Writing College Application Essays

There is a deafening “noise”—online, in social circles, or in classrooms—about the “best” college, “best” SAT tutor, the correct number of AP classes to take, secret strategies to make it easier to get into a “better” college, and the “best” and “worst” majors. It is hard to ignore the steady… Read more Read More

One of the most challenging aspects of writing the personal statement is getting started.  Many students struggle with choosing a topic due to myths about what “the best” personal statement topic sounds like. And I find they often get stuck because they believe the falsehood that you must land on… Read more Read More

As I wrote in my previous post (“Has the World of College Admission Changed Forever?”) about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the college admission for students that are nearing the end of the admission journey, my advice to high school juniors who are just beginning the application process… Read more Read More

In between watching another breaking news alert, responding to emails, staying in touch with students, family, and friends through Zoom, and taking the dog for another long walk, I am getting a lot of questions from worried students and families about how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact their college admission… Read more Read More

One of the qualities of undergraduate education in the United States I appreciate is that our system of higher education is a marketplace of different college options.  The beauty of this system is that there are many opportunities to find colleges that fit an individual student’s needs and interests. For… Read more Read More

Many colleges, especially well-known or highly-selective colleges, request several different essays from applicants. Of those, one of the most important you will have to write is an essay that asks: “Why do you want to go to our college?” Highly-selective colleges are popular and receive a lot of applications from… Read more Read More

Remember that quote from my post “The Crucial Elements of a Great Personal Statement – Part 1”? I can only echo the words of the famous novelist Elmore Leonard once again for part two of this subject: “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it!” In that last post, we applied… Read more Read More

As I have noted in my blog post, “Personal Statements for Mere Mortals,” many colleges require a unique essay—usually 500-650 words-long—as part of the admission process. As a former admission officer and high school college counselor, and now as an Independent Educational Consultant, I have read, edited, and helped students… Read more Read More