Personal Statements

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The Common Application Essay Prompts

The Common Application went live a month ago and while some of you have already begun your essays, there are a lot of you who haven’t. If you are in the latter group and are stressed about where to start and what to write about, here’s a breakdown of the essay prompts and how you should approach them:

1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

The key to this question is the word, “evaluate”. Don’t just tell a story, but get to the meaning of it and the impact it has had on you. You want to show self-awareness and an ability to reflect on your life; what do you think, how do you think it and why does it matter?

2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

This question asks you to wax poetic on why this issue is important to you – not why it should be important to me or anyone else. This is very relevant to your character and your ability to think critically, to take a stance on something and to show a college why you might make their campus a better place. Keep in mind that sometimes discussing a small or local issue can be more powerful than trying to discuss the national debt.

3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

Be willing to go beyond the introduction of someone and actually analyze why they are an influence on you, positively or negatively. Think about what “influence” means and consider that it doesn’t have to relate to a “role model.” At all costs, avoid the generic, “My mom is my hero” response unless there is a significant reason why – it’s just been done too many times.

4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

Keep your description to a minimum but really get into your analysis of the influence. The explanation is what reveals your passions, interests and personality. It’s this part of the essay that has the most value for the college admissions folks. Try to avoid the predictable cast of former presidents, movie stars and Harry Potter.

5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

What will you contribute to your future campus community – that’s the message you are trying to convey here by talking about the things you have already done. Quality versus quantity, just like with your activity list and resume. When getting into diversity, be mindful that diversity is not just about race. Additionally, if you are going to write about a racial topic, be mindful of the fact that you do not know who your reader(s) will be. Be wary of which direction you take this question if you are applying to schools where the mindset and atmosphere is more conservative. This is a topic you can take some risks with, but not with these schools.

6. Topic of your choice.

This question is for the very few of you who just don’t have something to write about that fulfills the previous five questions. However, just about anything can fit into one of them so try to exhaust those possibilities first. Because while it is tempting to go with this question due to the perceived freedom it allows you, it’s also a risky proposition for the same reason. You have to make sure you are making a point of significance, that you are getting your voice across and giving the reader a sense of your character, values and beliefs. In short, you have to make sure your essay matters.

Right now we’re doing a lot of work with essays, so if you would like some help with yours give me a ring or email me directly at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com – I would love to hear from you!

 

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5 Tips for Awesome College Application Essays

If you follow my blog (and if you do, thank you! I appreciate it!), you know that I’m a big believer in making informed decisions about how you approach each aspect of the college application process. This week, I would like to introduce you to award-winning script writer, Sharon Epstein. Sharon, a Writer’s Guild award winner and alumni interviewer for Cornell, founded Applying To College, specializing in college essay writing and interview skills.Today, she has some tips to share with you on writing awesome college essays.

Why is the essay so important? With so many academically talented students applying to colleges with strong grades and SAT scores, the essay is one piece of the puzzle that helps a student stand out from the crowd. Recommendations and extracurricular activities also help, but that’s a conversation for another day.Read on…

Stressed? You may be wondering how you’re going to write a great college application essay. Don’t worry, itcan be done. Here are five ways to help your essay stand out and get noticed:

1. Make Yourself Shine

Your college essay should represent you in a positive light. So think about your best qualities: Are you compassionate? Do you have a business mind? Are you an awesome big brother? Write down your ideas andthen think of an example that illustrates each one. You’ll probably find that one or two of your ideas stand out from the rest.

Two reasons to toss an idea: 1. You don’t have a specific example to write about. 2. Fifty other students can write the same essay, which means it’s not unique enough to you.

2. Show How You’ve Grown

Whatever essay topic you choose, you need to show what you learned from that experience. Let’s say, for instance, that you’ve got an Uncle Joe and you want to write about how important he was in your life. Don’t spend the entire essay on Uncle Joe’s biography, make sure the reader knows how he influenced you and how you use those lessons in your life today. Similarly, if you’re writing about your family’s traditions, don’t just explain your traditions, spend time on how those traditions have shaped you.

3. Don’t Choose a Topic that’s Too Big

The Common Application limits you to 500 words; that’s five or six paragraphs for your entire essay. So focus on one aspect of yourself, or on an event that took place in a short period of time. Instead of writing about your entire summer vacation, for example, choose one thing that happened during your vacation and write about what you learned from it.

4. Use Detail

Detail sets the scene for your reader. You probably know that every story needs the “who, what, when, where and why,” but also ask yourself “how did it look, feel, smell, sound or taste?” Then choose (but don’t overuse) a few good adjectives and adverbs. Give characters names and write a bit of dialogue if it fits. Well-placed details will help your essay come to lifeand make it more memorable to read.

5. Edit

Okay, here’s the nagging part – leave enough time to edit. Well-edited essays make a good impression; essays with mistakes don’t. So make sure commas and periods are in the right place and that everything is spelled correctly. Don’t just rely on spell check, because spell check can miss mistakes (“their” vs. “there” for example). And if the name of the college is in your essay, make sure it’s the correct school. (Don’t laugh, people do it a lot.) This is a great time to ask a teacher or other adult who’s good with grammar to help you proofreadBe careful: Too many mistakes will leave your college reader with a poor impression of both you and your writing skills. For some college admissions officers, that’s a deal-breaker.

If you have any thoughts you would like to share on writing an awesome college essay, please use the comment box below – I would love to hear from you! You can also email me at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com or Sharon at sharon@firstimpressionscollegeconsulting.com.

Eric Dobler is the president and founder of Dobler College Consulting. Follow him on Twitter.

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A Conversation About College Part II

Last week, I wrote Part I of a series called, “A Conversation About College” which covered some of the more pressing questions that were asked at a workshop I recently conducted at Sacred Heart Church in Southbury, Connecticut. Today, I am sharing Part II with you:Q: We’re not sure what the best type of school is for our son. He might want to be a history teacher, but he’s not sure.As far as figuring out what type of school is the best one, that’s something that comes with time, conversation and research. There are many factors that go into defining what type of school your son will do well at. For example, he should be thinking about attributes such as location, size of the student body, cost, private or public and reputation. Once these bigger ticket items have been identified, he can start doing some visits and online research to see what appeals to him and what doesn’t.  When I work with clients individually, I walk them through developing a college list and this exploration I just mentioned is the first step.

Q: What type of extra-curricular activities are admissions counselors looking for?We talked about this at length the other night, so this may sound repetitive, but the best activities for your son to be involved in are activities that mean something to him and which help complement his brand – here’s a blog I wrote about branding back in the fall that may help shed some light on the concept. Ultimately, you want to encourage him to think about quality over quantity.Q: How important is the essay and the essay topic?

This is a great question because while the essay can be very important, the topic isn’t necessarily what makes it important. What matters in an essay is how you tell your story. An essay really can be about any topic, big or small, but it’s how the student connects to the essay and what they are able to reveal about themselves that matters. A student who can show some depth, who can demonstrate a level of reflection and who can get me to see that what he is writing about truly matters to him is a student who has done a great job with their essay. The best way for a student to accomplish this is to really invest some time in their essay and make peace with the fact that they will write and rewrite several times before their essay is done. In fact, what their final essay looks like may not look anything like the original concept when they started.

Q: We are just starting the college search and our son is a sophomore – where do we start?

For freshmen and sophomores, the focus should be on helping them figure out what is important to them, what their strengths, skills and abilities are and introducing the idea of what college is about. If you go to my website, you will see that I offer a package called the “Early Exploration Package for Freshmen and Sophomores.” Basically, I help students at this stage work through a self-assessment while exploring some long range goals that tie into the college process.

Q: How do we go about figuring out our financial aid & scholarship options?

Again, this is time sensitive for the most part since you cannot apply for financial aid using the FAFSA until January 1st of the student’s senior year in high school. If he or she decides they are applying to any private schools, they may be required to also fill out the CSS Profile. The Profile, however, can be filed prior to January 1st.  While you can’t do anything about filing just yet, what you can do is spend some time figuring out how much all of this is going to cost. There is some detail to this, but essentially you want to know what you will be expected to pay for school so that you have some time to plan. If you go on the College Board website, you can use their EFC Calculator to do just this. EFC stands for “Expected Family Contribution” and is a term you will get to know quite well as senior year approaches. Your EFC is what a college will expect you to pay and it is how they calculate what they will offer you in the form of aid, grants and loans. The higher your EFC, the more you will be expected to contribute and the less aid you will expect to receive. As of this past October, each college and university has been mandated to publish a net price calculator on their website. So, as your student identifies schools where he or she would like to apply, you can use their net price calculator to get a feel for how things might look financially. Here is a blog that I wrote about the EFC calculators.

Q: How to choose a career/major?

This is a great question and one that troubles many students as they work through this process. To be honest, I do some assessments with students to help flesh out their values, interests, personality style and skills – or what I like to call their VIPS. Once you have a good idea of what is important to a student, what they are interested in and what they are likely to do well at, it is a lot easier to present options for majors and to point them in the direction of some useful career exploration. If it turns out that their interests are all over the place, then you want to be looking at schools that offer a wide variety of majors and where a student can start off as an undeclared major and then take some time in first semester to continue their career exploration.

I wouldn’t worry about this issue too much as of right now, especially if your son or daughter is only a sophomore or junior. Over 50% of students end up changing their majors during their freshman year anyway.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome moms out there! I hope you’re having a great day!

If you have any thoughts you would like to share on “A Conversation About College,” please use the comment box below – I would love to hear from you! You can also email me directly at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com.

Eric Dobler is the president and founder of Dobler College Consulting. Follow him on Twitter.

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