Hi, Reader!

It's Oct. 15, which means a lot of you are in the home stretch of a deadline day. If you've already hit submit, congratulations! If you're still working, take a breath. (Do it with me now. In. Out. In. Out. We've got this.)

And if today wasn't a deadline for you: Keep at it. Your deadlines are likely not far away.

Today, I want to bust a few myths so you stop wasting energy on them.

Write about what matters to you and what you want admissions to know about you, not what you think sounds impressive.

The Myths That Won't Die

How many volunteer hours do you need to get into your top school? Does your essay have to make the reader cry?

No magic number, and no. (Sorry if you were hoping for a number.)

Inside Higher Ed asked five admissions directors about the myths that won't die. The big two sound familiar: a secret checklist (so many service hours, a research project) and an essay topic that has to be dramatic to count.

The directors say both miss what they're actually looking for. Penn's Whitney Soule pointed out that if applicants were perfect, they wouldn't need school. What matters is what matters to the student.

Rice's Charles Murphy said admissions is a human process that's “not easily distillable into one statistic.”

That's exactly why students grab simpler stories, often from outdated parent advice or Reddit. (Parents: the winning strategies from when you and I applied to college are old-school and, as the kids might say, “cringe.”)

TikTok Is Not an Admissions Office

Speaking of where students get their information: UC admissions put a director on camera to react to viral TikTok application advice.

(TLDR: What works for one person in their application won't necessarily work for another. Robert Penman, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at UC Davis, reminds us that they're trying to build a campus of students with many different experiences and perspectives.)

Before you rebuild your application around a short video from a stranger, hear from someone who reads applications for a living.

They also made a video where UC admissions staff and current UC students react to real PIQs and break down what works and what doesn't.

If you're applying to the UCs, it's worth your time. And even if you're not, there's good information in there.

The UC Deadline Is Closer Than It Looks

College Essay Guy's 1-Day UC PIQ Boot Camp (affiliate link) walks you through choosing your four topics, brainstorming, and revising. The live session is this Saturday, Oct. 17 (9 a.m.–noon PT), so grab your spot now.

📆 UPCOMING WEBINARS & DEADLINES

See my full calendar here.

One more thing before I go. Deadline days are stressful days, and I won't pretend otherwise. But so many of my students got ahead of it and submitted early, and I'm thrilled. (My blood pressure thanks them.)

Looking forward to meeting the next deadline with y'all!

Happy Writing!

Julia

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