College admissions essays exploit applicants' trauma

Springtime marks the flood of college acceptance letters posted all across social media platforms, yet nobody talks about what it takes to get accepted into these so-called esteemed institutions. Keep up your grades, be involved in extracurriculars and, apparently, expose all of your traumatic experiences. 

It seems that over the years, trauma dumping in personal essays has become increasingly encouraged. High school teachers and counselors influence their students to write about such experiences and claim that doing so will somehow showcase a students’ ability to overcome adversity.

Unfortunately, these tactics can be detrimental to one's personal well being. What happens when students bear all of this personal information and then receive a rejection letter? Is their trauma not valid enough? Students should be influenced to write about their passions and interests instead of being forced to unload all of their traumatic experiences. 

Sonoma State student Madison Dwyer explained that there is an unspoken truth to what one writes about in order to get into college. 

Dwyer recalled discussing extreme social anxiety when applying to school in 2019 and even went as far as explaining what tactics she used to continuously work through this obstacle. She said, “My essay was deeply personal, it feels strange to even discuss it now, but I mainly just wrote about working through my parents divorce.” 

From Dwyer’s short interview, it’s alarmingly clear that these college essays serve to cause more trauma than they’re worth. There shouldn’t be so much pressure to thoroughly discuss such personal events. 

In 2021, The New York Times featured a guest essay from high school senior Elijah Megginson that discussed similar experiences. Megginson described how teachers would frequently say, “You’re smart and you’re from the projects, colleges will absolutely love you.” 

Comments like these served only to devalue Megginson's identity and focus only on financial background. 

In reviewing the above examples, it seems that equating one's value to their trauma has become a very common theme in the realm of college applications. This is of particular importance when discussing people of color and their experiences applying to universities. 

In an article from The Daily Free Press, which is a student run newspaper at Boston University, Ariel Stein discusses how students of color feel pressured to become poster children for their pain in order to secure college admissions. 

College campuses are supposed to serve as communities that uplift students and allow them to be free thinkers. It becomes an institutional issue when people of color feel pressured to conform to a certain standard in order to be admitted into college. This only serves to reinforce stereotypes and can be detrimental to a students well being. 

In an interview with a student from Fullerton Junior College, Savannah Blocher recalls how there was this looming pressure to prove that she had been through adversity and grew from the trauma. This brings up another essential idea to remind all students, it is perfectly okay to still be actively trying to overcome adversity. There shouldn’t be so much pressure to write about major traumatic experiences. Our trauma does not define who we are. Instead students should be continuously encouraged to write about anything they feel particularly passionate about, after all college is all about creating a safe space to truly be individuals. 

As students, it is very important to remember that mental health matters and value is not calculated by how traumatic one’s childhood was. By acknowledging the link between trauma dumping and personal college essays, there can be an increased push towards discussing more positive aspects of life, like hobbies and passions. This should not take away from the validity of trauma and your right to discuss these experiences. However, it should no longer be a concept that is so frequently encouraged by individuals in positions of authority; i.e. teachers, counselors, advisors etc