A Dozen Do's and Dont's: 2016 Common App College Essay Prompts

You can always read my latest blog here:

Here's the opening of my latest Huffington Post College page blog, which you can read in its entirety right here.

"Alongside my college counseling work, I’ve written six novels and taught creative writing to college students and adults for decades. You don’t need to write a novel to get into college, but you do need to adopt some of the essentials of writing creatively to make your application essays sing. Since most of the supplements are not yet on line, I’ll focus on the Common Application essay for now.

Do’s
1. Get personal. Find a topic that makes your heart beat a little faster than usual - a topic with some energy and even tension in it: A piece of your personal story that’s essential to who you are and not reflected in your activities list, a talent, a hardship, a moment you took a risk and spoke out to defend a position, or a problem you solved, even if it was putting together a trampoline in your backyard. These are personal essays, not academic paper or speeches.

2. Before you start writing, do some free writing on your topic. Scribble down what comes to you without thinking about organization, voice or structure. This is a great way to find your voice and your material. Put your notes aside for a day or two, and when you come back to them, see which passages stand out.

Time - and time away from what you’re writing - is a great editor. Every writer I know has the experience that we write something we think is terrific and look at it in the morning and want to cry. The writing that holds up a week later is the good stuff.

3. Speaking of time: Don’t save this essay or any of the others for the last minute. Think of the essay as a work-in-progress, and set aside time to do it over a period of weeks.

4. Write informally and write long. Don’t stick to the 650-word limit as you begin. Again, you’re looking for material, energy, what matters. Once you have that down, you can edit out everything that isn’t essential.

5. College admissions officers often report that they want to be entertained and engaged by your essay. I’d say it’s more important to go for “engaged” than “entertained,” but the message is clear. The first sentence needs to be a grabber. You may end up writing the first terrific sentence once you’re done with the third draft. It doesn’t need to be acrobatic or pyrotechnic, and it doesn’t need to be one for the ages (“Call me Ishmael” - opening of Moby Dick), but a little pizazz goes a long way, at the beginning and throughout.  READ THE REST

Please visit Don't Sweat The Essay for more info, send me an email:Liz@DontSweatTheEssay.com, or call: 1-855-99-ESSAY.

Quirkiest College App Essay Prompts Are Out: U. of Chicago Supplements

If you're considering applying to the University of Chicago, this is essential reading about their famous - or infamous - supplementary essays. Here's the opening of my latest Huffington Post blog:

"The extra essays colleges and universities ask you to write, beyond the Common Application essay, contain a wealth of information — for you, not just the colleges. And the most demanding and unusual questions invariably come out of the University of Chicago, where learning for its own sake is valued above all else.
"Now and then the students I work with have Chicago on their lists, until it’s time to write the supplementary essays, and there’s a moment of reckoning. The questions they encounter lead to a lot of head scratching and anxiety. Many find them too cerebral, too quirky, too impractical. This is exactly the process the university wants you to go through: if these questions thrill you, Chicago might be a great fit. If they don’t, maybe this isn’t your dream school after all. Maybe it’s not even one you want to consider.

"Now that the 2016-‘17 questions are out, take a look and see what they do to your applause meter. You can read the University’s essay page here or below. 

"Remember, the Common App essay is the centerpiece of the application essays. Whatever else you write should not repeat what’s in that essay. READ MORE

Visit my website for more information about services or send me an email: Liz@DontSweatTheEssay.com 

 

Common App Essay Prompts - Help Getting Started

My latest thoughts on Huffington Post's College Page:

NIRAT VIA GETTY IMAGES

There are more relaxing ways to spend summer vacation than worrying about Common App essays, personal statements, and the whole assortment of supplements coming up, but summer can also be a great time to actually do some of the essays — and put them behind you.

I wouldn’t say it’s important to do the essays this week or even this month, but I think it’s a good idea to become familiar with them and mull over the possibilities - and see which prompt makes your heart beat a little faster than the others. Remember, choose one of five, and your word limit is 650.

The point of the Common App essay is to reveal something about yourself - a passion, talent, accomplishment, perspective, life story, problem-solving ability - that will fill out your academic record and convey the essence of who you are and/or what you feel makes you stand out as an applicant. READ MORE 

College Application News You Can Use- Essays, SATs, Admissions

"This spring brings an abundance of big news into the relatively staid world of college applications and admissions for the upcoming season - for those applying to be part of the class of 2021. Students and parents will need to navigate quite a few new organizations, essays, and even tests.

"The New SAT. The new version of the SAT is somewhat old news, but it’s here to stay. In the competition between the SAT and the ACT, the ACT is now the more popular choice for college applicants. Some say that in order to better compete with the ACT, the SAT modified its test to bring it more into line with the ACT. Many rising seniors have already taken the new test, and many more are signed up. One voice: A prominent tutor, Anthony-James Green, recommended that students not take the new SAT this year, and wait instead until there have been more responses to it."  READ MORE

Best and Worst College App Essay Prompts

Looking back at the essay prompts for the 2015-16 applications .... Here are my thoughts on my favorites and least favorites.

From the opening of my HUFF PO piece:

"As the college application essay writing season draws to a close, with only a short time left before most regular applications are due, I'm looking back on some of the most interesting -- and most annoying -- essays prompts I've seen this year.

"I'm also taking a moment to marvel at how revealing the essay prompts are about what kind of students the colleges are looking for when they devise the questions that help them distinguish between tens of thousands of applicants. Precisely because there are so many hugely accomplished, talented students, and because the Common Application has devoted itself to making it easy to apply (and increasing its own coffers in the process, let's not forget), the essays are one of the tools used by the schools to make distinctions. And the essay questions, which vary enormously from institution to institution, tell us some of what each institution values in its applicants." READ MORE 

New Common App Essay Prompts are HERE!

For my initial response to the new Common App essay prompts for 2015-16, please read my latest Huffington Post blog right here.

Here's the opening:

"This is big news in the college application world. It's not quite landing on the moon or Beyoncé having a baby, but the twittosphere is aflame this morning. The Common Application organization has just released the essay prompts for the upcoming year. Though applications aren't due until late in the fall for most students, the arrival of the prompts marks the start of the season." READ MORE

College App Essays Run Amok: A Coach's Advice, Sympathy & A Word About Spiders

I published this essay on Huffington Post last fall, but I think it's worth reposting as parents and students start thinking about college application essays for this coming fall. It contains some background about the Common App essay and the supplements as well as an overview of the complexities of the application process. 

If you're new to the process, it might be worthwhile taking a look!  READ MORE

Grieve, Grumble and Get up

Dec. 11, 2014

If you've been turned down from the school to which you had your heart so set on that you applied Early Decision or Restricted Early Action, it's time to grieve, grumble, and get back to work on your other applications.

For parents and students, it's important to realize that the numbers for early admissions are always stacked against you - and that getting rejected at one school is NOT an omen for what else will happen down the line. It's vitally important to see this as part of a process, not an ultimate judgment on who you are and what you're capable of.

Take a look at my latest Huffington Post piece for more thoughts on this moment in the college application campaign.

Thanks for taking a look!

The Elite Numbers Game~Spike in Applications to Top Schools

The Elite Numbers Game~More College Applications Than Ever This Year [reposted from my blog] 

The New York Times just posted an article that paints a troubling picture of this year's applications and admissions numbers - more applicants are applying for the same number of spaces than ever, with Stanford's 5% admission rate leading the pack. Who gets in and who doesn't?

"Admissions directors at these institutions say that most of the students they turn down are such strong candidates that many are indistinguishable from those who get in."

The article includes numbers for UCLA as well as several Ivies, suggesting higher levels of competition for spaces across the spectrum of universities and students. There is nothing simple in these equations. There are many forces at work that drive up these numbers and drive down the percentages, from the recruiting done by many colleges and universities - enticing students to apply who don't have a chance of getting in - to the increasing numbers of wealthy foreign students applying and being accepted, in part because they do not need financial aid, to the ease of applying to many schools through the Common Application.

Universities engage in marketing. The schools present themselves as meritocracies, or we want to believe they are, but given the impressive qualifications of so many of the students, and the other factors that go into admission decisions, including athletic ability and legacy admits, merit is only one consideration.

Rather than try to summarize the article, I urge you to read it - and to read some of the top reader comments, which add many more dimensions to this complex story.

Here is an excerpt:

"Enrollment at American colleges is sliding, but competition for spots at top universities is more cutthroat and anxiety-inducing than ever. In the just-completed admissions season, Stanford University accepted only 5 percent of applicants, a new low among the most prestigious schools, with the odds nearly as bad at its elite rivals.

"Deluged by more applications than ever, the most selective colleges are, inevitably, rejecting a vast majority, including legions of students they once would have accepted. Admissions directors at these institutions say that most of the students they turn down are such strong candidates that many are indistinguishable from those who get in." READ MORE

Teachable Moments: Kwasi Enin

I've pulled together my thoughts on the Kwasi Enin phenomenon for Huffington Post- and especially after reading the draft of his college application essay obtained by the New York Post. Here is an excerpt. 

"There are simply not enough places at these few schools for all the students with perfect grades and perfect scores. Which brings me to Kwasi's essay, what it reveals about him, and what it reveals about what top schools seem to be looking for.

"It is necessary to have good grades and high SATs for admission, and often a lot of AP courses, and extra curricular activities in abundance -- but in 2014, it is no longer sufficient for these schools. But you might be asking, what else is there that a high school student has to show? How about these? Intellectual curiosity. The ability -- the hunger -- to translate the lessons of one subject to other subjects. A craving for knowledge." READ MORE

The Morning After: Ivy League Hangovers, College App Essays & SATs

My thoughts here, the morning after all the Ivy League schools announced their decisions.... a stressful time for families who had Ivy hopes, and some thoughts about those who are looking ahead to applying this fall.

Confessions of a College Essay Coach

My latest piece on Huffington Post just went up - my confessions. Here's an excerpt:

"Confession No. 1. No one has ever asked me to write an essay for her child. Nor has anyone even hinted that this is what she wanted. The students I work with want to write their own essays, and parents often want, not a ghostwriter, but a buffer, someone outside the family to impose some structure and discipline on the process of getting the essays done. You may have heard: children-on-the-verge-of-adulthood usually don't want to spend any more time with their parents than necessary, especially when there is a risk of "nagging." READ MORE

I HEART the New Common App Essay Prompts

"When the new prompts were posted last spring, I liked them right away. They seemed more personal, more probing, and more direct -- capable of eliciting better stories, information, and insights from students. Having spent the last two months working with students on essays using the new prompts, I feel even more enthusiastic about them now." READ MORE ...

Countdown to August 1st - Common App Essay and Supplements Go Live

The Fourth of July and Labor Day used to be the only two dates in summer that most of us paid attention to, but August 1 is fast becoming a summer landmark for rising high school seniors and their often frantic families. As all of them know, it's the day that the Common Application goes live, and students can start filling out applications to the 488 colleges that participate in the program -- from Harvard (Cambridge, MA) to Transylvania University (Lexington, KY) and Franklin College Switzerland (Lugano, Switzerland). READ MORE...

3 Dos and Don'ts for Your College Application Essays

From my Huffington Post article

Three Don'ts:
1. Don't consult the thesaurus and "try to sound smart" by using big words and dry, academic language. Be specific, vivid, and personal in your writing, so we can hear your voice. 

2. Don't write about the Harry Potter books, even if they are your all-time favorites. Instead of standing out, mentioning HP will make you indistinguishable from millions of other fans. 

3. Don't read college essays online or in books unless or until you're very close to finishing your own essays. It can be intimidating to see other finished essays when you're insecure about whether you can do your own. READ MORE... 

Writing College Admissions Essays on Summer Vacation? You Bet.

Here's my newest piece on Huffington Post, in case you're wondering what to do on your summer vacation.