School’s out – it’s time to start your college essays! Can’t figure out where to start?
Here are a few quick links to resources to help you brainstorm as you begin writing your college essays!
- Here are the Common Application essay prompts for the Class of 2019 (write one of the 7 prompts; max word count 650)
- Here are the UC personal insight questions (choose 4 of the 8 prompts; max word count 350 per question)
- Essay Hell’s “Brainstorming your College Application Essays” guide
- Tips for the 8 UC personal insight questions
- College Essay Guy’s “Four Qualities of An Amazing College Essay”
- How Do I Start My Common App Essay? (a guest post by the College Essay Guy)
- NYT article from Pomona Admissions Dean on essays (even though it’s targeted to students in India, still much of it applies to American kids!)
- Five Questions You Should Ask About Your College Essay
- Five Ways Your College Essay is Different From Your English Class Essays (read the links in this article!)
College essays are the vehicle through which college admission officers can learn about the person you are. Your transcript and test scores tell part of the story, but your essays let them hear your voice. Your job is to let your personality shine through, so that they can visualize the person you will be – the classmate, the roommate, the teammate – on their campus. In many cases, college essays can make the difference between being admitted or not.
The Common Application and the UC application open on August 1. The more you get done before school starts again in August/September, the less stressful your senior fall will be!! Let’s get those college essays underway so that you have time to revise them and make them awesome!
If you have a rising senior and you’re in the Los Angeles area, we invite you to our college essay brainstorming workshops this weekend, and to our additional application boot camps and essay workshops in August.
Please get in touch if you are interested in getting more personalized help with your college search and application process. Our job is to make the entire process more organized and less stressful for students and parents.
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