College Expert Advice

College Expert Advice Most students worry about what an admissions officer looks for in a writing sample. But that’s the wrong way to approach this vital component, says former college admissions officer Harry Bauld. At Brown and Columbia, he saw what prospective students often did wrongâ€"and now tells you how to do it right. The majority of stress and work in the admissions process stems from the essay writing. These essays are a critical component of a student’s application, as it’s one of the only opportunities to inject personality into an application. However, when writing about oneself in the personal statement or any other point in one's life, this book offers a plethora of tips to give your writing a facelift. It definitely helped me write essays I would not have been able to write before reading the book. One of the most stressful aspects of the college application process is the essay. I don't normally write reviews for books, but this book is so good at its purpose--to help people become better writers. Before vague, my writing is now leagues clearer. I did not think my writing would improve very much, yet this book has pointed out serious issues I suffer with my writing. Writing for AP classes in high school relies on assertions and facts to support it. It is not so much a roadmap to writing the college essay, but rather a very insightful overview of general points that admissions staff look for in these essays. We found it a useful read in conjunction with a more pragmatic guide to writing the essay. Be certain the college or university you're applying to received your essay. You don’t want all that hard work to go to waste. The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. Thus, Harvard has a supplement to give students an opportunity to distinguish themselves from the competition. Writing supplemental essays can be daunting, but luckily for you, College Essay Advisors founder Stacey Brook is here to break down the Harvard supplement so you can hit submit with confidence. Submitting your college application to Duke University can be a real nail-biter. Although it's probably too late now to tweak your test scores or GPA, you can make sure that your college application essays will bring you admissions success! Duke requires one supplemental short answer and gives students the opportunity to respond to two optional prompts. You can contact me for samples as I collect great essays from the students with whom I work. You should read a college guide book, methodically review the website, and hopefully, if at all possible, visit the school. Additionally, you might email an admissions counselor at the school with some questions or speak to a current student or alum. (If you don’t know anyone affiliated with the school, try asking your guidance counselor if there are former students from your high school who attend or attended X college.) Peruse a course catalog. Students should spend a lot of time crafting their essays and as as result, need to manage their time to be successful. Far too many students don’t have anything worthwhile to say in their conclusions to application essays about why they want to attend a particular college or university. If you are completely out of ideas, it’s always a good idea to express appreciation at the end of your college-specific essays. Writing the college essay takes time and effort, and you should feel accomplished. When you submit your essay, remember to include your name, contact information, and ID number if your college provided one, especially if you send it to a general admission email account. Nothing is worse than trying to match an application essay with no name (or, worse, an email address such as ) to a file. Make sure to keep copies of what you sent to which schools and whenâ€"and follow up on them! These steps will help you develop a list of specific qualities that are unique to the school. I bought this book thinking it would just be about the nuts-and-bolts of writing the college essay. The book does thoroughly cover this topic, however it's real value for the money is the insight and jolt of reality it provides into the process of admission from the point of view of the admissions staff. The volume of applications that each admissions officer reads the quick pace of the actual decision making was astonishing. This book is very well-written and provides a wealth of information about college essays. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got inâ€"college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre. Harvard University is one of the most competitive schools in the country. Every year admissions officers are bombarded with applications from eager students looking to make the cut.