College Essay Dos & Donts

College Essay Dos & Don’ts It’s up to you to show them through your writing just what you can add to their school. Last year's Operation Varsity Blues scandal means that college admissions can't return to business as usual. His reluctance to do so showed that he already knew the answer. I hammered home the point that misrepresenting himself was wrong and an honor offense, and that colleges are interested in authenticity rather than heroism. We need to ensure that the admissions process is fair and equitable, that we don't allow those with money to cut in line and that we don't reward those who make things up or embellish their credentials. We shouldn't abandon a process based on trust, but we also need to make decisions based on information that is verifiable. Exhibit #2 is the Operation Varsity Blues scandal. As we enter a new admissions cycle one, of the challenges for our profession is mitigating the damage done by that criminal conspiracy and trying to restore public confidence in the college admissions process. I responding by suggesting that he call the dean of admissions at his first-choice college and ask him the same question. They know you best, sometimes more than you know yourself so they may have good suggestions. However, you do want the essays to sound like you; it should be your voice. There should be some consistency between the essays and interviews. Writing about yourself can be a slippery slope, which is why it is best to stick to the truth and leave the lies behind. In the end, the admissions committee is just looking for insight into your mind and character. I told him that any college admissions officer would detect instantly that the story was not genuine. Parents should always help their child in a positive way as long as they are not writing the ideas for the student. Editing is vastly different from original writing so this needs to be clarified first, as it has to be the voice and personal memories of the applicant not the parent. The sooner the family treats this as a team effort it will be much easier for the 12th grader to feel as though they are not alone in this process. I think it is always best for a student to have an impartial person do the proofing. Want the strategies we have used to get students into top Ivy League schools in your email box every month? Caroline’s admissions consulting service has helped students get into Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, and Columbia. Model United Nations is the reason I got into Yale. I started doing MUN because it was a fun way to study history, but it also developed my communication skills and gave me the confidence to express myself. As I devoted more time to the activity, I gained leadership experience by winning awards, chairing committees, running conferences, and training my club. When I started applying to college, I was able to seek advice from people I’d met through MUN who were attending or had attended competitive colleges. It is difficult for parents to remain unbiased and often it can cause a lot of added tension between the student and parent. It is, however, a good idea for the parents to help the student brainstorm ideas for the essay prior to writing it. If they read through and make light edits, grammatical and typos, yes. If the parent re-writes or writes the essay the answer is no. Yes, it is perfectly okay to have your parents edit your essays. However, the key is to edit, not to write them for you. They can help with typos, grammatical errors, and help you to be clear, concise and compelling. The essay will be vague and will need more depth. Try to make sure you allow yourself a good amount of time to research your essay properly, and include the findings in your essay, as well as your own thoughts and ideas. Often in creative writing, using non Standard English is perfectly acceptable depending on what you're writing. However, free style writing is often unacceptable in academic papers and can damage the overall impression of your essay. Be careful of using abbreviated words too, in many essays this will be unacceptable.