SHOW the World You Come From

URGENT UPDATE! The University of California CHANGED its essay prompts for 2016-17. Learn about the all-new requirements by clicking HERE!   THIS POST IS OUTDATED! How to Describe a Place in a College App Essay If you are applying to the University of California,...

You Are Not Alone

  I gave away 100 copies of my ebook guide last week. (If you missed the giveaway, I’m planning on doing another in October.) Even though I’ve always had visitors from all over the world, I was overwhelmed by the enthusiastic students from so many...

Work First, Surf Second: A Lesson in Mundane Topics

A student who I will call Ryan arrived for his tutoring session yesterday, and showed me what he had written for his English class. His essay started with how he worked with Habit for Humanity and a trip he took to work with Native Americans. Oh no. Not the old...

Jumping to Conclusions: How to End Your Essay

How to Conclude Your College Admissions Essays   Here’s an excerpt from my ebook guide on how to write a college application essay using a narrative, storytelling style. I pulled this from my chapter on writing conclusions. Some students find ending their essays...

Hottest Guides for Writing Narrative Essays

  I already featured this list of my favorite books on how to write essays–narrative-style, “slice of life,” personal essays–at the end of an earlier post. These are exactly what you want to write for your college application essays....

Got Grit? Then Show It!

College Application Essays Underprivileged or Underrepresented Students: This Means You! Why You Must Share Stories That Show Your Grit As a writing coach, I work mainly with students I consider “privileged.” This means they can find support writing...

How Will They Dub You?

Everyone is looking for that magic topic for their college application essay that will help them jump out from the essay pile, and shout, “Yes, that’s me!” I’ve written a lot about how you can go about landing on that unique topic. Here’s...

Writing Advice from a Hip Dean

Insider Writing Tips From a School That Knows Creative Writing When I read this post by an admissions officer at Tufts University named Lee Coffin (who has been dubbed “Hip Dean”) on word limits for Common App essays, I discovered he also included some...
Colleges Want More Creative Essays. Wonder Why?

Colleges Want More Creative Essays. Wonder Why?

The Colorful New World of College Application Essay Prompts But What Does It Really Mean?   University of Chicago: “Tell us your favorite joke and try to explain the joke without ruining it.” Brandeis University: “If you could choose to be...

English Teachers Don’t Always Get It Write

At our local public high school in Laguna Beach, the English teachers assign juniors to write college application essays at the end of the year. It’s a great idea. For many students, this may be the only time they get any guidance on how to write these essays....