College Admissions Counselor

College Admissions Counselor January 9, 2013 A college admissions counselor doesnt want to read an essay about your trip to India. Why not? Because a college admissions counselor doesnt make a ton of money and their schedule may not afford them the chance to travel as well. If youre seventeen years old and you get to travel the world and see the great sights of India, how do you think itll make someone older feel when they dont have this same opportunity? Its simple psychology. It causes resentment. Do you think a college admissions counselor is likely to go to bat for a candidate they resent or rather one they like? Its a no-brainer. Dont write about your trip to India. A college admissions counselor wont want to read about it in your college essay. Similarly, a college admissions counselor doesnt want to read your essay about sports. Do you know how many applications they have to read? Do you know how many college essays they have to read? Do you think the vast majority of these college essays are original? Do you think most of these essays inspire college admissions counselors and get them to do a happy dance on their desks?   Most college essays submitted to highly selective colleges are just awful. Parents and students may think they know what they should write about, but in our years of experience they are almost always wrong. Writing a college essay about being down three goals to two in the final seconds and scoring the goal that ties it all up at the buzzer is not interesting. And besides it will only hurt your chances for admission because it is trite. At Ivy Coach, we help you get inside the head of a college admissions counselor. We dont suggest that you write what you think a college admissions counselor wants to read. Because they dont want to read what you think they want to read. We help you come up with ideas that will lead college admissions counselors to say this is the best essay Ive read all day. It happens all the time for our students. Know how we know? One student received a rubber-band in the mail from an admissions office. Her college essay was about a rubber-band ball. One student was pulled aside by an admissions officer after being admitted as a transfer and told that his essay was the most powerful theyd ever read in their careers. Its these kinds of stories that our students experience quite often.