•Reflectiveness/Insight
Have you grown with your experiences? Do you look inward and learn from both your successes and failures? Admissions officers look for students who take every opportunity to mature. It is one thing to
simply write about what has happened to you, and another to show how you have changed because of these events.

Humor is one of the most effective tools for showcasing your inter-personal development, since when it’s used appropriately it can add a kind of mature sincerity to your analysis. Some of the most successful writers use humor to make their inter-personal reflection more accessible to their reader.

However, I think students should try to avoid gimmicks in general. They tend to come off as either desperate or annoying and admissions officers see their fill every year.

I am curious though: have you ever seen something you would classify as a gimmick work in favor of a student?

I have a friend who thinks he is funny. I have not read his college essay, but I may decide to warn him about this.

I think it comes down to judgment on the part of the student. Yes, a piece of humor may entertain one Admissions officer, and not another, but the student needs to show the good judgment to not write about something so extreme or polarizing that it draws a “NO WAY” from an Admissions officer.

I think that common sense would be a predictor of an applicant’s success at college (and maybe life). If a kid’s sense of humor is extreme and/or he is unable to consider decorum, context or the reader’s potential frame of reference when delivering a humorous story, he may be a “shock jock” at college instead of an effective agent of change.

I am currently working on college applications with my daughter and find it OVERWHELMING! My daughter is strong academically but because of my parenting style, had a childhood, not a resume building school career. She is smart, considerate, well traveled and an all around great kid. We pray she gets into a college where she will feel comfortable and be challenged but some of these schools seem to expect so much from a 17 year old. We hope her college essay can put her “over the top” and we enjoyed your piece about funny and admissions.

I do hope you do not judge students’ too harshly on grammer!!!
- check your spelling – the proper UR is YOUR!

“The point is – you’re reader may not be funny,”

We just received a lovely thank you note from a college admissions dean we interviewed with. In response to my daughter’s thank you letter, he responded that his college did indeed have many courses of specific interest to my child – “their are many courses designed ….”- again, a dean who misused a common homophone!

Soooo – does spelling and grammer really count?

When I help a student construct an essay, I work with that student for hours before we put pen to paper. We talk about what has mattered to them in their high school careers and what they care about in their lives. The essay, in my opinion, should be about something you care about deeply and convey who you are. That’s a tough bar for students initially.

That said, there is NO magic secret or best essay. Each student is an individual and should be working toward an essay that is individual.

I just know that I fully support Michael’s point. Student can, and should, work toward an essay that conveys their personality….

…after they get great grades, great test scores, etc.

Doesn’t your post support the idea that a student should focus on getting their personality across in their work?

The writer of the essay was funny, creative, and daring. We can tell a good deal about her personality because of the essay she wrote. You, in fact, worked very hard to make sure she was admitted.