Should You Title Your College Application Essay?

College Admissions Essay Title or No Title? I like titles. But they need to be good. A title should be short and witty. Not cutesy. The tone of the title and essay should match. The best ones don’t give away too much about the essay, and only hint at what’s to...

Describe the World You Come From…

UPDATE: The University of California announced NEW essay prompts for 2016-17. Read about how to answer them HERE. This post is now outdated. The information is no longer relevant!! College Admissions Essays   How to Answer Prompt #1 for the College Application...

So stressed you can’t even start? Let me talk you down…

College Application Essays: They Are Easier Than You Think! A friend just told me his daughter was not going to apply to the UC (University of California) schools because she would need to write two college admissions essays. Instead, she was going to stick to the Cal...

The Catch-22 of College Admissions Essays

It feels like a set-up. First, you are supposed to reveal how wonderful you are in 500 words–about the number you can cram onto a postcard in your teensiest handwriting. Second, you must sell yourself to the college of your dreams—setting yourself apart from the...

How much can you take?

This might be overkill, but a company called EnglishClub.com posted an entire, online crash-course in writing college admissions essays on their site. It claims to be from a professional essay-writing service (EssaysEdge) that you would pay big bucks to use. Click on...

Jobs Can Make Excellent Topics for College Essays!

My students have discovered some of their best topic ideas for their college application essays from their job experiences. I’m not sure why they make great fodder for college essays, but I believe that simply working for others naturally reveals a complimentary set...

How to Write an Anecdote

College Application Essays How to Tell a Story In journalism, writers often use “anecdotal leads,” that is, starting a news or feature story with a mini-story about a real-life event, one that puts the reader in the middle of the action. Usually, the anecdote only...