How to Title a College Essay

by | October 31, 2024 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Too many busy high-school seniors worry about how to title a college essay. You have way more important things to do! Do college essays need titles? There are so few easy answers in the college essay world—it’s nice when one really is easy. Do I need to write a title...
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A Letter to Parents with Good Intentions

by | August 30, 2024 | College Admissions, college essay tips | 0 Comments

Dear Parents of High-School Juniors and Seniors I know you want to help. I know you can’t stand to see your child stressed and anxious, can’t stand to see them wasting time, ruining their chances, and risking their futures! Take a deep breath. Let’s start with,...
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Admissions & the ADHD Brain: Don’t Do It Later

by | July 30, 2024 | College Admissions, college application essay | 0 Comments

One of the top reasons all students procrastinate on writing assignments Admissions & the ADHD Brain —school assignments and college essays—is their resistance to commit to the time. It’s that seductive voice in the back of your head that whispers, “You don’t have...
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Admissions & the ADHD Brain: First, We Get Started

by | July 15, 2024 | College Admissions, college application essay | 0 Comments

The college application process could not encourage procrastination more effectively if that were its explicit design. The deadlines are months and months away, the process is confusing, the number of tasks seems to be constantly expanding, and on the whole—it’s dull....
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Chat GPT is Not Going to Save You

by | June 30, 2024 | college coaching, College Essay | 0 Comments

ChatGPT is not your friend. It did not come to save you from work. When people say, “I know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to say it,” they see ChatGPT as the answer. They tell ChatGPT what they think they want to say, and then ChatGPT “clarifies” it for...
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Triggering Your Editor: How to Write Tough Stuff

by | June 15, 2024 | college application essay, College Application Tips, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Why is it so hard to start your college essay? Why does it suddenly feel like you have absolutely nothing to say? You try to bring up stories—even one!—from your life and draw a complete blank. If so, know that you’re not alone. One very real possibility is that in...
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How to End Your College Essay: 12 Strategies To Finish

by | May 30, 2024 | college application essay, College Essay, writing tips | 0 Comments

End Your College Essay Getting started is the hardest part of any project, and that includes college essays. But once your desire to end your college essay is to be finished overwhelms your inertia and you start getting words on...
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But How Do I Start? My Go-To Trick for Writers of All Ages

by | May 15, 2024 | College Application Tips, college essay tips | 0 Comments

Trick for Writers I’m writing right now with one of my best friends. She has a draft due to her publisher in a week. She has been avoiding it for months. She explains to me what the chapter she is working on is supposed to be about, and as an extension, why she can’t...
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Tricks from English Class: The College Essay As Literature

by | April 30, 2024 | College Essay, College Essay Examples, college essay tips | 0 Comments

You’ve probably already noticed that most of what you’re doing in high-school English is not going to help you write your college essay. Whether it’s a five-paragraph essay or poetry analysis, it’s neither the structure nor the style you need. But that doesn’t mean...
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Top Ten Success Resolutions for Striving Students 2024

by | December 30, 2023 | College Application Tips, college coaching, College Essay | 0 Comments

Are you ready for a fresh start? In two days, you’ll wake to a pile of 366 brand-new days. Of course you didn’t have to wait for the new year to make changes in your life, but now that it’s at your doorstep, perhaps you want to consider ways that you can make 2024...
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The Hero’s Journey, or, Why I Do What I Do

by | March 15, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

The Hero’s Journey, or, Why I Do What I Do Who doesn’t love a good hero’s journey? Young heroes seek castles. Entering the dark woods, they are only a bit afraid. Some are on horseback, others on foot. Some bring a map, and proceed quickly. Some become lost in the...
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How NOT to Write About Coronavirus on Your College Essay

by | March 31, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

How NOT to Write About Coronavirus on Your College Essay In the fall of my senior year of high school, the dog my family brought home when I was 5 years old was dying. He was a magnificent German shepherd—a large, sturdy dog who had been my protector when I was small....
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Layering

by | April 15, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

It’s spring in New England, and if you were going outside—which you probably aren’t, this year, but if you were—you’d want layers. You know, a winter coat for the 24° morning, a sweater for the school day, and a T-shirt for the way home when the sun is finally strong...
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Bread Baking as Essay Writing (An Extended Metaphor)

by | April 30, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

Bread Baking as Essay Writing (An Extended Metaphor) I have been baking bread since—as they say—before it was cool. And I have often tried to use this particular metaphor with my students, but it never worked because (it turns out) few of them had ever baked yeast...
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Warming Up for the Big Game

by | May 15, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

Warming Up for the Big Game I’ve decided to create a new kind of running club for people who don’t really like running. Every two weeks, we’ll meet and have races. If you don’t like your time on a particular run, you can do it a second time. But in between races,...
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A Go-Anywhere Bulletin Board for Your College Application Planning

by | May 30, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

A Go-Anywhere Bulletin Board for Your College Application Planning Feeling in control of everything you have to do in the massive, multipart undertaking that is college applications is going to give you more positive feelings about the process, even though you don’t...
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How Do I Start My College Essays?

by | June 15, 2020 | Cara, College Essay, college essay tips | 0 Comments

How Do I Start My College Essays? It goes without saying that the first thing you need to do to start your college essays is—to start. But nothing helps a procrastinator to procrastinate like an unclear expectation. The vague language of the seven Common App prompts...
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The Fundamental Attribution Error … And How It Works in Your Favor

by | June 30, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

The Fundamental Attribution Error And How It Works in Your Favor Sometimes students stress about the 650-word limit because they fear they cannot possibly tell their life story in so short a space. Let me reassure you on that: No, you cannot possibly tell your life...
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“Curated Imperfection” and the College Essay

by | July 15, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

“Curated Imperfection” and the College Essay The goal of the college essay is always the same. No matter whose essay it is or what story it’s telling, the ‘moral’ at the end will be “I learned, I grew, I changed.” That’s it. That’s all there is to it! The problem is,...
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What a First Draft Is … and Is Not

by | July 30, 2020 | Cara | 0 Comments

What a First Draft Is … and Is Not First things first—and when it comes to writing your college essay, the first thing is NOT a first draft. The problem isn’t with the word “first,” it’s with the word “draft.” The connotations that “draft” carries are going to lead...
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What NOT to Write in Your College Essay

What NOT to Write in Your College Essay

by | Sep 30, 2022 | , , , , , ,

What NOT to Write in Your College Essay I never cease to be amazed by the extensive collection of topics the internet tells you NEVER to write about for your college essay: times you were happy, times you were sad, times you were successful, times you made a mistake, times you helped someone less...

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How to Write an Essay on College Football

How to Write an Essay on College Football

by | Sep 15, 2022 |

Essay on College Football It's football season. Not only football players, but marching band members, cheerleaders, majorettes, dance team members, and student section spirit leaders--to name a few--are out on the field overcoming obstacles and making memories. If that's been a major part of your...

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Describe a Person You Admire

Describe a Person You Admire

by | Jul 30, 2022 | ,

Describe a Person You Admire Most schools give you a lot of flexibility in the way you choose to present yourself in an essay. There are seven Common App prompts and six Coalition App prompts—and both include one that is “anything else you want to write about.” But whether for a supplemental...

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Tips For Selecting A College Essay Topic

Tips For Selecting A College Essay Topic

by | May 30, 2022 | , , , , , ,

If you’re frozen at the very first step in your college essay-writing process, I can’t blame you. Choosing a college essay topic really is as important as you’re making it, so it’s worth brainstorming thoroughly and evaluating your choices carefully. Why Does the Essay Topic Matter? As I’ve...

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Types of College Application Essay

Types of College Application Essay

by | May 15, 2022 |

Types of College Application Essay   For most students applying to competitive colleges, the first essay is just the beginning. If you’re applying to a dozen or more schools, you may find you’re looking at 20 or more different essay prompts! But as I’ve written before, you absolutely should...

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