The extent of how meaningless the college essay has become can be noted by the almost six million hits produced when plugging “how to write a college essay” into an online search engine.  Google offers over 75 million results when one simply enters “college essay” into the database.

What sort of effort should be put into an essay that hundreds of thousands request advice for, despite the fact the goal of the essay “express” the student’s personality and background?   Having learned the principle of opportunity cost in my introductory economics class, I decided early on, to make the whole college process secondary to my high school education and extracurricular activities.

My understanding of opportunity cost is that of an introductory-level economics student: the value of the alternative that must be passed up in order to pursue a certain goal.  When the ultimate goal in my life is to develop as a person, the opportunity cost of completing a college application per the usual methods was simply too high.

Instead of sitting at a computer trying to prove myself to some admissions committee that I have no relation to, I decided that my time would be better spent trying to achieve my ultimate goal.  And since pursuing the perfect college essay would limit my ability work towards this goal, the opportunity cost was too high.  Instead, I worked to connect my community through projects, build relationships with fellow athletes and learn from nonprofit leaders across the country.  But those could be seen as subtle references to accomplishments, and listing awards opposes every belief I have presented thus far.

When George Paz can attend University of Missouri-St. Louis, a largely commuter school today and even more so when Mr. Paz attended, and become CEO of the largest corporation based in St. Louis, it is clear that the passion in the individual determines success more so than the school. Admittance into a more prestigious university does allow easier access to opportunity, but a school does not limit the potential of an individual.  The individual limits the potential of an individual.

Had I not taken this economics class, I probably would have followed the college counselor’s advice and wrote an essay similar to that of my peers.  Maybe I would have written a polished piece in September or October, rather than piecing together my feelings over my winter break.  I probably would have made an attempt to include words outside common vernacular, including the aforementioned subtle references and basing the essay of a unique life experience.  But that is not me: I feel no reason why I should need to prove myself.  Google is already overloaded with methods of doing so.

And yes^ that was the college essay I submitted to several schools.  And no, I don’t think its particularly well written, or even original, but it would have been a nice story to tell had it worked out.