Coronavirus and College Admissions Essays
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High degrees of uncertainty and a constantly evolving situation due to the novel Coronavirus mean continued disruptions across all sectors of the economy and society. College admissions and applications are no exception.
I share my thoughts regarding the pandemic and the questions I’m investigating in this post. The Common Application website also has helpful resources for visiting campus and other tips.
My recommendations will not change because of UT-Austin going test-optional, which I discuss here. If you choose not to submit an ACT/SAT, you still need to have most or all A’s on the honors/AP track to be competitive, especially for majors that are in high demand.
One question I’ve abstained from addressing until now is how to approach the pandemic in your college applications. My overall approach to your college applications is to focus on factors within your control.
Now more than ever, much of our lives and future prospects are unknown and outside of our influence. We’re all in similar boats even if some low-income or marginalized populations are more directly affected by the pandemic than more privileged families and communities. Universities are anticipating students discussing these disruptions in their essays.
In this post, I cover two application possibilities: UT-Austin and the Common Application. I overview potential special circumstances and provide a lengthy commentary and whether and how to discuss Coronavirus in your college essays.
Apply Texas Covid-19 Impact Boxes in Custom Questions Page 9
UT applicants have the option to check yes to any that apply. “The University of Texas at Austin understands that a pandemic like COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has had an impact on students and their families. Please share here how these circumstances may have affected you and your family.”
Access to technology is unreliable or nonexistent
I lost my job or ability to work
Parent or guardian lost job or unable to work
I was considered essential worker and had to work
Parent or guardian considered essential worker
Travel, electricity, internet affected by curfew
Home responsibilities increased or changed
My health was affected
Health of one or more household members affected
UT-Austin Optional Academic Circumstances Short Answer
Please share background on events or special circumstances that may have impacted your high school academic performance.
Common Application Optional Covid-19 Essay Prompt
In a maximum of 250 words, you have the option to share any extenuating circumstances due to the pandemic:
Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces.
Initial Thoughts
UT-Austin released their fourth and optional short answer last year for the Fall 2020 admissions cycle. It presents a perfect opportunity to share if and how Covid-19 has impacted your life and education.
Likewise, you could use a similar or the same essay to answer the Common Application optional question. On the Common App, you only need to do the essay once and not for every university. Counselors also have the opportunity to submit coursework and academic policies in an applicant’s Common Application profile.
You definitely DO NOT need to write these essays if it doesn’t apply. One college application rule of thumb “if it’s optional or recommended, do it” might apply to things like UT-Austin’s expanded resume or SAT Subject Tests at selective universities, but here, optional truly means not necessary unless applicable. If you only need a few sentences to discuss disruptions or special circumstances, consider working them into one of the required essays.
Another option is if you’ve missed out on an opportunity, you can flag in your resume “canceled” or “disrupted” due to the pandemic. Your admissions reviewers will be understanding. They’re never going to judge you negatively for something you didn’t do. Their lives and careers have likely been affected as well.
One tendency students might feel is “forcing” an essay and either exaggerating a minor inconvenience or writing hyperbolically. Stick to the facts and write clearly and directly how Coronavirus affected you and your family. If something truly awful happened like the loss of a loved one or you yourself getting seriously ill, please write about it.
If you choose to write either essay, it’s important to provide new information that wasn’t mentioned in another essay. Don’t be repetitive in your college applications.
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Potential Coronavirus Special Circumstances
Here are a number of possible ways Coronavirus may have disrupted your life and educational opportunities. It isn’t exhaustive, and not everything on this list may be necessary to discuss.
You contracted the virus and experienced complications
An immediate family member was hospitalized or passed away
One or both parents lost their job or your family’s primary source of income
A parent is a high-risk medical professional or essential worker
You work/ed an essential skills job
Unable to access stimulus or other social services benefits
Housing disruptions like inability to pay rent, eviction, or some other displacement resulting in temporary or permanent homelessness or transience
Taking in other family members or friends who have lost their homes
Food insecurity
Visa or immigration issues
Inability to leave abusive or neglectful households due to lockdown or social distancing requirements
Mental, emotional, or psychological distress or suicidal ideation
Amplification of pre-existing medical conditions or inability to receive regular treatment that impacts your schoolwork or overall well-being
Unable to go to work or school because you depend on public transportation
Lack of access to educational opportunities, i.e. school not adequately transitioning to online classes, inadequate home internet access, or a noisy/full house
Converting to a pass/fail system does not sufficiently account for your academic progress
Unable to take for the first time or retake the ACT/SAT
Complications with AP Exams
Canceled summer camps, research opportunities, or internships
Spring academic, athletic, or music competition cancellations
Change of future plans
Recommendations for Whether and How to Write about Coronavirus in College Admissions Essays
I see three broad possible approaches for discussing disruptions and special circumstances: dedicating your Apply Texas Essay A or Common Application essay; sharing information in the dedicated short answer and optional essay responses; discussing it little in a required essay or not at all. It’s also important for applicants to be especially mindful of both the content and tone of your essays should you choose to discuss the pandemic.
For now, I’m recommending a high threshold for whether to discuss Coronavirus. Given that every student and family in the US and around the world has been affected somehow by the pandemic, the first question you should ask yourself is, “How is my situation uniquely different from my classmates or people from similar backgrounds?” Answering this question will require an unusual degree of self-awareness and an understanding of how the pandemic affects society and not just your personal life.
I suggest dedicating an entire long essay to Coronavirus only if you’ve experienced significant hardships or life-changing disruptions like the loss of a loved one or becoming homeless that is so central to current barriers or future opportunities that you need the space to expand upon what’s going on. If you choose to dedicate an entire long essay, your writing should be largely about you and your family’s circumstances and not a general discussion of the pandemic or something that happened to a friend.
I imagine that most applicants won’t fall under the world-shattering category of significant trauma or hardship, but many still might have experienced setbacks or disruptions suitable for writing the optional essay. My suggestion here is to “stick to the facts” and avoid writing unnecessarily lengthy essays.
Every school has experienced changes in grading policies. Many students are missing out on summer activities, competitions, or camps. A lot of applicants will be unable to retake the ACT/SAT and attempt to improve. Still, others won’t be able to take the exams at all. If you’re in the same or similar boat to many of your classmates, maybe forgo writing the optional essays.
I understand that what may appear like a minor setback or inconvenience to an outsider seem significant or life-altering to you. Understanding who you're writing to and your admissions audience is critical to assessing whether and how you should discuss Coronavirus. Your admissions reviewer, ultimately, is the arbiter of deciding how severe the disruption is. Their understanding will be relative to their personal experiences and the other dozens or hundreds of Covid-19-related essays that they’ll undoubtedly read.
Keep in mind that many applicants will choose to write about the pandemic, and some will experience truly distressing and traumatic events, so your admissions reviewer will see a wide variety of responses. If you make a mountain out of a molehill, your reviewer will know. You won’t be doing yourself any favors and may even damage your application.
You can also assume that your reader knows what Coronavirus and the Covid-19 pandemic is. You don’t need to write to them like they’re an alien from another planet. When I worked at UT in the early 2010s, I can’t tell you the number of applicants who wrote about the mechanics of an iPhone or how social media works as if the reviewer has never heard of smartphones or Facebook.
One understandable cliche that I’m anticipating is a significant increase in related majors like biology, public health, social work, and ever more applicants thinking they want to be pre-med. The “I want to be a doctor to help people” is already a well-trodden trope that often leads to eye-rolling from admissions readers. I’m thinking here about UT’s First Choice Major short answer, specifically.
It’s fine if your academic interests and future ambitions have shifted as a result of the pandemic. Be mindful that you will be among countless others writing essentially the same essays about how they want to be hero doctors or discover the next epidemiological breakthrough in the laboratory. If you choose to take this route, do as much homework as you can about what potential majors or careers are involved with addressing public health and economic catastrophes. Here, conveying a nuanced and mature tone will be especially important.
Another rule of thumb to help you decide whether to write about coronavirus is to distinguish whether something happened to you or your immediate family, or is it that I’ve missed out on something that would have happened without the pandemic. Missing out on something like potentially raising your grades due to pass/fail policies or a summer camp cancellation is materially different than something happening to you like contracting the virus or your family losing their job.
It’s okay to write a few sentences about a school’s grading policies and how it affects your class rank, for example, but you don’t need to use 250 words if it isn’t necessary. Save your admissions reviewer the time. Most applicants, however, may be able to sufficiently share any potential disruptions or special circumstances in a paragraph in their long essay or a few sentences in short answers/supplements.
My final rule of thumb is: if you feel that you need to share something, it’s better to err on the side of disclosure rather than omission. Your admissions reviewer will only know as much as you tell them. They’re not mindreaders or have crystal balls that share everything that’s going on at your school. Provide the content but be careful to strike a measured and balanced tone.