Nothing New Under the Sun
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
by Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1818
Let’s begin with some quick mental math.
Top universities receive anywhere between forty-thousand to one-hundred-thousand applications EVERY YEAR. The Common App requires applicants to answer one out of seven possible prompts for their personal statement, and the UC four out of eight for their personal insights. Assuming 90% of the applications are completed properly, that’s still in the tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of essays all answering the same handful of questions in a couple of hundred words. Talk about a real pigeonhole problem.
Now, in the midst of this global pandemic, top universities are seeing an ALL-TIME RECORD-HIGH of applicants. The University of California announced a 16.1 percent leap from the past year for fall 2021 admissions, the highest number of undergraduate applications in its history (Source 1). According to The Harvard Gazette, “The total number of applications for the Class of 2025 was 57,435, a marked increase from 40,248 for the Class of 2024” (Source 2). And of these applicants, how many college aspirants do you think talk about the impacts of Covid-19 on their life? How many more talked about the loss of some extracurricular activity? About social isolation and academic stress?
There is nothing new under the sun.
“Nothing new under the sun” is a common English proverb that means everything that is happening now has already happened before.
Even before the pandemic, college essays are plagued with every cliché imaginable. Every college admissions officer is sick to the stomach reading (in no particular order):
Family pressure to succeed a certain way and navigating parental expectations.
The thrill of victory or pain of defeat from some competition.
Standing up against institutions or higher authority.
Dealing with tragedy, be it death, cancer, or divorce.
An amazing epiphany where “suddenly I realized…”
Working hard and overcoming a challenging time.
Volunteering and learning lessons from the less fortunate.
Moving to a different country and learning to adapt and fit in.
Confessing some past transgression or prejudice and how it's different now.
Romantic relationships and breakups that’s just way too personal.
Sounds familiar? That’s why I say there is nothing new under the sun. In other words, your life story (as an 18-year-old growing up in a large city, having gone through 12 years of standard education, and aiming to go to a prestigious university) is most likely going to meet its doppelganger at the admissions office.
Neither good nor bad, but writing makes it so.
The truth is, you really can’t blame the students for writing ‘cliché stories’. There are only so many ways to answer the same few questions that colleges ask of us. The real tragedy of most college essays is not that they are cliche, but rather that these stories *are* true life experiences. They *are*, after all, personal life experiences that truly impacted and changed us in one way or another. It just so happens that other students happened to have experienced the same or similar thing.
My point is: it’s practically impossible to talk about something that’s totally out of this world, so how - in the world - can you stand out?
Like Shakespeare said through Hamlet: “Nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
It always begins with an honest introspection to dig up the box of dusty memories. This is usually done with journaling and prompts - the pick and shovel of good digging. Inside that box contains all sorts of memorabilia. And whether literal or metaphorical, every piece is placed there for a reason. Those reasons, when aligned together properly, are the ingredients for a powerful essay. Just like when planets come into alignment, magical things happen.
Again, it is not very likely that I’ll see something totally new. What’s unique is not the elements themselves: rather, it is HOW these elements have combined to form each student’s unique life story. Like the combinations on a lock, the numbers are only 0 to 9, yes, but when these simple numbers are aligned in the correct combination, it can and will unlock your story’s fullest potential.
