Trips and College Essays

Trips and College Essays March 20, 2012 Never write about trips in your college essays. Thats one surefire way to bore admissions officers (photo credit: Mark J. Miller). Have you ever sat next to someone while they flipped through a photo album, containing a whole lot of pictures from a trip to India? Or France? Or Egypt? Maybe they showed you pictures of themselves on a beach or at the top of a mountain or even on a camel. Maybe they recounted to you exactly what they did each day, what they had for breakfast, how they woke up to an amazing sunrise, and how theyre aching to go back. If youve ever found watching your friend flip through his/her photo album a bit tedious, youre not alone! So why would college applicants write about trips year after year in their college essays. Trips and college essays should have nothing to do with each other. Nothing. Nobody wants to read 500 words about a trip to Mumbai. Its boring. Its ordinary. Its the essay that college admissions counselors dread. And dont forget that college admissions counselors often arent in glamorous places when reading your college essays. Theyre either in their office or at home. So dont regal them with stories about your adventures around the world. Its certainly not going to help your case. But beyond that, college essays should be powerful and exciting. Recounting stories from trips is inherently boring. Theres no getting around that. When you have a boring subject matter, you can only do so much with the material. Write your college essay from a good, exciting idea. Itll make a world of difference, we promise!