Diagnostics, tune-ups, and overhauls for college application essays and grad school personal statements
A lot of college applicants place particular value on opinions from college students and graduates who have been admitted to T20 schools: after all, the thinking goes, they must’ve done something right to get in. Unsurprisingly, some T20 college students and recent graduates exploit this notion. A college student or graduate’s success in getting into… Continue reading College Admissions Consulting Hell: Separating the Mostly-Harmless from the Totally Unqualified
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
Effective immediately, I will no longer be doing free consultations. I planned to eventually phase this out, but after a few incidents with clients who requested my services, spent time with me on a free call, agreed to work with me, and then ghosted me, I have decided to implement pricing on any consultation that… Continue reading Consulting and Price Changes
If you've followed me on the r/ApplyingToCollege subreddit or its Discord server, then you're probably familiar with my lengthy rants advising college applicants to avoid prompt 7 when they write their Common Application Personal Statement (CAPS). Despite my exhortations and pleas, I still receive messages containing either essays or abstract ideas intended for this prompt.… Continue reading The Problem With The Common Application’s 7th Prompt
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
Are you struggling to come up with writing topics? You're not alone. Many students feel that their experiences are not as exciting as those they read about online, from peers, or in the news. This is particularly true when applying to college, where certain hardships and obstacles seem to be more valued than others.
Adapted from two AMAs I did on Reddit in May 2019 and August 2022