the college app jungle

College Advising, Superb Application Essay Development

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Category: college essay

  • Essay Prompts vs. Essay Topics: A Discussion of the Significant Experience Essay

    Most college applications have a prompt which addresses a personal experience.  An example can be found in the Common Application essay prompts, which  have not changed in recent years; in the first prompt for the Common App essays for 2011-2012, you will find what I call the “Significant Experience” essay, which is broken down into…

  • Evading the Cliche Step Two

    In recent posts I discussed college essay cliches, focusing on  a set of common essay types defined by former admissions officer and current admissions and college app essay guru Harry Bauld. I concluded that series of posts with a suggestion for an exercise with one of the so-called cliche essays, The Trip Essay.  I asked…

  • How to Evade the Cliche in Your College Essay

    In my previous post, I discussed one of the gurus of college admissions and the college essay, Harry Bauld.  Mr. Bauld described a set of essay types which he believes are “a noose” with which a college applicant can “hang” herself.  Scary. What Bauld is after is a set of essay types which are commonly…

  • College Essay No-No’s: What Not To Do in Your Personal Statement

    Before I get to the gist, a short preface:  I hope that you followed my advice in the last prompt and did a considerable amount of writing before you arrived at this post.  I say this because I think that it is important to write without having that inner, critical voice whispering negative asides to…

  • So You Want To Write a College Essay

    Long ago, a man born in a peninsular region of far northeastern Greece left his provincial home to head for Athens, the New York of his day. Any young man who wanted to hit the big time went to Athens in this era, and if he were particularly bright and lucky, he would enter Plato’s…

  • Starting Your College Essay Step 1

    Step 1 is to get something–anything–on paper.   For those high school juniors—or parents of juniors–who are facing the final push to college admission, now is the time to start thinking about the college essay. Most students who plan to apply to a university will be facing a heavy workload come September, so putting off…