How do you come up with a good event to write about? It is not necessarily the grandest, most influential milestone in your life (although it can be). It’s not the magnitude of the event that matters or the spectacle, but your inner growth, perspective, how you reacted, and most importantly, what you learned from the experience that will make your essay stand out. Elaborating on ONE seemingly minute event tells us a lot more about you than if you try to tackle all of the following: water polo, band camp, being vice president of Adventure Club, etc. (And never use “etc.”). Tell us how you reacted when your water polo coach made someone else Varsity Captain after you’ve been on the team for four years. Colleges want to see how you grew as an individual and how you are able to self-examine yourself.

Pick something that matters to you. Don’t write about what you think the college admissions board wants to hear. No good has ever come of that.