Diagnostics, tune-ups, and overhauls for college application essays and grad school personal statements
General advice, guidance, and insights on how to understand and write college application essays
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com Every college admissions consultant – professional and otherwise – seems to have a process for getting through college application essays. These processes typically contain a combination of well-worn advice and various steps that include brainstorming (and writing lists or random ideas), writing a shitty draft (I’m not sure if… Continue reading The Secret To Writing Any Essay
A curated collection of my answers to questions from college applicants on the A2C Discord server. Edited for quality and clarity.
There are a few harsh truths that no one wants to face about college application essays, writing in general, and the state of this aspect of the humanities in K-12 education as it relates to higher education. Since no one seems to be addressing them, I'm going to say the quiet part out loud, but I'm going to try not to re-litigate the case for literature, philosophy, and the humanities as they relate to culture.
Thinking about using the Common Application Personal Statement’s (CAPS) “personal growth” prompt for your college application? Good. It’s a strong prompt and one of the best ways to demonstrate your maturity, growth, and perspective. One of the problems that students encounter in this essay – and in most personal essays – is not knowing how… Continue reading How To Write The Personal Growth Essay (Common App Prompt 5)
So you're wondering how important college applications actually are. Students that intend to apply to competitive colleges and universities spend most of their high school years in something of a vacuum, pursuing extracurricular activities (ECs), volunteering, preparing for standardized tests, collecting letters of recommendation, and taking AP classes to demonstrate their academic ability and discipline as well as their "fit" for the schools they're targeting.
Looking for some tips to make your college application essay stand out? Avoid falling into the trap of using clichés and overused language that can make your essay – and you – sound uninspired and unoriginal. Every year, students unwittingly rely on the same tired phrases and ideas, which can hurt their chances of being… Continue reading Don’t Let These Clichés Kill Your Essays
Adapted from two AMAs I did on Reddit in May 2019 and August 2022