In this article, the author describes how she helped low-income high-school seniors draft application essays to selective colleges and ponders about an ethical quandary that has troubled her throughout the process. Directing a college-access program, the author stresses writing skills, a crucial component of success in college and a key to gaining entry to selective colleges, which all require a personal application essay. However, by looking at how other access programs prepare low-income students on such essays, she discovered a rather distasteful term: "trauma drama." Through trauma-drama essays, low-income students are encouraged to tell their stories and narrate the obstacles they encountered along the way to help them achieve upward mobility.