by j9robinson | Mar 9, 2010
(for this to make sense, you probably need to read the previous post) Once you get the idea of how this Ladder works, now find some sample college admissions essays that you like. See if the writer shifts back and forth between the specific and the abstract. (Just jot...
by j9robinson | Mar 9, 2010
Best Advice On How to Write a College Application Essay That Rocks! “The Ladder of Abstraction” is one of my favorite writing tools, especially for writing narrative pieces such as college admissions essays. It is a wonderful way to give structure to an essay...
by j9robinson | Feb 6, 2010
As promised in my last post, I will share how I start the search for essay topic ideas for my son, who is a junior in high school. The idea is to get some general ideas on our college essay radar. Just jot down areas of interests, activities, experiences,...
by j9robinson | Feb 4, 2010
I began this blog when my daughter was a junior in high school and starting her college application process. Like a lot of parents and applicants, I thought she needed some amazing experience in order to write a fabulous essay. The good news is that I was wrong! In...
by j9robinson | Oct 21, 2009
A new client, who I will call Sarah, met with me for the first time to talk about topic ideas. When I pressed her about her interests, her hobbies, her passions, she kept insisting that she was a well-rounded, strong student, but didn’t have any one thing that...
by j9robinson | Sep 26, 2009
Here’s a little book of essays written by graduates of Berkeley High School, which has a truly diverse student population and moves through about 700 seniors every year. (“As you will see from these stories, some live on their own, while others come from...
by j9robinson | Aug 25, 2009
From article in the New York Times: June 23, 2009, 12:22 PM As an inaugural post, Martha C. Merrill, the dean of admission and financial aid of Connecticut College, and a graduate of the class of 1984, encourages incoming high school seniors (with her Top Ten tips):...
by j9robinson | Mar 12, 2009
Writing experts always tell us, “Be specific!” But what does that mean? How do we do that? Other gurus say, “use concrete details.” Huh? What the heck are those? After many years of ignoring this advice, I think I get it. Instead of saying,...
by j9robinson | Oct 9, 2008
“Try to write in a directly emotional way, instead of being too subtle or oblique. Don’t be afraid of your material or your past….If something inside you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must...
by j9robinson | Aug 25, 2008
Some college counselors advise students to think of their life as a book and write down some chapter titles. Then pick one you like and expand upon it. This naturally directs the essay into a narrative (story-telling) delivery. I thought of a few from my own...
