How To Write The College Essay

How To Write The College Essay The essay can â€" and should â€" help kids “come alive” for admissions officers, he says, and be more than a GPA and SAT score. On the other hand, during their tenures in college admissions, our specialists reviewed thousands of applications per year, each application containing four to six essays. Get support with everything from selecting courses and planning summer activities to writing college essays and filling out applications. She was very responsive to us and offered valuable guidance throughout the college preparation and application process. “We definitely read the essays,” says Joie Jager-Hyman, president of College Prep 360 and former admissions officer at Dartmouth College. “You don’t do that job unless you enjoy reading the essays. We cannot state enough how important it is to tell your students that colleges are interested in character, as well as grades. If they share meaningful traits and characteristics in college essays, standing out should come naturally. My daughter got in to all of the schools in which she applied, even her stretch school. We credit Jolyn with helping us to make sure her resume, application and essays were top notch. Second, these topics, being frequently used, run the risk of being predictable and clichéd. Aside from mistakes on the essays, college admissions counselors discuss in “The Daily Beast” how one student sent pies, claiming she wasn’t a good athlete but she was a good baker. The admissions counselors thought the pies were quite tasty but this did not lead to an acceptance. Another student sent a life-size blowup of herself attached to balloons. It was supposed to fly…but alas the balloons didn’t work. And yet another student staged a sit-in in an admissions office lobby, refusing to leave until she was able to speak to a few admissions people. You can receive Dr. Shemmassian’s top 10 college admissions secrets for free to help your student get into their dream schoolâ€"without the stressâ€"by clicking here. Parents often ask me whether their student’s college admissions chances will be hurt if they discuss a disability in their college essay. Picking up your essay, the officer learns that you want to attend their school because it is “great” and “has a stellar reputation.” Yawns ensue. After being reminded for the 37th time today of their school’sU.S. If you are applying to 8-10 schools, and will thus be composing 8-10 of these essays, your inclination to take shortcuts is completely understandable. Just make sure that these timesavers don’t turn into admissions-killers. Imagine an admissions officer, at the end of a long day’s work, getting ready to digest his or her 37th “why this college? Dr. Shemmassian channeled his passion for empowering families to found Shemmassian Academic Consulting, through which he helps students with disabilities get into America’s top colleges. His work has been featured on television, conferences, and various blogs and podcasts. Needless to say, this tactic proved as ineffective as the pies and the blow-up person attached to balloons. In addition, thousands of high school seniors across the country have begun the process of filling out college applications. Instead of being particular, they are broad and universal because the experiences in them sounds like everyone else’s. If your students choose one of these topics, encourage them to write about it as only they can. Show them how to infuse dialogue, capture the imagery of the moment, and write in a voice that’s authentic to them. The goal of your essay is to make an impression on an admissions officer, but you don’t have much time to do it. Look for a strong opening line that really grabs the reader’s attention.