#collegeappessay

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College App Essay Tip #1

START WITH AN IMAGE (not with a prompt!)

If you’re wondering when to start your college application essays, the answer is now. And if you’re wondering how: try with an image.

Images help you discover yourself — your stories, your beliefs and your obsessions. Consider the following activities as different ways of gathering images as ingredients. Your college application essays will be the meal you prepare later. So, seriously, put the prompts away for now. Let’s first see what’s in your image fridge.

Here are a two Mighty Ideas to get you started, and, while you’re at it, check out the image guru, cartoonist Lynda Barry. She was my inspiration for activity number 2.

CREATE A TIME CAPSULE Grab an old shoebox — yep, a shoebox!*— and fill it with cherished items that help define you.

Some possible things to include:

Photos

Song lyrics & book quotes 

Pictures cut from magazines or grabbed from your favorite sites

Souvenirs & lucky charms

Tickets stubs

Drawings, postcards, notes, letters

Then, set aside time, once or twice a week, to reach in and randomly grab something to write about. Set a timer for 10 minutes, grab a pen or a laptop and and try to keep writing the whole time. You might not want to read over what you’ve written for a few days.

When you write, start by describing what you see, and feel free tell a story, too. In my shoebox is a photo of me screaming my head off on a kids’ roller coaster called “The Beastie.” It’s actually kind of hilarious. I could start by describing the utter fear in my eyes, and the way the 5 y/o behind me is waving her arms in pure joy. I might then recount how my friend dragged me onto the ride, assuring me it would be fun. At some point, I’ll reveal that I’m 28 in this photo. And who knows what reflections might happen from there? Something profound about fear – or taking chances? The idea is to ground yourself in imagery, and let it lead where it may.

* Of course, you could setup a folder in your google drive/ dropbox/ pinterest/ spare instagram and fill it with virtual stuff, but having stuff to pull out and hold onto may make writing easier. Plus, you won’t be distracted by everything online that has nothing at all to do with getting you into college!

KEEP A JOURNAL Use a plain notebook, a book that you’ve made, or a store-bought book with blank pages, or create a special folder on your desktop.  Set aside a regular time to write each day. It can be for as little as 10 minutes, first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed. Focus on events and images as much as thoughts and feelings.

Some of my favorite advice on how best to do this comes from the cartoonist Lynda Barry. In a nutshell, she says, make a list of 5-10 images, things you came across during the day. Here’s mine for today.

Moldy swim “noodle” at the YMCA

Endless traffic on S. Lamar Boulevard

A delicious looking ham and cheese crepe

Carefully piled coins on the dining room floor, next to an opened piggy bank (who knows what my daughter is saving up to buy?)

A girl and a giant robot near downtown

After that, choose one (or more) to write about. The moldy swim noodle, for example, might become a journal entry about me in my first Aqua Yoga class, and how I had to get over the fact that the class is made up of almost entirely seniors (and I don’t mean 12th graders). And, yep, I LOVED it. Endless traffic might turn into an entry about all the grand ideas my family and I have for solving Austin’s traffic problems — our first being The Big Lift. You get the idea? Before you know it, you’ll have an sizable collection of detailed stories.

GET STARTED RIGHT NOW! (yes actually now ; ) Remember you’re cooking, not just grabbing a snack. So gathering and prepping ingredients (images and stories) is essential. Plus, it’s fun! Come back next week for more ideas, and soon you’ll be cooking up authentic essays that admissions folks find delicious.   Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching  Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college essay #college applications #writing #college admission #collegeprep #collegeappessay

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College App Essay Tip #5

BE THE HERO OF YOUR OWN STORY

Ok, now for one of my favorite College Application Essay tips: uncover your hero’s journey! This may sound daunting, but simply put, you should be able to answer the question: how did I change?  

Change, after all, is what makes a good story. Think about all that reading you’ve done in English class and for fun. Whether the protagonist is Harry Potter or Jane Eyre, they certainly developed and grew. Now is your chance to be a hero, too.  

Before you set to scribbling about your struggles with alien forces threatening life as we know it, keep in mind that heroism comes in all shapes and sizes. Quiet discoveries and small shifts in thinking are often more meaningful than big adventures or obvious achievements.

Your application may be full of the what of accomplishments, but it is who you were before and who you became as a result of your experiences that engages your College Application Essay readers.

WHAT LED YOU TO BE WHO YOU ARE TODAY?

It may help to go back to College Application Essay Tip #2 to get you thinking. In that exercise, others reflected back your own best qualities — generosity? wit? determination? leadership? But were you always this way?

At this point you may already have a story in mind. Perhaps you’re writing about leading your crew team, or training a guide dog, or babysitting your nephew. Whatever it is, you should ask yourself what you were like before this experience and how you changed as a result.

DISCOVER YOUR JOURNEY, EASY AS 1-2-3

Step One – “I used to ___________, but now I _________. “

Fill in the blanks at least three times, for example:

I used to eat mac and cheese for lunch everyday, but now I teach cooking classes at a summer camp.

I used to play violin in my school’s orchestra, but now I am more interested in science.

I used to stay silent in Spanish class, but now I am more outgoing in Spanish than in English.

Step Two – Transform each simple statement into the overview of a journey.

A journey from eating only mac and cheese to studying and teaching nutrition to wanting to pursue a medical degree.

A journey from recognizing the interwoven parts that make up a beautiful symphony to the exploring the fundamental matter of the universe through the lens of physics.

A journey from being an outgoing child, who used language and humor to gain attention and connect with others, to a shy middle schooler in a new bilingual school who learned to embrace new and joyful ways to communicate.

Step Three – Expand the overview into an insightful essay

Each overview you created is a secret map, and the essay itself is a journey. Take the reader’s hand and pull her along by using suspense and letting events unfold without much explanation. Small insights can arrive like breadcrumbs on a trail, but your bigger insights should be saved for the end. Don’t be surprised if your essay evolves as you write it and no longer matches your overview. Maybe you used to think you knew the real topic of your college essay, but along the way you’ve discovered something better.

EXTRA TIP: HIGHLIGHT THE LOWLIGHTS

Remember almost every journey, in literature as in life, has a nadir, or a low point—don’t be afraid to present a moment of real loneliness, frustration or disconnection at some point in your journey. Then be sure to move on. Challenge yourself to discover how your struggles have brought with them valuable lessons.

NOW, GET THIS JOURNEY STARTED

You’ve used the 1-2-3 process to generate simple statements, develop engaging overviews, and to ponder the how each overview might become an essay map. Now, pull out your compass and get started! College Essay Application readers are excited to follow your journey, wherever it leads.

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeprep #highschool #writing #collegeappessay

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College App Essay Tip #8

HOW TO LOVE WORDS — AND LET THEM GO Guest post by Irena Smith, Ph.D. College Admissions Consultant at IrenaSmithConsulting.com

As a high school senior, I was selected “Most Likely to Talk to Anyone or Anything about Anyone or Anything.” To this day, I remain inordinately proud of that honorific, and rarely miss an opportunity to brag about it in casual conversation—making sure to note at some point that my male counterpart in the senior superlatives category is now the New York Times senior White House correspondent. This is my way of reassuring myself that even blabbermouths who are pictured in their senior-year yearbook covering each other’s mouths with their hands in a universal “Shut up” gesture can turn out OK. (At least Mike did, anyway.)

I love words. I love words more than anything. To this day, I love to tell long, complicated stories with tangents (in fact, my tangents often have tangents, and those tangents will occasionally sprout mini-digressions, like a verbal Hydra). When I was younger, I was besotted with adverbs and adjectives, the more ornate the better, and I took a dim view of anyone who told me to streamline my occasionally Byzantine writing. My dissertation was on Vladimir Nabokov and Henry James, authors known for elaborate turns of phrase (some of Henry James’ sentences go on for pages, and some of his paragraphs go on for miles). Words were my happy place, and I frolicked in them like a small child in a ball pit at a local McDonald’s, while her mother cringes nearby and tries not to think of all the germs.

THE POWER OF BREVITY But then, somewhere along the way, I discovered the power of brevity. Brevity as in “the soul of wit” brevity (a quote which, ironically, comes from one of the most prolix characters in literature—someone who certainly would have given Mike Shear and me a run for our money). Still: the power of the short, punchy sentence, of the point made elegantly and well, of surgically precise narrative concision is undeniable. You’ve experienced this power if you’ve ever been exposed to the meticulously crafted advertising tagline— “Just Do It,” for instance—or if you ever came across a line of poetry so finely honed it made you squint in surprise and pleasure (“Because I could not stop for death / He kindly stopped for me”). One of the most powerful sentences in the English language only has two words: “Jesus wept.” Go slightly higher on the verbosity scale, and it’s amazing how much people can pack into six words in the Six Word Memoir Project (http://www.smithmag.net/).

Have you ever tried to sum up anything in six words? I dare you to try. It’s mind-bendingly difficult and surprisingly fun.

And when I began working with high school seniors completing college applications, I didn’t so much discover brevity as have brevity foisted on me, by way of essay word count restrictions. How do you help someone condense the rich, complicated, textured essence of who they are into 650 words? Or 250 words? Or 100?

MIT: tell us something you do for the pleasure of it, 100 words. Go. OK, now stop.

CUT WHAT PEOPLE SKIP Here’s what I tell my students: first write a lot, and then cut everything that’s not important. Cut ruthlessly. Cut to the bone. (Or, to paraphrase Elmore Leonard, try to leave out the parts that people tend to skip.) You can’t know what’s important until you’ve written a lot (one of the many reasons the first draft is also known as the “vomit first draft”, and you’ll know what’s important when a sentence or a word clutches at your shirt and refuses to be dismissed. Sometimes it must be dismissed.

BE BRUTAL An old school editor once described this process as “murdering your darlings,” and yes, it feels exactly as brutal as that. But sometimes, you have to make sacrifices. Yes, a sentence may be pretty, and yes, you may have honed and polished and revised and sweated over each word, but if it's not moving your story forward, it's gotta go.

TRUST YOUR READER If you have three or four instances that demonstrate your humor, your energy, your tenacity, your curiosity, pick the best one and axe the others. The last example standing won’t capture you in your entirety, but it will give your readers a sense of who you are, just as a synecdoche deploys a single, limited designation to stand for a larger whole (“The White House” for the presidency, “hands” for helpers, “boots on the ground” for army, to name just a few). Take it on faith that the example you chose—you must have chosen it for a reason—will resonate more powerfully than you think. Trust that your reader will read between the lines.

Here’s what else you can cut without a second thought:

Sentences full of abstractions that anyone else could have written. You know the ones. Soccer can teach anyone persistence, discipline, and resilience. Only you know what it feels like to take a ball to the face.

The long lead-up: “First I became interested in bioengineering, then I emailed some professors, some of whom never bothered to email me back. Others responded but said they were too busy. Finally, months later, I entered the lab of Professor X.” Instead, try this: “When I first walked into Professor X’s laboratory…”

The phrases “To begin,” “Subsequently,” and “In conclusion.” You’re telling a story, not debating an opponent in Lincoln-Douglas. Let the story unfold.

Most adverbs. Adverbs are a crutch. Strong verbs can stand on their own two feet, thank you very much, and they contain multitudes. Which is better: ran quickly or sprinted? Laughed uproariously or guffawed? Hit hard (or, even worse, hit really hard) or pounded? Looked carefully or scrutinized?

The words “very,”  “really,” or “interesting.”

Passive voice or subservient mention of your own incredible luck at meeting this or that luminary, as in “I was lucky to be able to meet….” How about, “I met”? With all the freed-up space, you can tell us what you actually talked about!

Over-explaining. Consider these two sentences:

“I took a deep breath and kicked the ball. It arced across the field, a streaking comet, hit the crossbar, and bounced harmlessly away.”

or

“I took a deep breath and kicked the ball. It arced across the field, a streaking comet, hit the crossbar, and bounced harmlessly away. I was devastated.”

Do you really need the third sentence? I would argue—strenuously (yes, I know what I said about adverbs, but this is an exception that proves the rule)—that you do not. Leaving things unsaid opens up an imaginative space where your essay can breathe, where your readers can connect with you, where they can feel their own punch-to-the-gut disappointment without you taking them, step by step, through the five stages of missing-the-goal grief. Give your readers credit; they’ll figure it out. If you’re really tight on space, you can probably cut the “streaking comet,” too.

USE A SCALPEL Taking a scalpel to your own writing can feel as harrowing as taking a scalpel to your own skin. These words came out of you; you pored over them, maybe (even with the aid of a thesaurus); you read them to yourself, hunched over your keyboard—and now some of them will have to go. 

If the prospect brings you unbearable pain (and if you’ve invested the kind of emotional and intellectual energy in your essays that you should have, it will), save the longer version in a different draft. Title it “For my memoir.” And then think about what’s truly important—what only you know, what only you can say—and cut everything else. The delete key can be your most powerful tool, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still love words. It just means you need to let some of them go.

Trust me. Your essay will be better for it.

— Irena Smith, Ph. D., College Admissions Consultant

Editor’s note: Having been mentored by Irena for years, I can attest to her surgical deftness. So, take her advice and start slicing! Treat the process like a game or a puzzle as you analyze sentences and make assessments about what’s essential and what can go. A mighty story speaks for itself.

Happy slicing! Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching

Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeprep #writing #essay #collegeappessay #college advice

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College App Essay Tip #10

WHY US? You’ve come far in your college application essay process. You’ve composed drafts, refined outlines, and revised to produce a vivid and engaging self-portrait. But now you’re faced with an additional supplementary essay, one that seems to ask less about who you are, and more about the uncertain future: the prompt in which your school of choice asks, Why Us?

DIG DEEP You may find that you’re scratching your head. Maybe the only thing that comes to mind is that you really want to live in New York, or Chicago, or Austin. Maybe you know this school has a really good reputation, but you're not sure for what exactly. You go to the “about” page of their website and find yourself writing:

“George Mason is Virginia’s largest public research university, and its setting the benchmark for a bold, progressive education that serves the needs of students and communities.”

Uh oh. You know this isn’t what you want to say, but what do you want to say? Here’s a way to help uncover it.

THE 50/50 RULE

As you write your essay about why you want to attend a particular school, think about proportion: 50% about you / 50% about them. (And, here’s the secret: even the half about them is really about you, specifically how you envision yourself as a student on their campus.) Then find a theme that connects the two halves into one glorious on-point whole.

OK LET’S GET STARTED

Step 1 - Look into their sites Take 30 minutes and poke around the school’s website, Facebook page, etc. If you were lucky enough to tour the campus, jot down what you remember most from your visit.  Dig deep into areas that interest you: courses, clubs, lecture series, service groups, research opportunities, study abroad, and more. Have fun imagining your future life. Bookmark a few pages and take a few notes.

Now, write a sentence: “I can’t wait to xxx, yyy, and zzz as a student at…” It’s OK to write a few different versions and to dream big. Don’t cut yourself thinking, but I could never.  On the other hand, be authentic—you probably won’t be playing college golf if you’ve never picked up a club.

Step 2 - Research their mission A mission statement expresses a school’s core values, and these values have often been labored over in long committee meetings. So, find it, read it, and write a sentence about the aspect of the school’s stated mission that you most admire. This is a simple way to find what beliefs you share with the school.

For example, say you look at Cornell’s mission and find the idea of “thinking otherwise.” Do you like what they say about creative collaboration and bottom up thinking? 

Now, see if your examples from Step 1 can connect with your understanding of their mission. For example, if you’re focusing on a collaborative environment, you might write, “I can’t wait to team up with other students in the Space Initiative and collaborate and compete in NASA-sponsored events.”

Step 3 - Dig into your life Given your responses in Step 1 and Step 2, look to your own experience to see how who you are already connects with how you imagine your life at the school. If you’re interested in their community impact program, have you already volunteered in your own community? If you want to study abroad in Beijing, have you already taken an interest in Asian studies? If you love their core curriculum, have you already discovered the pleasures of the Socratic method? If you value the school’s spirit of collaboration and quirky innovation, did you form an alt-funk band or an improv group with friends?

The connections are endless, and remember, they don’t have to be taken straight from your resume. College admissions is as much about your intellectual experience as it is about your  community service. Feel free to reference classes you’ve taken, research you’ve done, your fascination with NOVA and the like.

Step 4 - ACK, a thesis statement Write a personal thesis statement. I know, I know, a THESIS? You don’t even need to include the statement in your essay, but it can help guide you. Your thesis should show how you and the school are a perfect match. Extending on our previous example, “I’ve always learned the most when given a problem and a smart team of friends to help me solve it, and, at XXX University, I know I’ll be encouraged to collaborate and discover…” would hit the mark with a school which prioritizes teamwork.

Step 5 - One paragraph at a time Ok, you have your notes, statements and ideas gathered in steps 1 through 4. Now, it is time to bring it all together.

Draft a paragraph about you, your beliefs, and your intellectual and community engagement. End with a statement about who you are in the world and who you hope to become at your school of choice. Draft a second paragraph which demonstrates the intersection of your interests and the school’s opportunities and write yourself into their culture.

THREE WARNING SIGNS 

Location? Location? Location? Notice I did not say suggest that you mention how excited you would be to live in a particular city or that the school’s campus is beautiful. Unless you’re talking about university/city partnerships in the form of internships or volunteer programs, I’d skip it. This note from Chapman University basically sums up how most admissions readers feel:

We're looking for specifics here! What separates Chapman from the other institutions you're considering? What special programs, activities and aspects of campus are most attractive and compelling to you? We're well aware that our campus is in an interesting location and is aesthetically pleasing - dig a little deeper to show us you know why Chapman could be a great fit for you!

Marketing language? Do the adjective test! Do you sound like a brochure?  Smith doesn’t need to hear that they are “Individual. Global. Exceptional.” That marketing language is aimed at you. Tell them something they don’t know, something specific about your connection to their school.

Fishing for authenticity? After all of this effort, are you still coming up dry? Ask yourself the tough question: do I REALLY want to apply here? The application process is full of twists and turns, and there are many great choices. If you aren’t finding it easy to show the love, consider letting it go, freeing your mind and resources for a better chance elsewhere!

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching

Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college advice #college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeappessay #writing

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College App Essay Tip #7

PLOTTING (not plodding!) ALONG In my last College Application Essay tip, I talked about refining your outline as you refine your essay, and I suggested that straight-forward chronological narrative is a great friend to personal statement writers.

Now, let’s take the revision idea one step further. Certainly we can all easily relay events in chronological order. Here’s what I did this morning:

“I got up at dawn. I took a walk. I met a neighbor. She’d lost her cat.”

My list may tell a story, but it’s not an engaging one. The events need to be connected — to each other and to an overall purpose — in order to create meaning.

MAKING CONNECTIONS You might think of connections as causality, or, in fiction-writing terms, plot. In Aspects of the Novel, the writer E.M Forster makes a clear distinction between a basic story and a story with plot. I love his simple example:

Story:  “The king died, and then the queen died.” Story with plot:  “The king died, and then the queen died of grief.”

Which version is more compelling? The second! Plot is what tugs us along, creates connections, and makes us want to read more. We don’t just simply have facts any more, we now have reasons.

So how does this apply to your essay? Your essay should have purpose, and purpose is revealed through meaningful connections.

CONNECTING TO YOUR PURPOSE With the help of earlier posts, you created a College Application Essay draft that reveals your own journey, as well as your own unique genius. Now challenge yourself to sum up the the main purpose of your essay. For example,

To show how learning photography helped you to observe the world more carefully. 

To reveal how your leadership of a current events club encouraged you to grow more confident and aware of the world.

To express how your chocolate-making hobby opened your mind to the wonders of chemistry.

Once you are pretty clear about your purpose (you don’t have to be 100% clear!), comb through your draft and look for sentences that don’t quite connect. For example, the photography and observation essay might have a sentence that reads something like:  

“I took lots of pictures of my younger brother. He hated them all. “

We might chuckle at this line, and it is certainly believable. But is it relevant to a well-plotted narrative? A clearer connection to the essay’s purpose is just waiting to be made.

“I took lots of pictures of my younger brother. When they were developed, I saw new aspects of his character: the mischief in his eyes, the frustrated furrow of his brow, and the joy in his toothless grin.”

Note: The brother’s reaction could still come into play, but it may not be needed at all.

CONNECTING EVENTS WITH “WHY” Remember, the queen in Forster’s example? She didn’t simply die for no reason; she died because she was grieving for the king.

In an essay draft, it is easy to find weak connections where causality can be clarified. Here’s another example of a narrative in need of more plot.

“The first day in my tenth grade world geography class, I couldn’t find Syria on the map. I formed a current events club.”

In the writer’s mind, the connection is probably clear, but why not let the reader in on it? A simple way to remedy the problem is to ask and answer the question “why?”

“In my tenth grade world geography class, I was mortified to discover that I couldn’t find Syria on the map, and neither could half of my peers. Responsibility and curiosity stirred inside me, and I started reading news blogs each morning. Once I’d learned more, I realized how much more there was to know and share, so I formed a current events club.”

Grammar Tip: Introductory clauses help to show causality. In both of the above revisions, notice the introductory clauses:

“When they were developed, I saw….”  “Once I’d learned more, I realized…”

Causality is built right into this structure. Go ahead, try it!

When ________, I saw ________ Once ________, I realized ________

CONNECTING YOUR READER AND YOU If you push yourself to repeatedly ask and answer the question “why?” you’ll better understand the meaning of your story, and, the more you understand, the more you can refine your draft to clearly convey your purpose. 

In turn, your reader will likely feel that they understand you. And, that, in a nutshell, is just what you're aiming for: in your College Application Essay, as in life, it’s great to be understood!

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeprep #essay #writing #collegeapp #collegeappessay

[mightywriting]

College App Essay Tip #2

MIRROR MIRROR

With my first College Application Essay tip, I showed how images can serve as a great entry point into college application essay writing. Images can reveal our distinct perceptions and often show us things about ourselves that may have been hidden: why our first ipod was so important, or the reasons that the smell of coffee give us comfort, and so on.

Another way to know ourselves is to discover more about the outward image we present. This may sound terrifying at first, but it’s not so bad if we turn to our closest friends and ask them to be our mirrors. You might be surprised and delighted by what you discover.

START TALKING For this exercise, you’ll start by talking with trusted friends and family members, jotting down notes as you go. Ask them the following questions, as well as a few questions of your own. No reply is too small or silly to be essay fodder!

When they remember something funny or unusual or clever that you did, what do they remember? To see how important these little, defining stories can be, check out this wonderful blog post by Janine Robinson at Essay Hell 

When your friends or family members identify your character and your (perhaps hidden!) strengths, what do they say? Do they see you as funny or serious, quirky or sophisticated, silly or stoic, or...?

What are they seeking when they come to you for help?

What do you spontaneously contribute to the activity of a group? (The last two question are largely taken from an exercise in Allison Rimm’s The Joy of Strategy.)

Repeat this process with at least one other person, and don’t forget to jot down notes!

START WRITING Now, look over your notes, ask yourself questions, dig deeper, and write! Some tips to help you along:

Are there any trends emerging? Or are there contradictions? Circle repeated phrases. Then take 10 minutes to free write in relation to any memories that connect with the attributes others see in you.

Are there stories to be told? For example, the funny or clever thing you did or that moment someone came to you for help. Take 10 minutes to expand on a story they told with free writing of your own.

Remember, others often see us more clearly than we see ourselves. Their impressions can contribute to our own authentic reflection and lead us to our most memorable essays.

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeprep #college #writing #collegeapp #collegeappessay #essay

[mightywriting]

College App Essay Tip #3

SHOW US YOUR GENIUS! In my last College Application Essay tip, I showed you some ways to help uncover your own own amazing character. Maybe you are  funny, determined, poetic, methodical, or an implausible optimist. We each have our own kind of genius. But even though you’re pretty awesome, you probably don’t want to come straight out and brag in your college admissions essay.

That’s where good writing comes in.  Before you even read this College Application Essay tip, I recommend reading Mark Moody’s smart essay about craft. I did, and I found myself nodding in agreement, especially with the advice to not “waste precious time explaining.”  

A PICTURE IS WORTH... As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Of course,  as a writer you only have words to work with, but you can certainly learn to paint with them.  And, actually, you don’t even have to be a self-proclaimed writer to do it. Here’s the world famous boxer, Muhammad Ali, painting a quick portrait of his high school days:

“As part of my boxing training, I would run down Fourth Street in downtown Louisville, darting in and out of local shops, taking just enough time to tell them I was training for the Olympics and I was going to win a gold medal. And when I came back home I was going to turn pro and become the world heavyweight champion in boxing. I never thought of the possibility of failing—only of the fame and glory I was going to get when I won.”

(Note: This excerpt is taken from the NPR series This I Believe, a wonderful resource for personal essay writers.)

Notice that without overtly stating how he felt —“I was confident” or “I was energetic” or “I was optimistic”— he reveals a world about his character. And this is key. It’s tempting to create details about everything from your alarm clock going off in the morning to what you ate for dinner.  But details shouldn’t simply show for the sake of showing, they should reveal something important about you.

And rest assured, you also have something important to show to your admissions readers.  

WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN GENIUS!   Pick an anecdote that reveals your brightest and best self. It can be a moment of accomplishment, a time you were afraid, or an experience of joy. Then, write it with details that help your reader to see it. With practice, this might be the introduction for your first college admissions essay.

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeprep #writing #collegeappessay #collegeapp

[mightywriting]

College App Essay Tip #9

DON’T PANIC! We’ve talked about your genius and about self-reflection, we’ve talked about voice and images and plot. Or maybe while I’ve been talking College Application Essay tips, you’ve been busy living your life. It happens.

But, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, don’t panic! If you feel pressed for time, these five easy 10-minute steps will get you going.

THE FIVE-STEP PLAN 

The good news? You can start where you’re at, which is already on your way. After all, you’ve been living for sixteen or more years, you’ve got a story to tell.

Step 1 - Get centered Read through the prompts, and then take a walk, listen to music, or just close your eyes for a few minutes. Recall experiences in your life that relate to a prompt you might write about. And yes, even if the prompt is about a global issue or asks the enigmatic “Why Our School?” question, begin with yourself. When did you face a challenge, or learn something new? What big influences have shaped your life? Let yourself drift into memories. Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing? Write for 10 minutes allowing details to come to life. In other words, why say that you practiced basketball in the gym at 6 a.m. when you could reflect on the echo of bouncing balls or the morning light coming through the high windows? 

Step 2 - Let it unfold Read what you wrote (and read it aloud.) Does it sound like you? (It should!) Is there a story emerging? Let things unfold in a “first-this-and-then-that” chronological order. Continue to integrate details that help the reader to stand in your shoes. Write for 10 more minutes.

Step 3 - Outline what you have Again, read what you wrote. Now sketch an outline of your essay in progress. Does your essay have a purpose or a theme? Write one sentence that sums up what you think your essay is about. Compare that statement to the prompt. Do they connect? Adjust your purpose as needed. Now, to reflect your refined purpose, create a new outline. OK, so this may take a little longer than 10 minutes, but no need to over think it!

Step 4 - Start over, but not from scratch Open a new document. Without copying and pasting, write your essay again. As you write, you may find that those parts of your draft that connect best with your theme stick, while others drift away. Add more details based on your theme and the new outline you created. Write for at least 10 minutes. 

Step 5 - Wrap it up Read your draft again, and ask yourself SO WHAT? Your answer is your essay’s conclusion. Draft that conclusion, and integrate it into your draft in the next 10 minutes. Et voilà, you have a solid first draft of a College Application Essay!

I’M ON MY WAY! When you’re done, ask a trusted reader for feedback, but beware of misleading advice.

To circumvent this problem, you can ask me! I love to see the 5-Step Plan in action, so I’m offering a free round of revision advice for the first three 5-Step essays I receive. Send your essay to [email protected] with the subject line “I WROTE A 5-STEP ESSAY!” Please include a few sentences about how this process worked for you. 

How’s that for incentive to get started?

Be quick, be yourself and be on your way to a College Application Essay!

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#collegeappessay #college advice #college essay #college applications #college admission #essay #collegeapp #writing

[mightywriting]

College App Essay Tip #11

READY, SET, FOCUS.

As you may have noticed we live in a time of great distraction: holidays, school commitments, politics, you name it. Truth be told, no one wants to spend their summer or winter break writing, even if you have awesome tips on drafting,  outlining, and editing college admissions essays.

So, how do you stay focused during this final laborious stretch?

Separate To keep your eye on the prize, you may need to be selfish. It is a good time to say NO to other things. Turn off your phone, turn on your tunes. Find a quiet place like a library where you can work alone, where you parents aren’t hovering and your friends aren’t texting, and where the news of the world, for a solid hour, won’t reach you. Your future deserves this much, so claim some space for you.

Buddy Up Claim time for you, but don’t go it alone. Pick a reliable friend who is also applying to college, and set deadlines to share your drafts. This will help you stay on goal and on time.

Set Deadlines  Know your due date(s) and allow for 4 or 5 revisions. Seriously. For example, if you need to submit by Dec. 21, and it takes you an average of 4 days to revise, your first deadline should be Dec. 5. So get writing! When giving each other feedback use the College Essay App tip on “Refining your map” to help you along.

Pace Yourself If you can’t find enough time and space, then try setting a pace. Start with 10-15 minutes a day. Wake up a little earlier, commit yourself to using your off periods at at school, or use writing as an excuse to get out of after dinner clean up.

Warm Up Just as athletes gear up and get mentally psyched in preparation for a game, writers need to shift their brains into the right mode. The easiest way is through reading. Stress is the enemy of fluid prose, so let yourself relax for a few minutes and simply enjoy some words. This may mean rereading something you wrote and are proud of, enjoying a chapter from a favorite novel, or dipping into a short, funny personal essay. Try David Sedaris’s Holiday on Ice.

Repurpose Don’t let previous work go to waste. Maybe you wrote a response to the University of Texas prompt “Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way...” and now University of California is has given you eight prompts from which to choose. Look carefully.  “What would you say is your greatest talent or skill?” is basically the same question as the UT prompt above. So the word limit is different? No Problem. Simply go to the College Application Essay tip on “How to love words and let them go” to learn how to trim your material down to size.

Remember, life might feel packed but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Committing yourself now means enjoying yourself later. And there’s nothing more enjoyable than college acceptance! So take a deep breath, say NO to some other commitment, and simply get going!

After all, it’s your life.

Happy (and mighty!) writing, Laurie

Friendly personalized College Application Essay help available at http://mightywriting.org/college-app-essay-coaching

Contact Laurie Filipelli — [email protected] or 512-415-6882

#college #college advice #college essay #college applications #college admission #collegeappessay #writing #task #focus

[mightywriting]

Excited to be sharing college application essay tips with the Alt Ed Austin community! 

#altedaustin #collegeadmissions collegeappessay

[mightywriting]

Mighty Writing Services

Laurie’s philosophy is rooted in relationships and in her belief in each writer’s capabilities. Whether guiding students to uncover imaginative poetry or leading them with precise feedback toward a clear and polished essay, she honors the written voice of each individual, coaching them to effectively portray their truest selves on the page. Laurie provides several services through her business, Mighty Writing.

COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY TIPS & WRITING INSTRUCTION

Laurie specializes in guiding students on their journey toward college entrance by leading them through all aspects of the college application essay writing process. Through brainstorming, journaling, discussion, and drafting, her students uncover their most meaningful personal stories. Along the way, Laurie shares valuable resources and tips, and provides extensive feedback in order to help individuals shape their stories into compelling and successful essays.

She is available to coach individuals or small groups, and lead school or community workshops in Austin, Texas and surrounding areas.

WRITING YOUR LIFE

Everyone has a story to tell. Whether you seek to understand your own experiences, share your beliefs, record family histories, or shine a light upon little-talked about subjects, personal essays are a vehicle for exploring your own unique identity and better understanding your place in the world. Laurie offers individual instruction in the composition personal essays and, in the future, will expand her offerings to include workshops in writing longer narratives about the joys and trials of family.

WRITING AND EDITING

Laurie is also available for writing and editing projects of all shapes and sizes. She’s worked successfully on YA novels, and family histories; she also served as lead writer for FairygodmotherAcademy.com’s Wisdom Acts.

Forms of Instruction

Individual Coaching and Consultation

Classroom Instruction

Small Group Workshops

Rates for services vary. Please email [email protected] or call Laurie 512-415-6882 with questions.

#writing #collegeapp #essay #collegeprep #collegeappessay