There is no end to the ethical, emotional, and grammatical issues that the world of the college essay brings up, all of them fraught and consequential. I frequently come across this one with my clients - Should I show my parents my essay? - and there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
I often advise the students to wait until they have what we think is a close-to-finished draft. But sometimes students don't ask my opinion and show their parents the essays. Sometimes the parents look at them - on a computer, say - before they've gotten permission from their children. It's occasionally happened that after I've given students comments on an essay, they'll come back with my version and their parents' version - and that's complicated: Whom should the student listen to? The parents or me? I don't like putting students in that bind.
This new piece on Huffington Post, "Is It a Parent's Right to Read Their Kid's College Essay?" is about an applicant who refuses to let his parents see his essay. His father agrees with him; his mother does not. Strife ensues. My reaction is that for this student, his position made sense, but that it might not for all students. High school seniors are in a tender, complicated place, one foot in childhood, one foot in adulthood. Boundaries rise and fall; tempers flare. There is a lot at stake in these essays.
Read the article and let me know what you think!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Common Application College Admissions Essay News Flash!
Major changes have recently been announced about the Common Application essays. You can read about them here in detail. Short version:
1. The essay topics have changed, the "topic of your choice" has been eliminated, and the essay must be from 250 to 650 words - word length strictly enforced.
2. The shorter second essay has been deep-sixed (1000 characters on a job or extracurricular activity).
I'll post more when I've had a chance to look at the topics more closely.
1. The essay topics have changed, the "topic of your choice" has been eliminated, and the essay must be from 250 to 650 words - word length strictly enforced.
2. The shorter second essay has been deep-sixed (1000 characters on a job or extracurricular activity).
I'll post more when I've had a chance to look at the topics more closely.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Yale University on What Matters in Your College Application
Yes, this website puts forward Yale's unique perspective on the different elements of your college application, but I believe it applies to the college admissions process in general, and particularly the application essays.
This comment is from one of the admissions officers. It confirms that there is no special formula for writing good application essays, except that students write from their own perspectives, in their own voices:
We have read wonderful essays on common topics and weak essays on highly unusual ones. Your perspective – the lens through which you view your topic – is far more important than the specific topic itself. In the past, students have written about family situations, ethnicity or culture, school or community events to which they have had strong reactions, people who have influenced them, significant experiences, intellectual interests, personal aspirations, or – more generally – topics that spring from the life of the imagination.
This comment is from one of the admissions officers. It confirms that there is no special formula for writing good application essays, except that students write from their own perspectives, in their own voices:
We have read wonderful essays on common topics and weak essays on highly unusual ones. Your perspective – the lens through which you view your topic – is far more important than the specific topic itself. In the past, students have written about family situations, ethnicity or culture, school or community events to which they have had strong reactions, people who have influenced them, significant experiences, intellectual interests, personal aspirations, or – more generally – topics that spring from the life of the imagination.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Waiting nervously...Did the Application Essays Work?
I'm close to the edge of my seat, waiting to hear from clients about where they were admitted - those applying to college and to graduate schools. News will come any week now. In the meantime, my nervous energy led me to a famous college application essay, by NYU grad Hugh Gallagher. What an essay! What a story!
Even the Wall St. Journal wrote about it. AND the WSJ did a video about him too.
It may be the only case when a college application essay converged with the world of on-line dating.
For the story, click here. Watch the You Tube video here, and see what you think.
~~Liz
Even the Wall St. Journal wrote about it. AND the WSJ did a video about him too.
It may be the only case when a college application essay converged with the world of on-line dating.
For the story, click here. Watch the You Tube video here, and see what you think.
~~Liz
NYT Essay on High-Achievers & Top Colleges
Today's New York Times has recast last week's SLATE piece about low-income, high-achieving students who do not find their way to the country's best colleges, and provided an important link to QuestBridge, an organization that is in the business of helping such students find schools and resources.
Please forward these links to anyone you think might be appropriate!
It seems that low-income students in the major cities - NY, Boston, LA - do find their way to top schools, where the financial aid can be significant, but high-achieving students in more rural areas do not know to apply to these schools. As the Supreme Court gets ready to rule again on affirmative action, the colleges and universities might be required to seek out students who are low-income but not necessarily minorities, in order to satisfy new standards.
Clearly more needs to be done to help high-achieving poorer students find top schools with plenty of scholarship money.
In my business helping high school students with their college applications essays, I have scholarships for low-income students. Please contact me at ebenedict@earthlink.net to discuss your situation.
Thanks for reading. ~~Liz
Please forward these links to anyone you think might be appropriate!
It seems that low-income students in the major cities - NY, Boston, LA - do find their way to top schools, where the financial aid can be significant, but high-achieving students in more rural areas do not know to apply to these schools. As the Supreme Court gets ready to rule again on affirmative action, the colleges and universities might be required to seek out students who are low-income but not necessarily minorities, in order to satisfy new standards.
Clearly more needs to be done to help high-achieving poorer students find top schools with plenty of scholarship money.
In my business helping high school students with their college applications essays, I have scholarships for low-income students. Please contact me at ebenedict@earthlink.net to discuss your situation.
Thanks for reading. ~~Liz
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
An Important Essay on College Applications & High-Achieving, Low-income Students
Because of my work helping high school students with their college application essays, I'm sensitive to who is applying where to college. In this fascinating exposé in SLATE, Matthew Yglesias reveals that very bright, low income students are not being steered to the best schools, and the best schools are not recruiting them.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Could the college tide be shifting? Yes.
It was bound to happen: After years of hyper-enrollment and students pulling out all the stops in making their applications to college, years of depressed income have begun to take their toll. Schools are experiencing and predicting lower enrollments, according to this piece in the New York Times. Does this jive with what you're seeing?
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