A lot of students are betting on the Coronavirus to hand them a stellar college essay. If that sounds absurd, consider the situation. Schools are out, so sports are canceled. Writing about sports is a pet peeve of ours, but it is one of the most popular starting points for college essays. Clubs are also canceled. So, writing about clubs is out unless you want to write about something you did sophomore year, which is also not a great idea. Writing about your favorite class is probably a no-go because you won’t be there for a while. Writing about your summer program or internship may be out as well because the chances are good that those won’t be happening either. Writing about volunteering in your community isn’t an option either — staying inside means no more ladle-duty at the soup kitchen.
If this sounds depressing, it shouldn’t. It’s actually pretty exciting because all of the essay ideas that are now in the dust bin are also those that we try really hard to steer students away from. However, there is also a trap hidden in the new normal. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of college essays, will be written about the Coronavirus/COVID-19 in 2020. Most of them will be boring. Many will be bad. And yet, students around the world will press “submit” without any idea of how they have fallen into the trap of the bad coronavirus essay.
Describing an Experience is Not an Essay
One of the most frequent mistakes we see in college essays regardless of any particular topic is that the student goes into writing the essay with the idea that writing about an experience is the same as writing an essay. This is false. Describing an experience is not an essay. Living through the Coronavirus pandemic is a challenge, and many students will grow and evolve from this experience, but “How I thrived through the Coronavirus crisis” is not a good essay topic. Despite this, it will be used over and over and over again.
If you don’t believe us, think about sports. We see so many essays about sports that it’s become a running joke. Every single student who shows us their essay about what they learned playing soccer or football or lacrosse thinks that their story is unique. We wish this were true because it would make our job way easier. Finding an essay topic would be as simple as writing about a winning touchdown, but describing the feeling of running a ball across an arbitrary line is not an essay, it’s an anecdote. And it’s not a unique one.
The Coronavirus will be the new soccer. Billions of people are dealing with it. By-and-large, the experiences of millions of us will be similar (isolation and boredom leading to creativity). Most of the college essays that simply describe this mess will also be painfully similar.
Just as learning to be a leader in your school by being captain of the soccer team is not a unique experience, learning to be a leader in your family by helping out more at home…because you are forced to be at home…is not a unique experience. And describing an experience is not an essay.
Surviving is Not an Experience
Many students will aim to subvert the “describing an experience is not an essay” problem by insisting that their experience was, however, truly different and unique. Plus, they won’t just write about the experience, they’ll talk about how they grew too!
Thousands of essays will include a sentence that starts, “Despite the challenges, I learned that…” First off, we would like to ban starting sentences that way. More importantly, though, remember that surviving, or even thriving, is not by itself a meaningful experience. We do want students to take inspiration from the things that happen in their lives — this should be obvious. We also want students to explore how they have grown and developed, just without using clichés. But if you are going to dive deep into a particular moment in your life and explore how it changed you, that moment cannot be surviving. It needs to be something that is interesting enough that you could take the coronavirus out of the story altogether, and it would still stand on its own.
So, no, surviving is not an experience worth writing about. Look deeper.
If Everyone Sounds the Same, No One Stands Out
We’ve never had a student come to us and express a desire to sound like everyone else. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be laying out how to write compelling stories that incorporate the coronavirus. If everyone sounds the same, no one stands out, so writing about the coronavirus without purpose, focus, and guidance is a trap. So, close your computer and put your pen down. Focus on observing, engaging, and learning. Maybe something will happen that will lead to a great essay, but don’t try to squeeze one out of this experience just yet.
If you’re stumped on where to start with your college essays, send us an email. We help students turn their experiences and interests into meaningful and compelling essays that stand out.