Recent research on the college application essay has shown that essay prompts are misleading, and that the expectations of admissions officers remain largely implicit. These studies have not, however, examined how essays written by low-income, ethnic minority students are scored by admissions officers. For this study, forty-two seniors at a low-performing, urban high school received instruction in persuasive argument and the concept of the rhetorical situation and were informed of the implicit expectations of admissions officers. Students who received instruction wrote college essays rated significantly higher by admissions officers than essays written by students in a control group. These results suggest that students who are unfamiliar with postsecondary culture may be at a particular disadvantage when it comes to inferring the expectations of admissions officers unless these expectations are made explicit. Implications for the college admissions process are considered. (Contains 2 tables.)