It never would have crossed my parents mind nor did they
have millions of dollars to urge a college to accept me. No one took my SATs
for me or wrote my college application essays.
The college admissions scandal that has been roiling its
way through the headlines is demoralizing on many fronts. Students who found
their way toward admission through fraudulent means to elite schools have taken
seats away from those who applied honestly and on their own actual merits. The
scandal also suggests that the parents involved had too little faith in their
own children that they could succeed in life without a dishonest push from the
nest.
The most obvious takeaways from the most recent admission
scandal are: Don't cheat or try to bribe your way into school. And: Know that a
student can receive as strong an education at a non-elite school as an elite
one. The best writing teachers I ever had were at Bethany College, a small
liberal arts school in West Virginia. Bethany is many fine things and my guess
is that many students would thrive there, but it is decidedly not elite.
In full disclosure, while I've never taken money for
doing so, I do give some prospective college students advice on their
application essays. Giving someone advice, however, is far different from
writing someone's essays for him or her.
Having served on the admissions committees for three
different schools, I'm confident that an essay alone is not enough to earn
admission. But a good essay can certainly help an application.
While many high schools provide guidance to students
applying to college, the sheer volume of students -- and the tendency for some
students not to be ready to apply to college when their high school decides it
will practice writing essays -- makes it challenging for students to get the
help they need when they need it.
Since I am concerned that some students with limited
means are likely at a disadvantage when it comes to availing themselves of
college preparatory services, the right thing is for me to offer some free
advice. Here are four pointers to writing a strong application essay:
First, make sure your essay responds to the question
posed on the application. Don't simply use the practice essay you wrote for
school if it doesn't directly answer the question.
Second, include something in the essay that gives the
admissions committee a sense of who you are. Not a brag sheet, not a list of
accomplishments, but as heartfelt a story as you can muster that relates to the
topic.
Third, proofread whatever you write and cut any words
that aren't absolutely essential.
Fourth, read your essay out loud to see if it sounds like
you. Admissions committees, if they're doing their jobs, want to get a sense of
who you are. If your essay sounds like you, that helps.
If you do all of this and you don't gain admission to
every college you applied to, go ahead and be disappointed. But do not fret.
You want to be someplace that wants you for who you are, not what someone paid
someone else to make you appear to be.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin
(c) 2019 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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