by j9robinson | Apr 27, 2014
I was watching the most recent episode of Modern Family the other night, and thought it was funny and telling that Alex Dunphy, the token brainiac of the family, was obsessing about her college application essay. The family was on a vacation in Australia, and Alex...
by j9robinson | Apr 24, 2014
If you are a Letterman fan, you know that I am supposed to list these college application essay tips backwards, and end with No. 1. But I prefer chronological order. You can watch the YouTube video, where he has the young man, Kwasi Enin, who was accepted to all...
by j9robinson | Apr 18, 2014
In my previous post, I featured a question and answer session with author Robert Cronk, who wrote a popular writing guide on how to write narrative-style college application essays. I found Concise Advise, which directs students on how to use movie-script writing...
by j9robinson | Apr 17, 2014
I’m always on the lookout for great writing guides—especially books on how to write narrative, slice-of-life essays (like mine). Only recently did I discover this book, Concise Advice, by Robert N. Cronk. What I loved was that his approach was different...
by j9robinson | Apr 16, 2014
Are you starting to think about writing your college application essay? If so, you need to know what makes a great essay to know how to start brainstorming and writing your own. You can often recognize a “great one” when you read or hear it—but...
by j9robinson | Apr 1, 2014
If you have already written your college application essays, and either know where you are headed this fall or are still waiting, why not enter them into some contests? Why the heck not? Some offer some decent cashola prizes. Here’s the best one I found...
by j9robinson | Mar 24, 2014
I get a lot of students with my college application essay tutoring who fall into the “math/science” end of the learning spectrum. In general, that means that classes such as Algebra II and Chemistry come relatively easy to them, and English and...
by j9robinson | Mar 15, 2014
One of my favorite student-run blogs on college admissions, The Prospect, featured this interview with me last week. I thought the writer, Oriana Halverson, did a terrific job, and flushed out some helpful information: Essay Hell’s Janine Robinson: Everything...
by j9robinson | Mar 10, 2014
Big changes in the new SAT test announced recently caused quite a stir, especially that they were dropping the essay component. I was most excited, however, that they also were going to stop emphasizing “obscure” vocabulary words. Not only do I...
by j9robinson | Feb 8, 2014
I recently received an email from a student named Daniel Ryu, who is a sophomore at Harvard University. Daniel said he was stressed out his senior year of high school during the application process and had found my blog helpful. He offered to share what worked for...
