Ask the Right Questions to Get Essay Ideas
Writing your personal statement is actually one of the easiest steps in the college application process. The key word there, though, is "writing." Generating the ideas, outline, and flow of the essay is much, much harder. As an example, I recently had a promising...
How to Choose Where to Apply
Before you can begin to even think about your college essay topic or what style you're going to write in, you've got to answer a simple yet sometimes difficult question to answer--where to apply for college. The simplest way to accomplish this is to go to the US News...
Quick Reminder: Tell One Big Story, Not Several Small Stories
When you look down at a college application and see you have a half-dozen essays to fill out, it's very easy to think "I'll just do this essay today, those in a week, and those I can do quickly so I'll wait until I sent my app out." Here's the problem--you're not...
The Specific Sells
I recently had a client that had an essay question, "If you could have a contemporary guest speaker come to the university, who would it be and why?" This is a very similar question to another essay prompt, "If you could have dinner with one person in history, who...
Quick Reminder: This Is NOT An English Essay
A common refrain I hear from clients is "I'm worried about this because I'm not a good writer," in large part based on their English essay grades. While I understand what this is saying, this is equivalent to saying, "I'm not a good athlete." It implies something, but...
Taboo Topics for Your Story
Sometimes, no matter how vulnerable you want to be, there are taboo topics that just shouldn't get brought up in your essay. While it's important to show your most compelling side, there are a few topics that, even if you believe they are compelling, probably aren't...
How Do You Tell Your Story?
The personal statement is usually open-ended, 500 to 650 words, and has very few other guidelines to tell your story. With all this freedom, you have the chance to write something magical. The flip side, of course, is that with this freedom comes the burden of too...
It’s the Story, Not the Writing
When you hear the word "college application essay" or "personal statement essay," one crucial word in those phrases may make you believe you have to be a great writer: "essay." Hearing the word essay likely invokes memories of reports about themes in The Count of...
Picking a School That’s Right For You!
It's April 1st, which means by now, you should have heard from all of the schools you applied to. It may sound cliche, but you deserve congratulations for getting through this stressful process! Now comes one last step--picking a school. By now, you're probably just...
How to Write a Personal Statement Tip #5: Seek Feedback
You've done all the work you can on your essay. Now it's time to seek feedback from someone else. You Can't Do It All By now, you've written two drafts, you have a solid idea of what you want your essay to say, and you've gotten it to that point. It's precisely for...