Does Your CommonApp Essay Topic Fly?

  College Admissions Essays and Personal Statements: How to Make Your Topic Fly The New York Times sponsors a blog exclusively for college-bound students. It’s called The Choice. Just last month, a student shared the topic she chose for her Common...

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...

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 This post is now outdated.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...

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...

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...

Still Stuck? Here’s a Quick Brainstorm Guide

College Admissions Essays A Step-By-Step Guide to Telling Your Story   Step 1: Write down 3-5 “defining qualities” about yourself. Think of how one of your parents would sum you up to a stranger. My Julie, why, she’s creative, ambitious, caring...