A Collage of College Catastrophes: What Not to Do During the College Process
1. Be on a reality show. I have never seen a popular reality show about young people that doesn’t portray them in a negative way. A great example is Bravo’s NYC Prep, which showcases the repetitive and uninteresting lives of six (supposedly) wealthy New York City high school students. Many of the students on the show are getting ready to apply to college, so the topic is brought up quite a bit. One character is a junior named Camille who wants nothing more than to attend Harvard, yet she exhibits every characteristic any admissions committee would likely disapprove of. She disparages other colleges as second-rate and acts utterly pretentious and stuck up, and expresses her desire to participate in community service for the sole purpose of getting into Harvard. She should consider herself lucky if the admissions committee of every school she applies to has never heard of the show.
2. Get arrested. This is pretty obvious. If you’re seventeen you may get off easy, and relatively light crimes like pot possession or underage drinking might not go on your permanent record. However, if you’re eighteen or if your high school finds out about any arrests, it may be hard to keep that information out of the hands of colleges you’re applying to.
3. Mistake the name of a college. If you are reusing any essays about why you want to attend a school, make sure that you don’t leave the name of the original school in when you change the essay. Writing about why you want to attend UCLA on your USC application probably wont bode well for your admissions chances. Also, make sure you spell the name of colleges right on all your essays.
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