{"id":2559,"date":"2018-10-10T13:04:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T17:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2018-10-10T13:04:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T17:04:38","slug":"words-of-wisdom-for-college-essay-editors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/10\/10\/words-of-wisdom-for-college-essay-editors\/","title":{"rendered":"Words of Wisdom for College Essay Editors"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2560\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2560\" style=\"width: 724px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/CollegeEssay.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2560\" src=\"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/CollegeEssay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"724\" height=\"483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/CollegeEssay.jpg 724w, https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/CollegeEssay-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2560\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A recent column published in <em>The New York Times<\/em> offered some timely advice for parents who just can\u2019t help tinkering with their child\u2019s college essay.<\/p>\n<p>In a word? Don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don\u2019t know what a college essay is really about,\u201d wrote JM Farkas, a college essay consultant. \u201cUnlike the other parts of an application, where high grade point averages and SAT scores reign supreme, the essay is less about being impressive than it is about being authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And when parents try to insert their voice into the essay, the result, more often than not is a \u201cterrible\u201d college essay, added Farkas.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the intent of the essay is to be \u201cthe purest part of the application.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Farkas writes: \u201cContrary to popular belief, it\u2019s not about unattainable standards or curing cancer. In fact, a good test of a college essay is: Can the writer convince the reader that she would make a great roommate?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/10\/03\/well\/family\/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html\">Read the full column<\/a> and check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nacacfairs.org\/learn\/apply\/EssayTips\/\">NACAC\u2019s essay tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Admitted writer\/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"mailto:mstegmeir@nacacnet.org\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">mstegmeir@nacacnet.org.\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent column published in The New York Times offered some timely advice for parents who just can\u2019t help tinkering with their child\u2019s college essay. In a word? Don\u2019t. \u201cThe paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don\u2019t know what a college essay is really about,\u201d &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/10\/10\/words-of-wisdom-for-college-essay-editors\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Words of Wisdom for College Essay Editors<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-admission"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mary Stegmeir","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/mstegmeir\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-Fh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}