It’s Official: Out with the Big Words!

by | Mar 10, 2014

  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...

Hot College App Essay Tips from a Harvard Sophomore

by | Feb 8, 2014

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...

Dumpster Words for College Application Essays

by | Jan 22, 2014

  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...

How to Find Your Essay Voice

by | Jan 14, 2014

  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...

If your essay starts by relating something that happened, the reader is going to dive right into it and not stop until they are satisfied–until they know what happened.

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SHOW the World You Come From

by | Oct 4, 2013

URGENT UPDATE! The University of California CHANGED its essay prompts for 2016-17. Learn about the all-new requirements by clicking HERE!   THIS POST IS OUTDATED! How to Describe a Place in a College App Essay If you are applying to the University of California,...