Tag Archives: The Essay Expert

Start NOW on recommendation letter lists

If your teen is heading into their senior year in the fall, summer is the time to start thinking about that list of people who might write glowing letters of recommendations to the colleges they are aspiring to attend. Put some thought into this list and hit the ground running in the fall!

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What class did you do best in last year? Which class was your favorite? Who was your favorite teacher? Does your guidance counselor know you well? Who knows you the best (both adults and fellow students)? Who will write you the best recommendation?

These are questions to answer this summer if you are going be entering your senior year in the fall. Once you have your answers, make a list of the people who would be your best recommenders. Put some serious thought into who you will ask because these letters are important!

After identifying these top recommenders, ask them if they can write you a strong letter of recommendation. Teachers will greatly appreciate having time to work on your letters. So hit the ground running in the fall before they are drowning in recommendation requests on top of lesson plans and other school-related activities. Get a leg up by approaching them EARLY!

If you remember particular instances where you demonstrated your creativity, intelligence, responsibility, or other impressive qualities, don’t be shy about reminding your recommenders about them. You can even provide a list of things you think your recommenders might want to cover in their letters. The best letters tell stories, and you probably remember those stories better than anyone else!

Examples of things you might want to share with your recommenders:

  • A list of your activities and accomplishments
  • Copies of your best papers in the recommender’s class
  • Copies of your creative writing
  • Notes about particular contributions you made in class
  • Your transcript
  • Your student resume (yes you should have one!)

Any and all help you can give your recommenders, whether it’s giving them plenty of time or helping them with material to put in their letters, will be appreciated and will make for a stellar letter of recommendation!

The benefit to you, besides that you’ll have great recommendation letters, is that when December rolls around, you won’t be biting your nails worrying whether your letters will be in by deadline.

That’s worth a bit of thought and action right now, isn’t it?

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This post was written by Brenda Bernstein, a graduate of Yale University and the New York University School of Law. She has been helping students get into college, grad school and law school for over ten years and is proud to offer college admissions assistance to students through her company, The Essay Expert.  Brenda practiced public interest law for ten years in New York City and knew early on that her calling was in student advising, not legal practice.  She is now a J.D. Career Advisor at the University of Wisconsin Law School Office of Career Services, as well as a writing coach and owner of The Essay Expert. Brenda is also trained as a life coach by the Coaches Training Institute.

Brenda’s company and consultants have helped students gain admission to top schools throughout the nation, including:  Yale, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, NYU, U Penn, Oberlin, Carleton, Northwestern, Georgetown, U of Miami, and UCLA.

The College Essay Demystified

Today’s guest blog post is from Brenda Bernstein, founder and senior editor of TheEssayExpert.com. Her team of trained writers, editors and coaches offer expert essay help and advice for college-bound teens. Parents–pass this post along to your teens as they struggle with that all-important college application essay.

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IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START THINKING ABOUT YOUR COLLEGE ESSAYS

 

If you are heading toward Senior year of high school, it’s time to start thinking about your college essays.  If you’re about to be a Junior and you’re reading this, it’s not too early.  The point is, start thinking of topics *now*!  You can even do it while you’re lying on the beach.

Why now?  Because the best college essays go through many lives.  You will write, re-write, and re-write again, over a period of weeks or even months.  Inspiration can hit at any time.

You want to have lots of time for your essays to percolate, to have those magic light bulb moments, or maybe even to wake up in the middle of the night from a dream and write a brilliantly creative essay (this really does happen!).

If you start thinking about your essays in November, you won’t have time for the process to work on you.  Instead of waking up with inspiration, you will wake up panicked or worried that you’re on the wrong track.  You don’t want that.

POSSIBLE ESSAY BRAINSTORMING QUESTIONS

Here are some things to think about – it’s not a complete list by any means.  Be creative!

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

Notice that many of these questions ask “and why?”  It is important to think deeply about the meaning of things in your life.  Determine what about your experience is unique to you.  That’s what will make your story about your grandmother, trip to Israel or soccer practice different from the one sitting under it in the pile.

JUST DO IT.

Don’t sit around just thinking about these questions – start writing!  Designate a journal for your college essay ideas.  You will be surprised how quickly it fills up with great content.  Keep filling it up, and when you go back to what you wrote several months before, you might be happily surprised by some of your thoughts.

If you’re struggling finding the right topic, don’t despair.  There are professionals at The Essay Expert who will help you recognize what is special about your experiences and support you to present those experiences in words.  By working with an expert, you will end up with truly great college essays — and have the best chance of getting into the college of your dreams.