aquariuschicken asked: Hey, Lena. I just read your "guide to getting into Harvard," and seriously, you sound like me, except more impressive. I'm going to be Asst. Editor-in-Chief of my school's newspaper the upcoming year (I'll be a senior), and I was on Speech and Debate freshman and sophomore year, but not last year because my parents made me quit. I'll be on the team next year, though. I do DI, Congress, and LD (but I'm not very good at LD). I'm also a California girl; I hail from Claremont. Anyway, I wanted to ask you what you wrote about in your essays. I know you said you wrote about newspaper and debate, but how exactly did you write about it? Was it about how they changed your life, or what, and was that your personal statement essay or your extracurricular essay? I'm not asking this so I can get into Harvard; I'm actually looking at more plausible schools, but my crazy Asian dad wants me to apply anyway. Thanks for you help! I really admire you. :)
I honestly don’t remember much about my college admissions essays, but I believe that I tried the “look at the evolution of me!” tactic. I actually didn’t write about debating, per se, but rather the process of coaching novices. (I was, for inexplicable reasons, the captain for all oratory events despite having never competed in any of them.) For the piece on newspaper, I’m pretty sure I talked about how I came to realize journalism’s importance in changing local/public policy. (I actually no longer believe this.)
This is going to sound incredibly jaded of me, but I would advise that you fake it. If you’re 18, your life has probably not been radically altered by your involvement in an extracurricular. So much of what I thought at your age turned out to not be true at all, but it looks like my naivete and endless optimism is what got me into Harvard. Do NOT lie (bad, not to mention unethical, idea) but do embellish when it comes to how life-changing an experience is. We know what colleges want to hear. And I’m here to tell you that it’s perfectly acceptable to over-inflate the value of your favorite after-school activity for instrumental purposes. That’s why you signed up for them in the first place.
More burning questions? Ask Lena.
Related posts on college admissions:
Reader Question: “What other colleges did you apply to besides Harvard?”
How To Get Into Harvard: Tips From A Former Ivy League Sex Blogger
