by j9robinson | Sep 22, 2012
College Application Essays Five Places to Start After helping students discover their own unique topics over the last five or so years, I can spot a great topic the minute a student mentions one. And I suspect it’s no different for the college admissions people...
by j9robinson | Jun 12, 2012
College Admissions Essays How to Write About Your Sport–Or Think Again If you are a serious athlete, and intend to play your sport in college, it’s hard to pick a topic for your college application essay that’s not related to your sport. Chances...
by j9robinson | Jun 7, 2012
College Admissions Essays How to Find “The Unexpected” in Your College Application Essay or Personal Narrative One way to add snap, crackle and pop to your college application essay is to give it a little twist. What’s a twist? It can be many things,...
by j9robinson | Jun 6, 2012
The college admissions season never really ends. I’m not a big one for starting too early. Parents who start talking colleges with their kids in junior high and even the start of high school kind of bug me. I understand that it’s valuable for students to...
by j9robinson | Nov 4, 2011
College Admissions Essays: Don’t Try to Impress! I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about how high school students are seeking out exotic trips, usually to foreign countries, mainly so they will have an intriguing topic for their college...
by j9robinson | Oct 14, 2011
College Admissions Essays: How to Answer the Supplemental “Short Answer” Prompt The Common Application requires one long college admissions essay. But it also has a short essay, a supplemental question that asks students to “briefly elaborate on one of...
by j9robinson | Aug 11, 2011
College Admissions Essays: How to Start Your Core College Application Essay If you are writing a college admissions essay that responds to a prompt that asks you to tell about yourself, or about “a time,” or describe a quality, background, interest,...
by j9robinson | Mar 27, 2011
I haven’t posted anything in recent weeks. My role as a college essay tutor wraps up in January and February. But if you are still working on an essay or personal statement, I would read through this blog for ideas and inspiration! This spring, I have also been...
by j9robinson | Jan 17, 2011
I heard of Wordling from a gardening friend over at a totally unrelated blog, called Lost in the Landscape. (Believe it or not, I do other things than read college essays!) Wordling is a program where you can drop in some text and it creates a colorful collage of...
by j9robinson | Nov 16, 2010
College Applications Essays Stick the Word Count–ALWAYS! Most of your college admissions essay prompts have word limits. They tell you what is too long (example: maximum 500 words) or what is not long enough (example: minimum 250 words). Some ask you to stick...
