Tag Archives: college essay

How to Write the Personal Statement

 

Hands down, Ethan Sawyer is THE essay expert to turn to when writing any aspect of the college essay. This is an excellent summer activity for your college-bound student AND it’s affordable! This small investment could secure your student’s admission to their dream college. 

personal statement

If a private university or college is in your future, the Common App is your one-way ticket. You’ve got one shot at a winning application, and Ethan Sawyer, the College Essay Guy, is here to help!

How to Write the Personal Statement 2016: A Live Online Course is his eight-day webinar series for students and counselors that runs July 10th-17th.

In just eight days, you’ll have access to:

  • 12 hours of LIVE sessions with Ethan, the College Essay Guy
  • Everything you need to write (or help a student write) a beautiful personal statement
  • Daily Q&A sessions to ask ANY questions you like
  • A chance to get feedback on your essay during the practicum sessions
  • Links to recordings of the lessons so you can go back and watch them anytime
  • The feeling of having completed your Common App essay. #nice
  • So much more goodness.

Click here for more info.

 

Can’t make a particular session? No worries: He’ll email what you missed.

Can’t afford it? Don’t worry, there’s a pay-what-you-can option.

Are you a counselor? You’re invited too!

Click here to reserve your spot.

How to Write a College Essay from 5 of the Best Experts

 

how to write a college essayThe college essay is perhaps the most frustrating part of the college application. Since the essay provides the opportunity for you to give the colleges a “window into your soul” so to speak, the essay is essentially a key component of the application. If you’re struggling with essay or just need some expert advice, where can you go for help?

These five experts provide some of the best essay advice on how to write a college essay. For each, I have focused on a specific topic, but if you want (or need) more specific help, visit their websites. You will be amazed at their willingness to offer their expert advice free of charge. They all, however, offer specialized coaching and you and your student would be wise to take advantage of it if you find their advice helpful.

How do I begin the essay process?

This advice comes from my go-to essay source, The College Essay Guy. According to him, students should prepare before writing the essay. He starts the process by answering these questions:

  1. What should my essay be about?
  2. What are college admissions officers looking for?
  3. How do college admissions officers evaluate my essay?
  4. Which is more important: your story or your writing skill?
  5. When should I start writing my essay?
  6. How do I structure my essay?
  7. How much do essays matter?
  8. If my grades are bad, can I get into Harvard with a great essay?
  9. Can a bad college essay negatively affect my application?

Read more . . .

How do you avoid writing an essay that bombs?

This tip is from Essay Hell, a good resource for essay information, along with examples and tips for specific colleges like USC and UT. According to Essay Hell, there are 5 traps you can fall into when writing your college essay:

  1. Your essay is dull.
  2. Your college application isn’t personal.
  3. Your essay is mainly about someone else.
  4. Your essay only repeats everything else in your admissions application.
  5. You come across as not having your act together.

Read more . . .

What are possible brainstorming questions?

The Essay Expert, Brenda Bernstein, provides some possible essay brainstorming topics:

  1. What’s my favorite school subject and why?
  2. What’s my favorite extracurricular activity and why?
  3. What character in a book inspires me and why?
  4. What’s a story of how I went from a simplistic understanding of how the world works to a more complex, nuanced understanding?
  5. What’s an object that’s important to me and why?
  6. What’s a place/location that’s important to me and why?
  7. Who are the most important people in my life and what have I learned from them?

Read more . . .

Once you have a topic, how do you keep focus and stay on task?

According to the experts at All College Application Essays, “the drafting process is critical and can help make your stories and messages clearer. These essays are hard to write and get better with each new layer. To help, they provide 10 questions to guide you through the process:

  1. Does your essay start with a story that hooks us in from the first paragraph?
  2. If you start in the past, do you get to the present very quickly?
  3. Do you write only in the first person and not spend too much time describing anyone or anything else?
  4. If you are writing about your community or family, do you get to the present and your life and life works quickly?
  5. Do you only tell one story and not try and tell your entire life story?
  6. If you are writing about an obstacle or challenge overcome, do you get to how you have responded and made a difference in the life of your community by the second impactor third paragraph of the essay?
  7. Do you have a metaphor that goes through the entire piece…does this metaphor reveal who you are and what you offer to potential colleges?
  8. Does your story make you sound unique and not like anyone else applying?
  9. Do you tell new stories and qualities in each separate essay your write?
  10. Do you end with a bang?

Read more . . .

What do admissions officers look for in an essay?

According to David at EssaysCoach.com, writing a good application essay is hard. Many students write essays that are too cliché or too shallow; others write essays that are impersonal and uninformative; some are even unfortunate enough to write essays that cause their own rejection. Here are five things an admissions officer looks for:

  1. Can the applicant write?
  2. What does the essay say about the applicant?
  3. Are there deep, personal reflections?
  4. What will the applicant bring to the community?
  5. Do the qualities represented in the essay resonate with the rest of the application?

For a clear description of each, read more . . .

Now that you’ve read tips from these five experts, check out 35+ more gathered by The College Essay Guy.

Live 5-Part Online Workshop from the College Essay Guy

college essay guyIf a private university or college is in your future, the Common App is your one-way ticket. You’ve got one shot at a winning application, and Ethan Sawyer, the College Essay Guy, is here to help!

Using the Secrets of Screenwriting to Write Your Personal Statement is his five-part webinar series for students and counselors that runs Oct. 12-16.  

In just five days, you’ll finish your:

  • First draft of your Common App main statement
  • Activities list
  • Additional info section

Plus you’ll get tons of tips and step-by-step help to conquer the Common App.  

Click here for more info.

Can’t make a particular session? No worries: He’ll email what you missed.

Can’t afford it? Don’t worry, there’s a pay-what-you-can option.

Are you a counselor? You’re invited too!

Click here to reserve your spot.

3 Ways to Effectively Write Your College Essay

 

college essay
Courtesy of Pixabay

Writing the ever-important college  essay can, at first, seem intimidating and challenging. But remember, this is the key to whether or not you’ll be accepted to college, so it’s important to put your best foot forward. Writing the application essay is your time to shine, but it doesn’t mean you should feel nervous. We’ve put together a few tips to help ease the pain of writing your college essay.

Be Your Authentic Self

The most important thing you can do when writing is to be yourself. Don’t write what you think an admissions officer would want to read; it could come off as contrived and inauthentic. Instead, use your own voice in the way you would normally speak. Moreover, don’t discount proper grammar and punctuation, but it should sound conversational to some degree; as if you were talking to a friend.

An easy way to sound original is to write from your personal account; this helps the words flow much easier because only you can write from your own experiences. Documenting your own narrative sounds much more authentic to an admissions officer because your unique understanding tends to stand out and sound more passionate. It’s easy to tell the difference between a genuine essay and one that’s not

Once you’ve written a rough draft, have someone who knows you well—like a teacher, parent or friend—read through to make sure the writing matches your voice. They can give you honest feedback and help keep you on track with your writing. Plus, having an extra set of eyes read your work will help you find mistakes you might have otherwise missed.

Get Organized

A good starting point for writing your essay is to come up with an outline detailing important points you’d like to make. Keep it to a few topics and, of course, remember to answer the initial prompt. Once you’ve got the basic outline, its time to start writing. At this point, it’s best to let your ideas flow and to get everything on paper. It’s much easier to edit your work than to struggle to come up with the right thing to say. Keep your writing focused; you don’t want it to look like a resume that covers everything you’ve accomplished up to this point. You want to keep the admissions officer engaged, so focusing on a few topics rather than many is more effective. This is also your chance to showcase your writing skills, keeping on topic and being succinct will look much better to an admissions officer than an essay that rambles.

Alternative Applications

There are a few colleges that have started accepting video applications in place of the traditional essay. In the video, admissions are looking to see your personality and who you are as a student, and the video is a chance to be a bit more creative than you could with a written essay. The website ZeeMee.com is solely for students to upload videos and send them to colleges. They can create a profile that covers their skills and interests, as well as share their videos. Users can even endorse others for their skills, much like one would on LinkedIn.

If you plan on applying to multiple colleges and the thought of writing a new essay each time is a bit overwhelming, you can also check out the Common Application. This site allows you to upload one essay and fill out one application to send to many different colleges—saving you time and headache from completing several applications. A single essay might be best if writing is not your strong suit. Bonus: the site offers guidance and support for students applying to college.

Admissions officers are looking for students who can bring something new to the table. They want to see who you are and what kind of student you may become while attending their school. It can’t be emphasized enough to be yourself when writing your entrance essay. This is your chance to show the university you are an individual who has unique ideas and a passion for learning. Take this opportunity to talk about your interests and excitement about continuing your education. You may just find that acceptance letter waiting for you in the mail.

 

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About the author:  Jessica Gibbs studied Apparel Merchandising and Communications/Journalism at Colorado State University. She is currently a guest writer for CollegeFocus, a website dedicated to helping students deal with the challenges of college, including housing, finance, style, health, relationships, and transferring from a community college to a four-year university.

You can learn more about CollegeFocus on Twitter and Facebook.

All the College Essay Prompts in One Place

college essay prompts

 

Zoomita, a college application online organizational tool provides all of your college application essay prompts organized in one place

What does it do?

Gives you all of the college essay prompts, word count limits, and deadlines for your college list in seconds.  Write, share, and edit essays without ever creating a file or folder.  Free.

 Why should anyone care?

The application essay is widely viewed as the hardest part of the college application process.  Students spend hours/days/weeks just tracking down essay prompts and dealing with document management.  Zoomita reduces that process to minutes.  And it’s free.

What about Google Docs?

Google docs is a great tool, but students will still have to find the essay requirements and create a system of files and folders to manage their drafts.  There are no files/folders to create in Zoomita and it is literally impossible to not know what the most recent draft is.  Human proof!

What about sharing?

One-click sharing.  Yep.

Another great feature: it automatically tracks the number of essays you need for your complete college list.

I believe the most important task in the college application process is organization. Zoomita helps your student keep all their college essays organized: an important tool to help devote more time to the essay and less time to tracking down the topics.

Motivating Your Student to Finish the Essay

 

essayFor seniors, it’s crunch time. The essay that has been sitting on their desk since school started needs to be finished, especially if she is applying early decision or early action. Procrastination is not a good plan when it comes to writing the college essay. But how do you motivate your college-bound teen? She certainly won’t respond to nagging, but if she’s drowning, she may be unable to tell you why or know when or how to ask for help.

Following are my best tips for motivating for teen to finish the essay:

Go to the source.

Get tips from the admissions officers. Find out what they are looking for and how to give it to them. While no essay can save an unqualified application, an outstanding essay can push an otherwise mediocre application into the “yes” pile.

However, writing a good application essay is hard. Many students write essays that are too cliché or too shallow; others write essays that are impersonal and uninformative; some are even unfortunate enough to write essays that cause their own rejection.

This isn’t surprising. The application essay is drastically different from the typical high school assignment—deeply personal, rather than merely informative.

Read more of the 5 things admissions officers look for in an essay

Follow these dos and don’ts.

The essay is your student’s chance to give the admissions committee an inside look into who they are. Even with the common application essay topics provided, its important how they approach the essay and the type of impression it makes on the college. Generally speaking, there are topics your student should avoid and tactics they should use when writing.

Read more for 10 tips to write more competitive college essays

Read other essays.

If your student is stumped and simply can’t get his creative juices flowing, it might help to read some other essays. This doesn’t mean he should copy them, but other essays can give him a feel for what he should do to start the writing process.

If you wonder where you can find examples, the College Essay Guy has some of the best essay examples on his website. While you’re there, read all of his essay tips and get inspired!

Here’s one that I absolutely love: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

9 Tips to Make the College Essay “Pop”

 

college essayYou’re filling out your applications; you are trying to make yourself look as well-rounded as possible, listing all of your school and community-based activities and leadership roles; you know your grades and SAT/ACT scores are good enough to meet the requirements of the few colleges you have selected. There is just one more hurdle – that essay! This piece of the application process has you a bit nervous, because you are unsure of your competition and of your ability to write an essay that will really stand out. So here are a 9 tips that should help you craft a college essay that will get noticed, impress the reader(s), and be memorable.

1. START EARLY

I cannot emphasize this enough. This is not the type of essay you can throw together at the last minute. If you are using the “Common Application,” you should already know that those prompts are published in advance, and they do not change often. In fact, for 2016 admissions, the prompts are the same as they have been for the past 5 years. Get online, read through the prompt options, and select the one that most appeals to you. If your prompt comes directly from the college, get the application material during the summer, so that you have plenty of time to look at those options and select one.

2. KEEP A RUNNING LIST

As you think about your prompt, get a small notebook and keep it with you. As something comes to mind that would be a good fit for the prompt, write it down. Don’t worry about whether it is the best thought or not – just get it down at this point. For example, suppose you have selected a prompt that asks you to speak to a life-changing event that significantly changed you in some way. You may, indeed, have several big evets in your life thus far. As they come to mind, write them all down.

3. REFINE YOUR LIST

As you get closer to the time to actually write the essay (1-2 months before it is due), go through your list. Eliminate the items that are least relevant or least likely to get a response from a reader; combine those that can be combined. Finalize that list with the point or points you intend to cover. Going back to the sample prompt of an event in your life that changed you, if you had a sick pet that you nursed for days that eventually died, that is sad. It may appeal to the emotions of a reader; however, that event is meaningless unless it has motivated you to study biology and the go into veterinary medicine. Then there is significance. If you spent a summer tutoring inner-city kids and were appalled at their lack of basic skills, then that may have been the motivating factor in your selection of elementary education, so that you can one day teach in an inner city.

4. READ SAMPLES OF “WINNING” ESSAYS

These are all over the Internet, and can get a “feel” for the types of essays and the styles that really impressed admissions decision-makers. Take ideas from these as you think about how you will write your essay.

5. DEVELOP YOUR OUTLINE

It doesn’t have to be formal – just get on paper the order in which your body paragraphs will be developed and what will be contained in each of them.

6. WRITE THE BODY PARAGRAPHS

There should be a minimum of 3, and each needs a topic sentence and a good transition that leads to the next paragraph. Once written, re-read, revise, ad re-write until they are perfect – not one grammatical or spelling error, and good diversity of sentence types. Don’t be afraid to use humor if it is appropriate, and don’t be afraid to elicit emotions from the reader(s).

7. YOUR INTRODUCTION – THE CRITICAL PIECE

If you have not engaged the reader with your first sentence, you are “toast.” A short, simple “stunner” sentence that gives an amazing fact or leads into an anecdote is required here. The rest of this paragraph introduces your topic and ends with a solid thesis statement.

8. YOUR CONCLUSION

Tie back to your introduction. If you plan to study auto-immune diseases in dogs, with a goal toward prevention and cure, say so; if you plan to be the teacher that turns poor-performing children into success stories, say so!

9. STEP BACK; TAKE A BREAK; LET OTHERS READ IT

Get someone who is an English composition “master” to review and edit your essay; let friends or relatives read it and tell you honestly if they were intrigued and engaged by your first sentence. And don’t over-revise – you’ll lose authenticity!

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About the author: Great desire to make the world better – that’s what caused Julie Ellis to write. Wide experience of work with students in the role of Chief Editor PremierEssay allows her to communicate to readers with only relevant and interesting information. Follow her on twitter to find more interesting articles.

Wednesday’s Parent: 5 College Essay Tips

 

college essayI don’t know what it is about the college essay that strikes fear in the hearts of students and parents. But the very mention of the task sends students running in the opposite direction. If there’s one part of the application that causes more procrastination, it’s the college essay. Here are five tips that should help ease the dread and alleviate some of the pressure.

Relax

The essay if only one part of the college application. It may be an important part but the more your stress, and worry, and fret the less creative you will be in your writing. Forcing the issue when you’re not feeling it will only hinder your writing.

Start early

Begin thinking about the essay during the second half of junior year. When the summer arrives put some thoughts down on paper and start formulating a rough draft. Waiting until the last minute will make the essay rushed and incoherent.

Be yourself

College admissions officers want to get to know you. Pretending to be someone you are not in an effort to impress them isn’t going to earn you any points when evaluating the application. They want to know more about you, who you are, what is important to you, and why you want to attend their college. They can’t get that information if you can’t be yourself in the essay.

Practice writing

Start journaling early, ideally once you enter high school. Write about anything that interests you, about your feelings, frustrations and dreams. You can use the journal when you begin crafting your essay and the writing practice will be a plus.

Do some research

Get essay advice from the experts. Use websites, social media, and books to educate yourself about writing a stellar essay.

Preparing for the college essay removes the fear and helps with the stress. There’s no need to dread or procrastinate when writing your college essay.

Read Wendy’s Post: Savvy Prep for College Essays

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Wednesday’s child may be full of woe but Wednesday’s Parent can substitute action for anxiety. Each Wednesday Wendy and I will provide parent tips to get and keep your student on the college track. It’s never too late or too early to start!

The bonus is on the fourth Wednesday of each month when Wendy and I will host Twitter chat #CampusChat at 9pm ET/6pm PT. Tonight’s guest is @CollegeEssayGuy with a Parent’s Guide to the College Essay.

Wednesday’s Parent will give twice the info and double the blog posts on critical parenting issues by clicking on the link at the end of the article from parentingforcollege to pocsmom.com and vice versa.

5 Things Admissions Officers Look For in the Application Essay

 

essayWithin your college application, your personal statement is your one opportunity for the admissions officer to “meet you”, to visualize the person behind the numbers. While no essay can save an unqualified application, an outstanding essay can push an otherwise mediocre application into the “yes” pile.

However, writing a good application essay is hard. Many students write essays that are too cliché or too shallow; others write essays that are impersonal and uninformative; some are even unfortunate enough to write essays that cause their own rejection.

This isn’t surprising. The application essay is drastically different from the typical high school assignment—deeply personal, rather than merely informative.

Well, let me give you a glimpse through the eyes of an admissions officer. Working for the admissions office of a university with single-digit admission rates, I have reviewed numerous applications and “graded” a wide variety of application essays. Here are five things a college admissions officer looks for:

1. Can the applicant write?

The first thing the application essay does is to prove that you can write well. In college, you are going to write, write, write and write—and the application essay allows the admission officer to judge whether you will be able to cope.

On a structural level, your essay should be well organized and coherent. It should have a well-thought-out idea development and be properly paragraphed.

Your writing should be engaging and expressive. A big part of this depends on your personal style, but in general, you should use the active voice and vary your sentence structures. A note though: essays on both ends of the extreme usually don’t work—essays which are too gimmicky and stylized, or too academic, rigid and formal.

Lastly, of course, your essay should be free of grammar and spelling mistakes.

2. What does the essay say about the applicant?

This seems like an obvious point, but many applicants end up writing essays that do not actually shed much light on themselves. No matter how beautiful your descriptions are, or how emotionally moving your content is, if you do not relate these thoughts back to yourself as an individual, your essay will be ineffective.

A strong application essay allows us to visualize the applicant behind the numbers, and to know exactly what type of person you are. The essay should make us feel that we have gotten to know you on a personal level, as if we have met you face-to-face.

3. Are there deep, personal reflections?

To allow the admissions officer to get to know you, your writing needs to include reflections that are deep and personal. Without these reflections, an essay will seem shallow or even generic. Conversely, mature reflections will bring personality and depth to a topic that might seem commonplace at first (for example, community service).

To put it another way, the most important thing in the essay is not the “what”, but the “why”. We have the “what” from the list of your extracurriculars, scores and awards. We now want to know the “why”, the motivations that drive you.

This is also why it is a bad idea to try to cover too much in your essay. To put it yet another way, while the other sections of your application focuses on describing the breadth of your activities, in your personal statement, you should aim to reveal depth in one area.

4. What will the applicant bring to the community?

So what should you highlight about yourself? Well, the admission officer wants to discover what you can contribute to the college. If your application allows the reader to visualize you as an active, contributing and successful member of the community, you are in.

This does not mean that you need to be mind-blowingly unique. The qualities you can most effectively highlight are the genuine ones. A good essay requires a good deal of introspection, to arrive at a keen self-knowledge of what your strong points are, and how to best portray them.

On the flip side, you should avoid topics (and writing tone) that portrays you in a negative light. Be careful of writing about failures that highlight negative characteristics. Stay away from more controversial and potentially offensive topics. Avoid sounding naïve, lacking in self-awareness, or patronizing (a major problem, especially in essays about community service).

5. Do the qualities represented in the essay resonate with the rest of the application?

The advice goes that you should not rehash the rest of your application in your essay. For example, if you have already included multiple debate activities and awards, your essay should not be about debate.

The caveat to this is that while the specific activities should vary, there should be a consistent portrayal of personal qualities. If your essay represents you as a boundary-pushing activist, but the other parts of your application portrays you as respectful and soft-spoken, flags will be raised.

An application is a lens into a single person, so consistency is important. You should thus consider your application holistically, and put some thought into how you want to represent yourself, and what characteristics you want to highlight. Good luck!

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Today’s Guest Blogger 

David works for the admission office of a university with a single-digit acceptance rate. In his spare time, he provides expert coaching to students on their college application essays. Visit his website, www.essayscoach.com to learn more about how to write outstanding essays.

A Tool to Master the Dreaded Application Essay

 

college essay toolThe college application season is now in full swing and if you listen closely enough, you might be able to make out the tap-tapping of millions of seniors across the globe writing their application essays.  If you happen to be one of those students or a parent of one, I’d like to introduce you to Edswell, an application essay management tool that makes the whole process a lot easier.

So…what does it do? First, it gives you all of the application essay and deadline requirements for a student’s college list, in one click. Required, optional, supplemental, program-specific…all of them.  Students often spend days or weeks getting all of this information, now they can get it in a few seconds.

Second, it provides a beautiful essay management system that automatically organizes, syncs, and version controls every draft (built on Dropbox).  Instead of creating a folder and filling it with files, users simply click on the school and essay they want to work on – all drafts are viewable in an attractive feed-style format.

Third, it allows students to easily invite anyone to review a draft.  Reviewers do not need an Edswell account.  When the edited version is sent back to Edswell by a reviewer, it is incorporated into the feed for that essay, where differences between drafts are automatically highlighted.

Finally, it allows parents and counselors to track student progress.  Sometimes seniors need a nudge…Edswell gives the nudgers the information they need to make it happen.

You can give the platform a try for free for 30 days, no credit card required to sign up.  Just visit http://edswell.com and click “Free Trial.”  Oh, and for those interested in more information, there’s a short video walkthrough on the website.

I’d like to end with a salute to the seniors who are undertaking the not-insignificant task of memorializing their narratives, stories, and experiences in their application essays.  And Sam, if you’re reading this, I think it’s okay to start your Common App essay with “What’s a BA without a good burrito?”

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alex thalerAlex Thaler is the CEO of Edswell and the author of “The Art of the Personal Statement.”  He received his BA from UC Berkeley and JD from University of Pennsylvania.  In his non-existent spare time he enjoys woodworking and dreaming about moving to Hawaii.