The Do's And Don'ts Of College Essay Writing

Hillary Frank is an author, freelance writer, radio producer, and expert on college essay writing. She will be speaking tonight at 7 p.m. about college essay writing at Watchung Booksellers. Montclair Patch recently asked Frank about the process of writing an essay and the common mistakes many students make.

1) What's the most important point a student must remember when doing their essay?

Don't be boring. 

2) What's the biggest mistake a lot of kids make?

A lot of kids try really hard to impress the admissions committee. They'll talk blandly about their accomplishments or a trip to build houses in a third world country, not realizing that 1) everyone else is writing about these things and 2) these topics don't generally tell the admissions committee anything about you except that you are a good student or very privileged. What the committee really wants to hear is, What makes you an interesting individual. In other words, what makes you YOU.

3) How do you work with kids to bring out their unique stories?

I approach essay consulting the same way I approach working with professional writers as an editor. The most rigorous part of the process is idea generation. Often we don't know right away what makes our story unique (same goes for pro writers!), so I begin by interviewing the student and getting them to tell me everything about their life that feels like it has some significance. Usually the act of talking, rather than writing, will allow the student to explore their life experiences and what they mean in brand new ways.  

4) Why did you decide to launch this business?

All good writing is about change and I believe that our late teen years are the time in our lives when we change the most. It is when we begin to truly figure out who we are. That makes for some fascinating and important stories. But the way we're taught to write in school (most of the time) doesn't leave us with a clear method of how to express those stories in writing in a captivating way. I know this because as an editor at radio shows like This American Life and Weekend America, there was barely ever a story that grabbed us enough to want to put it on the air. That tells me that the art of writing compelling stories is not being taught broadly enough—to kids or adults—and to capture a tired admissions officer's attention, one must write compellingly. I care deeply about kids and I care deeply about them being able to convey their stories of change. That is why I started the business.

5) What was your college essay about?

I had to answer a prompt about an experience that prepared me for a diverse world. I wrote about my art teacher and how she once had the class draw her portrait. She told us to include every wrinkle and imperfection in her face because imperfections are both universal and what make us unique. I basically said that this was now my worldview: that we are all flawed individuals—the same in our differences. At the time I knew that I was answering this question differently from how most people would answer it. I left high school as a junior to attend Tufts University. My grades were good, my test scores good enough. I am convinced it was my essay, and the fact that it stood out, that got me in a year early. This goes to show, too, that even seemingly small experiences can make for solid essays.

Hillary Frank is the author of the young adult novels Better Than Running at Night, I Can't Tell You, and The View from the Top and a contributor to a variety of public radio programs, including This American Life. Her radio essay series, Coming-of-Age, written and voiced by teens, won several awards, including an honorable mention from the Third Coast International Audio Festival, one of the highest honors in public radio.