Dumpster Words for College Application Essays

  A couple weeks ago, I shared on LinkedIn a New York Times column about “annoying, overused and abused” words from 2013, and asked a group of college admissions experts for the most common offenders they found in college application essays. The idea...

Help for College Transfer Students

Unlike incoming freshman, transfer students typically are older, usually have a couple years of college and are expected to navigate this process largely on their own. But that doesn’t make it any easier—especially writing the college application transfer...

How to Find Your Essay Voice

  Many students have trouble finding their “voice” while writing college application essays. One of the biggest problems I see is that students want to sound smart and impressive, and they often lose their natural story-telling voice by forcing in big...

How to Write Your Transfer Essay for the Common App

When my son wanted to transfer from his small liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest into a larger university to pursue chemical engineering, I offered to help him with his college application transfer essay. I thought it would be a good opportunity to share my...

Believe in the Right Fit

  The winter flurry of letters is landing in mail boxes around the globe this time of year. I just heard from three ecstatic students who learned last week they were accepted into their dream schools–one was Harvard, another Wellesley, and a third...