Did You Write a Great Essay? Why Not Win Some $$$!

  If you have already written your college application essays, and either know where you are headed this fall or are still waiting, why not enter them into some contests? Why the heck not? Some offer some decent cashola prizes. Here’s the best one I found...

Essay Hope for Math/Science Students!

    I get a lot of students with my college application essay tutoring who fall into the “math/science” end of the learning spectrum. In general, that means that classes such as Algebra II and Chemistry come relatively easy to them, and English and...

A Q&A With Me!

One of my favorite student-run blogs on college admissions, The Prospect, featured this interview with me last week. I thought the writer, Oriana Halverson, did a terrific job, and flushed out some helpful information:   Essay Hell’s Janine Robinson: Everything...

It’s Official: Out with the Big Words!

  Big changes in the new SAT test announced recently caused quite a stir, especially that they were dropping the essay component. I was most excited, however, that they also were going to stop emphasizing “obscure” vocabulary words. Not only do I...

Topic of Choice: Pretend It’s Still There

The Common Application folks announced a couple weeks ago that they will be keeping the same essay prompts for this college application season. If you use the Common App to apply to colleges this fall, you will have five prompts (or questions) to respond to with your...

Hot College App Essay Tips from a Harvard Sophomore

I recently received an email from a student named Daniel Ryu, who is a sophomore at Harvard University. Daniel said he was stressed out his senior year of high school during the application process and had found my blog helpful. He offered to share what worked for...