As the summer ends and the new school year dawns, the posturing in college admissions commences in earnest. We’ve officially reached The “ALL my friends are done with their essays, I’m behind” stage of the Fall college application process.
Is it possible that your teenage friends grinded out “essays” which meet the word limit and generally relate to the essay prompt? Sure.
Did your friends write the essays without pressure from a parent or parent-s or even a taskmaster masquerading as a college admissions consultant who sets “benchmarks” but provides little actual counsel for a young person to recognize their genius? Probably not.
Does simply crafting words to fit the constraints of a college application essay under the duress of coercion, pestering, cajoling, intimidating, and/or bribing mean what’s written is quality? Likely not.
Quality in a college essay isn’t solely determined by the confirmation bias of an acceptance letter next spring. The quality of a college essay is concomitant to the confidence an applicant gains about their unique talent thus being able to articulate their life’s vision, to which a college education is just the next logical step to realizing their purpose.
Such quality is developed during a multi-draft editorial process with an experienced editor who guides a senior through a thorough self-reflection. Then the applicant wrangles with topic choice in a collaborative deliberation to organically discern the meaning of their experiences to date and their vision for right living.
Can your friends truthfully say they’ve completed such a complete inventory of their lives as described above and know who they are? Most likely not.
Yet in the Hunger Games of college admissions, where delineations between friends and competitors can be blurred, and teenage insecurities about not fitting in can be exploited, the college application trash-talking of Fall is just beginning—only adding complexity to the already complex process of transitioning to adulthood.
Since 2003, thousands of families have relied on Creative Marbles experts for their objective guidance in helping teenagers translate their experience into a path toward both economic success and lasting peace of mind. Contact us today if the college admissions process is more complex than you imagined or remembered it to be.
