Columbine Popular Essay Topic

D E N V E R, Nov. 6 -- College admission officials across the countryreport students are choosing the Columbine shootings as the topicfor their college application essays this year.

“I think it says that Columbine was an event which made a hugeimpact on these students’ lives,” said Chris Markle, admissions director at Susquehanna University, a 1,700-student private college in Selinsgrove, Pa. “It makes me wonder whether Columbine is this generation’s Kent State. It’s really a defining moment in their teen lives.”

Before the April 20, 1999, massacre, students tended to writeabout their favorite teacher or an influential relative, admissionsofficials said. Now they’re writing about school safety, guncontrol, fear and vulnerability.

“It was an event that affected many students, more than weanticipated,” said Sandy Gamba, acting associate admissions deanat the University of Denver. “Students really reflected a lot onit in the essays. I think it was a reality check for a lot ofstudents. It really grounded them to say, ‘What am I going to dowith the rest of my life?’ It was quick maturity for a lot ofthem.”

Kids Realizing DangerMarkle estimates nearly 240 — about half — of Susquehanna’sfreshman class wrote about Columbine.

“I’ve never seen the volume on a single subject like this in 10years,” Markle said.

Texas Christian University Admissions dean Ray Brown said about750 essays out of 5,100 applications were devoted to Columbine.

“We’ve all witnessed and maybe even experienced firsthand therisky behavior kids engage in. But I think kids are starting torealize the danger that the world holds. They are coming to theconclusion that they are vulnerable creatures,” Brown said.

In response to an essay question at Randolph-Macon Woman’sCollege in Lynchburg, Va., that asked prospective students toidentify who speaks for their generation, one student wrote: