You scored 5’s on all but one of the six AP exams you took as a junior and sophomore. You won the history department award, and took second regionally in Public Forum debate. SAT scores? Through the roof. You worked like crazy to earn outstanding grades. You carried a
Essays & Applications
The Common App released this week a long-anticipated new set of prompts for the main essay (also known as the "personal statement"). They replace prompts that were instituted as part of the 2013 redesign of the Common App. The Common App claims that "the changes...reflect the
Essays & Applications
Transfer applications, often due March 1, pose challenges that students did not face the first time around. Some supplemental essays are so redundant it's as if the schools' admissions staffs have never read the personal statement prompt.
Where did you spend the last 20 minutes? Were you aware of what you were doing? Or did the time pass by generic and unremarked? If you know, can you explain yourself? Were you there by choice? Obligation? Coercion? Circumstance? I know where I was. I went running. I ran
Essays & Applications
The reward comes long after you've done the work. Don't wait until the night before -- or the month before -- to create a game plan.
Essays & Applications
The ability to understand a question and come up with a reasonable argument -- often under time constraints -- is not exactly an esoteric skill.
Essays & Applications
Fortunately, Orwell, Zinsser, Lamott, and all the rest demonstrate that high school doesn't necessarily matter. The process of learning to write never ends.
Essays & Applications
Though they may inspire interesting thought experiments, the Common App's five prompts cannot accommodate the full range of genius and idiosyncrasies that today's students, from plugger to genius, can exhibit.