HOW MUCH re PERSONAL LIFE SHOULD A STUDENT DISCUSS IN A COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY ?
A student gave me her paper to proof-read yesterday ...tthey were working on college application essays...so she started her essay talking about her family & how she discovered her dad was having sex with her aunt (who was living with them)...& when she confronted her dad he beat her..later they got divorced..she wrote...so I made a few grammar corrections & handed it back to her...
but I was thinking...1) you don't want to become too "graphic" in a college application essay, but I suppose its good to be candid ..& also 2) is this true ? Sometimes kids make things up for strange reasons &3) if it is true its pretty sad, but 4) don't make it the only thing u talk about in a college application.
..so I said to the whole class, "Its okay to talk about hardships..espec overcoming harships, but you don't want too sound too conflicted..."...so a student asked me if she should talk about psychological therapy she apparently underwent, & I said, "Sure, its ok, but you never know how it might be misunderstood by the person readng it...if you sound too emotionally unstable...." of course I'm thinking "old school" & calvin college...maybe these days it doesn't matter, IDK
