Why I Love What I Do (in 500 words)
After years of helping students write the old UC1 prompt (my favorite college essay prompt), I decided it wouldn’t be a bad way to describe why I love what I do. Here’s that prompt: Describe the world you come from—for example, your family, community or…
How Your Parents Can Help You Write Your College Essay
2. For some parents, it feels like nothing is good enough. This is death to the creative process. We’re our own worst critics. Having a second voice telling us that the intro is flat or that the essay doesn’t really reveal who you are–particularly while…
How to Write Your College Essay in Just One Night
(a.k.a.: The “Break in case of emergency” essay) This is for those of you who are experiencing extreme writers block, have procrastinated ‘til the last minute, or are feeling just plain lazy. I love you and I have been you. Oh, and this is for…
Revising Your Essay in 5 Steps
So I figured something out recently. I was looking back at a couple of my favorite student essays and I realized that the structure of a couple of those essays is ridiculously sound. Rock solid. And not only is it rock solid, it’s teachable. Take…
JFK’s is The Worst “Why us” Statement Ever
Wow. Business Insider just posted an article on the five-sentence essay JFK wrote that helped get him into Harvard. My big take-away: Whoa, Harvard was doing “Why us?” essays in the 1930s. Anyway, the prompt was “Why do you wish to come to Harvard?” and…
5 Resources That Will Save You $3,480
Any favorite sites for researching schools? For the pro perspective, go to collegecountdown.com where for $20 you can get online access to the Fiske Guide to Colleges, which is pretty much the go-to guide for college research (#1 on Amazon). This $20 is optional, but…
5 Ways to Make Your Activities List Awesome
You only get 150 characters to list an activity on your college app: how do you make the most of them? Like this: 1. To fit in more info: use lists, don’t use complete sentences, cut extra words. Instead of: I raised money to donate to…
How am I a Genius?
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Visual-Spatial – think in terms of physical space, as do architects and sailors. Very aware of their environments. They like to draw, do jigsaw puzzles, read maps, daydream. They can be taught through drawings, verbal and physical imagery. Tools include models, graphics,…
Done With Applications? Now Set Your Facebook to Private
Turns out college reps aren’t the only ones FB-stalking you. “We check the Facebook page of not only potential hires, but volunteers as well,” says Yvonne Sawyer, COO at the non-profit Hope for Miami (and, full disclosure, my mother in-law). I asked Mrs. Sawyer…
Why I Keep a Gratitude List
I have a bookmark on my browser’s taskbar that says “gratitude.” It links to a Google doc with a list of things I’m thankful for. I don’t write in the doc every day and I try not to guilt myself for not doing so, but…