Sample Essays: “Fast Doesn’t Always Win”

sample essays

Sample Essays Can Inspire Topic Ideas!

 

In a previous post, I shared a sample essay from my college application essay writing guide, The Writing Survival Kit. Here’s another original sample essay from the same collection.

I believe reading sample essays is not only a great way to learn how to craft a personal, narrative style essay for your college application, but a wonderful source of topic ideas.

(more…)

College Application Essay Writing Podcast: How to Stand Out

Listen Up
to Write Your

College Application Essay!

 

college application essay

 

Are you the type of student who would like to learn how to write your college application essay by listening to your headphones rather than reading a book?

If so, you might want to check out the first of a two-part podcast, “How to Stand Out in Your College Essays with Janine Robinson,” where I share all my best advice and tips on how to craft a powerful college application essay during an interview with Steve Schwartz, a professional college admissions counselor.

Here’s the link to the podcast with me: How to Stand Out in Your College Essays

(more…)

Sample Essays for College Applications

Sample Essays:
The Best Way to Learn to Write Your Own

 

Sample Essays

 

In my writing guide, The Writing Survival Kit, I share some excellent sample essays for college applications. In this post and future ones, I’m sharing some of them with you.

Whether you are just starting to brainstorm a topic for your own essay, or already are working on a draft, reading what other students have written can spark ideas and provide inspiration for your own pieces.

Here’s one of my favorites: (more…)

Scholarship Essays: How to Win Big Bucks

 

scholarship essay

Prove You Deserve to Win in Your Scholarship Essays

 

Scholarship essays are critical if you want to go to college, but can’t afford it. To win them, you usually need to write powerful and personal scholarship essays.

(Yes, QuestBridge applicants, this includes you!)

Scholarship essays are similar to the personal essays you write for college applications. They need to give schools (or sponsors) a sense of who you are, what makes you tick and what you value.

Scholarship essays, however, usually need to go one step further. Applicants need to also show and explain why they deserve to win the scholarship. (more…)

ApplyTexas: Help for Essay Topic C

URGENT! ApplyTexas changed their essay prompts in 2017-18. 

Click HERE for the current essay prompts!

 

ApplyTexas

Photo Via Texas Lutheran University

(THIS POST IS OUTDATED!) 

How to Link Your Life Goals to Current and Future Activities

In the previous post, I wrote about ideas on how to answer Topics A and B in the ApplyTexas college application.

Students who want to apply to most public colleges and universities and some private colleges in Texas must use the ApplyTexas application.

Depending on the school(s) in Texas that you are applying to, there’s a good chance you will need to answer any combination of Topics A, B or C. (more…)

ApplyTexas: Essay Help for Topics A and B

URGENT! ApplyTexas changed their essay prompts in 2016-17. 

Click HERE for the current essay prompts!

ApplyTexas

(THIS POST IS OUTDATED!)

All public universities, and some private and 2-year colleges, in Texas do not use the Common Application. Instead, they have their own consolidated system called ApplyTexas.

If you are applying to any of the schools that use ApplyTexas, you need to figure out what essays they require (if any), and then which specific prompts. (more…)

6 College Application Essay Tips for First-Gen Students

 Advice for Students Who Are Underrepresented
for Whatever Reason:
Tell Your Personal Story

In my previous post, I shared my experience working with teachers and students from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, where I’m giving a series of workshops on how to write college application essays.

It was my first time working with a large number of students who were mainly from underrepresented backgrounds. Most of the students were Hispanic and would be the first to attend college in their families.

I wanted to share some insights, tips and advice on what I learned, in case this helps other similar students struggling with their essays.

Here are 6 Essay Writing Tips for Students
from Underprivileged or Underrepresented Backgrounds

ONE: Students who come from underprivileged backgrounds can be more reluctant to open up and reveal their tribulations, pain and vulnerability. Many believe they need to show only their strengths and victories. They are rightfully proud and don’t want to appear weak, deficient or complaining.

However, colleges are eager to hear about the obstacles students have faced, and their real-life stories of hardship, and these essays are the perfect place to share them. The best college application essays are almost always highly personal. (more…)

Creating a College-Bound Culture along the Texan Border

 First-Gen Students Learn to Write
College Application Essays

 

Last month, I had the privilege to work with a group of teachers and students on their writing and college application essays from the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost tip of Texas.

Almost all of the 50-some English teachers and 165 students were Hispanic, and most of the kids will be the first in their families to attend college.

The College Essay Writing Workshop, which is a four-part series of workshops for the most promising students from 30 high schools in the Valley, was sponsored by the Texas Graduate Center, which is an initiative of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation (a non-profit community organization), and the Region One GEAR UP Program, whose mission is to help create a college-bound culture in this part of the U.S.

Earlier in the year, their students toured top colleges and universities around the country, including Harvard, Princeton and other ivies.

During these visits, the admissions officers from the various schools told the sponsors one thing over and over: The college application essay played a huge part in who they accepted, and urged them to help their students write better ones.

So they got in touch with me.

This is me working with a student.

I’d never spent time in that part of Texas, where the Rio Grande river winds up along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s been in the news lately, mainly as ground zero in the U.S. for the flood of illegal immigrants, many children, fleeing unrest in Central America, and violence in Mexico due to drug-related activity. (more…)

Waving the Red Flag on College Application Essays

 

Last week, a new student came to my home for help on his college application essays.

I asked this eager senior about his target schools. He told me Stanford was his top pick, but he was applying to most of the ivies, along with a couple UCs (Cal and UCLA).

Then he handed me a printout of his essay. It was one he had written for his English teacher at our local high school.

It was about a mission trip. To a South American country. And he wrote how he loved working with the kids, and how he realized how privileged he was, and how he hoped to make a difference in the world.

I tried not to let my reaction show. (more…)

Top 5 Myths About College App Essays

 You Don’t Need Tragedy to Write
a Standout College Admissions Essay!

 

This is the time of year that the frenzy surrounding college admissions starts to grow.

Early decision deadlines are just weeks away.

Students who put off writing their college application essays are running out of excuses—and time.

Those who finally sat down to figure out the Common Application are shocked at the number of additional supplemental essays they need to pound out.

Compounding the looming sense of doom are some of the myths about these essays. (more…)