A Month-by-Month Checklist for Seniors
Posted on Thu, 09/18/2014 - 11:13We're talking essays, financial aid and more with the Today Show's Jean Chatzky in The College Countdown: A month-by-month to-do list for high school seniors.
We're talking essays, financial aid and more with the Today Show's Jean Chatzky in The College Countdown: A month-by-month to-do list for high school seniors.
College Admission: From Application to Acceptance Step by Step has been completely revised and updated for changes to the Common Application, testing, the essay, financial aid and more, including information for transfer students and undocumented students, and timelines for the college application process. Look for the red banner! You can find it here.
The Common Application goes live next week -- on Friday, August 1! So we're bringing you a real-time digital supplement to College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step -- our completely revised and updated guide to The Application Form .
It's a complete guide to filling out the college application, which serves as the cornerstone of a student's admission file, including:
Fall of senior year is a busy time. So we strongly urge you to have at least your Common Application essay in good shape before senior year begins because writing the essays while attending school is like adding a class to your schedule -- remember, in addition to the Common App's, there are those in the supplements. Summer provides the luxury of uninterrupted time to reflect and write. And you're fortunate that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same, so you don't have to wait until August 1st to start working on them.
So here's some advice to kick start your essays over the coming summer months -- from a suggested reading list that we hope will inspire to some excellent step-by-step guidance on those Common App essay prompts.
Finding Your Voice in the Essay: A suggested reading list of first-person essays.
The Real Topic of your Essay is You: One strategy to help you find a topic.
It's here -- our completely revised and updated guide, The Application Form, a real-time digital supplement to College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step.
It's a complete guide to filling out the college application, which serves as the cornerstone of a student's admission file, including:
Download your complete free copy here.
Seniors, our advice this week is to eat some pie… and continue to finish up your applications. While this is a time for relaxing with family and friends, if you're still not done, carry on.
For help with the new Common Application, download our free guide to The Application Form here.
And if you're still writing and wordsmithing, here are some past blog posts on the subject of essays for advice and inspiration in the aftermath of your Thanksgiving repast and all that pie:
Advice for Students on the New Common App Essays Prompts
More Advice for Writing the "Why Us?" Essay
A Memorable Essay? Might Be Family Breakfasts, Piano Lessons, or Raising Pigs...
Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post's Answer Sheet has collected some of the unusual essay questions colleges have posed this year in their supplements. One of our personal favorites: In 2006, graduate student Robert Stilling discovered an unpublished poem by Robert Frost while doing research in U.Va.’s Small Collections Library. Where will your Stilling moment be in college? Courtesy of University of Virginia. Check them all out here.
A couple of years ago, the New York Times published an article claiming students were cultivating summer experiences such as expensive internships or exotic travel experiences "with the goal of creating a standout personal statement." Quick, buy a ticket to Shanghai! NOT! Some form of this urban myth wanders through the hallways of high schools across the country during essay writing season.
This "strategy" couldn't be more wrong-headed. Or, as a former admission officer on Robin Mamlet's staff at Stanford put it -- more colorfully --in an email to us, "YUCK. That should be YUCK in all caps, bold, italics, the works. With many, many exclamation marks."
Psychologist and counselor Jeanette Spires joins us again this month to talk about the essay, why it's a good idea to avoid too much "help" from parents, and what it means to show a college what matters to you.
What feels most out of control in the college admission world? The winner may be the essay process. There is plenty of research indicating that the rigor of high school classes and the grades earned by students are the best predictors of success. But essays do not lend themselves to statistical study. Years ago when I began as a college counselor, there was something of an honor code about essays for competitive colleges. Today, checking search engines leads you to sites offering to take care of that onerous task for you. "Harvard writers!" Now why would a high school student want an essay written by a college graduate? Ding-dong! The admissions reader isn't stupid.
Seniors, how go your essays? If you’re struggling a little, we have an exercise we’ve found to be particularly effective for students whether they’re just starting or working on that fourth or fifth supplement! It’s one of our favorite writing prompts and one we often use when working with students in essay workshops: making a list.
Just sit down at the computer, set a timer for 5 minutes and start writing a list beginning with the prompt:
I'm really good at…
And to give you a better idea of how this works, we’re sharing our own lists with you.
Here is Robin Mamlet's:
I'm really good at:
Envisioning possibility
Words with Friends
Being a mom
Making Panini
Growing tomatoes
Focusing
Drawing out others
Snuggling with my kids on the couch
Learning new things