The essay is your megaphone — your view of the world and your ambitions. It’s not just a resume or a regurgitation of everything you’ve done. It needs to tell a story with passion, using personal, entertaining anecdotes that showcase your character, your interests, your values, your life experiences, your views of the world, your ambitions and even your sense of humor.
How I Know You Wrote Your Kid’s College Essay (NY Times)
The paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don’t know what a college essay is really about.
The Soul-Crushing Student Essay (NY Times)
One way to write a great college admissions essay? Tell your story out loud. (WA Post)
Most application essays aren’t memorable, admissions experts say. A few are so awful they stand out. And some are so powerful that they change a student’s chance of acceptance, or help win scholarships.
Our Push for ‘Passion,’ and Why It Harms Kids (NY Times)
At some point in the last 20 years the notion of passion, as applied to children and teenagers, has taken hold. By the time a child rounds the corner into high school, the conventional wisdom is that he needs to have a passion that is deep, easy to articulate, well documented and makes him stand out from the crowd. This is madness. Read more...