Go Green with Your College Application Essays: Recycle!

Earth_recycleIf you are applying to multiple colleges this fall, you will need to write multiple essays for the different applications.

The Common Application helps you consolidate many of your applications and only requires one main essay.

But if you are applying to public universities and private schools that don’t use the Common App., you will need to write additional core essays. (more…)

CBS Digs Essay Hell’s Topic Tips!

 

College Application Essays

Tips for Finding Topics That CBS Finds Worth Repeating

A couple days ago, Lynn O’Shaughnessy, a journalist who covers college admissions issues for CBS, featured this blog in her column for MoneyWatch. How cool is that? She shared one of my previous posts that try to help guide students toward finding college application essay topics that don’t fall into the common traps, such as being cliche, too controversial or just plain dull. (more…)

Become a Storyteller in Under Five Minutes

College Application Essays

A Mini-Lesson from a Storytelling Pro

 

I found this brilliant little example of how to understand what makes up a good story today in a column written by the talented sportswriter and journalist named Tommy Tomlinson. If you are writing your college application essay, and want to use the narrative style to tell a “slice of life” story or use an anecdote, this mini-lesson can help you a lot. Tomlinson wrote: “First, I’m gonna draw three objects. (more…)

Oprah and Prompt 2 of The Common Application

college application essay

 

Yesterday, I wrote about how you can answer Prompt #2 of The Common Application and write about recovering from a failure.

Coincidentally, our favorite motivator Oprah Winfrey stood up in front of the graduating class at Harvard University just last weekend and talked about the same topic.

As you see, failing has an upside.

If you decide to “recount an incident or time” when you experienced failure for your college application essay, I presented some ideas in my last post on how to find a compelling story.

I advised you to think in broad terms about failure, and how almost any problem you have faced could fall into that category.

But once you recount a story about a time you “failed” in some way in your essay, you will also need to address the second part of the prompt: How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

Telling an engaging story at the beginning is important for a standout essay because it serves to grab your reader and hook their attention at the start.

But the second part of the essay, where you explain what that experience meant to you, is equally important. This is where you can show admissions officers how you think, what you care about and how you learn. (more…)

The Perfect Topic: Right Under Your Nose

 

College Application Essays: Search For the Perfect Topic

It’s Closer Than You Think

 

I’ve learned a lot about what makes a great essay topic over the last six years I’ve helped students with their college application essays.

If you’re just starting the process of writing your essay, you might be surprised what I’ve discovered about the best topics:

They are not what you would expect.

1. The best topics do not include what might be considered your best accomplishments or achievements. In fact, the opposite is true.

2. They often are the very thing you think would never make a good topic.

3. Good ones can be right in front of your nose. In fact, they might be on your face.

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College Essay Help from The Best: The New York Times

 

Mentor Essays for The Common App

And Other College Application Essays

 

If you are one of those students who understands how important these college admissions essays can be to landing in the school of your dreams, the New York Times just published a dream article just for you. The newspaper publishes a blog, called The Choice, that posts articles exclusively about the college admissions process. Last month, they published this massive article about how teachers can help students use the newspaper to find inspiration for their Common App essays. It’s like your own private, free, college essay tutor from the most respected publication in the world! It’s literally packed with great advice, instruction and sample essays.

Here are the “mentor essays” the newspaper shared to help with the new Common App prompts:

* Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

  • It’s O.K. to Put Yourself First: An essay in which a writer meditates on the impact of a serious illness on her life and family.
  • My Son and the City: A woman moves to New York City with her son, who has serious medical challenges and developmental disabilities–and, she writes, “in a place famous for its anonymous crowds, [he] has been learning about people.” (more…)

The Ultimate Essay Checklist

 

College Admissions Essays

Final Checklist

So you think you are done with your college admission essay or personal statement. Wait! You have worked so hard on that essay; it’s worth an extra few minutes to make sure it’s as good as you can make it. I know you are probably sick of it by now, so if you have time set it aside for a day or so. But before you send it out, give it at least one more critical read.

It’s fine if you don’t have all of these elements, but if you have some or most of them, chances are your essay will sing!

A grabber introduction. No? Try reading THIS POST and THIS POST to see if crafting an anecdote at the start will make it more compelling and memorable.

A twist. No? Try THIS POST to learn what these are and how to find them.

A universal truth or life lesson. No? There’s a good chance you already have one, but just didn’t recognize it yet. Read THIS POST to check yours.

A snappy title. No? My advice is to include a title if you can think of a clever one. Otherwise, just leave it out. Read THIS POST to help think of one.

Under word count. No? Read THIS POST to learn how to cut your essay and why it almost always helps.

 

DON’T PUSH THAT BUTTON YET!!

And make sure to read THIS POST on the steps to take to “fine edit” your college application essay and give it that winning polish!

I’m sure it’s perfect now! Good luck!

 

Still Looking for That Magic Topic? Try a Sample!

 

College Admissions Essays: Samples

Samples of College Admissions Essays and Personal Statements–
and Why They Can Help You Write Yours!!

 

I always tell my students that one of the best ways to find great topic ideas is to read the essays of other students.

One great idea often triggers another! Reading other student’s essays also can give you an idea of the narrative style or voice of these essays, which is looser and more conversational than your typical academic essay.

I recommend several book collections of sample essays in this post, but if you can’t get your hands on those, here are a few I found online:

  • My favorite online collection is on John Hopkins’ web site. Most use a narrative style and write in a direct, natural voice. And they even have a short analysis from the admissions folks about what they liked and why. This is invaluable info for you guys! Click HERE to read them.
  • Click Here to see some that Connecticut College shares on their web site, describing them as “Essays That Worked.” Some are a bit stiff, in my opinion. Trust your own reaction. If you like an essay, borrow ideas from that one. (At the top of the page is a drop down menu with all the essays, titled “Choose an Essay.”)
  • Click HERE and HERE to read some of the inspiring narrative sample essays from my collection, Heavenly Essays.
  • (more…)

5 Top Tips on Finding Topics for College Admissions Essays

 

College Admissions Essays: Five Tips for the Perfect Topic

Still looking for a college application essay topic
that will set you apart from the pack?

 

Here are my Top Five Tips on finding compelling and memorable topics:

 

1. Start with a defining quality (curious, self-disciplined, creative), and then look for “times” or examples of when you either demonstrated this quality, had this quality challenged or developed this quality.

Click HERE to find my Jumpstart Guide to help you with that approach.

Don’t know your defining qualities? Click HERE to find them.

2. Try to find something “unexpected” to write about, either something that happened to you that no one would expect to happen to someone like you (you love knot-tying but got stuck in a tree because you used the wrong knot); or something you love or pursue that no one would ever expect of you (a football player who loves to bake cakes.); or some personal trait or characteristic that no one would guess has affected you (you are not even 5-feet-tall but wear a size 9 shoe.)

Click HERE and HERE to read more about that.

3. Troll your past for “mundane” or everyday topics as opposed to ones you think might be impressive. Examples: The Day I Washed Dishes at My Dad’s Restaurant; People Think I’m Mean Because I Weigh 300 Pounds; How I Grew to Love Public Busses; I’m a Formal Guy Even Though I Live in Surf City.

Click HERE for more posts on the power of mundane topics.

4. Read sample essays. If you are stuck, it’s so worth the little bit of time to get your hands on a cheap collection and skim through them. First, you will see the range of topics that other students have used, and chances are it will trigger your own ideas.

Secondly, you will get a feel for the looser, narrative style and structure of these essays, which will help you write yours. Click HERE for books of sample essays. And HERE is a post with online sample essays.

5. Go down memory lane and try to remember “times” when you faced a problem. If you can find a problem, you will find a story. (Problems come in many different shapes and sizes: challenges, change, mistakes, obstacles, phobias, fears, bad luck, physical traits, etc.)

If you have a little story (also called an anecdote), chances are you can write an engaging essay. Click HERE to learn more about how this works.

Are you a visual learner? You might find How to Answer Common Application Prompt 4, a free video tutorial, a huge help!

 

Twilight as a Topic? No Way!

College Admissions Essays:

Finding topics in unlikely places

 

I would never have believed that writing about the Twilight series could be a super essay topic–not in a million years. But below, I’m going to share how one of my brightest students landed on Edward Cullen as the perfect topic during one of my recent “Jumpstart” tutoring sessions.  And how it’s going to be a brilliant essay!

As a little background, this particular student is fierce. She’s a top student, loves chemistry and also is an accomplished dancer. Her first college admissions essay (she needs to write 2 for the University of California app.) is going to show how she is a problem solver. But what about that second essay? I believe if you are writing more than one essay for an application,they should complement each other–that is, balance each other out.

 

This is when I really push for the idea of a “mundane” topic, one that is everyday, and often would be the last topic in the world you would even consider writing about.

EXAMPLES: The kid who realized he had leadership skills the night he had to wash dishes at his dad’s restaurant. The girl who starred in her school musicals but wrote about her passion for karaoke. The tiny dancer who came to terms with her size 9 feet. The football tackle who loved to bake cakes for his teammates. Notice that on the surface, none of these topics sounds “impressive.” But trust me, they end up as the most interesting and memorable essays–exactly what you want! The other quality all these topics share is they have an “unexpected” quality–you wouldn’t expect a football player to love baking, or a dancer to have big feet or to find a leader behind a stack of dirty dishes. (What’s something about you that no one would believe?)

Here’s how our conversation went as we brainstormed a mundane–and unexpected–college essay topic:

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