by j9robinson | Jan 22, 2014
A couple weeks ago, I shared on LinkedIn a New York Times column about “annoying, overused and abused” words from 2013, and asked a group of college admissions experts for the most common offenders they found in college application essays. The idea...
by j9robinson | Jan 16, 2014
Unlike incoming freshman, transfer students typically are older, usually have a couple years of college and are expected to navigate this process largely on their own. But that doesn’t make it any easier—especially writing the college application transfer...
by j9robinson | Jan 14, 2014
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...
by j9robinson | Dec 31, 2013
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...
by j9robinson | Dec 16, 2013
Stumped by the University of Colorado Supp? Me, too! I’ve had quite a few students this “season” who were flummoxed by the supplement for the University of Colorado. It kind of threw me a bit as well. But behind all that blah, blah, blah, I believe...
by j9robinson | Dec 9, 2013
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...
by j9robinson | Nov 21, 2013
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...
by j9robinson | Nov 3, 2013
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 The following content in this post is no longer relevant and is outdated!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...
by j9robinson | Oct 26, 2013
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...
by j9robinson | Oct 17, 2013
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...
