How to Find Your Essay Voice
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...How to Write Your Transfer Essay for the Common App
When my son wanted to transfer from his small liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest into a larger university to pursue chemical engineering, I offered to help him with his college application transfer essay. I thought it would be a good opportunity to share my...Believe in the Right Fit
The winter flurry of letters is landing in mail boxes around the globe this time of year. I just heard from three ecstatic students who learned last week they were accepted into their dream schools–one was Harvard, another Wellesley, and a third...
Essay Contest! Winners Will Be In My Book!
You Already Wrote It. Why Not Submit it? Enter Your College Application Essay in Essay Hell’s Heavenly Essays Contest! One of the first things I advise students to do when they start working on their college application essay is read sample essays. There’s...Don’t Let UC Deadline Ruin Your Turkey Day!
If you are applying to the University of California schools, you have until the end of this month. As busy seniors, some of you might have waited to write your essays over Thanksgiving, when you have some days off and can catch up. Yes, it would be better if...A Peek into the Many Worlds of Prompt 1 of the UC Essays
UPDATE: The University of California announced NEW essay prompts for 2016-17. Read about how to answer them HERE. The following content in this post is no longer relevant and is outdated! About three years ago, I wrote a post to try to help students applying to the...Admissions Officers From Select Colleges Confirm They Want Stories!
Tips for Writing Essays College Admissions Folks Want to Read While trying to think of topics for college essays, students often try to guess what the admissions officers are looking for, or what they want to read. It often feels like such a mystery. But in a...Pulling Your Hair Out Over The Common App? Here’s Some Relief
Students trying to submit their college applications–including their essays–to The Common Application are finding all sorts of glitches and problems this fall. Apparently, it’s a new system and some students have spent literally hours trying...Read moreIf 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.