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The College Essay: or How to go from the maybe pile… to the yes pile .

Welcome. The College Essay: or How to go from the maybe pile… to the yes pile . Doug Calvert Interlake HS English Teacher.

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The College Essay: or How to go from the maybe pile… to the yes pile .

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  1. Welcome The College Essay:orHow to go from the maybe pile… to the yes pile. Doug Calvert Interlake HS English Teacher

  2. “Consultants charge up to $300 an hour to help prepare and polish it, and $60 for a quick appraisal. Prep schools offer a weekly class throughout the fall to conceive, draft, rewrite, revise, and edit it. Parents ghostwrite it and get secretaries to type the final version, spell-checked and grammatically correct on 24 pound bond paper. Students who write it without assistance experience what the former Dean of Bates College calls myopic paranoia; “I don’t know why they are asking that question, but I know they are out to get me.” – Glenn C. Altschuler

  3. What can the essay really do for you? • Know the school’s admissions policies and procedures. • Do they really read all of these essays? So…..How much? A full “notch” up or down. But….. It can’t turn a lemon into a peach.

  4. Short Version • Would I want to spend four years with this student? • How is this student going to make this university a better and more interesting place? • Does this student “fit” our school’s mission and philosophy?

  5. So what will you write about? • What have you undertaken or done on your own in the last year or two that has nothing to do with academic work? (Northwestern) • Imagine that you have the opportunity to travel back through time. At what point in history would you like to stop and why? (Swarthmore) • What is the best advice you ever received? Why? And did you follow it? (University of Pennsylvania)

  6. So what will you write about? • Select a creative work -- a novel, a film, a poem, a musical piece, a painting or other work of art -- that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself. Discuss the work and its effect on you. (New York University) • What do you think has been the most important social or political movement of the twentieth century? Do you share a personal identification with this cause? (Trinity College, CT) • If you were to look back on your high school years, what advice would you give to someone beginning their high school career? (Simmons)

  7. The Common Application • Option #1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. • Option #2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

  8. Common Application 2 • Option #3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. • Option #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.

  9. Common Application 3 • Option #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. • Option #6. Topic of your choice.

  10. Step 1: Learn about yourself • It takes time to think reflectively. • Think About Yourself: • What are your strengths and weaknesses? • What are your best qualities? • Are you an intellectual? A creative type? Curious? Passionate? Determined? • Now choose a positive quality you’d like to convey to the admissions committee. • Pick your qualities….not the story.

  11. Step 2: Tell a story • No one remembers a list. • No one remembers “the common.” • People remember what they see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. • People remember things that “move” them. Smile, laugh, cry, cringe….

  12. The Secret… SHOW Don’t TELL

  13. “Off Limit” Topics…4 D’s(But Nothing is really totally off limits) • Drugs • Depression • Death • Divorce • …and Sports • These are dangerous topics because they can be terribly cliché.

  14. The other D’s…the DON’TS • Don’t write a resume • Don’t forget to pruferead • Don’t use 50 words when five will do • Don’t tell them what you think they want to hear!

  15. Final Suggestions… • Be authentic • Be imaginative • “What happened” is not the goal. • What do I want them to know about me. • Let EVERYONE read it, especially people who know you and can edit any unwelcome bits of ego

  16. Time……. • Your first ideas will seldom be your best. • You must be prepared to totally scrap an essay. • Sometimes an entire essay will only generate one good sentence. • Revise ReviseRevise • Be prepared for conflicting advice.

  17. Questions???

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