What Do Admissions Officers Really Really Want?

College Application Essays Hot Writing Tips from The Other Side!   If you haven’t noticed, I have a lot of opinions about what makes a great college application essay. But who am I? I’ve never been an admissions officer, so how do I know what they...

Should You Take the Challenge of Prompt 3 of New Common App?

  College Application Essays: How to Answer Prompt 3 of the Common App. Who or What Have You Confronted Lately?   When you read the five options for your Common Application essay, one prompt probably will appeal to you first off. Others you will skim and...

Summer Reads for a Narrative State of Mind

College Application Essays Fun Reads to Inspire your Storytelling Skills   Nothing helps you channel the style and voice of narrative writing than reading it. Writers, like Cupcake Brown, are masters of telling true stories in a fictionalized style. This is what...

How to Find and Write Anecdotes

College Application Essays In Search of an Anecdote Just yesterday, one of my tutoring students, a high school junior, wanted help on her English assignment: To write a practice college application essay. One tip from her teacher was to tell a story. (I first...

The BIG Difference Between a Story and an Anecdote

College Application Essays: What They Mean When They Ask for a Story Most students have never written narrative essays, which are so different from most essays taught in English classes. The classic 5-paragraph essay has a formal style, uses the third person, includes...

Oprah and Prompt 2 of The Common Application

  Yesterday, I wrote about how you can answer Prompt #2 of The Common Application and write about recovering from a failure. Coincidentally, our favorite motivator Oprah Winfrey stood up in front of the graduating class at Harvard University just last weekend and...