On Being Yourself in College Essays

On Being Yourself in College Essays November 6, 2013 Dont be completely yourself in your college essays. Seriously. You hear the old refrain a lot in life: Be yourself. Dont try to be someone youre not. They say its true on job interviews. They say its true in dating. And there are many within the college admissions community who say its also true in college essays. Want to know what we at Ivy Coach say? These people couldnt be more wrong. On a job interview, it might be very you to show up in red flip-flops. But Ernst Young is not going to give you a good evaluation on your case interview if you show up in red flip-flops. Neither will McKinsey. On a first date, it might be you to chew your food with your mouth open. It might be you to talk about all of your previous relationships. Wearing flip-flops wont land you the coveted job. Chewing with your mouth open and talking about previous relationships wont land you a mate. So how does this relate to college essays? Well, most high school students arent all that   interesting. Thats right. We said it. There are too many kids out there who are doing the same things. Sure, many of them get great grades and great SAT scores. But that doesnt make one interesting. Neither does being a member of Key Club or doing a service trip to Guam. Boring, boring, boring. More of the same. If its you to be boring, to write about the same thing that just about every other applicant to highly selective colleges is writing about in their college essays, then you should absolutely not be you. Be someone else. Be another version of you. A better version. A more interesting version. A version of you that someone namely an admissions officer at a highly selective college might actually enjoy reading about. Were not saying to write untruths. Dont do that. Thats bad. Just figure out a way to showcase you without being 100% entirely yourself. Think of your college essay as a job interview in this way. Or a first date.