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The Essay Hell Blog
More than 3 million viewers and counting!Essay Lessons From a College Applicant Superstar
What You Can Learn From Michael Brown's College Application Essay I must have watched the viral video of Michael Brown learning he got into Stanford at least three times in a row. Such a feat and well-deserved accomplishment for what seems like an all-around...
New Trick for Finding Killer College Application Essay Topics
Let Lynda Barry Help You Find and Tell Your Best Stories! Try One of Her Awesome Brainstorming Exercises If you're starting to brainstorm that perfect topic to craft your dreaded college application essay, I have a new writing technique you might find helpful. I'm big...
Support High School Students Who Call BS on Guns
Learn How You Can Stand Up for Your Rights Join the Parkland Students and Rally Your Own High School! For the last decade, I've worked with hundreds of high school students every year on the notorious college application essay. Once these teenagers start thinking and...
College Rejection: 3 Lessons
Don't Despair over College Rejection Sometimes You Discover a Better Path It's the time of year when high school seniors are learning where they got accepted to colleges or universities. Yay! Good for you! Time to celebrate! Many are also opening those...
10 Quickie Tips to Nail Your UC Essays
If you are just starting to write your four short UC essays (called Personal Insight Questions), here are ten simple tips that can help you crank them out. I've written longer posts on how to brainstorm and map out answers for each of these questions for the...
The Big Eclipse: A Lesson in College Application Topic Ideas
Don’t Even Think About Writing About the Eclipse And What to Write About Instead When I was invited to give one of my college application essay writing workshops to students at Colorado Academy in Denver, Colorado, I had no idea it would be on the day of...
How to Format Your Common Application Essay
Confused on How to Format Your Common Application Essay? Here are 9 Hot Tips The 2017-18 Common Application opened for business earlier this week (August. 1). Chances are you will soon need to know how to format your common application essay. If you are on the ball,...
Why Kids CAN Write–If You Teach Them How
Students Stress Over College App Essays Because for the First Time They Want to Write But Realize They Don't Know How The New York Times ran an article yesterday called "Why Kids Can't Write." Great piece, but I didn't agree with the title. They can write. (Click...
The Trouble with Boys and College Application Essays
Who Writes Better College Application Essays: Boys or Girls? When I gave one of my summer college application essay writing boot camps this last weekend in my hometown of Laguna Beach, I had 11 boys and one girl. As the students showed up, I casually mentioned this...