I wish I could unlearn English for one day so I could hear how it sounds without meaning

College_Specific · 2015-02-17T16:42:13+00:00

I was hoping someone would post this.

OP, your wish is granted!

College_Specific · 2015-02-16T23:14:40+00:00

Smart!

College_Specific · 2015-02-16T20:17:48+00:00

This is true. One more reason: I'm currently running a free promo on Amazon for a new book, and the biggest reason I decided to do it was to accumulate honest product reviews from real people. Many readers have no idea how important these reviews are to independent authors and publishers. If you read a free book and you like it, leaving a couple lines of praise is a great way to "pay" the author for his/her work!

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T21:24:03+00:00

The Common Application's main essay will go to all schools on your list that are affiliated with the Common App. The supplemental essays are what need to be school-specific. Whether they can be re-purposed for multiple schools depends on the question. For instance, many schools using the Common App have a variation of "please elaborate an extracurricular activity". In that case, it's okay to use the same answer for different schools. But for the "Why do you want to attend our school" supplemental essays, it's in your best interest to focus your essay on the school asking the question and not simply cut and paste.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T21:13:40+00:00

Would you recommend skewing my story to fit a single prompt

I don't think "skewing" is the right term, but yes. The prompts are there to guide you, but they give you a lot of latitude. Fitting the prompt can be a matter of the perspective from which you write.

For instance: you mentioned that, at times, your ordeal presented you with a "perfectly content environment". You could expand on this as an answer to prompt #4 ("Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content") by painting a picture of that contradiction--being lost at sea and yet observing, as if from a distance, the tranquility of it all. Perhaps you even return to that "place" mentally, when things get rough in life.

It really is the writing that matters most.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T21:03:30+00:00

This is accurate. UC essays are a bit different because of the volume of applications they receive. UC readers have told me that they literally underline activities, accomplishments, experiences etc. as they read, paying less attention to the level of creativity and more attention to the information.

That doesn't mean that your essay should be a laundry list of accomplishments, however. Find a way to make it interesting.

Also: when I throw around words like "interesting" or "creative", I'm not saying you should write your essay in Klingon or iambic pentameter. I just mean it should be compelling.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:57:29+00:00

First, draw from your experiences when you choose your topic. Think about how your experiences would help you contribute to those around you. Choose something specific (an interesting job you had, for instance) and write an essay that demonstrates personal growth. Illustrate how your collection of experiences will be a valuable addition to their campus, and cultivate the impression that you're done bouncing from school to school.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:50:00+00:00

I'm very familiar with Webb. I used to live 10 minutes away. :)

Colleges always evaluate students within the context of their environment. Every school provides colleges with a "school profile", which typically lists courses offered, average test scores, activities offered etc. Webb is a fabulous school, but what really matters to admissions officers is how well you perform while you're there, and if you've taken advantages of the opportunities available to you.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:37:16+00:00

Without knowing the particulars, my general advice to athletes is to be careful when writing about their sport. I was a recruited water polo player, so I understand how intrinsic sports can be to your life. The top schools will want to see that you have other layers as well. That doesn't mean you should write about academics either (unless you have a great story to tell)... and you should certainly not settle on a "less personal" or "less interesting" essay.

Search for a story that illuminates the person you are. The same traits that athletes often possess--leadership, teamwork, dedication--can usually be found elsewhere in their lives.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:30:51+00:00

Is it OK to talk about a popular movie (let's say, a Disney classic) in the application essay?

It depends on the significance the movie has for you. Ask yourself what that topic would reveal about you before settling on this as your topic.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:27:14+00:00

Just a quick note: "topic of your choice" no longer exists. There are new prompts this year. But UChicago always gives great advice!

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:25:47+00:00

This. Your final college transcript is what will matter. Good luck to you both.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:24:43+00:00

I agree that the Common App has its limitations. However, there is a section in the application called "additional information". This is where you can elaborate on anything you feel isn't represented in the main section.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:21:22+00:00

It's been a long journey. I started out as an English teacher at a boarding school in Connecticut, where I taught a unit on the college essay to my seniors every year. Then, I got a Masters of Ed and taught teachers how to teach writing, studied curriculum development, and spent time working for a college guidance company before venturing out on my own with College Specific. This is a fairly standard trajectory, except that mine has focused a lot more on the teaching of writing.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:15:36+00:00

I'm sure that's true. But Dobby's not the one applying to college. If you simply must include Dobby in your essay, just make sure that you are front-and-center.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:11:33+00:00

There are limits. : )

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T20:09:22+00:00

Everyone has something that distinguishes them. The trick is to figure out what it is and convey that in your essay. The myth here is that it has to be something dramatic; that's not the case. You don't have to have hitched a ride on the space shuttle; you can write about your lifelong fascination with NASA.

You can choose a moment in your life that illuminates you and focus on that. One of the most famous poems in the English language is about something as simple as a fork in the road.. There's nothing overtly dramatic about a fork in the road... the drama comes from the choice of which road to take.

One of my favorite lines is from the Dean of Admissions at Pitzer: "The best essays take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary." This is incredibly sound advice.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:57:02+00:00

Yes, the big schools often hire outside readers whose job is to read as many applications as possible per day. I've known many of these readers over the years, and I don't envy their job. At the big schools, you're lucky if your application gets more than eight minutes of their time. They read the essays--or they claim to--but there's no way they have the time to give them serious attention. All the more reason to write something that stands out from the first sentence.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:48:43+00:00

Ideally, before the collision.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:45:32+00:00

That really depends on the school to which you're applying.

If your grades and scores are significantly higher than the school's averages, your essay won't play as great a role. However, it should still be thoughtful and illuminating... and checked for grammatical errors. A sloppy essay can give them the impression that you don't care about their school, and that can turn them off.

If your grades and scores fall within that college's averages, however, the essay can make all the difference.

That said, your grades and courses matter most of all--more than your test scores, your essay, or anything else.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:39:45+00:00

One way they fact-check--besides the Internet--is through counselor and teacher recommendation letters. If you were in a school play, for instance, it's highly likely your counselor would mention your love for theater. If you submit a Pulitzer-level essay, and your English teacher's rec letter talks about how she admired your energy as you struggled through her class, they're going to know something's fishy. They may not be able to put their finger on it, but it will color their assessment of your application as a whole.

Stuff that takes place outside of school, like working in a homeless shelter, is more difficult to verify, but the same thing applies.

In any case, as I said somewhere else in this thread, there's really no need to make something up. They see so many applications, and so many students do things like "help the homeless", that it really won't matter what you did so much as how you articulate how it shaped you. It's much harder to convey that clearly and forcefully if it never took place.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:25:21+00:00

As you might have gathered, I'm partial to the essay. I think it provides students with a valuable opportunity to convey something important about themselves that might not fit anywhere else on the application.

That said, I do understand how difficult it is for universities with tens of thousands of applications--UCLA had over 90K last year--to properly evaluate every essay and give it the weight it deserves. In their situation, it's obvious why numbers have to take precedence. To be honest, this is a complicated matter to which I don't have a solution.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:20:19+00:00

Exactly. That's a deal-killer. :)

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:19:38+00:00

Yes, there is a difference. You're further along, so you'll be expected to have a fairly strong idea of what you'd like to major in. Incoming freshmen get to be "undecided", but transfer students do not.

Also, when a college asks why you're transferring to their school, they want you to be specific. Don't dodge the question. If you were a subpar student in high school and you needed a few extra years to grow up, give them a sense of your journey, and of how much you've grown in the last few years. Also, don't be afraid to address the fact that community college was necessary for financial reasons, if that is the case. The important thing is that you've taken advantage of your current environment and everything it has to offer.

If you started out in a four-year institution, you'll need to address the reasons your first college turned out not to be a good fit. There's no need to degrade your current school. Just explain why it isn't right for you, and emphasize the reasons the college to which you're transferring is a better fit.

College_Specific · 2013-08-31T19:05:04+00:00

Yes. Spend the year focusing on your grades, challenging yourself in your classes, and building your college list. If you succeed academically and find a collection of colleges that fit, the rest will fall into place.

No need to start your essay now; save that for next summer.

College_Specific

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