You've got to stand out

In today's world where getting into the 'best' college becomes the mission of the high school junior and her parents, much more emphasis is being placed on the essay. There is even a workshop students can attend so that they can create the perfect essay. It's four days of intense writing and it only costs $14,000 plus hotel and transportation costs.

Frank Bruni has a funny column wherein he recites some of the odder topics students select for their essay: eating disorders, sexual abuse, self-mutilation, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction. He highlights a few of the subjects:

• a boy's genitalia, and how he was under-endowed,
• ‘my father’s alcoholism’,
• ‘my parents got divorced because my dad is gay’,
• a boy who considers himself one of the world’s great Casanovas.