by j9robinson | Aug 26, 2014
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 is an...
by j9robinson | Jul 6, 2014
Parke Muth, a veteran college admissions counselor and writer from Virginia, interviewed me recently about my opinions and advice regarding college application essays. I thought I would share the interview, which he featured on his own highly informative blog. ...
by j9robinson | May 27, 2014
When my two kids were finishing their junior years of high school, they each received the assignment from their English teacher to write a college application essay. It sure sounded good—they could get a jump on these dreaded essays and receive professional...
by j9robinson | May 26, 2014
I thought you might like to read one of the 50 sample college application essays featured in my new book, Heavenly Essays. This is the first one in the book. Like most of the essays in this collection, it was written by a former tutoring student of mine. I will...
by j9robinson | Apr 17, 2014
I’m always on the lookout for great writing guides—especially books on how to write narrative, slice-of-life essays (like mine). Only recently did I discover this book, Concise Advice, by Robert N. Cronk. What I loved was that his approach was different...
by j9robinson | Mar 24, 2014
I get a lot of students with my college application essay tutoring who fall into the “math/science” end of the learning spectrum. In general, that means that classes such as Algebra II and Chemistry come relatively easy to them, and English and...
by j9robinson | Dec 31, 2013
When my son wanted to transfer from his small liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest into a larger university to pursue chemical engineering, I offered to help him with his college application transfer essay. I thought it would be a good opportunity to share my...
by j9robinson | Nov 3, 2013
UPDATE: The University of California announced NEW essay prompts for 2016-17. Read about how to answer them HERE. The following content in this post is no longer relevant and is outdated! About three years ago, I wrote a post to try to help students applying to the...
by j9robinson | Sep 23, 2013
When people visit my Essay Hell web site, I can see where they come from on my Google analytics page. (I know, kind of creepy, but that’s just how it works now.) I noticed a recent spike of visitors from a blog written by an English teacher in Southern...
by j9robinson | Jun 19, 2013
I don’t know how I missed this. In April, a batch of nearly 70 college application essays written by the incoming class of 2017 at Columbia University were made public. It was quite the scandal. Many of the students who shared their essays among their...
