College Admissions and Essay Help

Need Help Revising? 

Come to 2309 during A-lunch on Fridays! (Please work through the below steps first). 

 

 

Letters of Recommendation:

Things to keep in mind Download Things to keep in mind BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER you ask :)

  • Please note that I am not writing any this year :(

 

Resume & Cover Letter Writing:

Tips from Harvard  Download Tips from Harvard (Includes GREAT verbs for Resumes)

 

College Essay Writing:

My Download PowerPoint on Admissions Writing

- The above presentation is the most important part on this page. 

 

What to Avoid  in general (topic, and writing style)

Cliche Topics to avoid

What you must do in your essay - 4 Straightforward pieces of advice

35 Tips  -- Some of these are really good but there is a lot here

 

Short Responses:

Try to limit repetition, so no need to include info that is in your essay, on your resume, or in a rec letter. 

Be direct and don't feel like you have to use all the space. They will not appreciate you wasting their time with lots of fluff. 

Try to create a variety of "themes" and "personal characteristics" through the essay and your answers. Mission- and goal-driven students are likely to be successful. If you can tie in your passions that will be part of your post-college life, that can showcase those traits. 

Here, you can also talk about multiple traits instead of hammering on and on one thing, many times over. Ex. Let's say you want to be a software designer, so you answer question 1 on an important adult in your life by talking about how you were inspired by your computer programming teacher, and then #2 on your impact on your community by discussing how you chose to start a coding camp for kids, and also 3 on an enriching experience where you talk about that time you had an internship for coding. (Just put that all in the 1 essay. Show off your diverse accolades and traits in the short answers). 

  • Display well-rounded interests and qualities; you don't want every answer and your essay to be the same. (However, the person reading "responses to number one" may not be the same person who reads "responses to number two" or your essay. They may screen these before they go to the next admissions committee-member. 
    • Try to make at least one of these about OUTside of school and at least one INside school. You will look both intrinsically-motivated and like a supporter of your school body, respectively.
    • Also, try to ensure that not all of them are purely social OR purely independent. Even novel-reading is social when you join a book club, so there are ways to frame this without presenting yourself in a false light. 
    • Remember that "well-rounded" is different than "split personality." If you are in dance, and theater, and choir, there's a common thread anyone can identify, but no one expects you to be 100% perfect in everything, and colleges know that overcommitting is a very short road to burnout. 

Colleges know how great they are, so even if the question says "tell us why you want to come HERE, specifically" your response should still be mostly about yourself and not a laundry list of their accolades. They know those. If you truly are passionate about this school tell them a specific, relevant quality or on-going program you are interested in, assume they know all about it, and explain how you would take advantage of that feature/program at their school. 

Be aware: Readers know that you revise the essay over and over again. They may use these questions to evaluate your writing skills because they know people write these much more quickly and last-minute. It matters just as much here that you write well. 

 

THAT Question: "Is there anything else that you would like to explain regarding your application?" 

For 90% of students, "N/a" is the correct answer! 

  • If you see the above question, they are giving you a chance to explain REASONABLE disruptions and gaps in your personal life and/or academic career.
    Things you may want to explain include: 
    • Moving schools/homes IF that affected your grades. 
    • Behavior or Personal problems at school IF that affected your grades. 
    • At-home responsibilities like caretaking for your siblings/family members IF that affected your grades. 
    • Extended illness IF that affected your grades. 
    • International immigration or learning English IF that affected your grades. 
      • Can you sense a theme here?
  • They do not include: 
    • Things that an admissions board won't see as relevant to your future college success, or may even hurt that perception of yourself.
      • That break-up that tanked your grades
      • Procrastination... "What can I say, I just don't like homework, guys. Now, let me into your college!"
    • Things that affected grades but were based off of your choices. 
      • A challenging course load.
      • Extracurriculars you signed up for.
      • That job you took so you would have spending money.
    • Personal Info that didn't impact your education
      • No need to tell them you are on medication unless it disrupts your performance or attendance at school.
      • An exception may be if a diagnosis and successful treatment of that impacted your grades, but the "concern" is now resolved. 
    • Anything that would make you sound bitter, petty, or careless
      • "I'm only NOT in the top 10% because my school is really hard"
      • "I failed English my sophomore year cause me teacher couldn't teach/didn't like me." 
      • "I didn't care about school until I was a sophomore" 

Basically, think about how if an assignment is due and you are in a situation where you have to weigh whether or not to speak to your teacher to ask for an extension. If you are confident you would have one before you ask, then you may want to put it down. But if you think there would be a hesitation/rebuttal/eye-roll in response, then I wouldn't. You can talk to me in 2309 if you aren't sure :) My rule of thumb: I might not allow a student to have extra time if they were up late as a result of their decision to be in band and 6 AP classes. They signed up to be that busy, and I have a lot of students who are exactly this committed, if not more so. Noe extension; No note. However, a student facing a hospitalization, a death in their family, personal crisis, or something of that nature would definitely receive some grace. But even then, it might not impact their grade so much that they need to raise this concern on an application like this. Those are terrible, but not unheard of things to happen to students, and your teachers may have made adjustments at that time, leaving this a non-issue regarding your application. 

    • Warning: Know that if you tell the Admissions Council something like "I was part of a really close friend group that fell apart freshman year," they will see that petty, non-relevant detail. Furthermore, this "issue" will show up in conjunction with other students,' whose responses may say things like "I was raised in the foster system from the age of 3" or "I survived blood cancer in early childhood" or "Me and my family were un-homed for most of the in 2017-18 school year due to Hurricane Harvey." Don't include anything here unless you're sure it fits in the listed category here, because this question is also about REFLECTION and SELF-AWARENESS, which you aren't demonstrating by being totally tone deaf :/