Friday Night Lights and the College Application Essay
Cate, Luke, Liz and I tore through three seasons of the Friday Night Lights television series last fall. Some of the show’s racier content made for some awkward moments for the four of us but we stayed with it because the characters and the storylines (especially in seasons one and three) were compelling.
We were all surprised – and pleased – to see two supporting characters emerge as stars in the third season. Tyra, once a super social party girl, grows into an ambitious young woman who wants more from life than what the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, promises. Landry, the quintessentially uncool brain, through an unlikely romance with Tyra, develops a deep self-confidence that helps him grow into far more than just a narrowly-focused AP-crushing student.
Their relationship culminates when Landry helps Tyra with her college application essay. The problem is that Tyra’s essay is terrible. It’s a predictable rehash of her activities, with Applebee’s as a metaphor and cliched conclusions as to what it all means.
It’s not Tyra’s fault. Like most high schoolers, Tyra hasn’t had much experience with writing a personal essay. Most English assignments ask for an analysis of a piece of literature, history work focuses on recalling and synthesizing events and science labs demand a clear, sequential detailing of an experiment. It’s no wonder that Tyra (like most high schoolers) produces a shallow essay. No one has ever asked her to look at her life and to see the arc of it – the moments of importance, of meaning, of success, of failure… of personal growth and realization. No one has ever asked her to write an essay about herself and her dreams.
But Landry won’t accept the simplistic essay she’s written. He insists that she look deeper, that she write from the heart… that she tell her unique story. In frustration, Tyra asks Landry if she’s supposed to write about her father who left her, her dissolute mother or her troubled sister? Should she write about spending most of her teenage years filled with anger and hate?
Landry – a great teacher, and an even better friend – responds to her emotional outburst with a simple question: “What changed?”
And with that, Tyra heads down a path that will make her essay a thing of beauty and insight. When it’s done, she reads it to him and then asks: “What did you think?” And Landry responds: “… it’s great.”
But more importantly, Tyra says: “I think it’s great, too.”
Writing a great college essay is not easy. Every senior, like Tyra, needs a Landry – someone who can help draw out your story while allowing the story to be uniquely yours. That’s what we try to do with our College Essay Program.
Overland’s College Essay Program is a teen summer program that gives rising seniors the chance to spend a week on the Williams College campus in a small group of peers brainstorming, drafting, writing, revising and polishing an essay. From the start the goal is to get beyond the predictable rehash of your high school activities and honors, to help you find your unique story and its meaning.
By the end of the week, you’ll read your essay to the group and hear their loud and supportive praise.
More importantly, though, we’re sure you’ll look at and say “I think it’s great, too.”
-Tom Costley
Watch the clip from Friday Night Lights on YouTube.
