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The Essay Hell Blog
More than 3 million viewers and counting!Essay Writing Cheat Sheet for Stuck Students
I'm always trying to find ways to help students quickly come up with topic ideas and a path to cranking out their college application essays. Typically, I advise them to start with their defining qualities or characteristics, and then find real-life stories or moments...
Beyond Essays—Learn Secrets to Paying for College!
Most of you landed here in Essay Hell looking for advice on how to write your college application essays. And you are definitely at the right place! This post, however, I'm skipping the essay talk and offering something equally valuable: The Best Insider...
Are You a Hillary with your College Application Essay?
As I've been watching the Democratic national convention this past week, I realized how much election speeches are like college application essays. Both are sales pitches. Both candidates and college applicants want something---badly! Candidates want votes. You want...
Start Your UC Personal Insight Question Essays for 2016-17 Now!
Want to Go To College In California? Get Your Application in ASAP!! This year marks my 30th year living in California. I love this state! I moved here from across the country to join my future husband in 1986, and never looked back. The people are welcoming and...
Defining Qualities Rock College Application Essays!
Some of my tutoring students skim through a college application essay prompt (such as the five options for The Common Application essay requirement), and in a flash, find one that speaks to them. Others come armed with a long list of topic ideas they have been toying...
Don’t Write Sucky Supplemental Essays!
No doubt about it. Supplemental essays are the nasty little vexation of the college application process. (And you thought the Common App essay was a pain!) I suggest students first tackle writing their core essay for The Common Application, or other applications that...
Random Questions (and Answers) About College Application Essays
Got a Burning Question About Your College Application Essay? (Leave it in the Comments!) After working with students like you for nearly a decade now, I've heard a lot of questions about these cursed essays. And you are so smart to ask them. How else can you figure...
How to Write the Cappex Essays
It's been a big year for changes in the college admissions scene. I wrote this guest column about many of them in my local newspaper, The Laguna Beach Independent, this week. About the same time this was published, yet another college application system entered the...
Strategies for the New UC Transfer Essays 2016-17
Students Must Write Four, All-New Short Transfer Essays to Apply to University of California If you want to transfer to any of the University of California schools, you need to write four short essays. The UC changed the required essays this year (2016-17), and...