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UC Essay Prompt 6: Your Favorite Academic Subject

University of California Personal Insight Question 6:
Brainiacs, Nerds, Geeks and Former Slackers—This Essay is For You!

 

UC Essay Prompt 6: Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.

Well, this is probably the most straightforward of the eight Personal Insight Questions (which I call essay prompts) that the University of California admissions has to offer wannabe freshmen for 2016-17.

It’s also your best chance, similar to UC essay prompt 4, to showcase your passion for learning.

When you read UC essay prompt 6, did an answer pop into your head immediately?

If so, this could be a no-brainer essay for you to write.

You love math. You love history. You love econ. You love art. You love physics. You love English. You love biology.

Awesome.

Now you need to think some more about why you love the one subject so much, and what first got you hooked and why you believe that subject matters in the world.

Then, you need to also “explain how it has influenced you.”

The UC essay prompt 6 could work perfectly for the student who practically lives in the library studying, gets all the top grades and knows they will major this field in college: This is your chance to tell what inspired you and why you are so driven.

It could also work perfectly the student who wasn’t engaged in school but then had that special teacher who turned her or him onto a subject: This is your chance to tell what hooked you and how you have changed.

 

Warning: Even though this prompt seems simple and straightforward, make sure not to fall into the trap of writing too simple of an essay about your favorite subject.

If you start your essay with something like, “My favorite subject is math. I have always been good at it and it comes naturally. I like math because I like to work with numbers….”

…your essay will not help convince UC admissions that you are a stellar, insightful student who is perfect for their university.

Instead of starting with a general statement declaring your love of a subject, try to think of a specific example that can show or demonstrate WHY it’s your favorite subject.

That will give your essay a more interesting start and set you up to say something more meaningful about it.

Look for experiences you had with that subject that either got you hooked on it, or you found difficult at first but then you loved the challenge.

These experiences did not have to occur inside the classroom, although that’s fine, too. Brainstorm other activities that were related to your favorite subject, and start with one of those.

Then, look for ways your related experience “influenced” or changed how you think about the subject and other parts of your life or world, or what you learned.

 

Here’s a Sample Outline for UC Essay Prompt 6

Start with a real-life example that shows your love of your favorite subject. It’s best if something happened during that example to make it interesting to read about. Then explain what first hooked you, and why you believe you love it so much. (A paragraph or two.)
Explain how this favorite subject has changed how you think about yourself, and what you hope to do or study in the future. Share how it has changed you in any way, and why that matters. End by stating what you envision yourself doing with favorite subject in college and beyond. (A paragraph or two)

Here are some additional ideas that the UC admissions provided to help you brainstorm for UC Essay Prompt 6:

Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had inside and outside the classroom — such as volunteer work, summer programs, participation in student organizations and/or activities — and what you have gained from your involvement.

Has your interest in the subject influenced you in choosing a major and/or career? Have you been able to pursue coursework at a higher level in this subject (honors, AP, IB, college or university work)?

The UC also provided this idea to help you brainstorm UC Essay Prompt 6 in the Personal Insight Questions: Freshman Guide:

Think about all of your classes. Now fill in the blank: I would go to [class name] even if I didn’t have to. It doesn’t have to be a class in which you’ve earned good grades – the important thing is you enjoyed the subject and it impacted you in some way.

Good luck!

This short presentation can help you learn How to Write a Short Essay, such as these short UC essays that need to be fewer than 350 words each.

The post UC Essay Prompt 6: Your Favorite Academic Subject appeared first on Essay Hell.

UC Essay Prompt 5: Take the Challenge

University of California Personal Insight Question 5:

Your Chance to Get Real and Personal
If You Have Faced Hardships, Share Them!

 

Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?

If you are a high school student who has had to deal with some tough issues in your life or background, you should seriously consider writing about at least one of them in UC Essay Prompt 5 (also known as Personal Insight Question 5)

This is not whining or complaining.

In fact, students who have had to overcome or deal with obstacles in their life and managed to succeed in school despite those issues are highly desirable to almost all college and universities. And the UCs are no exception.

The beauty of having to write four shorter essays for the UC application is that you can share an intense personal issue in one of them (This one!), and still have three other essays where you can write about other more uplifting parts of your life, including your academic goals, your passions and other experiences.

Do not be ashamed if your family is poor, or is from a different culture, or has endured personal challenges, such as death, illness or disability.

There’s a strong chance that these very issues have helped shape and define who you are—in a positive way.

Sharing one of these personal challenges in this UC Essay Prompt 5 is your opportunity to showcase how you handled or managed it, and how it shaped or changed you somehow.

When you describe the challenge you faced, it might feel like a downer.

But don’t hold back. We need to understand what it was like for you to face that challenge, and feel what you felt even at your lowest point.

The key to writing about an intense, personal challenge is to describe it at the start of your essay, and then quickly shift into the steps you took to deal with it, how you felt, what you thought about it, and what your learned in the process—about yourself and life in general.

 

 

For those of you who come from relatively “average” or even privileged socio economic backgrounds, I know that you also can have faced intense, personal issues in as well.

Money often doesn’t shield us from challenges at home, at school, with friends or family. Sometimes, it can even make things worse.

You could have a mom addicted to painkillers, or a sibling who was autistic, or a stepfather who was abusive.

These can all be very real challenges in your life, and you could write about any of them for UC essay prompt 5.

I believe it’s important to share these stories with colleges and universities when possible so they can understand what you have been up against to get to where you are now: A young student with lots of real-life experience and grit (raw determination.)

Writing about a challenge from your background or family life also allows you to open up and share some of your feelings.

I believe this type of personal expression is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your reader, and in this case, those making the admissions decisions at the UC.

Since these UC essays are relatively short—under 350 words each—it’s critical to leave room for the positive side of whatever challenge you write about.

Note that this prompt asks for two things: to describe the challenge AND to explain how it “affected you academic achievement.”

Your challenge may have hurt your academic achievement at first, but there’s a good chance you used what you learned by dealing with that issue actually ended up helping your academic achievement somehow. If this is the case, include that!

Here’s a Sample Outline for UC Essay Prompt 5

Describe the challenge. Ideally, start with a specific example of that issue so the reader can get a glimpse of what it’s like to be you. Give background on the challenge—briefly explain how it started, what it was, how you felt about it. (One to two paragraphs)
Explain the steps you took to deal with it, and include how you thought about it. Share what you learned about yourself and the world in dealing with this challenge. Describe how this challenge affected your schoolwork and academic performance and goals. End with how you plan to use what you learned about yourself—a personal quality or core value—to help you in your future goals. (One to two paragraphs)

Red Flag for UC Essay Prompt 5: When you start describing the challenge, it’s easy to get caught up in describing everything about it and use all your space on that story. Make sure that at least half of your essay is about what you learned about that story! Otherwise, it’s just a story with no meaning.

When you are brainstorming your past to see what challenges you have faced, here are some other words for a challenge.

It doesn’t always have to be dramatic, tragic or sensational to be interesting enough to write about.

Types of challenges for UC Essay Prompt 5:

An obstacle: Something got in the way of something you wanted or a goal. It could an outside issue or influence, or something within you, such as a hang-up, flaw, disorder, disability, phobia, etc.

A life change: Something changed in your life, whether it was physical, such as a move from another country, or a change in your family life or structure, or an internal shift or change within yourself.

A hardship: Something in your background that made it difficult to feel “normal,” such as financial hardship, or physical or psychological security. A dad loses a job, a sibling has mental illness, or you experienced something that tried to hold you back.

To me, a challenge is anything that tried to make it harder for you to do what you wanted or needed.

Remember, you don’t need to have solved it or overcome it completely to write about.

It’s all about what you did to handle it.

And how you grew up a little in the process.

Here are some additional suggestions that the UC shared along with this UC Essay Prompt 5:

A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you’ve faced and what you’ve learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?

If you’re currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, “How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends, or with my family?

The UC admissions office also shared this advice to help students brainstorm for UC Essay Prompt 5 in its Personal Insight Questions Guide for Freshman Applicants:

Have you had a difficult experience in your life? How did you get through it? What did you learn going through this experience? If you’re currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, “How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends, or with my family?

 

The post UC Essay Prompt 5: Take the Challenge appeared first on Essay Hell.

UC Essay Prompt 4: Educational Experiences

University of California Personal Insight Question 4:

A Chance to Showcase Your Field of Interest

 

If you know what you want to study in college, I would seriously consider writing about UC essay prompt 4.

(For those just starting the UC application for 2016-17, incoming freshman pick four essays—each under 350 words—out of eight all-new prompts, known as Personal Insight Questions.)

It’s your chance to show the University of California that you already know something about this field and were serious enough to learn about it.

They love seeing students who already have some idea of what they want to pursue in college.

If you are uncertain about your future major, you can certainly write about this prompt, too.

Personal Insight Question 4:

Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

The new University of California essay prompt 4, also known as Personal Insight Question 4, contains two different but related topics.

One asks about an educational opportunity and the other about an educational barrier.

Pick one to write about.

From UC Admissions: “Feel free to speak about either an opportunity or a barrier. It’s OK if you’ve experienced one and not the other.”

Both topics want to know about an experience related to your education so far, which can be your school work, passions or anything related to academics.

My personal opinion is that writing about the educational barrier would produce a more interesting essay since it will have a storyline.

A barrier is a form of a problem, and when you write about a problem, things automatically get more interesting.

The UC has included extra suggestions and questions to help you brainstorm along with the prompt.

 

 

“A Significant Educational Opportunity” for UC Essay Prompt 4

Start by trying to recall an interesting experience related to academics where you learned something meaningful.

If this experience, and what you learned from it, ties to what you plan to study in college, or the field that interests you at this point, all the better.

It also could simply be an experience that had a meaningful impact on how you see the world.

The most important factor is what you learned from it.

The main pitfall to watch out for with this prompt is writing something super boring.

The best way to nail this prompt is to think of it in two parts.

First, describe the opportunity. Even better, try to think of something specific that happened that involved this experience to start your essay and give it interest.

You don’t want to start something like, “During junior year, I took AP chemistry and really loved it. I liked all the experiments in the lab and … ”

That’s too broad and generic. Sheer dullsville.

Instead, start with one specific experiment or challenge that you participated in, and then go into the overall course and why you liked it.

The second part of this essay needs to go on to explain what you learned from that experience, and briefly how you will use what you learned in the future.

The explanation about what you learned should take up at least half of your essay.

SAMPLE OUTLINE FOR UC ESSAY PROMPT 4

 

Describe the educational experience. If possible, start with something specific that happened, then go onto to explain the background of this opportunity. (A paragraph or two.)
Explain what you learned from this experience. End by sharing how you plan to use what you learned in your future college and career goals. (A paragraph or two.)

 

Here are the extra suggestions that the UC admissions provided along with this part of UC essay prompt 4:

An educational opportunity can be anything that has added value to your educational experience and better prepared you for college. For example, participation in an honors or academic enrichment program, or enrollment in an academy that’s geared toward an occupation or a major, or taking advanced courses that interest you — just to name a few.

This is from the freshman guide from the UC admissions to help you brainstorm UC Prompt 4:

Educational opportunities: List any programs or additional classes that have better prepared you for college:

1.

2.

3.

How did you find out about these programs or classes?

How did you take what you learned and apply it to your schoolwork or other aspects of your life?

 

An “Educational Barrier” in UC Essay Prompt 4

 

Here’s how I would start to brainstorm ideas to write about an educational barrier:

Think of a time in school, or during any school-related activity, where you faced some type of problem.

Again, it’s optimal if you can write about one of your main areas of interest, although it’s not necessary.

Remember, problems come in many forms, such as a challenge, an obstacle, a mistake, a personal hang-up, flaw or phobia, a change, a set-back.

Don’t get hung up on the word “barrier.” Just replace that with problem, and you will be on the right track.

The reason they want you to share a time you faced an education-related problem is that you can then elaborate on how you dealt with it and what you learned.

 

SAMPLE OUTLINE FOR UC ESSAY PROMPT 4

 

Start by describing the problem. If possible, share a specific example of the problem, and then background it. (A paragraph or two.)
Explain how you handled it, what personal quality you used or developed in the process, and what you learned in the process. End with how you plan to use what you learned in the future. (A paragraph or two.)

 

Here’s the additional questions the UC included with this UC essay prompt 4:

If you choose to write about educational barriers you’ve faced, how did you overcome or strived to overcome them? What personal characteristics or skills did you call on to overcome this challenge? How did overcoming this barrier help shape who are you today?

Here’s the additional brainstorming questions the UC admissions shared in the freshman guide for UC prompt 4:

Educational barriers: Have you faced any barriers or challenges related to school and/or your schoolwork?

How did you overcome or strive to overcome them?

List three personal characteristics or skills you had to call on to overcome this challenge:

1.

2.

3.

How did overcoming this barrier help shape who are you today?

Some Red Flags

I must warn you that I believe there are a lot of potential cliche or overdone topics that students would write about for this topic, such as times they flunked a test or got a terrible grade.

Like all topics, what counts the most is what you have to say about your experience. So focus on what you learned about yourself, others and the world—even if what happened wasn’t the most unique experience.

Writing about UC essay prompt 4 is your best chance to showcase your main academic interest, such as computer science, history, business, fashion, art, engineering, etc.

So spend time thinking about any and all past experiences you have had that related to your interest, including ones that inspired you or helped your understand it better or improve your skills at it.

Write it up and chances are it will be a strong piece for your set of four essays (Personal Insight Questions) for the UC application.

Check out these 21 Tips for UC Personal Insight Questions to help you think about how to write four essays that complement each other and together form a “personal statement” that helps set you apart from other students.

The post UC Essay Prompt 4: Educational Experiences appeared first on Essay Hell.

Congratulations to the First Essay Jumpstart Experts!

College Admissions Consultants Learn Essay Coaching

A group of nine college admissions consultants from the San Diego area helped me kick-off my College Application Essay Writing Bootcamp this week.

After participating in my two-hour workshop at the beautiful home of one of the counselors in Rancho Santa Fe, the nine women are now official “Essay Jumpstart Experts,” and can sport this digital “badge” (above) on their own professional web sites.

Now, students and parents who are looking for expert guidance through the often-confusing process of applying to college will be able to find counselors who also can help students ace the dreaded college application essay.

Jumpstart Essay Experts in Action during Workshop

During the workshop, the counselors learned what I believe makes an effective college application essay.

Then I shared my trademarked step-by-step writing method so they could help their own students find and tell their real-life stories to power their college application essays.

As part of the workshop, they received copies of my trademarked handouts, worksheets and popular writing guides, which they can use to work with their students either individually or in small groups.

Even though these counselors already knew a great deal about these essays, and have keen radar on how to spot good ones, they wanted more ideas and strategies on helping students make them better.

They had excellent questions, such as these:

What do you do when a student believes they have written an excellent essay (which might even have earned an A+ from their English teacher), but you know it’s actually not that good?
How do you help students who are reluctant to open up about their feelings and thoughts for their essays?
What can you do to help students who are privileged and haven’t had any personal crises or traumas in their lives, but want to write personal, impactful and meaningful essays?

I loved how these women, most of whom are members of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), get together regularly to learn more about all facets of the college admissions process, and support and inspire each other in the process.

Technically, they are potential competitors, but they put aside that label in order to pool their knowledge and resources in order to better serve their college-bound students and their families. To me, those are true professionals.

Graduates of the Essay Writing Bootcamp also received an official certificate, signed by Essay Hell founder and writing coach, Janine Robinson (me).

Here are the first official Jumpstart Essay Experts (l-r): Mira Simon of Coach Mira, Jackie Wooley of Summit College Counseling, Allison Molenar of Molenaar College Consulting, Regina Gerrato, Catherine McCarthy of College Smart Advising, Janine Robinson, Laurel Reidy of LWR Admissions Support, Susen Herold of Susen Herold Educational Counseling, Jennifer McClure of My Pathway to College, and Jeanette Wright of Wright College Counseling.com (not pictured).

Congratulations!

If you are a student or parent in the San Diego area looking for someone to help you navigate the application process, I can personally recommend any of these women. They were all knowledgable and professional, and above all, cared greatly about students and helping them find the right fit.

If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming a Jumpstart Essay Expert, read about my private and group workshops.

The post Congratulations to the First Essay Jumpstart Experts! appeared first on Essay Hell.

Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success Essay Prompts

The 5 New Essay Prompts for

the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success

Application (coming soon?)
(And a little rant)

What Coalition, you ask?

If you are like most of us, you either have never heard of this Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success application, or you are still waiting to learn how to use it.

Or you are wondering if it even matters at this point.

Here’s what I know:

This Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success is an alternative way to apply to college, a new application system very similar to The Common Application that most private colleges and many universities use (about 500+, including the ives).

Reportedly, about 90 colleges and universities have now signed up to allow applicants to their schools to use this new Coalition application as well. (Mostly same ones that already use the Common App.)

The idea is that students have another option when applying to their schools. (Which application system you use won’t give you any advantage with individual schools.)

Why do they need it if they cover pretty much the same schools?

 

Good question!

In a nutshell, in recent years, the Common Application had tech glitches and royally messed up a lot of people, including thousands of students applying for college and those who helped them with this process (parents, college admissions counselors, teachers, etc.)

As you can imagine, people were pissed!

So a group of higher education experts (supposedly about 60 college admissions counselors) teamed up to create this alternative application system. Competition is good, right?

(Just to confuse you more, there already is another alternative, called The Universal Application, and you can use that, but it doesn’t include many schools—about 50. Learn about the difference.)

This new Coalition application was supposed to be available to students applying to college this fall (entering fall 2017 and transfers), but it stalled out and the developers kept pushing back the launch date (the web site says April…).

Currently, word is it’s supposed to be available by July (which is crazy late in the game for an untested newbie.)

Also, about 30 of the participating schools have just pulled out and are now not using it this first year because of these delay issues.

Put it this way, there’s been a fundamental confidence fumble.

I’m not a college admissions counselor—I pretty much stick to the essays—but if it were me, or one of my kids, I wouldn’t touch this new Coalition application this year.

Just stick to The Common Application as long it has the schools you want to apply to. Or check out the Universal Application, for more options.

Wait until this new Coalition works out the kinks.

 

The New Essay Prompts for

the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success

 

That said, if you do end up wanting to apply to any of your target schools using the new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, they just announced their five new essay prompts.

Good news on that front: You can write an essay about anything you want!

And they leave it up to the schools that use their application to decide what essays they require.

They didn’t even give a word count. (Stick to around 500-600 words.)

The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success did provide optional prompts to help get you going on ideas, and one is called “Topic of Choice.” (See list of 5 prompts at bottom of this post.)

Two of the prompts are almost identical to Common App prompts (#1 and #3.).

Two are new and okay (#2 and #4).

The fifth is “Topic of Choice.” (#5)

I will write a follow-up post with specific ideas and advice on each of these new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success essays in coming weeks.

Bottom line: Just write a personal statement essay on any topic you like, stick to around 500 to 600 words tops, and you will be in good shape.

If you are applying to The Common App—JUST USE THAT ESSAY!

Yes, it’s that simple!

 

Excuse Me While I Vent About

this Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success

 

These essay prompts seem to be the first thing this new Coalition for Access, Success and Affordability got right that I know about.

Up to now, they only added confusion to an already bewildering college application process.

(And in an apparent attempt to make the college admissions game more fair, have made it less fair and crazier.)

First, what’s with the six-word name (with meaningless euphemisms) that’s impossible to remember?

To me, that’s the first red flag that the admissions pundits who put this together take themselves too seriously.

(Or what happens when you have 60+- clever professionals all from different institutions working on it. Hello scary group dynamics.)

Their initial intentions at least sounded noble.

They claimed to want to make this Coalition for Access, Success and Affordability easier and better for underprivileged and underrepresented students. (Check out this from their values statement: “We believe that early engagement supports under-resourced students during the college preparation process.”)

Sounds good.

But how do they plan to reach these “under-resourced” students, most of whom have little or no access to any outside support to even let them know this is an option?

This last minute release for 2016-17 is the opposite of “early engagement” for these students, and only would provide an advantage for privileged kids in the know.

 

 

They also floated this idea that students could start loading up a “virtual” student locker with examples of their most impressive student work starting freshman year in high school.

This idea sends me. Especially since it has been lauded as a way to “level the playing field.”

So now students can dump their past homework assignments in this virtual locker for colleges admissions officers to review, and that somehow is going to help them decide who to admit or not?

(College admissions counselors: Do you really want to have to read that stuff? Will it truly help you get a better picture of these students? Isn’t that what their grades were for?)

Wouldn’t these lockers just heighten the college admissions frenzy, and push it back even earlier to poor freshmen students who won’t know what hit them?

Beware teachers and administrators! Can you imagine the energy (alerting all tiger moms and helicopter parents!) that would go into loading those lockers with spectacular reports, essays, tests, projects, etc.

Just think: You could do extra work all through high school on top of your regular school demands to beef up your lockers and really bedazzle the college of your dreams!

Again, guess who is left in the dust?

Yes, those “under-resourced” students (often with no tigers or helicopters in sight) who will be the last to hear about those lockers and other mysterious resources yet to be revealed.

I just returned from giving essay workshops to some of the most promising college-bound, first-generation juniors in the Rio Grande Valley and not one of the 160 kids or their teachers had heard about this Coalition application.

As far as I can tell, the only people with any clue about any of this so far are private college admissions counselors who do their best to stay up to date on all these insider changes and help mainly over-resourced students.

Maybe this new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success will get their act together and provide a reliable and somehow improved application alternative to The Common App.

If that happens, I guess that’s a good thing.

We will see.

 

What Students Need to Know Now

If you are a high school junior or a college student planning to transfer, you don’t need to worry about all the politics or controversies swirling around this new Coalition application.

Just understand that it might, might, be another way to apply to the schools you want to attend this year.

And the only way I know that you can find out more about it, or when it will be available to you, or what it has to offer, is to keep manually checking the web site for updates. (In my opinion, probably not worth the effort this year. )

If you do end up using it, however, don’t sweat the essay because if you already have a Common App essay personal statement, you already have your essay done for this Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success.

Your main job is to figure out a unique topic to write about yourself and learn writing strategies and techniques to craft an effective personal statement, which you can use for The Common App or The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success.

Here are some of my best posts to get you started on that process:

Write Your College App Essay in 3 Steps
Jumpstart Guide
Know Your Defining Qualities
Become a Storyteller in Under 5 Minutes
How to Write an Anecdote
Hook Your Reader at the Start
What’s Happening in Your Essay?

Get ideas on how to write your Common App essay and use that for the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success essay!

Good luck!

Here are the essay prompts for the new Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success application (released late April 2016:
Essay Prompts

The prompts for the 2016-17 application year are:

Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.
Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.
Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?
What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?
Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

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UC Essay Prompt 3: Talents and Skills

What Are You Good At? (Yes, UC Essay Prompt 3 Can Be About Almost Anything!)   I believe all students who need to answer four of the new University of California “Personal Insight Questions” should seriously consider the third one, otherwise known as UC Essay Prompt 3. If you’re a student who has focused on […]

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Waitlist Essays and Letters: 12 Tips to Game Them

For the first time in the eight years I’ve been helping students with their college application essays, I’ve had a flurry of requests from students asking for help with waitlist essays and letters. What torture for them! Most have been waiting for months and months and now they get a “maybe?” Which really means “probably […]

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3 New Prompts for University of Texas and ApplyTexas essays for Fall 2017

ApplyTexas, which handles the applications for the public universities in Texas, as well as many private colleges, has announced on its web site that they have all-new essay prompts for Fall 2017. These new ApplyTexas essays apply to students who would be starting as freshman in Fall 2017, and applying to schools such as the University of Texas […]

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Lessons from a Winning Ivy League Essay on Costco

Viral Costco Essay Writer Thanks Essay Hell! Read Brittany Stinson’s College Application Essay That Landed Her in Four Ivies—plus Stanford! I can’t resist the news stories that break this time of year announcing students who get into multiple ivy league colleges. What I find interesting is that these articles tout the student’s college application essay as the […]

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Lessons from a Winning Ivy League Essay

Read the College Application Essay Written By the Student Who Got Into Four Ivies—plus Stanford! I can’t resist the news stories that break this time of year announcing students who get into multiple ivy league colleges. What I find interesting is that these articles tout the student’s college application essay as the reason they got them […]

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