Are College Personal Essays Important?

Are College Personal Essays Important?

By: Mary Mask

Before Covid-19, the personal essay was a pillar of every student’s college application. Nowadays, many colleges and universities have discarded the requirement and solely focused on test scores and sometimes just transcripts. How does this affect students though? Well, the college essay is one of the only ways a student can speak for themselves in their application. Their transcript, recommendation letter and ACT/SAT scores are mostly beyond their control come senior year. It is a way for students to fight for themselves once they make it into the “maybe” pile of a school’s applications. 

Maggie Pasquarelli, ELA teacher and English Department Head at Carrboro High School said, “The essay is not to make you look great or amazing, it’s to distinguish you as a person.” It’s important to remember that the essay is supposed to set you apart from other applicants. This is why the popular essay topics of The Big Game or A Struggle You’ve Overcome are typically discouraged by counselors and teachers. They are just too simple to be able to distinguish you from other applicants. Be original and let that freak flag fly!

Unfortunately, there's been an increase in tutors and professionals being hired by student’s parents to “help” them write their essays. This brings up a tricky predicament: are students now able to pay their way to the perfect college essay? Over the course of Pasquarelli’s career, she has come across many students who are basically paying a tutor to write their essay for them. This is worrying because it brings up issues of equity and fairness. Students whose families are unable to afford tutoring for them are at a huge disadvantage compared to those who can. This leads to ethical questions surrounding these tutoring jobs and whether they should exist or not.

Using a tutor may raise questions of equity, but there are many resources within the school that can help. The college essay can be intimidating, but even if you haven’t started you still have time! Pasquarelli has students every year who anxiously believe they’re “behind” because their peers may be further along in the process. She said that, “Students aren’t behind if they haven’t started. You can get the help you need in school.” By taking advantage of resources at CHS such as peer review, class discussions, and weekend/flextime conferences, a student has what they need to succeed in writing their essay. Get started as soon as you can, but don’t panic! You’ll be okay!