The Prospect Cooks Up Delicious Essay Recipes!

If you’ve been looking for help with your college application essay, I assume you have discovered the mountains of information (some helpful; a lot no so much) out there on the Web. One of my favorite resources for students is The Prospect, which isĀ an...

How to Write the UC Transfer Essay: Why This Major?

The University of California CHANGED its prompts for transfer students this year (2106)! Read Strategies for the New University of California Transfer Essays for the updated information on the new prompts.   CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED POST ON NEW UC TRANSFER ESSAYS!...

How to Turn a Real-Life Moment into an Anecdote

  I confess: I love anecdotes. These are basically when a writer shares a mini-story about a real-life moment or experience. Usually, they are plucked out of the past, and presented without much introduction. Their power is that they draw you into a story, or...

2 Sample Outlines for “Why You?” Supplements

Oops. Not again! We are talking about supplements for college application essays. Not vitamin supplements. Geez! Even though supplemental essays usually are short—usually a paragraph or two—many students are stumped on how to structure them. Or on just how...

What’s Sup? 10 Hot Tips to Power Your Supplements

Oops. Wrong SUP. We are talking college application essay supplements here. Haha. I just gave a workshop on how to write college supplement essays to a group of college-bound students yesterday, and wanted to share some of the advice and tips on how to make them stand...

No Excuses Book Offer!

The middle of August is when I first notice a dramatic spike in visitors to Essay Hell. A few students get that early start on their college application essays at the beginning of summer, but the majority seem to wait until now through fall. I thought I would try to...