…in a way that (hopefully) won’t freak you out. NYU’s Sarah Beck and University of Pittsburg’s Amanda J. Godley conducted a study in 2023 seeking to answer, “What are the characteristics of the self represented in successful college application essays?” I have a separate blog post explaining existing answers to this first research question, but here I want to address their second concern: “How do writers linguistically and discursively construct these characteristics?” Belo

MIT’s application instructions state, “Be honest, be open, be authentic.” Stanford stresses, “There are no right or wrong answers.” And Yale claims, “It doesn’t matter which topics you choose, as long as they are meaningful to you.” Universities place an emphasis on being genuine to calm worries in applicants and ease out more compelling stories. But these messages conceal a deeper intention. The thing is, while application reviewers insist you shouldn’t try to impress them,

I threw up in my high school bathroom the morning of my first college application decision. In fact, was a nervous wreck my entire senior year. Almost daily, I would check my odds of admission online, comparing my scores to the averages that my target universities accepted, trying to maintain some sense of emotional control. My future lay in the hands of masked admissions officers, and my prospects depended on whether or not they deemed me “worthy.” The common app essay, whil