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Archive for: College Essay Advice

Advice on College Essay


College Essay Advice, College Essay Tips, College Essay Pointers, College Essay Advisor

Show don't tell in your college essay. It's college essay advice too many students ignore.

Here’s some advice on college essay writing: show don’t tell. It’s simple. You might roll your eyes and think, “duh.” But that doesn’t mean you’ll actually follow this advice. Let’s dive into an example. In college essays, it’s important to demonstrate your intellectual curiosity, your love of learning. But does that mean that you should write how you love learning in paragraph two? No. Don’t do that. By doing that, you’re feeding college admissions counselors what you think they want to read. Rather, they’re going to gag and move on to the next application. That’s what’ll happen. Seriously.

So rather than say you love learning, write about a character in a book who made you think differently. Write about a science research project that changed how you view science. Write about a play that helped shape who you are. Write about how you love to explore certain museum exhibits on the weekend if indeed that is your pastime and write why you like to visit these exhibits. Show but don’t tell just how your brain works.

Check out this post on Advice on College Essays or this one on College Essay Pointers. And feel free to share an example of an idea for a topic on a college essay that you’re considering using but aren’t sure how to go about it. We can help you hone in on exactly what you should be saying in your college essay to get the attention of college admissions counselors in a good way.

Advice on Your College Essays


Here’s some advice on your college essays: Your goal should be to change the emotions of the college admissions counselor reading your writing. Does that mean you should make them mad at you? No. But it does mean that you should try to inspire them. Or make them go, “Awww.” Or make them smile…or even better laugh out loud (or if you’re a student reading this, LOL). Or make them cry.

College Essay Advice, Advice on College Essay, Ivy League Admission Essay Advice

Here's some advice on your college essays: Try to change the emotions of college admissions counselors.

Movie and television writers, novelists, advertisers, magazine columnists – they all get paid big bucks to change the emotions of readers. Going to an Ivy League college will increase your earnings. So you should think of it like this: You’re going to get paid big bucks to change the emotions of highly selective college admissions counselors. That’s right. Change their emotions, improve your odds of admission. Save the cheerleader, save the world.

So just how can you change their emotions? Share a personal anecdote that can shed light on who you are and what you’re all about. Make sure it’s the right anecdote. And, most of all, make sure it’s not trite. The story about getting over Grandma Mary’s death at 98 just isn’t going to cut it. Neither is the story about how you saw a homeless man and decided to give him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Be original. Make it fresh. Make it stand out from the pack and do this through the powerful medium of writing, a medium that can indeed change the emotions of college admissions counselors!

Take this advice on your college essays. If you adhere to our advice correctly, you won’t regret it.

College Essay Suggestion


We’ve got a college essay suggestion for you: Make a splash. What do you think the most important part of your college essay is? Is it your closing paragraph? A paragraph in between the opening and the closing? The opening? So you know, in college admissions, it’s all about the opening! College admissions counselors have tons and tons of applications to read. You need to grab them. You need to hook them in and make them want to stay!

College Essay Suggestions, Suggestion on College Essay, Suggestions on College Essays

One college essay suggestion not to ignore is to be sure to pull in college admissions counselors right from the opening line. Just like "Grey's Anatomy" did when it aired after the Super Bowl a couple of years back.

Right now, it’s the fall television premiere season. When you watch a new show (a pilot), take a close look at the first couple of minutes. It’s called “the teaser.” Most shows cut to commercial right after the teaser. ABC often cuts to the title card and then proceeds into act one. But most shows go from teaser to commercial and do so ideally with a bang! That’s how your opening paragraph should be in your college essay. It’s a college essay suggestion we hope you take because it matters a great deal.

How are you gonna rope in college admissions counselors? How are you going to get them to continue to read your essay? Think of yourself like a television writer. You want to keep the ratings high. You don’t want them tuning out after “American Idol.” How can you keep them? You can’t just expect they’ll stay. You’ve got to work at it.

A couple of years ago, how did Dartmouth grad Shonda Rhimes keep male viewers tuned in to “Grey’s Anatomy” after the Super Bowl? She teased viewers with a steamy shower scene right at the top! That doesn’t mean you need to write a steamy shower scene in your college essay. In fact, don’t do that! But do find a way to draw in college admissions counselors!

Advice on College Essays


We’d like to give you a piece of advice on college essays – don’t play it safe. Does that mean that you should let college admissions officers know that you’re actually illiterate or that you want to go to a certain university because you hear they have good frat parties? No. Come on! But that also doesn’t mean that you should play it straight up the middle. Don’t write what you think college admissions officers want to hear because what you’re then going to write is something they definitely don’t want to read!

College Essay Advice, Advice on College Admission Essays, College Admission Essay Advice

Don't feed college admissions officers what you think they want to read in your college essays. Because they don't want to read it.

But consider stepping outside the box. Listen to Kelly Clarkson. Take a chance. Make a change. Breakaway. Instead of writing a chronological account of your summer, consider leading off with an exciting statement that ropes a college admissions officer in. Would you want to read an essay that reads, “Last summer, I participated in a summer enrichment program for two weeks. After the program ended, I volunteered working with Habitat for Humanity…” ZZZzzz. We’re sure that you wouldn’t want to read that. Hopefully you would also not want to read an essay that begins, “According to Webster’s Dictionary…?”  No one cares what’s written in the dictionary.

Dare to be different by stepping outside of your comfort zone. Dare to dazzle. Dare to share a window into your world. Dare to shed light on just who you are and what you’re all about. Don’t try to impress. Don’t feed college admissions officers what you think they want. Because they don’t want it!

Check out our post on College Essay Advice or this one on College Admission Essay Advice. Hey, when you write so many blog posts, you run out of titles!