How did it come to this? It’s the last week and you still have essays left to write. It happens every year and you are not alone. Bolt the doors. Throw your phone into the ocean. You are on college essay lock down. You still have time to walk yourself through the basic paces of […]
The day has come… almost. Regular decision deadlines are just a few weeks away, and soon it will be time to kiss those admissions essays goodbye and send them off into the wide world. They grow up so fast. After spending so many hours laboring over each individual application, it can be hard to let […]
A popular format for supplement questions is short answers. Don’t confuse these with the why, activity, community, or oddball essays. These are an entirely different beast. These little critters provide a different kind of creative challenge for aspiring college-goers. Take this set of short answer questions from the 2014 Yale application: “What excites you intellectually, […]
The Oddball Essay is a supplemental essay type that mines for information about not only who you are, but also how you think. Colleges are interested in the way your mind works so they can determine if you’d be a good fit for their campus community. Are you easily led down a rabbit hole of […]
The Community Essay is a standard supplemental essay type that mines for information about your social habits and favorite causes. Since you will become a member of whichever college community you choose to attend, it’s not surprising that admissions is curious to learn more about the communities you are already a part of and the […]
At one time, not so long ago, the Common App asked all applicants for a brief description of their most important extracurricular experiences. When that requirement became optional in 2013, many individual colleges took it upon themselves to issue a similar prompt as a replacement. The activity essay is an excellent opportunity to expand beyond […]
The famous Why Essay is one of the most common supplemental essay types, and it’s not difficult to ascertain why that is. When competitive colleges and universities are trying to carefully select applicants to admit to their institution, they want to find the ones who really want to be there. The “Why This College” Essay […]
Students, we hear the sniffle in your voices. We see the feverish looks on your faces. It’s the final month before the regular decision deadline, and you’re thinking your college admissions essay might not be in the healthiest shape. The topic has been complaining of blurry vision, something about your introduction is making you itchy, […]
Procrastinators, you know who you are. You’re the ones who waited until December to start your college essays and spent 15 minutes frantically scouring the internet before you landed on this post. You have a month (maybe less) before the deadlines start to hit and you don’t know where to start. First, just take a […]
Black Friday usually entails going to the mall, waiting in long lines, and spending all of your hard-earned money. However, for this year’s college and grad school applicants, it means FREE essay advice, all day long. This is the Black Friday Deal you won’t even have to leave the couch for. So get comfy, log on […]
We thought so.
