by j9robinson | Sep 11, 2015
Go Deep in Your College Application Essay! When writing narrative-style college application essays, I advise students to start by sharing a real-life story that illustrates one of their defining qualities or characteristics. All stories contain some type...
by j9robinson | Aug 4, 2015
The 2015-16 Common Application is officially out. If you’re applying to college, you will be making a lot of decisions in upcoming months. Important ones. What schools should you apply to? What should you write your college application essay about so you...
by j9robinson | Jul 25, 2015
The Best (and Worst) College Application Essay Topics Are Not What You Think! When I first started working with students on how to write college applications essays about eight years ago now, I put together a list of Do’s and Don’ts about picking...
by j9robinson | Jul 10, 2015
For more than 20 years, the magazine Vanity Fair has collected provocative and memorable details from the most famous people on the planet using their version of what is called the Proust Questionnaire. The famous French writer didn’t actually pen these...
by j9robinson | Jul 6, 2015
I loved a recent post by my friend, Lynn O’Shaughessy, who is a fellow journalist and now the international guru for creative ways to pay for college. (If you’re losing sleep over the insane cost of college, make sure to check out The College Blog.) Lynn...
by j9robinson | Jun 22, 2015
A lot of pieces go into crafting a college application essay that will help you stand out from the competition, and quite possibly push you through the door to your dream school: It needs to be engaging, especially at the start. (Here’s how you do that.)...
by j9robinson | Jun 10, 2015
The Best Way to “Show” in Your College App Essay When I started as a young reporter at my first newspaper job in Illinois, I was assigned to cover a half dozen small farm towns. I didn’t think much would happen out there. But after about a month,...
by j9robinson | Jun 2, 2015
or Why Bad Writers Write the Best College Application Essays If you think you can’t write, and you need to write a college application essay, this is your lucky day. There’s a higher-than-average chance you will write an awesome essay. (If you think you...
by j9robinson | May 31, 2015
Short Answer: ONE College Application Essay for The Common App The Common Application comes out officially August 1. But they already announced the changes for this coming 2015-16 season. The most important were changes to the five essay prompts. (You can write...
by j9robinson | May 30, 2015
The folks at The Common Application added a new prompt this year and I love it. It asks you to write about a problem. What’s so great about a problem? Problems = Stories = Great Essays! This may be the only time having a juicy problem is a good thing. So take...
