Janine Robinson's Blog, page 12

Creating a College-Bound Culture along the Texan Border

 First-Gen Students Learn to Write

College Application Essays

 

Last month, I had the privilege to work with a group of teachers and students on their writing and college application essays from the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost tip of Texas.

Almost all of the 50-some teachers and 165 students were Hispanic, and most of the kids will be the first in their families to attend college.

The College Essay Writing Workshop, which is a four-part series of workshops for the most promising students from 30 high schools in the Valley, was sponsored by the Texas Graduate Center, which is an initiative of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation (a non-profit community organization), and the Region One GEAR UP Program, whose mission is to help create a college-bound culture in this part of the U.S.

Earlier in the year, their students toured top colleges and universities around the country, including Harvard, Princeton and other ivies.

During these visits, the admissions officers from the various schools told the sponsors one thing over and over: The college application essay played a huge part in who they accepted, and urged them to help their students write better ones.

So they got in touch with me.

This is me working with a student.

I’d never spent time in that part of Texas, where the Rio Grande river winds up along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s been in the news lately, mainly as ground zero in the U.S. for the flood of illegal immigrants, many children, fleeing unrest in Central America, and violence in Mexico due to drug-related activity.

On the flip side, this delta valley has a strong economy, rapid growth, world-famous wildlife sanctuaries and hard-working families and community leaders. The cities I visited were welcoming and safe, and I got to stay in a charming 1918 Mission-style hotel in downtown McAllen, Texas. 

My goal at the workshop was to help these students understand that they had compelling stories to tell prospective colleges, and how to use their college application essays as a way to showcase their personal qualities—especially their grit in the face of adversity.

In the past, I’ve mainly worked with privileged students. While working with these Rio Grande Valley students, I got a glimpse into some of the unique challenges of helping underrepresented students find and tell their stories.

Some of the teachers during the workshop.

The teachers were super receptive to learning new ideas on how to teach narrative writing skills and eager to share what they learned in their classrooms.

 

One of the teachers talking with her students.

 

The students worked hard to brainstorm moments and events from their past to illustrate their qualities and characteristics. Some had ridden busses several hours from outlying schools, but no one complained and they all were attentive, humble, focused and whip-smart. They spent hours working on drafts.

 

A student writing a draft of her essay.

 

I hope to share some of their essays at the end of the workshop series next year.

Meanwhile, I will be featuring some of my insights, tips and advice in my next post on what I learned during this workshop, in hopes that other first-gen or underrepresented students out there who have faced similar obstacles or hardships might find encouragement and help finding and telling their unique stories.

So stay tuned!

 

Waving the Red Flag on College Application Essays

 

Last week, a new student came to my home for help on his college application essays.

I asked this eager senior about his target schools. He told me Stanford was his top pick, but he was applying to most of the ivies, along with a couple UCs (Cal and UCLA).

Then he handed me a printout of his essay. It was one he had written for his English teacher at our local high school.

It was about a mission trip. To a South American country. And he wrote how he loved working with the kids, and how he realized how privileged he was, and how he hoped to make a difference in the world.

I tried not to let my reaction show.

The essay was well-written, in that it expressed his ideas clearly and earnestly. But it was boring. And the topic was cliche. Oh so cliche.

I would say writing about mission trips for one of these essays is up there as not only one of the most overdone topics, but also a thankless topic to help you write something personal and memorable about yourself and stand out from the crowd.

And I sat there wondering to myself, “How many other super bright, promising students are applying to the most prestigious, competitive schools and are turning in terrible essays like this, and possibly jeopardizing or nixing any hope for getting accepted?”

(In the last couple days, I received other well-written essays to review from other high-achieving students on a dying grandparent, a Bar Mitzvah and a football injury. These were all red-flag topics.) 

It felt really wrong.

Do students really need to hire a private college admissions consultant for several thousands dollars (or more) to get the inside scoop on these essays? Maybe, if they can afford it. Although frankly, even these consultants don’t always get it right, either.

Yes, you can do your online research. If you are industrious or lucky enough to land on the right Web site (like this one!), you can figure out quickly what makes a great essay and some tricks to making sure yours doesn’t end up in the reject pile—or at least significantly up your odds.

(Search things like “Help on College Application Essays” or “What Makes a Great College Application Essay?” to get started.)

Many students, however, like my recent client, either don’t have the time to do any extra research or it’s never crossed their mind or they are just trying to keep their head above water with their intense, pressure-driven lives of SAT prep, starting clubs, visiting colleges, playing sports, over-helpful parents, etc.

The reason certain topics are overdone is no fault of the students. They are only writing about what they know and think will make great topics, and they happen to be the same things (mission trips, dying grandparents, sports injuries, etc.).

My point is that many students are falling through the many cracks in this flawed college admissions system, not just those who are underrepresented or underprivileged, although they certainly lead the pack.

It isn’t fair no one is preparing all students to write these essays. Even the well-intentioned high schools and industrious English teachers who have incorporated them into their curriculum can miss the mark. (Just this year, our local high school was using outdated prompts.)

Until that changes, all is not lost. You can learn what you need if you’re willing to dig deeper and figure out what to do. It’s all online and mostly free.

At least you found Essay Hell here. Nice work!

On some level, this is a good thing, because it means that most of you are in the same boat when it comes to these essays—whether you are underprivileged or privileged or somewhere in the middle.

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And a lot comes down to how much initiative, time, energy and creativity you put into figuring how to write these college application essays on your own.

Could the process be so unfair that somehow it’s fair, in a random, zen kind of way?

Maybe it’s supposed to work like this: Motivated, self-directed kids like you who do your homework are probably the ones who should get into the best colleges!

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5 Myths About College App Essays

 You Don’t Need Tragedy to Write

a Standout College Admissions Essay!

 

This is the time of year that the frenzy surrounding college admissions starts to grow.

Early decision deadlines are just weeks away.

Students who put off writing their college application essays are running out of excuses—and time.

Those who finally sat down to figure out the Common Application are shocked at the number of additional supplemental essays they need to pound out.

Compounding the looming sense of doom are some of the myths about these essays.

Help yourself get a grip and keep your sanity and learn what is really expected from you.

It’s not that bad. Take deep breaths. Take a few more. Make a plan.

You got this!

Five Things That Are NOT TRUE About College Application Essays

1. Your whole life is riding on these essays.

No! Of course that’s crazy. But I can understand why you might feel that way.

It’s important that you do everything you can to fend off the pressure you feel right now.

What will define your future, including where you end up going to college, is not just one essay, or one grade or SAT score.

It’s the entire package—your background, your effort, your support systems, your luck and determination at this point.

That said, yes, these essays can play a significant role in where you get accepted or not.

Often, they are the only way to inject your personality into your admissions package and stand out from all the other over-qualified applicants.

And no, even a brilliant essay won’t necessarily make up for inadequate grades or test scores. But it could tip the balance in your favor.

In general, these essays seem to count more if you’re applying to the more competitive, prestige schools.

Just commit to writing the best one you can, and leave it at that.

 2. You have to have something super impressive about yourself in order for your essay to be any good.

At this point, I’m always surprised by how many students still believe this.

No, no and no! In fact, I keep repeating myself here: The best essays are usually about mundane topics.

Do not try to impress.

Instead, focus on making an impression.

There’s a big difference.

The best way to do this is to pick an everyday topic and share a real-life story, and go from there to share how you think and what you value.

Small, simple and unexpected moments—and especially those that involved problems—make the most memorable topics.

I know it’s counter intuitive, since your goal is to make your target college want you. But trust me on this—there are way better ways to do this than using SAT words and packing in everything amazing you have ever done.

3. You must be a gifted writer to craft an effective essay.

Nope. Not true.

First, I believe writing is rarely a “gift,” and more of a skill that you practice and get better at.

Actually, when it comes to writing a narrative style essay about a real-life moment or incident from you past, I have found that students who thought they stunk at writing cranked out the best pieces! Time after time.

For some reason, many of the top achieving Language Arts students who got 5s on their AP tests have the hardest time with these. They seem to overthink and stiffen up and become their own worst enemies.

Get loose and sloppy when you write your first draft.

Creativity is messy business.

Banish your inner perfectionist. Just get out your ideas. Then go back later and clean it up.

4. You can’t write a great essay if nothing terrible ever happened to you.

A lot of students believe that in order to write an essay that will help them stand out over their competition they need something dramatic, momentous or heartbreaking to share.

While it can be easier to make an impression on college admissions officers if you connect with them through their hearts, and use pathos and emotion in your essay, you don’t need to be a tragic victim to make a memorable impression.

Often, it’s the most simple, everyday moments and problems that we all have faced that can give an essay that universal appeal.

Look for the little, everyday terrible things (problems) that happened to you, and you can write awesome essays about those experiences.

It’s not what happened to you, but what it meant to you—how you felt, what you did about it and what you learned in the process. 

5. You need to spend your entire weekend, or even weeks, working on your essay in order for it be great.

Not even close.

Once you figure out a topic, and jot down a simple writing plan, you could knock out a rough draft in an hour or so.

You do need to spend time reading up on what makes a great essay and how to write one, and then more time brainstorming some topic ideas.

But if you tell yourself writing the essay will take forever, that’s just an excuse for not sitting down and actually doing it.

Set aside a time during a day this week or over the weekend, and tell yourself you will spend one hour writing. Just one lousy hour.

You will be surprised how far you get. Let yourself pound out a crappy first draft. Don’t try to make it perfect on the first go-round.

Once you have a draft, you are almost there!

Then go do something fun, treat yourself somehow, and then just come back to it later and revise it.

Before you know it, you will be done!

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Is Homeschooling a Good Topic for College App Essays?

 

 How to Find the

Homeschooling Advantage

in College Application Essays

I received an email from a student named Hannah who told me she was homeschooled, and that she had been advised to write about that for her college application essay.

Hannah said she was having “trouble thinking of anything unique or super meaningful” from her homeschooling experience.

I gave this some thought, and here’s what I would advise:

Homeschooling is something unique and special in itself.

And that’s a good thing.

But as an essay topic, it’s way too broad and most likely written about by a lot by other homeschooled students, so it risks being overdone already. (More than 3 percent of school age kids are home-schools; more than 1.5 million.)

I would put homeschooling in the list of topics that are often red-flagged by those in the college admissions industry because it is either cliche, or written about too often or too general.

But like some of those other red-flagged topic ideas—such as experiencing an intense personal issue, such as death, illness or injury, or an extreme background, such as being a triplet, or being raised in an extreme religion or unusual culture—these issues often cannot helped but to have defined or shaped the student in some fundamental way.

It’s almost as though you can’t help but write about that issue.

I think being taught at home, usually by a parent, falls in that category. And it’s even more relevant since you are applying to college and homeschooling addresses the essence of education and learning.

Homeschooling Can Be an Edge, But You Need to Sharpen It

Also, when you are trying to standout from other students, having a homeschooling (or “unschooling”) background already helps set you apart.

You just need to take that another step forward, and show your unique homeschooling experience and personality as well.

My advice for anyone considering writing about a red-flag topic is to make sure not to just write about that topic (“How I was homeschooled…”), but to find something specific and meaningful that happened while you were homeschooled.

Then you can use that real-life moment or incident as a platform to not only illustrate something larger about yourself or the homeschooling experience, but also to help engage and connect with the reader with a relatable story.

To give your essay about your homeschooling experience a sharp focus and make sure it reveals something specific about yourself, I would try to think of a real-life mini-story that reflects one of your defining qualifies or characteristics.

Another way to find a compelling story to share would be to think of “a time” that homeschooling was a problem for you, or that you encountered some type of problem related to your homeschooling experience.

That will make sure the moment you share was interesting and something happened, and it will also involve at least one of your defining qualities or characteristics.

The Trick is To Focus Your Topic

So those are a few ways to approach the general topic of homeschooling, and find a focus that will narrow the topic into something compelling to write about.

And your essay will be interesting to read, and also give you a place to reflect and analyze your broader experience as someone who was homeschooled.

Do you see the difference?

There’s a huge chance that being homeschooled shaped you in a fundamental way, especially how you think about the world and learn.

If you can find a specific unusual or unexpected example from your experience, and share that in your essay, it will not only help us understand you, and what you value, but also showcase your “intellectual vitality,” which colleges love.

And remember (Hannah!) that smaller experience did not need to have been momentous, impressive or dramatic. Often, the simple, everyday (mundane) moments or interactions can fuel the more effective essays.

Let’s brainstorm some examples:

How about debunking some of the myths around homeschooling?

Off the top of my head, I would think people think students don’t get as much socialization. Maybe write about that, and share some of the extremes your parent-teacher went to to make sure you were around other kids. Bet there are some interesting moments from those efforts.
Or how about that students who are homeschooled didn’t learn the “right things?” You could write your essay about the unusual types of things you learned, and how they are actually more relevant or meaningful. Start with an example of something esoteric you learned about, and go into how it turned out to be very relevant in your life.
Another idea. How about that homeschooled students won’t be able to learn in a traditional school environment. Was there “a time” when you had this tested? Share that experience and what you learned.
Some people might assume students who are homeschooled are all alike, and come from families with similar values and practices. If your family did not fit this stereotype, write about that. Start with an example of how your family is not like other homeschooling families, and share the good and bad of that experience, and what you learned.
Last one. What about the reason you were homeschooled in the first place. Did it involve some type of problem (bullied at old school; dyslexia; live in middle of nowhere…)? That could be a great place to start with your essay.

See! Tons of ways to write about homeschooling and find unusual or unexpected angles to share your unique experience. Like all effective college application essays, the key is to make them highly personal.

Remember, make your essay about you and something specific about your unique homeschooling experience, and not only about the virtues of homeschooling.

There’s no better way to set yourself apart from others.

And prove that yes, homeschoolers do go to college—and get into some of the best ones!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dig Deep: Show Intellectual Vitality in Your College App Essay

Go Deep to Reveal Your Intellectual Vitality!

 

When writing narrative-style college application essays, I advise students to start by sharing a real-life story that illustrates one of their defining qualities or characteristics.

Once a student shares a real-life story with a problem (either big or small), they can go on to explain how they handled it.

Then comes the most important part: What they learned in the process.

This analysis, reflection or questioning is the most important part of an effective college application essay.

Why?

Because this is where a student can show colleges how they think, what they care about and what they value.

It’s called “intellectual vitality.”

I wrote an essay writing guide last year, the Writing Survival Kit, where I shared 50 tips, techniques and strategies for writing these essays.

I want to share with my tips on how to bring intellectual vitality into your essay.

Here’s an excerpt from my guide that features one hot strategy on how to bring this depth into your essay (I featured a second strategy in my previous post):

 

Chapter Six

DIG DEEP

In your narrative essay, you share something that happened, usually with an anecdote.

Now you need to help the reader understand why it mattered to you.

These writing tools will help you explore and explain in your essay the meaning of what happened.

This will give your essay depth and show the reader how you think, and your ability to analyze and reflect.

 

Reveal Your Intellectual Vitality

Once you pick a point you want to make about yourself, and have found an anecdote to illustrate that point, you need to explain why it matters. To you. To others. And to the world in general.

Once you start to share your thoughts about what happened, you can take your points even deeper by asking “Why?”

Take a look at some of the points you have made in your rough draft, and ask yourself:

“What about it?”
“Why should you care?”
“And that means what?”
“Is that important?”
“Why does it matter?”
“How did it get that way?”
“Why is that?”

These questions can help you flesh out or develop your essay and take it beyond just talking about something that happened, or what you did about it. They reveal your ability to think critically, and learn from experience.

Remember, you don’t need all the right answers for these questions. Just offer your thoughts, ideas or best guesses. In general, these essays are a way to throw out some ideas, chew on them, kick them around, examine them from different angles and come up with conclusions.

The ability to take a simple incident or personal quality and examine and analyze it to find meaning reveals what is called “intellectual vitality.” It’s a sophisticated way to say thinking— and the best colleges can’t get enough of it.

See my other strategy from this chapter on how to bring depth to your essay.

Note: For those of you applying to Stanford, this can help you answer their first supplemental essay:

“Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.” 250 words

Dig Deep: How to Add Depth to Your College App Essays

 

Go Deep

in Your College Application Essay!

 

When writing narrative-style college application essays, I advise students to start by sharing a real-life story that illustrates one of their defining qualities or characteristics.

All stories contain some type of problem. It’s just the universal nature of all stories—there’s a conflict of some type. I call these problems.

Once a student shares a real-life story with a problem (either big or small), they are poised to explain how they dealt with it.

Then comes the most important part: What they learned in the process.

This analysis, reflection or questioning is the most important part of an effective college application essay. Why? Because this is where a student can show colleges how they think, what they care about and what they value.

It’s called “intellectual vitality.”

I wrote an essay writing guide last year, the Writing Survival Kit, where I shared 50 tips, techniques and strategies for writing these essays.

I want to share with my tips on how to bring this type of depth and intellectual vitality into your essay. Here’s an excerpt from my guide that features one hot strategy on how to bring this depth into your essay (I will feature a second in my next post):

 

Chapter Six

DIG DEEP

In your narrative essay, you share something that happened, usually with an anecdote.

Now you need to help the reader understand why it mattered to you.

These writing tools will help you explore and explain in your essay the meaning of what happened.

This will give your essay depth and show the reader how you think, and your ability to analyze and reflect.

1. Explain Meaning by “Telling”

Even though most narrative essays start with some type of real-life moment or incident (anecdote), they are more than recounting an entertaining story. The point is to share a story in order to examine what it meant to you, and what you learned from it.

The anecdote or mini-story will usually only take up the first part of your essay; the rest is all what you have to say about what it meant, its significance. This is when you get to reveal how you think, what you care about and how you learn.

After you engage your reader with an anecdote—which illustrates the point you want to make about yourself in the essay—it’s time to go on and explain what it all means and why it matters to you and others.

One way to bring depth to your analysis is to reflect on what happened. Here are some lines that might help you share your thoughts and ideas:

“When I look back, I now realize….”

“Years later, I now believe…”

“It took me a while, but I now suspect that…”

“When I explored the events that led up to that day, I often think…”

“On another level, I now view it…”

“It caught me by surprise, but I now understand that…”

“After while, I started to think about all that I learned…”

“In some ways, I changed…”

You shared something that happened. That was “showing.” After that, your essay is all about explaining—“telling”—what it meant.

  * * * * *  

If you like this approach and want to learn how to apply it in a step-by-step manner, you might want to consider my writing guide, Escape Essay Hell! or my online writing course on How to Write a Killer College Application Essay.

Or just keep reading this blog!

Find Your Core Values to Rock Your Essay, and Your Future!

 

The 2015-16 Common Application is officially out. If you’re applying to college, you will be making a lot of decisions in upcoming months. Important ones.

What schools should you apply to?

What should you write your college application essay about so you get accepted?

Once you get in, what do you think you will want to study or do in college?

Even though I mainly try to help students figure out great topics for their essays, I think all these big decisions have one thing in common: You can help yourself immensely if you take a little time to identify what matters most to you in your life.

Most of you have been so busy with homework, and sports and friends these past years, there hasn’t been much time to stop and reflect on yourself, and what you care the most about at this point.

It’s not hard to do, and it doesn’t have to take a ton of time.

There’s a simple exercise that can help you determine what are called your core values.

Once you have a few of these in hand, you might find it much easier to decide where to apply to college, what to write about yourself to help get you into your target schools and even what to study once you get in.

(This is exactly what students at Harvard do to learn How to Live Wisely and stay on top of their game. So why not you, too!)

You can use your core values to help filter all the options when you make these decisions.

First, scan this list of principles, standards and qualities and jot down the ones you really care about. Then, if you have more than a dozen, notice how some are similar, and narrow it down to about five or so that these few best describe your core values.

Acceptance Accomplishment Achievement Acquisition Action Adventure Alignment Altruism Amusement Assistance Attractiveness Authenticity Awareness Beauty Being Bliss Calm Charity Coach Committed Community Compassion Comprehending Connection Consciousness Consideration Constancy Contentment Contribution Cooperation Courage Create Creativity Danger Dare Delight Dependability Detection Dignity Direct Discovery Discrimination Distinguish Diversity Do Good Economic Security Education Effectiveness Elegance Emotional Wellbeing Empathy Encourage Encouragement Energy Enlightenment Entertainment Environment Equality Ethics/Ethical Excellence Experience Experiment Expertise Explain Exquisiteness Facilitation Fairness Faith Fame Family Feeling good Fitness Freedom Friendship Fun Generosity Grace Gratitude Guidance Happiness Harmony Health Honesty Honor Hope Humility Imagination Improvement Independence Influence Information Inner peace Innovation Inspiration Instruction Integrity Intelligence Inventiveness Involved Joy Justice Kindness Knowledge Laughter Leadership Learning Love Loyalty Magnificence Mastery Merriment Nobility Nurturance Observation Order Organization Originality Peace Peacefulness Perception Personal Development Play Pleasure Positive attitude Power Preparation Presence Proficiency Provider Quest Radiance Recognition Relatedness Relationships Relaxation Reliability Religious/Religion Resourcefulness Respect Responsibility Responsiveness Risk Safety Schooling Self-awareness Self-worth Sensations Sensuality Serenity Service Simplicity Spirituality Stability Stimulation Strength Strengthen Success Superiority Support Teaching Tenderness Touch Tranquility Trust Truth Truthfulness Understanding Victory Vision Wealth Wholeness Winning Wisdom 

Shoot for a short list with values that aren’t too similar to each other.

Do one or two stand out above the others?

Now, when you are exploring potential colleges for your list, or visiting them and starting to apply, go back to these values and make sure those are places that will help you maintain those values.

And when you think about what you want to study or major in, or what classes to take, or what activities to pursue in college, make sure those pursuits also support your values.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

Use Your Core Values to Brainstorm College Application Essay Topics!

As far as thinking up an awesome topic for your college application essay, try this:

Pick one of your core values. Now try to brainstorm “a time” when it was challenged or a problem (Hello Common App Prompt 4!). Or “a time” when you developed that value because of your background, talent, identity or interest (Hello Common App Prompt 1!). Or “a time” when you messed up and lost sight of that value (Hello Common App Prompt 2!).

These are real-life moments (anecdotes) from your past that you could use to craft a meaningful personal essay, which would have interest and meaning and showcase what you care most about.

Those real-life “times” are examples of what matters the most to you. And if you share how you handled that time, you have material for your essay that can reveal your values, and how you think about them and how you act on them when they are challenged, ignored or jeopardized for any reason.

I often have my tutoring students start by collecting their defining qualities and work from there to mine great essay topics. But you can also start with one of your core values.

The trick to writing a great essay about that value is to find a real-life moment or experience that illustrates not only that value, but how you related to it. Look for “a time” when something happened that related to that value, and then you can share how you thought about it, what you did to handle it and what you learned in the process.

Your real-life mini-stories are what will power your essays and make them engaging, unique and memorable. And if they showcase one of your core values, they will have instant relevance and meaning.

Best of all, you got yourself an awesome topic!

 

 

 

 

5 Topic Tips: Do This, Not That!

The Best (and Worst)

College Application Essay Topics

Are Not What You Think!

 

When I first started working with students on how to write college applications essays about eight years ago now, I put together a list of Do’s and Don’ts about picking topics.

It was based on the idea that college admissions officers were seeing many of the same topics, or sensational or ill-suited topics that were not handled well.

And that those were the topics you should avoid at all cost.

But over the years, I realized there was no such thing as a bad topic.

What matters about an essay topic is what the student had to say about it.

Period.

In fact, with a little help, many of my students wrote the best essays about topics on the original “don’t” list: death, divorce, sports, mission trips, illness, you name it.

Here’s a list of topic tips that tries to help you see the difference so that you can find a hot topic, and make sure it will help you write an original essay and stand out from the competition.

Spend time brainstorming a killer topic before you even think of starting to write your essay.

Finding a great topic, and then focusing it down into an even better one, is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of writing an engaging, effective and memorable essay.

Do This: Look for a topic that is unique and specific.

(Usually, the more specific it is, the more unique it will be.)

Find one that will help you tell your target schools something they wouldn’t learn about your from other parts of your application.

If it’s something they would never expect about you, all the better.

Not That: Try not to write about something that many other students are likely to write about, such as mission trips, sports injuries, tutoring other students, camp, winning awards, role models…

If you do write about an overdone or potentially cliche topic, make sure to find something unique or unexpected within that topic to focus on.

Do This: Look for a topic that includes “a time” you were humbled in some way: You messed up, something went sideways on you, you didn’t reach a goal, you were a flop, you felt embarrassed about something, you admit to a mistake, etc.

The Common Application prompts number 2 and 3 are the best ones to set you up to write about some type of problem you faced, which will allow you to share a time you were at some type of low point.

Readers can relate and connect with you best when you open up and are vulnerable.

Not That: Don’t write about your most impressive accomplishment(s).

It’s very difficult to write about a personal victory or achievement and still come across as relatable and likable. Maybe you are “all that,” but it’s best to first share “a time” that helped you get there, and these usually involve some type of problem (challenge, obstacle, mistake, change, etc.).

We all relate better to the struggle than the victory. It’s way more interesting.

 

Do This: Look for a topic that is everyday.

These are called “mundane” topics and they often result in the best essays.

This probably goes against your instincts, but it works every time. Examples of mundane topics: washing dishes, working as a Disney princess, singing karaoke, raising chickens, having big feet, smiling too much, being color blind, having six older sisters, hating dogs, etc. (Of course, you need to find something original to say about these mundane topics to make a great essay.)

Not That: Don’t write an essay that tries to work in as many of your achievements, talents and skills into one essay.

Examples: making the winning shot in state championship, earning top place at the science fair, starring in the school musical, placing first in a state chess tournament, etc.

It’s way more interesting when you lose or fail!

Do This: Find a topic and then focus it down into something more specific.

Example: If you want to write about your passion for rock climbing, think about “a time” something happened to you while rock climbing.

If you want to write about your experience working with special needs kids, think of “a time” something happened while you were working with one of them.

 Not That: Don’t write about how much you love rock climbing and tell the reader all about how you got involved, how you got really good at it and how much you love it.

Too general and boring to read about.

Don’t write about how you started working with special needs kids, and how much you loved them and how you learned to be compassionate and giving.

Again, too general and boring to read about.

Think of something specific that happened and write about that!

Do This: Find a topic that will allow you to reveal something about yourself. The best essays are highly personal.

Start by thinking of one of your core or defining qualities, and showcase that in your essay by sharing “a time” you either developed or demonstrated that quality or had it tested in some way.

Make sure to open up yourself and share how you felt and what you thought.

Not That: Write about something or someone but try to say to much about it or them, and not enough about yourself.

For example, if you write about your defining quality of leadership, and only write in general terms about what you think a leader is and all the ways you were a leader.

That’s too general.

Instead, focus on “a time” you were a leader (Even better: how you failed one time at being a leader!) and how it made you feel and what you learned about yourself in the process.

Another example is if you write about an incident that involved your relationship with your grandmother or a teacher, make sure most of the essay is about you—what you did, what you felt, and what you learned.

Want some more ideas on The Secret to a Killer College Application Essay or my Top 10 Tips?

Keep reading and I think you will learn to figure out which of your topic ideas will make the best college application essays!

 

 

 

The Ultimate Brainstorm Questionnaire

 

For more than 20 years, the magazine Vanity Fair has collected provocative and memorable details from the most famous people on the planet using their version of what is called the Proust Questionnaire.

The famous French writer didn’t actually pen these questions—although he did answer the questions twice in his life—but they were used in 19th century Parisian salons to entertain the bourgeois. It was one of the first personality tests.

There’s a reason they are still used to gather the most interesting and revealing facts, feelings and opinions from people.

 

I think these 20 or so questions would be perfect to help you brainstorm a topic for your college application essay.

The main reason is that the best essays reveal something personal about you, and this list can help shake loose some of your unique qualities, interests and personality traits.

If nothing else, it’s kind of fun.

There’s even a Facebook app that lets you share your answers with friends.

Here’s an online, interactive version of Vanity’s Fair’s updated version of the Proust Questionnaire.

Here are David Bowie’s answers, and Amy Poehler’s, and Louis CK, and Tina Fey.

Notice how the more honest they are, and the more details they share, the more entertaining and meaningful their answers.

Shoot for that authenticity and specifics in your answers, and in your essay, as well, to power your stories and writing.

And don’t try to impress with your answers.

Stick to your honest responses, and you will capture your unique teenage voice—which is imperative to writing an effective college application essay.

In a Vanity Fair article about the Proust Questionnaire, the writer shared some of the more memorable answers:

When asked to name the one thing she would change about herself, Jane Fonda responded, “My inability to have a long-term intimate relationship.”

When asked how she would like to die, Hedy Lamarr revealed, “Preferably after sex.” (She was 85 when she gave that reply.)

When asked in 2003 about his greatest extravagance, the soon-to-be governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, admitted in one of the more authentically witty questionnaires we have received, “I am a major shoe queen.”

  (His greatest fear? “I am petrified of bikini waxing. I had a very bad experience in 1978.”)

W hen it comes to sheer effrontery, there’s little doubt that comedians have been the most facile players.

Martin Short’s greatest achievement: “My invention of cold fusion.” The trait David Steinberg most deplores in others: “Outing a C.I.A. agent because you’re pissed about something else.”

On occasion, there has even been some consensus.

Eight contributors said they were smitten with Paris.

Two said they identified with Jesus, two with Moses, and one with Robert Moses (Donald Trump). The person most frequently cited as most admired? Nelson Mandela (mentioned nine times).

The virtue considered most overrated? Virginity—in a landslide. Over the years, we’ve noticed, virtually everyone has had at least one or two moments of pure, unbridled candor.

What would Karl Rove change? “[I’d] be more patient.” (I’ll say.) Ted Kennedy? “I’d have won in 1980,” so the senator said, in his 2006 entry. And several, naturally, admitted that death was their darkest fear. “Trust me,” insisted Larry King, who survived a heart attack in 1987, “I saw no lights, no angels—nothing.”

Amid the tumult and the dread, amid these many attempts to tackle the overarching issues of love and death and the meaning of life, there have been flashes of Proustian poetry.

Walter Cronkite once confided that, if he could be reincarnated, he would choose to return as “a seagull—graceful in flight, rapacious in appetite.”

Allen Ginsberg’s most marked characteristic, he said, was his “incriminating eloquence.” While Julia Child most abhorred “a dreadful meal badly served,” William F. Buckley Jr. claimed to hate “lousy logic, tempestuously waged.”

Joan Didion, when asked “When and where were you happiest?,” referred to a character in a passage from her novel Democracy: “She recalled being extremely happy eating lunch by herself in a hotel room in Chicago, once when snow was drifting on the window ledges.”

And Johnny Cash offered this six-word description of paradise: “This morning, with her, having coffee.”

A Favorite Essay Tip From a College Application Veteran

I loved a recent post by my friend, Lynn O’Shaughessy, who is a fellow journalist and now the international guru for creative ways to pay for college.

(If you’re losing sleep over the insane cost of college, make sure to check out The College Blog.)

Lynn also just shared 6 Things You Can Do Now Before Applying to College on her column for CBS MoneyWatch.

I asked Lynn if I could share her favorite tips about college application essays with you, and she told me to have at it. So here they are:

 

A favorite college essay tip

by Lynn O’Shaughnessy on June 14, 2015

I’ve looked at plenty of college essays over the years and the vast majority of them have been b-o-r-i-n-g.


The mediocre essays that I’ve seen have usually been guilty of one or more of these no-no’s:


1. They lack details.
2. They didn’t convey the student’s voice.
3. They covered too much territory. (Writing about something that lasted seconds, minutes of a day in a teen’s life is much better than trying to jam a student’s entire life into a 500-word essay!) 4. They read like the dull expository essays that high school English teachers force students to write. Formal English papers are deadly and relying on English teachers, who may be poor writers themselves, for instructions on how to write a winning college essay is often asking for trouble.

A Favorite College Essay Tip

Summer is an excellent time to get started writing college essays. I’ll be talking more about college essays as the 2015-2016 admission season kicks into gear, but today I want to share one of my favorite tips:

Don’t bore the admission readers with a dull opening line!

During admission season, admission reps often have to read dozens of essays a day. It’s inevitable that the essays will blur together, which is an excellent reason why applicants need to make theirs stand apart.

Applicants will win brownie points if they start their essays with an opening sentence that grabs the reader’s attention.

Need examples? If so, you should read an old article in the Stanford Magazine that includes opening college essay lines that the university’s admission reps particularly liked.

Opening Lines from Stanford University Admission Essays

Here are some of the Stanford admission officers’ favorite opening lines from the school’s 2012 graduating class:

I have old hands.
The spaghetti burbled and slushed around the pan, and as I stirred it, the noises it gave off began to sound increasingly like bodily functions.
I’ve been surfing Lake Michigan since I was 3 years old.
On a hot Hollywood evening, I sat on a bike, sweltering in a winter coat and furry boots.
As an Indian-American, I am forever bound to the hyphen.
Unlike many mathematicians, I live in an irrational world; I feel that my life is defined by a certain amount of irrationalities that bloom too frequently, such as my brief foray in front of 400 people without my pants.
I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks.
When I was in eighth grade I couldn’t read.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a Bhimanagar slum dwelling in Bangalore, I ran my fingers across a fresh cut on my forehead.
Some fathers might disapprove of their children handling noxious chemicals in the garage.

Here’s where you can read the entire Stanford Magazine article on college essay opening lines.

Where To Get Great College Essay Advice

Before getting started on a college essay, I’d strongly urge teenagers to head over to Essay Hell, which is a tremendous source of advice and tips on how to craft amazing college essays.

At Essay Hell, you’ll find tons of free advice on the site’s blog, as well as invaluable ebooks and an online writing bootcamp.