I was watching the most recent episode of Modern Family the other night, and thought it was funny and telling that Alex Dunphy, the token brainiac of the family, was obsessing about her college application essay.
The family was on a vacation in Australia, and Alex kept annoying everyone by trying to find life lessons and metaphors from the trip to use in her essay.
To me, it says that these dreaded essays continue to rise above the other parts of the college admissions process in terms of what can either get you into a top college or keep you out. (more…)
In my previous post, I featured a question and answer session with author Robert Cronk, who wrote a popular writing guide on how to write narrative-style college application essays. I found Concise Advise, which directs students on how to use movie-script writing techniques to bring their essays to life, a helpful resource.
I invited him to share more of his advice and tips here on Essay Hell, and this is the second part. (Here’s Part One in case you missed it.):
Me: What do you think is the most important part of a college app essay?
Bob: To me, it’s the element of character development, or transition, or transformation, or realization of something, even in small ways. The best essays start with a moment that led to that development and ends with a better, stronger, wiser person. (more…)
One of my favorite student-run blogs on college admissions, The Prospect, featured this interview with me last week. I thought the writer, Oriana Halverson, did a terrific job, and flushed out some helpful information:
By Oriana Halvorsen, Spring 2014 Community Outreach Intern for The Prospect
Name: Janine Robinson Website: Essay Hell (She also has two e-books on sale on her website to check out, with a third on the way this spring!) Social Media Links:Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
To start off with a more career-oriented question, how did you get into the business of helping students write their college essays?
When my daughter was a junior in high school in 2008, I helped her brainstorm topics for her college essays—both for the University of California and The Common App. When I saw that these essays were best when written in a narrative (story-telling) style, I realized that my background as a journalist, writer/editor and English teacher almost perfectly prepared me to help her. So I started helping other students in my hometown of Laguna Beach, California. And it kind of took off from there. I also started my blog, Essay Hell, and published essay-writing guide books. (more…)
If you are applying to the University of California schools, you have until the end of this month. As busy seniors, some of you might have waited to write your essays over Thanksgiving, when you have some days off and can catch up. Yes, it would be better if you already had them in, but there is still time.
The key, however, is to not let this last minute deadline dash ruin your Thanksgiving. The holiday comes late this year–Nov. 27–so it’s closer to the Nov. 30th deadline than ever. So yes, you are really cutting it close. If you don’t have a plan, it could hang over your head the entire holiday weekend. (more…)
However, I think students should be careful of trying too hard to showcase their creative writing skills.
Rather, I believe they should put those creative writing tools to work to write an engaging, meaningful essay.
There’s a difference.
Some people think creative writing is a goal in itself.
They think it’s when a writer gets kind of wild, breaks the conventional English language rules, and cuts loose with what they have to say and how they say it.
The essays start to read more like rambling poetry.
The goal of a college application essay is not to create a “piece of creative writing.”
Instead, the goal is to use creative writing techniques to express yourself better. (more…)
If you are applying to multiple colleges this fall, you will need to write multiple essays for the different applications.
The Common Application helps you consolidate many of your applications and only requires one main essay.
But if you are applying to public universities and private schools that don’t use the Common App., you will need to write additional core essays. (more…)
If you are ready to brainstorm ideas for your Common Application essays, here’s a great place to start. I’ve written posts on each of the 5 new prompts–including how to focus your answer, to find unique angles and twists, to structure your essay, to tell a story with an anecdote, and topics to avoid, on and on.
Here are the new prompts for the 2013 Common Application essays
(click each prompt to find my post on how to respond to it!):
If you find these helpful, but still need more help in the actual writing of your narrative-style essay, consider buying a copy of my new book: Escape Essay Hell! You can order off my blog here or it’s now also available on Amazon via Kindle. luck!
Escape Essay Hell! is a short and simple guide to help students write their dreaded college application essays.
Featuring Essay Hell’s best advice and tips, Escape Essay Hell takes students step-by-step through brainstorming unique topics and the narrative writing process. It’s really a crash course in writing a personal statement!
College admissions experts advise students to “Be Yourself” and write essays that are help them “Stand Out” from other applicants. But no one shows them exactly how to do that. In this simple to follow guide, Escape Essay Hell teaches them how to write essays that are engaging, meaningful and memorable—which naturally help them stand out from the competition and land in their dream schools.
Escape Essay Hell!is ideal for any essay prompt that asks the student to write about himself or herself, called a personal statement. It can be used for the following prompts:
The best way to learn how to write a narrative-style college app essay is to read what others have written. This is a collection of 50 sample college app essay written mainly by my former students. Most followed the steps outlines in my writing guide, Escape Essay Hell!. And they all got into amazing schools—including the most competitive, such as Harvard, UCLA, Northwestern, Cornell, Penn, Berkeley, Brown, Williams, etc.
By readying Heavenly Essays, students can get a sense of what a narrative essay is all about, and also find ideas for their own topics. It’s available at Amazon here.
Don’t have Kindle? To purchase and download a pdf version of Heavenly Essays, click the Buy Now button below. $9.98.
This is my most recent writing guide. It has everything a student needs to learn how to craft a winning narrative-style essay for a college application, plus some. It’s really a writers’ toolkit, packed with easy-to-find tips and advice on how to use literary techniques, strategies and devices to power your writing.
This is an ideal guide for any student who really wants to not only nail their essay, but also practice and learn invaluable writing skills that will help in college and the workplace. Instead of taking student step-by-step through the brainstorming and writing process (like Escape Essay Hell!), this is a guide for ambitious students who want to spend the time to really enhance, develop and craft their essays into effective, meaningful and outstanding writing pieces.
It’s available in paperback and Kindle ebook on Amazon here.
Janine Robinson gives the college counselor the best single tool and resource to help the college bound student get a grip on the College Essay, in its various forms. Her comments and insights on the Common Application essay are easily conveyed to the teenager who needs to get a start and following Ms. Robinson’s blog, https://www.essayhell.com/author/j9robinson, provides her readers with a continuing commentary on the emerging new prompts. Ms. Robinson has just published a smaller guide bringing together her approaches to the five new Common Application essay prompts, so get your hands on both books and you have all you need. And frankly, the books and the blog are just about the most accessible resource I have seen in a summer of searching.
If you are applying to college and need help writing the dreaded college essay, Janine Robinson’s book `Escape Essay Hell!’ is must-read! It’s ‘teenager friendly’ and offers a variety of anecdotes and examples that are tremendously helpful. This guide takes you step-by-step through the process. Ms. Robinson ‘hot tips’ allow any student to master the art of writing an effective personal statement with less stress! An excellent resource from a real pro!
The college application essay can make or break a student’s application. Luckily for high school students applying to college, Janine Robinson has written a clear and concise guide on how to write these very important essays. She guides the writer from brainstorming to outline to final draft in a way that demystifies the process and even makes it fun. In addition, she offers insider tips such as which topics make great essays, which ones to avoid and how to write your essay as a narrative. Many college counselors can tell you what is wrong with an essay, but they can’t teach you how to fix it. That’s why this book is so important – it gives students the tools to write their best application essays. As a fellow writer and college consultant, I highly recommend “Escape Essay Hell!”
College applicants facing the purgatory of application essays now have a guidebook to lead them out. In this straightforward ebook, journalist, tutor and college essay expert Janine Robinson takes a practical approach to breaking down the steps involved: from brainstorming topics to choosing the best one and from writing and rewriting to editing. Presented in an engaging and creative way–with “Hot Tips” from Essay Hell’s mascot, Dante–this guidebook is a stairway to completed-essay heaven for stressed-out college applicants and their parents.
Writing college application essays may indeed be a necessary evil for most college-bound students, but you can have fun writing them–or at least explore creative aspects of your own personality as you search out topics. Reading about how to write essays, too, is interesting and fun in Essay Hell. The author, Janine Robinson, has a light touch and a wry sense of humor, and includes snippets of essays by professional essayists. A snippet of a David Sedaris essay had me laughing out loud. So, if you have a college-bound child or grandchild, do both of you a favor and buy him or her this ebook. You’ll make the college application process bearable, and maybe even enjoyable. — Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, author of Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Harcourt, 2004; 8th printing). penonfire.com.
Essay writing for college applications is dreaded by almost every high school student. But Janine’s Robinsons’ guide should be welcomed relief. Her book gives a quick 10 step approach that helps students find words to describe themselves, pick the story/anecdote that best shows and tells about them, and provides an outline for structuring the essay. I particularly like the “Quickie” summary at the beginning of each chapter. I encourage any parent with a high schooler working on college essays to get a copy- it will save you and your student time and heartache.
The concept of writing the dreaded college essay is easily grasped in this well written down to earth guide. The ideas are straight forward and easily adaptable to various prompts that students might be asked to write to. I used another book last year with my son, and it made it seem so easy to him that he wrote a lovely narrative story, but he did not address the prompt in a straight forward manner. This book guides the writer through possible caveats making the process appear to be worth the work. Thank you Ms. Robinson! I can use this book with my students, although I wish I had it last year.
“Think of something you might boast about and turn it into an entertaining flaw.”
College expert and blogger Jay Matthews on self-deprecation
In the typical list of hot tips from college counselors for crafting a winning college application essay, “Be likeable” is usually near the top.
This advice is usually followed up with “Don’t impress.”
But it’s a fine line when you are basically writing a marketing piece trying to sell yourself to the college of your dreams.
You feel the need to impress your colleges by describing your best achievements, qualities and talents, but one wrong word or phrase and you instantly sound like a braggart.
No one likes a braggart, and even a whiff of entitlement or unchecked ego can send your essay into the “No” pile.
The best way to avoid sounding like a braggart is to focus on what you did, how you did it and why, and not just on the fact that you did it.
The trick is to highlight the quality behind your accomplishment, and then relay a specific example of how you developed that quality or furthered it somehow.
I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about how high school students are seeking out exotic trips, usually to foreign countries, mainly so they will have an intriguing topic for their college application essays.
(Article copied below)
I think these trips can be amazing, and that students learn a lot about other places, cultures and themselves.
Yes, GO!!
But if you are lucky enough to take one of these trips, the last thing I would do is plan it so you can write a snazzy college admissions essay.
I actually believe this approach can backfire.
An instant turn-off to essay readers is a student who is trying to impress them.
To avoid sounding over-privileged, students should look for essay topics that focus on everyday subjects, often called “mundane topics.”
Every time, the essay about a summer job where a student flipped pancakes at IHOP or washed dishes or sold shoes turned out so much better than the one where they went to Africa and lived in mud huts or helped farmers in Guatemala pull weeds.
For some reason, the more basic topics feel more authentic and are naturally more interesting.
And the writer comes across more humble, and likable, even.
That’s not to say that you can’t write a fine essay about a cool trip abroad.
My advice is that in your search for a topic, don’t consider the trip itself the topic. Instead, focus on one thing that happened on that trip.
Focus your essay on a specific experience, and just let the trip to the cool place be the background.
That way, the college folks see how adventuresome you are, but you can focus your essay on something more specific and meaningful. College admissions folks want to learn about how you think and what you value.
So it’s not so much where you were or did something, but what happened, how you handled it and what you learned in the process. That’s why scooping gelato, parking cars or walking dogs can make more interesting topics than your travels around Timbuktu.
Read my Jumpstart Guide to get started on your college admissions essay!
As a professional writing coach, I help students, parents, counselors, teachers and others from around the world on these dreaded essays!
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My on-demand, fast-and-easy online e-course: How to Write a College App Essay (Click lightbulb for details.)
Perfect for The Common App, UCs, grad school, transfer and scholarship essays!
If you are applying to multiple colleges this fall, you will need to write multiple essays for the different applications.
