The College Student Blog

Overview

The Common Application (Common App) is quite a useful tool in your college admission process. It allows you to apply to 315 colleges with the use of only 1 application. That means instead of writing 315+ different essays, its 1 or 2.

In my opinion, all colleges should adopt to one universal application such as the Common App. If each school would like one separate, unique, and short answer essay, I would classify that as ok also. However, the current college application system is crazy! If it wasn’t so nuts, you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog anyway!

The list of the 315 colleges that accept the Common App can be found here. In order for a college to be accepted into the Common App group of schools, they must give equal treatment to those using the Common App, as opposed to the “standard” application process. Hopefully these schools are actually doing so…

Some schools are actually using the Common Application as their ONLY form of application. The list of these schools can be found here. Included in this list is Northwestern, Yale, and Rice University. Hopefully colleges continue to follow the path being trail blazed by these powerhouse schools.

College Finances

Next post I will start my section on financing the rising cost of college. I will offer real-life experiences from someone who has (very) recently been there!

Importance of Essays

If you are simply wondering how important your admissions essays are in regards to the holistic application process, please read my last post.

Also as stated in my last post, I will not be going into minute detail about writing your essays. However, I will offer personalized assistance if contacted.

Topic

From my knowledge and previous experience, a topic or general prompt will be provided. It is much more difficult for college admissions staff to compare and judge completely dissimilar essays than it is similar essays.

If a prompt is not specific, write about something you feel comfortable and knowledgeable about. Also, think of what admissions personnel is looking for. This often includes leadership demonstration, work or volunteer experience, and/or an activity relating to your field of study. I would not recommend writing on the subject of academia, as your GPA, class rank, and test scores fill that area.

Where Do I Start?

Anywhere! The most difficult portions of essays is often the introduction and conclusion. Once you have your ideas on paper (or your screen), it is much easier to manipulate your existing ideas to form a solid, logical paper.

I often have 10 to 20 “mini” paragraphs, which I then form into larger portions and, finally, a cohesive essay.

Writing Tips

• Don’t Be Boring!
  • The college admissions staff reads thousands of papers per day. Your admissions essay is not the place to be mundane and typical. Especially if you are on the border (GPA, class rank, and test score wise), your essay must be extremely effective and exciting.
  • If you can write about an emotional experience, may it be saddening, frightening, or action-packed, please do so! It will capture the readers attention and give your paper longer than the average minute or two.
  • Convey your feelings to the reader! If you were crying tears of joy, your goal should be to have the admissions reader excited and jumping out of their chair!
• Style
  • As stated in my previous post, have your own style. You have been writing for about 10 years now, and you should have a definitive, catchy style to your writing. Vary sentence structure and word choice.
  • On the note of word choice: Your essay should not be the annual gathering of large words! Don’t hear me wrong, whenever I am writing an essay, I always have thesaurus up. They are great to find the word on the tip of your tongue or just to add some variety.
    • On a side note, my favorite are MSN Thesaurus and Thesaurus.com. They both offer a different variety of word choices.
  • More is not always better. Be concise and to the point. Wordiness can cause boredom and lose attention of your reader.
• Follow The Prompt
  • Answer the darn question! Don’t ramble on and write an autobiography if the question is “How will ___ College help fulfill your dreams?”
• Get Assistance
  • It is highly encouraged that you ask for a read over from, at minimum, your parents and siblings. Having a teacher or other mentor give their input can also be quite helpful.
  • Although I have not personally used an essay service, many applicants are using them to receive (what some argue) is an unfair advantage. Personally, I had three high school teachers and my mother read my essays. I was accepted to the University of Illinois, so I must have done something right…
    • If you insist on having a professional opinion, or want that extra advantage. I have heard EssayEdge.com
      does a bang-up job. The founder, Geoffrey Cook, also wrote Yahoo’s article on admissions essays.
  • You can never have too many opinions! If you don’t agree with what someone suggests, even after an explanation, just smile, nod, and ditch their suggestion!
• Don’t Panic
  • Take your time, and get ideas on paper. Like I stated earlier, it does not matter what order or way the information is lied out. Just get it on paper, and your life will become much easier!
  • Walk away from your essay and come back in a couple hours or a couple days, depending on your time constraint.
  • Don’t wait till the last minute! Get a jump start and work on your essays longer than your competition (other applicants!).
• Be an AppliCAN, Not an AppliCAN’T!
  • As cheesy as this sounds, I know many peers of mine didn’t apply themselves, get good grades, apply to top schools, and write solid essays. All because they where not confidant and saw themselves as appliCAN’Ts! You are reading this blog, and by doing so, you are becoming an appliCAN!

The End of Admissions (Kind Of)

This is my final post on “how to” admissions for quite a while. My next post will be on the Common Application, which will officially conclude the admissions series.