Parents have the best intentions when it comes to helping their children with college applications, but if there’s an area where they should let their children be is in the college essay. The college essay is the most personal item of the application - one that requires self reflection and excellent writing. The essay should tell a great story and provide insights about your child’s values and background. It is a great opportunity to bring the application to life and let the college know what will be his/her unique contribution to the campus community. Therefore, there’s no right or wrong here and you can help your child if you keep these in mind:
- How to get started? Rather than re-invent the wheel, I recommend you learn about this on your own before getting started. There are plenty of free resources you can tap on the internet. Some of the websites with simple to follow tips that I recommend you review with your child before starts are as follows:
- How can you help? I would like to suggest you can help by helping your child be organized and strategic. There are plenty of deadlines and essays prompts to respond to, so just keeping abreast of this and being ahead of the game reduces the stress level for all involved. If your child allows you to help him in choosing a topic, you can help brainstorm unique topics that would be complementing to the application relaying insights and values to the Admissions Committee. The articles noted above list some great brainstorming tools to get you started. Once your child has done a good draft, you can also help edit the document but keep in mind that there’s a fine line between editing and completely re-writing parts of the essay. When you edit, please focus on grammar & structure but not actual writing. It is imperative that your child essay has his/her voice and not yours!
- When to get outside help? All of this is easier said than done and some parents choose to get outside help in the form of a relative, teacher or independent consultant to help with this process. This is certainly an option but not a requirement for a student to achieve an excellent essay. Remember that your child will have some help at this school - at a minimum, his school counselor will give him some feedback and depending on the size of the school, this may be thorough and sufficient to move forward. Nevertheless, I recommend that at least a pair of other independent eyes see the essay - perhaps someone who is not that close to your child - to get a fresh perspective on the value of the essay on its own merit.
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