by j9robinson | Oct 2, 2010
College Admissions Essays: How To Fine Edit Your College Application Essay You are finally finished with your essay. It’s time to copy it into the online application and send it off. You’ve worked hard. Why not make sure it’s fabulous? Follow...
by j9robinson | Sep 27, 2010
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...
by j9robinson | Sep 16, 2010
College Application Essays How Far Out Should You Go? Interesting post on the New York Times’ blog on college admissions, called The Choice. The article was about whether to include your random interests–ranging from an obsession with Lady Gaga to riding...
by j9robinson | Sep 6, 2010
If you have time, this essay (How to Say Nothing in 500 Words) is packed with invaluable advice that will help you make your college essay sing–and NOT bore those college admissions folks. An English professor wrote it in the 1960s after reading probably a...
by j9robinson | Oct 21, 2009
A new client, who I will call Sarah, met with me for the first time to talk about topic ideas. When I pressed her about her interests, her hobbies, her passions, she kept insisting that she was a well-rounded, strong student, but didn’t have any one thing that...
by j9robinson | Sep 26, 2009
Here’s a little book of essays written by graduates of Berkeley High School, which has a truly diverse student population and moves through about 700 seniors every year. (“As you will see from these stories, some live on their own, while others come from...
by j9robinson | Feb 13, 2009
College Admissions Essays: How to Connect with Your Reader I’ve talked about this already, but here is more scoop about your college application essay “audience,” and it’s a tough crowd: college admissions officers read zillions of these...
by j9robinson | Oct 21, 2008
The person reading your fabulous college admissions essay most likely has already read about a dozen or more, and still has an equal number or more to go. By the 20th essay, they are having trouble focusing. Their heads are nodding off. They need more coffee. So how...
by j9robinson | Jul 25, 2008
I remember wanting to improve my writing in high school, and feeling frustrated by all the “tips” in the popular how-to-write books: “Be concise,” “Use action verbs,” and the all-popular, “Show, don’t tell.” OK,...
