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The Essay Hell Blog
More than 3 million viewers and counting!How to Find a Killer Topic
The first step to writing a winning college application essay is to find that perfect topic. This is the most important step, and often the hardest. Once you land on one, you are ready to roll. Things fall in place. You map out a simple outline, sit down and...
Best College Application Essays Have Touch of Gray
Learn How to Avoid Black-and-White Thinking to Add Depth to Your Essays It's exciting to see that word is getting out to collegebound students, and those who support their admissions quests, that real-life stories power the most effective college application...
Timeless Life Advice from 2016 Commencement Speakers
I arrived home to California yesterday from St. Louis, Missouri, after attending my son's graduation from Washington University in chemical engineering. (Woot Woot!) As part of graduating from college (as well as high school), my son and other students are bombarded...
How Brittany Stinson Wrote Her Costco Essay
A Q&A With The Author of the Viral Costco Essay Last month, Brittany Stinson learned she got into five Ivy League colleges, as well as Stanford and many other top schools. When a newspaper reporter asked her to share her college application essay, Brittany didn't...
Coalition for Access Essay 4: Teenager Advice
Coalition Prompt 4: What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)? When I first read through the five prompts students have to choose from to...
Coalition for Access Prompt 3: A Belief Challenged
You Believe That? Coalition for Access Essay Prompt 3: Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs? So you need to write your core essay for the new Coalition for...
Coalition for Access Essay Prompt 2: Volunteering
If you're using the new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success to apply to one or more colleges for 2016-17, you need to write a core essay that responds to one of their five prompts. First, I encourage you to read through the five prompts and see if one...
Strategies for Each of 8 New University of California Essays 2016-17
Quickly Find Ideas for Each of the 8 New Personal Insight Questions I hope everyone applying to any of the University of California schools this fall got the big news: They have all new essay prompts for 2016-17! Instead of writing two longer essays, incoming...
Coalition for Access Essay Prompt 1: Tell a Story
Tips and Ideas for Coalition for Access Essay Prompts: The First and Last If you are using the new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success to apply to college for 2016-17, you first need to check if the college or university you want to attend...