Common App Prompt 4: When Your Problem is a Good Thing!

How to Answer Prompt 4 for the Common App for your College Application Essay Prompt 4: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma—anything that is of personal...

Why The Real Risk Is Playing It Safe

   College Admissions Essays Must Be Interesting  How To Stay Bold And Avoid the Trap of a Dull Essay   After six years working with students, parents and college counselors on writing college admissions essays, I’m more convinced than ever that...

College Essay Help from The Best: The New York Times

  Mentor Essays for The Common App And Other College Application Essays   If you are one of those students who understands how important these college admissions essays can be to landing in the school of your dreams, the New York Times just published a dream...

The New Common App Prompts: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

  College Application Essays How To Answer the New Common App Questions The best news about his year’s Common Application (2015-16) is that you can still write about almost any topic you want—these prompts are very open-ended. And they also added a...

Find Your Defining Qualities

No matter what the prompt asks for, almost any effective college essay should showcase one or several of what I call your “defining qualities.” If the prompt asks you to write a personal statement (for The Common App), tell about yourself or wants to know...

Where’s Waldo? and Creativity in College Essays

  College Admissions Essays It’s Official: Get Creative! Colleges tell students that they want their essays to show them what sets them apart from the pack and what makes them unique. Yet most of the college application essay prompts do a poor job of...