EVA OSTRUM曾担任过耶鲁大学本科部的招生官，是美国High School Futures的创始人。本文内容主要就是针对美国大学申请中的Essay，对EVA OSTRUM进行的访谈。

Q: What are some of the most common mistakes that students make when writing their essays?

问：学生在写申请大学Essay短文时最长犯的错误都有哪些？

A: Some schools ask students to write about a role model such as asking what single person they would have lunch with. The biggest mistake that students make is that they spend more time writing about the other person than themselves. I&apos&aposd suggest starting from your own vantage point. How have you been affected? From my own life, if I were writing an essay, one person I&apos&aposve always admired is nelson Mandela. Every day on the frst day of school I read an inspiring quote from nelson Mandela. One day a boy looked at me and said, reacting to the quote, “Miss, who are you?” Focus on how your own actions and outlook have changed as a result of that person whether you&apos&aposve met them face to face or only know their writing.

Another really common mistake is that students feel they have to write something that makes them look different. When you&apos&aposre applying to a highly selective college, there&apos&aposs nothing you can do that looks different based on the actions themselves. Every admissions offcer has seen someone who does what you do. Instead, focus on what makes you you. That&apos&aposs really what admissions offcers want to know. Don&apos&apost tie yourself in knots to look exotic. It doesn&apos&apost matter what your essay&apos&aposs about. It&apos&aposs how you write about it.

Q: How can you tell if a student&apos&aposs essay is authentic?

问：你们是如何判断学生的Essay是否真实？

A: You look at their critical reading score. If they have a low critical reading and writing score and an essay that looks like it&apos&aposs written by a college professor or if the essay sounds like a very sophisticated person wrote it and the recommendations don&apos&apost present the same image, these can be a red fag. For many years, there&apos&aposs been an understanding that students in a certain income bracket get coached. If you do nothing, you&apos&aposre putting yourself at risk. remember though it&apos&aposs fne to have someone read your essay and give feedback on how it fows. It&apos&aposs not fne to have someone read your essay and do line by line edits. That would present you in a way that doesn&apos&apost line up.

Q: What is one or two of the best introductions you remember? What made them so memorable?

A: There was one essay that a student wrote about when his father frst took him for karate lessons. The frst sentence was about how he had been a complete failure at every other sport. There was another one by a girl who wrote about how she was a comic book artist. She was applying to art school, and some schools don&apos&apost consider it to be a serious art form. She grabbed me from the very beginning because her passion was so clear. The essays that grab me give me some kind of hook in the beginning to reel me in.

Q: Can you think of an example of when an applicant wrote about an ordinary topic in an extraordinary way?

A: One Yale applicant wrote about how every day on her way to school she passed a building where the pigeons rested. You would think that&apos&aposs a ridiculous topic, but it was so well written and engaging. It was about something mundane, but it really grabbed my attention.

It&apos&aposs important to tell a good story. Think about the stories you listen to in your life that your relatives tell or your friends tell. If they&apos&aposre well told, that&apos&aposs what catches your attention.

Q: Are there any topics or approaches to topics that students shouldn&apos&apost write about?

A: Topics that deal with personal tragedy are diffcult. Frequently the students are not far enough away from the event to write about it with any distance. They&apos&aposre not really telling a story. The essay is either a factual narration or therapeutic. I would be very wary of writing about a really serious, heavy topic. It can be done, but I think that the rule of thumb should be if the topic is still sensitive enough that you might wince a little bit, tear up, or cringe, maybe it&apos&aposs not a good topic. If you can talk about the event and maybe even have a sense of humor about it, that&apos&aposs a sign you&apos&aposre far enough away from it. Of course that doesn&apos&apost mean you have to write about it with humor.

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