by j9robinson | May 31, 2013
College Application Essays: Search For the Perfect Topic It’s Closer Than You Think I’ve learned a lot about what makes a great essay topic over the last six years I’ve helped students with their college application essays. If you’re...
by j9robinson | May 22, 2013
College Admissions Essays: The Common App. Prompt #1 My Favorite Out of the seven prompts you can chose from to write your application essay for The Common Application, I like the first one a lot. (UPDATE: As of 2017, you can now write about any topic you want. See...
by j9robinson | May 17, 2013
College Application Essays “Meant to Inspire” All Students Showed an “Appetite for Risk” Earlier this year, a business writer for The New York Times invited students to share their college admissions essays on the topic of money, class,...
by j9robinson | May 15, 2013
How to Answer Prompt 4 for the Common App for your College Application Essay Prompt 4: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma—anything that is of personal...
by j9robinson | May 9, 2013
College Admissions Essays Must Be Interesting How To Stay Bold And Avoid the Trap of a Dull Essay After six years working with students, parents and college counselors on writing college admissions essays, I’m more convinced than ever that...
by j9robinson | Apr 17, 2013
Mentor Essays for The Common App And Other College Application Essays If you are one of those students who understands how important these college admissions essays can be to landing in the school of your dreams, the New York Times just published a dream...
by j9robinson | Feb 20, 2013
College Application Essays How To Answer the New Common App Questions The best news about his year’s Common Application (2015-16) is that you can still write about almost any topic you want—these prompts are very open-ended. And they also added a...
by j9robinson | Jan 21, 2013
No matter what the prompt asks for, almost any effective college essay should showcase one or several of what I call your “defining qualities.” If the prompt asks you to write a personal statement (for The Common App), tell about yourself or wants to know...
by j9robinson | Dec 20, 2012
College Admissions Essays It’s Official: Get Creative! Colleges tell students that they want their essays to show them what sets them apart from the pack and what makes them unique. Yet most of the college application essay prompts do a poor job of...
by j9robinson | Dec 4, 2012
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...