11/23/01

There's the high school senior who drew a comic strip for his college essay. The girl who sent a self-portrait in crayon. The student who, in answering a question about the most courageous thing he'd ever done, supposedly wrote "Not answering this question."

Gutsy? Maybe, if they're even true.

Successful? Probably not.

As former dean of admissions at Reed College and a former admissions officer at Duke University, Nancy Donehower has seen ambitious students shred their chances at coveted schools by submitting misguided college essays.

"They sacrifice content for what they think will be a catchy format," says the Portland-based independent college counselor. "They'll send an essay and a cheesecake. Y'know, that's kind of not the point."

As the college application season grinds along, high school seniors are racking their brains over essay questions that can be a turning point in their acceptance or denial by schools.

An excellent essay won't make up for faltering grades, but it will provide another view of your personality and character that you just can't get from SAT scores or a grade-point average. Last week, schools in the California university system made that even clearer when they adopted a new policy of weighing personal experiences in their selection process.

Considering a student holistically can help applicants like 17-year-old Northwest Academy senior Zamin Lennox Mirza, who plans to apply to the University of Southern California, New York University and other schools.

"My test scores were bad," Mirza says. "It kind of worried me in the whole application process. The essay can be where you tell why that is. The interviews and the essays are where you'll get to communicate about yourself."

That puts an enormous amount of pressure on writing a captivating piece.

Sometimes students overthink the essay, leading to disastrous attempts like a one-sentence answer.

The first step is to calm down. Then spend time thinking about what you want to write.

"The best way is the hardest thing to do when you're 17, which is to be true to yourself," Donehower says. "You have to have the courage of your convictions, but you also have to have the courage of your confusions."

No college admissions officer -- or anyone else, for that matter -- realistically expects high school seniors to be capable of providing the answers to life's challenges, she says.

"It's OK to say, 'I have a lot of questions and I'm figuring out the answers,' " she says. "It gives colleges a snapshot of where your thinking is at that point in time."

It's difficult, if not impossible, to say which topics are the best or worst, but there are some that experience has shown are worth avoiding, says Geoff Cook, president and founder of EssayEdge.com, an online essay editing Web site.

"You generally want to stay away from learning disorders, you generally do want to stay away from drug use. You want to stay away from suicide," Cook says. "Admissions officers aren't just reading these things to admit you. They're also looking for . . . reasons you might not be able to complete their curriculum."

Sometimes, they're just turned off by TMI: Too Much Information.

"Every year, you'll get a handful of kids that write about something so personal that you don't want to know as an admission officer," Donehower says. "I don't need to know about your first sexual experience."

The best essays often deal with heavy topics, such as homosexuality or the death of a loved one, Cook says.

"The worst essays tend to be about the same topics," he says. "It's a fine line to walk between having an emotionally laden essay that really shows your strength and your power to overcome (vs.) just an emotional ploy. You have to be careful you're doing it right."

Increasingly, students are turning to the Internet for help.

EssayEdge.com works with 5,000 to 6,000 students each month. About 200,000 people access its free essay help course and 100 sample essays each month, says Cook, who started his company in his dorm room in 1997.

Writing the essay is tough because students don't know whom they're writing for. They often picture the admissions committee as a group of highly discriminating meanies, Donehower says.

"Students are more inclined to think of admissions people as ogres," Donehower says. They think "they're just going to nail them at every possible opportunity. That's really not true, even at the top schools."

An admissions officer for nearly 20 years, Donehower says she loves her new job on the other side of the table because she can help debunk the myth of the evil admissions officer and work directly with students.

"Every year, I relive my senior year in high school," she says, laughing. "For better or for worse." Su-jin Yim can be reached at 503-294-7611 or by e-mail at suyim@news.oregonian.com.