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Today, to mix it up, I wrote my own personal essay– no more than 650 words (the magic number). You can decide if this passes muster as a personal statement. While you read, play the all-powerful admissions officer, not the humble applicant. What, if anything, do you learn about the essay’s writer? What, if you had Continue Reading …
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Strain does not equal gain Feel like you’re straining to look like Somebody Special in your college essay? Are you “Being somebody” in your writing that feels removed from the truth– and rubs (even you) wrong? I am always looking to help students find ways to claim who they are in their work. Nonetheless, I did Continue Reading …
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Love was a great teacher for me this year. Love insisted on many a mini-essay in her over-used, under-understood name. Here is what I learned. My sister had her first baby this November, and I was with her for the 26-hours of unrelenting labor. If you think writing your college essay is hard, try delivering an Continue Reading …
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Rick Benjamin, my mentor, beloved friend, and current poet laureate of Rhode Island, gets everything he wants. But that’s because what he wants is to circulate the wisdom that words, and maybe words alone, can carry. His preferred medium is poetry, which calls words back to their sharpened purpose. In the everyday, words are such Continue Reading …
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Your essay is mental Your college essay starts in your mind and with your mind. It seems like your college essay begins on the blank page, I know. But all words have a murky pre-history in the mind. So it’s important to know what our minds are really like, what conditions in there are shaping, selecting, and producing those Continue Reading …
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Gut Feelings What’s more New York than a Deli with a botanical name pushing questionable health foods? Well, courtesy of my local deli comes a lesson in writing an authentic and gutsy college essay. In the GARDEN DELI window, a sign reads, “Fresh food all day.” The rub? The poster advertises the least fresh-looking food Continue Reading …
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