May 2, 2012

Top College Application Stories in the News this Week

Admissions 101:  Should Lawyers Sanitize High School Transcripts?

College Loans:  What You Need to Know

The Light at the End of the College Admissions Tunnel–a student perspective

How Colleges Fight for Top Students

Top 10 Crazy College Scholarships

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

April 18, 2012

Top College Application Stories in the News this Week

Rankings Did Not Motivate College Official Who Falsified SAT Scores, Report Finds

The Ideal College Graduate

3 Surprises for International Students at U.S. Universities

Upcoming ACT Test Procedure Changes

Finding Free Money to Pay for College

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

April 13, 2012.  What do you think about writing an essay and receiving $5,000 for your effort? Essay Coaching is proud to raise awareness concerning 10 scholarship opportunities.  Bookmark the following list, because the deadline on the last contest is July 31, 2012—plenty of time to apply! Need more assistance with writing your scholarship essay college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

What is college for?  Is it simply a way to make more money? Is a B.A. really worth one million dollars in increased lifetime earnings?

College is more than a job training factory, argues Columbia English Professor Andrew Delbanco in his new book, College, What it Was, Is, and Should Be, published this month by Princeton University Press.  He says colleges should open their doors to all “who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance to think and reflect before life engulfs them.”

The college application essay is a microcosm of the college experience itself: it can be an opportunity for serious, life-changing self-examination.

Similarly, high school seniors should embrace the precious chance to think and reflect (in the college application essay) before college life engulfs them.

A well-thought out and written college application essay has two essential aspects:

1. It recounts a personal experience of the writer that demonstrates strengths that can help lead to success in college.
2. It shows reflection of his or her own behavior—an understanding of why or how he or she acts, what it means, or what he has learned from it.

Of course, a well-written college application essay can help you get into your first choice college.  Knowing how to write such an essay can reduce your family stress immensely.

And if you are want to think about college as a job training factory, you won’t be alone.  Says Delbanco:

“It’s clear that a college degree long ago supplanted the high school diploma as the minimum qualification for entry into the skilled labor market, and there is abundant evidence that people with a college degree earn more money over the course of their lives than people without one.  One authority claims that those who hold a BA degree earn roughly 60 percent more, on average, over their lifetime than those who do not.  Some estimates put the worth of a B.A. degree at about a million dollars in incremental lifetime earnings.  More conservative analysis, taking account of the cost of obtaining the degree, arrive at a more modest number, but there is little dispute that one reason to go to college is to increase one’s earning power.  (This is a quote from page 26 in Delbanco’s book, and he references the earning power study here.)

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

March 29, 2012

Top College Application Stories in the News this Week

The Fate of Diversity in College Is Being Tested
Huffington Post (blog)
By Andrea Gutierrez The University of Texas at Austin has always been at the forefront of the battle to use race as a college admissions criteria, and this year is no different. UT Austin’s admission policies and the decision made in Gutter v.
See all stories on this topic »

Common App 4.0 – NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/…/common-app-4-0.html
Jan 19, 2012 – The all-purpose form is getting a digital makeover. For students, that could mean no more cut off wor …

SAT’s Student Photo Database Draws Comparisons to Facebook Profiles
New York Times (blog)
If upheld, the principle would help college applicants keep a clean public image, especially if college admissions officers ever investigate students’ photos online (they rarely do, says one admissions official). Only 8 percent of higher education …
See all stories on this topic »

Medical College Admission Test will expand its scope
USA TODAY
The updated Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) — approved last month and set to launch in 2015 — incorporates behavioral and social science concepts in addition to its traditional natural-science focus. By broadening the exam, the Association of …
See all stories on this topic »

Tips for maximizing your college admissions visits
Washington Post (blog)
By Jenna Johnson It’s that time of year again, when high school juniors and seniors hit the road for a marathon tour of college after college after college. I wrote an article for the Post’s Travel section this weekend and listed off some tips for …
See all stories on this topic »

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

March 14, 2012.  The Common Application for Undergraduate College Admission is accepted by 456 colleges from Adelphi to Yale, including the University of Michigan.

Some colleges also require one of more supplemental essays, as described in this chart. For example, here are the supplemental essays required last year by the University of Michigan.essay

Here are the choices of essay prompts from the Common Application:

Write an essay of 250 – 500 words on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below, and attach it to your application before submission. Please indicate your topic by checking the appropriate box. This personal essay helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself. NOTE: Your Common Application essay should be the same for all colleges. Do not customize it in any way for individual colleges. Colleges that want customized essay responses will ask for them on a supplement form.

1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
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.
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.
6. Topic of your choice.

Need more assistance with your college application essay?  Write debbie@essaycoaching.com.  We educate and motivate. You create.

Can three hours change your life, help you get admitted to your college of choice, and reduce your stress in the process?  Absolutely! FOUR OPENINGS remain in this Ann Arbor, Michigan Rec and Ed Class:

High school students are invited to learn how to write a winning college application essay in this two-part class that has proved as helpful as it is popular. Parents are always welcome.  Sign up today:

1. Call Rec and Ed at 734-994-2300 ext. 53275 or visit the Ann Arbor Rec and Ed site.  You’ll see:

2. Click there to register, and after “Activity Number or Keyboard,” type the class number:  1339:202.

3.  Add the class to your cart, and pay with a credit card.  To sign up by phone, call Ann Arbor Rec and Ed at 734-994-2300 ext. 53275

Comments from students who took this class in September, 2011:

“It was a great class and Debbie was a wonderful instructor in giving tips and ways to make my writing stronger.”  – Alexa Carlson

“One thing I really liked about this class was the way it was run/organized.”  – Ryan Maybe

“Very enthusiastic and engaging.”

“Thank you so much!  The class helped me feel more confident in my essay writing.”

[Which College Essays are Required on the Common Application Form?]

About the Instructor: Debbie Eisenberg Merion, M.S.W, is the owner of Essay Coaching (essaycoaching.com), which has helped thousands of students write winning college application essays since 2005.   She is the author of Solving the College Admissions Puzzle: A Guide for Students and Families About College Selection, Essay Writing and High-Stakes Testing with co-authors John Boshoven, M.S.W, and Geri Markel, Ph.D.  Debbie’s students have been admitted to Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other prominent universities. Her supportive, clear and effective techniques evolved from her experience in counseling, teaching college English, and 30 years of professional writing as an award-winning journalist and essayist.

For more information, email debbie@essaycoaching.com or call 734-646-5985.

December 6, 2011. Many schools ask a question involving diversity. For these questions, remember that diversity is about more than differences between races and cultures; it is about each person’s unique traits, experiences, and the resulting influence on one’s perspective.

Universities value diversity in their admitted students because diversity outside of the classroom can broaden your perspective on the world and increase your contribution both in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. For example, someone very different from you might share a viewpoint or experience in a class discussion that is new to you. These unique contributions add depth to each student’s individual educational experience.

The proper way to answer a question about a situation involving diversity is to tell about a time when you learned something about yourself or another culture from someone very different from you. Instead of talking about going out for Chinese or Indian food, explain how you were changed by your exposure to new experiences or helped change the perspective of someone else. This type of response will allow admissions officers to see the impact you will have if admitted.

One way to imagine diversity is to see the undergraduate student body as a puzzle with thousands of pieces, and yourself as one of those unique pieces. What strengths do you bring to the college and your fellow students? How can you help the University complete the picture, and what qualities do you possess that can add depth to the on-campus experience?

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

November 13, 2011.  What do you think about writing an essay and receiving $5,000 for your effort? Essay Coaching is proud to raise awareness concerning 14 scholarship opportunities, including two essay contests.  Bookmark the following list, because the deadline on the last contest is July 31, 2012—plenty of time to apply!

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

[Read Advice on Whittling Your Admissions Essay.]

November 4, 2011. Dr. Pepper is giving away $2,500 each week to winning video stories (deadline December 31, 2011). See this week’s winner below or by visiting the Dr Pepper contest site.

Need more assistance with writing your story or your college application essay? Write debbie@essaycoaching.com. We educate and motivate. You create.

[Read Look at Life the Way Steve Jobs Did.]