Warning: 5 Ways to Blow Your College Application Essay

  How to Avoid College Application Essay Booby Traps No matter where you are with writing your college application essay, you should double check that you are on the right track. It’s way too easy to inadvertently torpedo your chances of writing an essay...

College Application Essays and the Admissions Puzzle

College Application Essays: One Piece Of the Admissions Puzzle   This is the time of year many high school juniors start to get serious about their college admissions strategy–including their college application essays. Some have been all over the...

Common Application Essay Prompts and Strategies for 2016-17

Stand Out in Your Common Application Essay   So you are ready to start writing your Common Application Essay? Congratulations! You have found the best source of specific tips and strategies on exactly how to brainstorm topics for each of the 5 prompts–and...

Sample Essays: “Fast Doesn’t Always Win”

Sample Essays Can Inspire Topic Ideas!   In a previous post, I shared a sample essay from my college application essay writing guide, The Writing Survival Kit. Here’s another original sample essay from the same collection. I believe reading sample essays is...

Sample Essays for College Applications

Sample Essays: The Best Way to Learn to Write Your Own     In my writing guide, The Writing Survival Kit, I share some excellent sample essays for college applications. In this post and future ones, I’m sharing some of them with you. Whether you are...

Scholarship Essays: How to Win Big Bucks

  Prove You Deserve to Win in Your Scholarship Essays   Scholarship essays are critical if you want to go to college, but can’t afford it. To win them, you usually need to write powerful and personal scholarship essays. (Yes, QuestBridge applicants, this...

6 College Application Essay Tips for First-Gen Students

 Advice for Students Who Are Underrepresented for Whatever Reason: Tell Your Personal Story In my previous post, I shared my experience working with teachers and students from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, where I’m giving a series of workshops on how to...

Creating a College-Bound Culture along the Texan Border

 First-Gen Students Learn to Write College Application Essays   Last month, I had the privilege to work with a group of teachers and students on their writing and college application essays from the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost tip of Texas. Almost all...

Top 5 Myths About College App Essays

 You Don’t Need Tragedy to Write a Standout College Admissions Essay!   This is the time of year that the frenzy surrounding college admissions starts to grow. Early decision deadlines are just weeks away. Students who put off writing their college...
Is Homeschooling a Good Topic for College App Essays?

Is Homeschooling a Good Topic for College App Essays?

   How to Find the Homeschooling Advantage in College Application Essays I received an email from a student named Hannah who told me she was homeschooled, and that she had been advised to write about that for her college application essay. Hannah said she was...