me now…
This will start to make sense once you learn more about these essays.
You need to understand that college applications essays, especially personal statement style essays used for The Common Application and other ‘core’ essays, are extremely not the same as typical papers you wrote for English class.
These essays, at least top ones, are highly personal.
They include your personal stories that’s why these are typically called ‘narrative.’
There are many ways to land upon a ‘topic’ or theme for your essay.
You can start by brainstorming your defining qualities or traits, and go after that.
In this post, however, I’m offering another possible path to finding your best stories and topics.
It really doesn’t matter how you find your topic, as long as you unearth one really good one.
Then you are set.
What you are wanting are those experiences from your past (mainly during your high school years) that you can share in order to reveal what makes you tick, what you most care about, how you learn and what sets you apart from other applicants.
Ready to find your best minute, experiences, events and incidents?
Start looking for past problems.
Find a juicy problem, and you will have a little tale.
And it will be a story because ‘something happened.’
If something happened, that makes your essay interesting to read.
You WANT THAT!
Additionally means you had to deal with something; you had to deal with that problem.
This gives you more to write about yourself: How you felt about that problem, the steps you took to manage it, and most important, what you learned (about yourself, others and the world) in the process.
Boom! You will have a personal essay about yourself.
Yes, it can be that simple.
But first, find a problem.
They do not need to be impressive, momentous, catastrophes or tragedies, although those can work, too.
Often, probably the most simple, everyday problems work the best.
The beauty is that we all have faced many problems, big and small.
Each and every day, all day long. It’s call life.
Anytime anything ‘happened’ that you experienced, it involved an issue.
Problems can be bought in many shapes and forms.
Here’s the Problem Brainstorm Guide to help you start your college application essay:
FIND YOUR BEST PROBLEMSTo Start Your College Application Essay(Copy and paste this list into Word/Google doc and print it out)
Go down this list of problems and write down ‘times’ you faced or dealt with this variety of problem.
Try to think of one big example and one small one. Often the smaller ones turn out to be top ones.
- When did you face an OBSTACLE (something got in the way of something you wanted)?
- What has been one of your biggest CHALLENGES (something hard for you)?
- Did you have a CONFLICT with someone (you disagreed on something; you both wanted the same thing; you argued…)?
- Was there any big CHANGE in your life (you moved; you lost a loved one; you looked different)?
- Did you make an error in recent years?
- Has anything happened to you that was a SETBACK in your life?
- Did you FAIL at something?
- When were you EMBARRASSED?
- Have you CRIED recently?
- Do you have any PHOBIAS?
- What is your main FLAW physical or emotional?
- What made you feel the most FEAR?
- Does anything make you feel GUILTY?
- Does your family have any HARDSHIPS (financial; addiction issues; immigration status; job loss)?
- Do you WORRY about something?
- Is there something you REGRET (wish hadn’t happened or would want a redo)?
- Would you always get into the same style of TROUBLE?
I hope this has helped you collect some of your recent issues.
Now, check if any of them are particularly unusual, unique, memorable, entertaining or interesting.
Circle those!
HINT: Stay away from cliche school ‘problems,’ such as getting a bad grade, blowing a test, sports injury, etc.
Problems that only you can have most likely are your most promising problems to start your college application essay.
Here’s another trick to fleshing out a juicy problem: If you found a ‘big’ problem, see if you can find smaller examples of that problem, in the form of smaller problems.
Example: Big problem = Your mom got very ill. Smaller problem = You have to care for your three younger sisters.
Can you go even smaller?
Maybe you didn’t know how to cook (an even smaller problem associated with that big problem), and now have to make their lunches every morning or make dinner.
Maybe your little sisters are all picky eaters (another problem!), and you have had to get really creative in making them lunches they’ll eat.
Hey! This could be an excellent essay: Write about how you make fancy lunches for your picky little sisters.
Could such an ordinary, everyday topic like making paperbag lunches get you into your dream school?
Yes!
Think about what that daily chore reveals about you?
If nothing else, it’s that you are highly responsible (a defining quality?) and care a lot about your family especially if you made that effort to cook, accommodate your sisters’ fussiness with creative (defining quality?) meals and help support your ailing mom and family.
That’s quite an impressive person we will learn about—without even trying to be impressive.
In this essay, you will of course mention the larger problem of your mom’s illness when explaining why you had to make lunches.
But by targeting the smaller, related problems, your essay will likely to be mainly about you and not your mom (that’s how you would like it.)
Then you can discuss how you handled that problem, including making these lunches and other meals.
You are able to explain the steps you took to learn how to cook, and your defining quality of bringing creativity and personal responsibility to the process.
Your essay could have the theme of how you really are a creative person, and then go deeper into how you got like that and WHY IT MATTERS. ( or you could pick your sense of responsiblity and focus the essay on that defining quality. Often best to pick ONE quality in each essay to give it a sharp focus.)
I know this is a lot to take in at once.
But once you read some sample essays and start to spot the problems that power the personal stories—and see for yourself how they are interesting to read, and how you get a personal ‘picture’ of the writer—this approach can certainly make more sense.
Can you imagine how you could start this essay sharing your daily morning routine of making creative sack lunches?
I will picture the types of colorful details and snippets of conversation from those frantic mornings which you could craft into an anecdote to show yourself in action and start your essay.
Maybe one sister demands peanut butter and pickles, and another that her sandwich is cut into six squares while the third only eats mini-carrots and homemade hummus. Boy, are you an excellent big brother or sister!!
Then you continue with the back story about your mom and why you were charged with this task, and drill deeper into how you handled it, and WHAT YOU LEARNED about yourself, others and the world in the process ( this is the all-important analytical, reflective part of your essay.)
So I hope my Brainstorm Guide has helped you have unveil some of your past problems to start your college application essay.
And that you start to get an idea of how you can use these to write about yourself to start your college application essay.
If you take the time to learn more about this process, you are able to write your own awesome essay.
Read my posts in this Jumpstart page and I promise this will start to make more sense, and even give you more ways to discover your best topic ideas.
If you want a short book that takes you through this process one step at a time, check out my writing guide on Amazon: Escape Essay Hell!
My online course, also available on this blog, does the same thing, but with a series of short videos and handouts.
Whatever works, right!
Hope you found this helpful!
Remember, if you can think of your past problems, you’re bound to find a great topic to start your college application essay!