Parents of high school juniors and seniors often ask me about the college essay writing process, which is at first shrouded in institutional mystery. The only part they really know about is the end goal: a stellar personal essay that needs to be submitted and secure the coveted admissions spots. There can be a lot of pressure on this one precious piece of writing. However, if you understand that there is a process, and the college essay writing process actually produces reliably good results you might exhale. In fact, I hope parents exhale a lot! Have questions about the optimal college essay writing timeline? See this post Later posts will be devoted to the ANATOMY of a college essay. STAGES of the college essay writing process One: Brainstorm like it’s your job I don’t actually like the term “brainstorm.” Instead, I prefer “idea flurry” or “thought flow.” Writing is rarely like a storm. Storms make us want to seek shelter. But the generative process should feel good and permissive. It should make us want to run out into an open field and ask for more. Point is, don’t gatekeep your ideas. We suggest signing up to receive our free PDF, “The Memory Game,” as a writing kickstarter! Once you’ve produced your topic tag-line or “idea”- please don’t stop brainstorming, or cork the idea flow! Keep going. Pour yourself into your content creation. Follow the flow of your thoughts, or the scent of a story, or the sequencing of memories. This. Takes. Time. Don’t worry- you won’t just write randomly or associatively until the admissions deadline and hope for the best. You’ll start to see patterns and special connections. Or you’ll freewrite on something of personal value and significance. In other words, you’ll find what you’re trying to say, and then the structure and support (a teacher, a coach, some craft lessons) to say it. Two: Draft like it’s your job Once you’ve zeroed in on your topic, or even a few possible topics, you have to Continue Reading …
college essay writing
College Essay Writing Timeline (A Primer)
College Essay Writing Timeline - A Primer (For parents and curious teens!) Parents of high school juniors and seniors often ask me about the college essay writing timeline and process. At first, the process is shrouded in institutional mystery, because the only part parents really know about is the end goal, or product. But how, and when, do we get there? And is there some kind of magic wand to expedite? There can be a lot of pressure on this one precious piece of writing, and there are ultimately some non-negotiable deadlines and no magic wand. However, if you understand that there is a process, and the college essay writing process produces reliably good results you might exhale. In fact, I hope parents exhale a lot! (Here’s 2 minute guided breath from Dora Kamau) I’m going to describe my recommended (optimal) timeline first, because it’s the first question I get (“When should a student start? How long should it take?). In a separate post, I’ll cover the college essay process, which can occur over a longer or more compressed time period. Later posts will be devoted to the ANATOMY of a college essay. If you’re already feeling overwhelmed about all things college, and prefer to talk directly to an expert and fellow parent, book your 30 min complimentary consultation HERE. Timeline for college essay writing process Spring Start When asked about the college essay process after all their applications have been submitted, students are rarely stressed to have started early. However, I think you can start too early. The college essay you write in Feb of junior year–even if you take a class or have guidance– is rarely going to be the one you send to schools. It’s the throat-clearing, orchestra-tuning round. And it has value as that. That said, all writing teaches you about writing, which teaches you about your thinking, feeling, and self. No effort is wasted! Between winter of Junior year and submissions season is a lot of months. You Continue Reading …
Avoid these 5 college essay mistakes!
To an essay coach (me) who has helped hundreds of teens write their best college essays, there is nothing new under the sun. Even the sun. Especially when it comes to paralysing fear tactics delivered via expert headlines! Don't worry: the college essay process is NOT just a Greco-Roman road full of ankle-annihilating potholes and partially-discernible SAT-word mosaics. So I'm cautioning YOU against these top five college essay mistakes I've seen applicants make. Avoiding these five college essay mistakes will save you time, sweat, tears and curse words as you write-- or delay writing-- your admissions essay content. To write your absolute best college essay, or even mediocre-but-passable college essay, avoid these 5 things: Spending all your time reading 'what to avoid in your college essay' lists Hyper-focusing or procrastinating Modeling your essay too closely after someone else's Missing out on other life and growth experiences Not trusting that who you are is enough Let's break down these common mistakes. Don't: 1) Spend all your time reading avoid lists Students sometimes show up at sessions like bullet points with legs, "What not to do" items they've absorbed from the internet, counsellors, teachers. Yes, there is good advice in those lists. Lots I agree with. But no one ever got great at something from reading all the ways NOT to do it. Yes, limit your scope; yes, proofread carefully, yes, don't use invective or rage against the machine. But also, write. Keep writing. Experiment. Discover. Revise. Try again. Use detail. Hook me emotionally. 2) Hyperfocus or procrastinate Like many other coaches, I encourage students to start writing application essays early. You may write a few "practice" drafts or "warm up" drafts (or even "garbage" drafts), like you would for any big "game." And, like most of us, you might want to stall a bit on the stickier parts, or the dread of facing yourself. BUT over focusing on the essay too Continue Reading …
Listening to Teens
I love listening to teenagers. The more you listen, the more they tell you. And if you're only pretending you're listening, or listening with an agenda, they know it. In a recent session, a student showed me that if I really listened, we could travel into a different eco-system, where caring for each other was part of the ecology. Out of your element, or in it? A student was telling me about his love of scuba diving. Newly certified, on one of his first group dives, he was daunted by the oxygen tank, and the thought of bumping loose a cartridge. How to parcel out the air? His nervousness made him a conservative in what he would explore. (The analogies to COVID life loom). But he was also, I think, awed by the power of being in a completely different element, the underwater ocean, that wasn't really meant for us. Not in a sustained way beyond the doing the crawl or getting rolled by a hook-shaped wave. The Sharks and the goofballs came On his wreck dive with his family (also a pandemic analogy, there?), a family of sharks--and I swear he called them nar-sharks, to which fact my five year old exclaimed LIKE NARWAL NARWAL SHARKS??-- swam by. A small flock. Other goofballs on the dive went out of their way to take a selfie of themselves with the shark pod with a long selfie stick camera. Scrambling around for the money shot. Grinning, peace signs, oxygen burbles. They were posing with their stupid selfie stick IN FRONT OF A FAMILY OF SHARKS, he said, like zero common sense. I mean, sure, try to get your picture, but stop behaving like such an idiot. His dad taught him to hang back, to see if you could get a photo without disrupting the balance and bothering the sharks. Because: BOTHERING SHARKS. Be humble, he said. These are sharks. They just want to hang out with their families. As I listened to him, he relaxed and grew funnier. Once I had given him his writing prompts for the week and we hung up, all I could think about was goofballs who Continue Reading …
COVID and College Admissions: Time to Get Genuine!
Last night, I felt heartened listening to the Applerouth college admissions panel on post/COVID college admissions landscape. It reaffirmed a hopeful facet of our current tragedy, which is acute here in New York City: that some things could change for the better-- namely, increased access to higher ed, a more genuine and equitable admissions process. And some really great essays. :) The warm panelists spoke about all aspects of admissions, but at Essay Intensive, we're always thinking about the written portions. And as a writing coach, I was thrilled to hear how excited the panelists were for the essays to come! They were encouraged by what gets stripped away, the pretense in applications, the excess of striving to be The Best and Most. But they are even more pumped about what gets expressed: students having no choice but to be their genuine selves telling colleges who they are--without the Circus of activities and commitments speaking for them. Smaller lives that mean a bigger deal. The panelists had some concrete advice for high school students of all ages at this time of stay-at-home orders, that aligns fully with what I’m always telling them. This is not about what or how to study, and it’s not about scores and metrics: Do something goofy!Enjoy whatever you can Work on your Time managementRead booksSpend time with your parents or family-- have those deep conversations, have the difficult conversations-- don’t put off meaningful conversations. Be guided by your passion to learn-- and learn something! This is forced self-reflective time like you might *never* have again in the same way! (And hopefully not for the same reason). And (honest) self-reflection is college admissions (essay) gold! What do you do when you suddenly have time? When left to your own devices? What’s inherently interesting to you? These are practically college essay prompts, living in your head and day to day decision making. The pay-to-play stuff is Continue Reading …
5 minutes in the bathroom to write your college essay
Sometimes, you bump into the subject of your writing when you're not trying-- like in the bathroom. The classier version of this is called the "shower effect"-- it's a real thing. You only need 5 minutes and faith. Often the trying itself keeps your topic at arm's length, stiffly.But not straining in trying? And simply being available? That woo-woo stuff? It often works far more effectively. GAH. How annoying and wonderful is that? JUST FIVE MINUTES? As my mentor Rick Benjamin says, "It's really five minutes + your whole life leading up to this moment." DETAILS. Give Your College Essay a "Quick Change" in the stall This afternoon, I went to the single-stall bathroom at a non-profit where I teach personal essay writing to (some of NYC's most awesome) 7th and 8th grade public school students. The door was locked, but within minutes, my student came out, fancied up: a maroon dress over a filled, collared shirt, black knee socks, and black patent leather pointy toe shoes. She was ready for her upcoming school interview. Moments before, she'd been hunched over her math worksheets, solving equations, chewing her lip and eating her sweatshirt string nervously. (Side Fact: I haven't solved an equation since puberty settled in, so I always salute students doing such worksheets, though in my case eating strings would be more productive than isolating the variable and so on. <---WHAT I RECALL FROM ALGEBRA BUT I DIGRESS.) What's I'm recommending here is, despite the number 5, not mathematical-- but you do need structure in the end. little time, big difference Thing is, I was surprised to see my student emerge from the bathroom so changed. It struck me I'd never seen her dressed up, and her whole persona and body language had shifted with the outfit. "You got this!" I told her (likely true), which is maybe the only thing worth saying right before someone has an interview. Especially when you can assume they've already done the most Continue Reading …