How to Focus your Essay

College Admissions Essays How to Give Them More Punch: FOCUS! A common challenge in writing these college admissions essays is making sure they go deep enough. That doesn’t mean you have to talk about the meaning of life, and allude to Shakespeare, Greek myths...

How to Land in the “Yes” Pile

College Application Essays Five Places to Start After helping students discover their own unique topics over the last five or so years, I can spot a great topic the minute a student mentions one. And I suspect it’s no different for the college  admissions people...

Essay Rocket Fuel: The Anecdote

College Admissions Essays How to Write an Anecdote For Your College Application Essay, Personal Statement or other Essays If you can write an anecdote, you can write a powerful essay. But a lot of students don’t know what an anecdote is, let alone how to write one....

Lessons from another season of college application essays…

I haven’t posted anything in recent weeks. My role as a college essay tutor wraps up in January and February. But if you are still working on an essay or personal statement, I would read through this blog for ideas and inspiration! This spring, I have also been...
Wordle Your College Essay!

Wordle Your College Essay!

I heard of Wordling from a gardening friend over at a totally unrelated blog, called Lost in the Landscape. (Believe it or not, I do other things than read college essays!) Wordling is a program where you can drop in some text and it creates a colorful collage of...

Before You Push the Button

  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...

Lady Gaga as a Topic?

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...