the college app jungle
College Advising, Superb Application Essay Development
recent posts
- College App Jungle College Advising and Essay Editing is on Hiatus for 2025-26
- More Ivy League Schools Drop SAT/ACT Requirement; Princeton Drops Early Admissions
- How to Write the University of California Personal Insight Essays in 2020-2021
- How to Write the University of California Personal Insight Essays for 2021
- How to Write a Successful Cornell University Essay for 2020-2021
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Category: common application
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This post specifically addresses a Harvard application essay about a book, but this discussion is on writing about books in general. The advice here is also good for the 2015-2016 Princeton prompt on books and for other colleges asking you to write about a book in some way. I continue this thread for several…
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To be technically correct, two philosophers engaged in an interesting and informative dialogue about the admissions rat race with a professor of education. I am speaking of a recent episode of Philosophy Talk, featuring Stanford Professor Emeritus John Perry and Stanford Philosophy professor Ken Taylor. This is a brilliant radio program and is always worth…
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College Advising and Essay Development for the College Class of 2024, from Singapore to Palo Alto. My Editing and College Advising Business is on Hiatus from 2025 on. I will not be editing or providing college advising services. However, this blog remains up as a public resource. Some posts will already be past their shelf…
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My last post introduced the essay on a personal influence, which was the focus of Prompt Three and Prompt Four of the Common Application in recent years, and I suggested some exercises to get you started. This post assumes that you have some material ready to work with. If you don’t, have a look at…
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Many applications ask for an essay on a person who influenced you or on an important experience. There are wrinkles to this kind of question–in some cases, the “person” can be a fictional character and the influence can be a work of art, as in one of the prompts from the Common Application in recent…
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This will be my final post on The Issue of Concern or Problem Essay, which has been Prompt Two of the Common Application in recent years. In this post, I will focus on writing about a local problem. I recommend that you read my three previous posts for in-depth discussion of other Prompt Two topic areas.…
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This post was originally written in the summer of 2011, but developments over the last year simply reinforce my message about thinking critically and avoiding simplistic, bumper-sticker solutions to complex problems in this kind of essay. In this post, I will briefly discuss a couple of potential topics which address prompt two of the…
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