The Colle(d)ge Story

English PhD, college essay whiz, seven years as a college counselor. Helping you put the edge in your story. Just ask.

[atthecolledge]

Make Your Dream $chool Affordable in Four $teps, Part 2

In Part 1, you learned to start planning to pay for college as early as 9th grade. Steps 1 and 2 were about looking up your EFC (estimated financial contribution) and figuring how much you'll pay for a variety of different colleges and universities. Here are Steps 3 and 4:

STEP 3: If your family is affluent, look for merit money.

What is merit money? It's money that a school will give you for being smart. Like, smarter than most. Lots of schools like National Merit finalists and semifinalists, but they also like any student who ranks in the top 1-2% of the applicant pool.

Here's the thing, though. If you're only looking in the top 20, you probably won't find a lot of schools offering merit scholarships. Why? Because Harvard and Amherst don't have to offer merit money - all of their admitted students are academically stellar. That's why schools farther down in the rankings tend to be more generous with this kind of aid. 

So how do you find schools that are likely to give you merit scholarships? It takes some digging, but one place to start is COLLEGEdata.com, which will give you all the stats you need to compare schools. When you look up a school, pay close attention to the financial aid numbers. Here's what the University of Richmond, a very selective small liberal arts college in Virginia, looks like:

I know, I know. That's a lot of information to process. What you're looking for is the merit aid data. Notice that Richmond gives an average of $39,785 in merit scholarships to those who qualify (6.5% of applicants had no need and still qualified for free money). That's money just for being awesome. Academically awesome, anyway.

Notice, too, that Richmond covers 100% of demonstrated need. This is a generous school, and one that will give you an education comparable to any Ivy or other top-tier school.

Here's what it would cost for the same family I used in Part 1 (with an EFC of only $8,300):

Since Richmond also awards merit scholarships to students who demonstrate need, the most accomplished but needy students can expect to win merit money on top of their need-based scholarships, lowering the overall cost of attendance even more (possibly to $0).

Step 4: Revise your college list to include only schools your family can afford.

Create a spreadsheet now (no matter what grade you're in), one that includes all of the colleges you are interested in.

Better yet, make a duplicate of this spreadsheet, and start doing your research to fill in all of the cells, including the "cost of attendance" column. This spreadsheet only makes room for about 9 colleges (that's how many I recommend my students have on their final list), but you can modify it to add more once you get started. 

Keep revising it as you get to know the schools better, all the way up to your senior year.

Pretty simple, right? OK, it's a little involved and requires some leg work, but a little effort never scared you off, right? I mean, that's how you got to be so awesome in the first place!

And besides, saddled with $50K in student loan debt - which may be what you have to look forward to if you don't plan well - you'll be too weighed down to be able to do this:

Boo-yah!

[atthecolledge]

Make Your Dream $chool Affordable in Four $teps, Part 1

So you're done with your college applications (or almost done). Congratulations! You did it! It's time to celebrate!

Well, almost. In actual fact, it's time to play the waiting game. Notifications for regular decision apps will be trickling in over the next few weeks, with the laggards pulling into your inbox/mailbox by April 1. Willing time to go faster probably won't work, so just chill and focus on what you can control.

Here's an idea! Start filling out the FAFSA. It's kind of a complicated process, but here is an excellent guide to help you along step by step, from the boss of all things financial aid, Mark Kantrowitz.

And guess what. Even if you don't think you'll qualify for need-based financial aid, you should still fill it out. Why? Because you may still be eligible for some free money, and at the very least, if you want the option of taking out federal loans (which are better than private loans), the FAFSA is required.

But what about 9th, 10th, and 11th graders? 

What can you and your parents do now to prepare to pay for college? Wouldn't it be a great idea to have a sense of what you are likely to have to pay before you fall in love with a school?

Don't just write this off as though it were something you could deal with down the road. No no no no. Despite what your friends or even your parents may think, now - in 9th, 10th, 11th grade - is the time to start figuring out what college is going to cost you. 

Here's why. Let's say you visit NYU, and you think you've found your college soulmate, and then in senior year you apply without considering the cost and - lo and behold! - you get in? You're super psyched, right?

Then you see the cost. $200,000. Two. Hundred. Thousand. That's 50 grand a year.

How could this travesty have been avoided? Simple.

Do your research before making your college list.

Here's a little secret: schools on the coasts tend to be more stingy with financial aid because they're in highly desirable locations: NYU (NYC, duh), Santa Clara (Silicon Valley), Drexel (Philly), George Washington University (DC), American University (DC), I could go on.

If you live on the coasts already, you'll want to give serious consideration to trying out the good old Midwest or South if you want to find the right financial fit. Plus, believe it or not, these regions have some of the best colleges in the country. I'm looking at you Oberlin (OH), St Olaf (Minn.), Emory (Atlanta), Berea (KY), Rice (Houston), I could go on.

So what should you do, aside from broadening the geography of your college search?

In this first installment, I'll give you two preliminary steps you can take, no matter what grade you're in, to begin to get an idea of what your family is likely to be asked to pay when you are admitted to college. In Part 2, I'll give you the final two steps.

STEP 1: Find out what your EFC is likely to be.

What's an EFC, you say? It stands for "estimated family contribution," and it's the dollar amount generated by the FAFSA to determine what your parents, and you, are expected to be able pay for one year of college when all income and assets are factored in. I won't get into the difference between how parents' and student's assets are calculated, but suffice it to say that students are expected to use a higher percentage of their own money to pay for college than their parents are. Seem unfair? It probably is a little, but oh well.

How do you calculate your EFC? Go here. You should most definitely have your parents with you when you do this, and make sure they have their most recent tax return, bank statements, and investment records handy. 

STEP 2: Use your EFC to determine how much it will cost to attend different schools on your list.

If your EFC is low, you'll want to avoid applying to schools that are not very generous with need-based aid. Here's a cross-comparison of two schools, one stingy, one generous, for a family with a relatively low EFC (use this "net price calculator" to look up each school):

First, stingy old NYU:

Source: COLLEGEdata.com

Notice a couple of things here:

1. Although this family's EFC is fairly low (only $8,300), NYU expects them to cover nearly four times that amount, or $33,878 a year. No bueno.

2. In general, NYU's average percentage of need met - meaning how much of your actual financial need they will cover - is only 73%. That's pretty dreadful. And it only gets worse from sophomore year on. Yup, that's right, NYU is likely to give you even less money for every year after your freshman year. (Look at the "All Undergrads" column and you'll see how their already feeble generosity gets even feebler in years 2-4.)

Only the wealthiest students should consider a school like this one because they're the only ones who can pay such exorbitant tuition. Even wealthy students who don't want to have to pay such high fees should think twice about NYU because they are pretty stingy with merit scholarships too (only about 5% of students with no need received merit money).

Now let's look at a more generous school, although one you may not have heard of - St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, about 40 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul:

Notice that St. Olaf is only asking parents to pay about $450 more than their estimated contribution of $8,300. It would be better if that number were $0, but only a few dozen colleges in the country actually cover 100% of need (here's a list). St. Olaf's 99% is not too shabby. 

The bottom line: if this student had her heart set on NYU, she and her family would be paying $60K+ more for the pleasure than they would be paying at St. Olaf. That's a chunk of change.

In Part 2, I'll round out my tips for helping you avoid a broken heart. You know, like when you get into your dream school but can't afford to go. Don't let it happen to you!

[doctorlo-blog-blog]

Since “research” now means, essentially, “Google it,” here’s a little direction to make the most out of it.

[atthecolledge]

If you're researching colleges or summer programs, this is a handy tool to have in your toolkit.

[atthecolledge]

7 Things You Can Do To Go From "Deferred" To "Admitted"

[atthecolledge]

Last month, many seniors were finally able to exhale. They had been holding their breath for six weeks, eagerly waiting to hear from their dream schools about early application decisions. Many students were fortunate enough to get the answer they were hoping for (congrats!).

Others felt the sting of rejection (ouch!).

Still others received something a little more ambiguous - a deferral, the college application equivalent of the answer my dad used to give me whenever I’d ask if we could go somewhere like Disneyland or Yosemite over the summer: “we’ll see.”

If this is you, you’re probably thinking what I was thinking back then: “What does that even mean?!” Is deferral a promise of deeper consideration or a nice way of letting you down? Are they really just not sure or are they too chicken to just tell it to you straight? The truth is, it’s both, and maybe neither, too.

Let’s put it into context, by way of some stats:

Harvard deferred 4,292 applicants to regular decision out of 5,919 students who applied “single-choice” early action this fall.

Brown deferred 1,968 of its 3,016 binding early decision applicants.

MIT deferred 4,456 of its 6,820 early action applicants.

Princeton deferred 2,918 out of 3,854 applications.

The University of Michigan was perhaps the biggest surprise, cutting their early application acceptances by half this year compared to last year, accepting only about 35% of their applicant pool, and deferring most of the rest.

In other words, nearly everyone who applied early to these schools was deferred. 

Stanford, on the other hand, deferred a mere 593 students out of 6,948 restricted early action candidates, while Duke deferred only 691 out of 3,108 early decision applicants to regular decision. The students who weren’t admitted were rejected outright, and only very, very few were admitted. 

Seen from this angle, it’s almost a blessing to be deferred. I mean, at least you still have a chance.

So who got in? Check it out:

Image source: IvyWise, compliments of Lynn O’Shaughnessy of The College Solution.

You may have noticed that the acceptance rates seem higher for early than for regular decision applications. This is true, as far as it goes.

But remember, data lies.

The percentages may be higher, but this does not mean it is easier to get in early. Keep in mind that the bulk of athletic recruits, legacies, development cases, first gen students, and minority applicants are getting in through early application programs, and together they can make up more than 60% of this pool of accepted students. The remainder of acceptances go to the most highly competitive and accomplished students in the country (and the world). Think national and international award winners, Olympians, cyborgs (OK, not really, but it can seem that way sometimes). 

The real early numbers, for your “run-of-the-mill” academic overachiever, are much tighter, and probably no better than the Regular Decision numbers.

Your next question should be, What can I do now? Here are a few pointers:

Contact Your Admissions Rep. Selective colleges have admissions officers who are assigned to particular regions. Most likely, he or she was the first reader of your app. Find out who yours is (if you haven’t been in touch already) and give them a call or shoot them an email. This is NOT an opportunity to badger or cajole your rep into giving you another shot. This IS, however, an opportunity to get some feedback about your application, to ask if there is anything he or she thinks you can do to strengthen your candidacy, or to inform them of any significant changes to your academic record (i.e. improved grades or test scores or an award you won since submitting your early application). You can also clarify something that might have been ambiguous or confusing on your initial application.

Update Your Application. Although your high school will send each college a mid-year grade report, get ahead of the curve and send it yourself with an attached letter, in which you reinforce your commitment to attend if you’re admitted (only if this is true!). Use this opportunity to update them on any significant changes in your academic record or extracurricular activities (as stated above). Send anything, as well, that you think will help them see what great things you’ve been up to since submitting your application in November. But don’t inundate them. Be selective about what you share. Only significant new information counts.

Visit Campus. Make an appointment to meet with your admissions rep on campus in January or February. Bear in mind that this is the busy season for them, so they may not be available. But at the very least you can take in a class, schedule a meeting with a professor, or just stroll the campus to really get a sense of it. You can then include these impressions in any further contact with the admissions office (see #1).

Send Another Rec Letter. A recommendation letter from someone who knows you in a way that is underrepresented on your original application can help the admission office get a clearer picture of you. Consider asking an employer, a coach, a faculty sponsor for one of your clubs or organizations, or a senior year teacher who knows you a little better now to write an additional letter of recommendation. One will do (remember: do not inundate the admissions office).

Keep Working Hard. Avoid the lure of senioritis. Use this semester to show that you are serious about excelling. This goes for community activities too. Don’t just ease up on the volunteering or community involvement because the apps are all in. Double down and take a leadership role.

Meet With Your Counselor. Update him or her on everything you’ve done since submitting your first apps. They may have a contact in admissions whom they can update and whose eyes they can direct back to your app. At the very least, they can include a brief letter reinforcing your commitment to attend if you are admitted (again, only if this is true!) along with the mid-year grade report.

Onward and Upward. Once you’ve done everything in your power to get them to see how amazing you are, turn your attention to other schools. I like this student’s attitude. We could all learn something from his poise and self-confidence. (And I bet he sent a copy of his Op Ed in the LA Times to his early application school.)

[atthecolledge]

Hi, I'm currently a senior awaiting to hear back from schools in April and I was wondering if you had any advice on what I should plan to do during the summer? Like any specifics?

There's a few things you can do with your summer to prepare for the transition to college. Here's what I usually recommend:

Orientation, events, and other prep for you first semester. Most colleges have tons of stuff for students to complete/do in the summer before freshman year. So, once you're in, be sure to mark on you calendar everything you will need to do. For example, most students will spend a few days on campus for orientation. There are also special mixers for freshman in your major/discipline to meet each other. One or more of your classes may have a reading list for you to complete over summer too, and don't forget shopping, packing, etc. Time tends to slip away pretty fast, so make sure that if you do other activities (see below), that you are not missing out on connecting with your new roommate, etc. Lastly, remember that lots of orientations in the summer include the parents, too. In short, participate in as many events as you can.

Quality time with friends and family. While this doesn’t touch on a specific “program” in the formal sense, it is very important for any young pre-college student to transition to college with experiences and memories that will help to further your adjustment to an entirely new life, away from important people in your life. Concentrate on some simple ways to forge some quality time with your family and friends before making the transition.

Specific programs and activities. I've had students spend a few weeks as a camp counselor (check out the American Camp Association); others have taken writing workshops or math enrichment programs to bone up on the skills they'll need for college-level work (as a former English professor at UCLA, I can testify to the need for stronger analytical writing skills among new students); I've heard great things about a gap-year/summer semester program called Carpe Diem, a service oriented, international academic and cultural enrichment program.

Relax! You've earned it. Seriously. It's not only OK, but maybe even a good idea to take it easy. Binge watch movies. Sleep in. Travel. Whatever. You. Want. I kid you not. This kind of decompression after four rigorous years of academic and intellectual/creative preparation will do wonders for your mental state, and hence for your ability to transition happily and healthily to your new life in college!

[atthecolledge]

Any advice for transfer students? I am looking to apply to Barnard, Stanford, and Swarthmore.

I myself was a transfer, from community college to UCLA. I'd be happy to share with you what I know from both personal and professional experience, if you'd like to share a little bit more about your situation. Shoot me an email to [email protected]

I can tell you now, simply, that it all depends on the particular context - your grades, your background, your experience in and out of school, among other things.

[atthecolledge]

Are you familiar with the application process to Ivy Leagues for students studying a UK curriculum? Because I'd really appreciate some advice if you are

HI, so sorry for the delayed reply! I am only very minimally familiar with that process, but there are many folks out there who specialize in this. I'd start by reading up on each school's "international students" policies on their admissions pages. For the most part, Ivies want to see the same thing from UK students that they do from US students: the best grades in the toughest classes and high SAT or ACT scores, as well as prolonged, ideally leadership-oriented work in their extracurricular activities. And then of course the essays. These, as you can tell from my blog, are pretty important, and they are very different, for the most part, from the demands of Oxbridge and other UK unis. They are meant to tell a story about you and your interests in a compelling way that does more than simply explain why you are suited to a particular program of study. 

[atthecolledge]

Firstly, your blog is the best thing that's ever happened to tumblr so thank you. Second of all, I'm a junior who really wants to go to Stanford and I was hoping you could give me some advice on what to do between now and my senior year to show that I'd be a good addition to the school. And do you think I should apply early action if I'm sure Stanford's where I want to go? Thank you for all the help!

Hi, and thanks for the props!

Getting into Stanford? First and foremost, you have to have the best grades in the hardest classes (APs, IBs, Honors, etc.). You also will need SAT or ACT scores in the top 1 percentile, so about 2250+ SAT and 34+ ACT. 

And that’s just scratching the surface.

Also, let’s assume you’re not an athletic recruit, legacy, billionaire (aka, “development case”), or ethnic minority. If you are, congratulations, you have a slight bump in the admissions process. But you still need the grades and the scores (although for athletic recruits there is a *little* wiggle room).

So, you’re a superb student. Awesome. You’re going to get into a lot of selective schools. For Stanford, however, you need more. A lot more. 

Let’s start with your activities. Here are the verbs you need to keep in mind:

Lead

Create

Build

Found

Invent

Publish

Patent

Win

These too:

Collaborate

Share

Teach

Inspire

Grow

What do I mean? I mean, when you describe your activities to Stanford, these are the verbs they will be looking for. They, and all the other most selective colleges, want students who they can look at and say, “when this person graduates from Stanford, they will go on to do amazing things.” In other words, they want to see now what you are likely to do later. You app is like a crystal ball, into which they are looking for signs of your future greatness. If they don’t see it in your current activities, they’ll take a pass.

So what should you do? Look for opportunities not only to lead but to change, innovate, improve, reform, and “scale” what you’ve already been doing (by “scale,” I mean, grow it into something much bigger than it was when you started).

Find an internship, start or grow a business, do research that has the chance of getting your name listed as an author on an academic publication, win an international award (OK, that last one is probably not going to happen unless you’ve been at it for years already). You catch my drift…

Start looking for summer enrichment or internship opportunities. Many of the best ones in STEM, humanities, and the arts have deadlines between now and March or April, so you should start looking.

Here’s a list of a few of my favorites (most are in California, where I live and work):

UCLA Sci/Art Nanolab Institute: an interdisciplinary residential program that emphasizes the cross-fertilizing possibilities of science and art (registration opens in Feb).

Life Sciences Summer Institute (LSSI): hands-on research (the link take you to last year’s application; 2015 app will probably be open in January)

COSMOS: a residential program for scientific research in a variety of fields (at UC Davis; at UC San Diego; at UC Irvine; at UC Santa Cruz)

MIT’s Launch Program: a residential summer high school entrepreneurship program (application now open; early app deadline Jan 5, regular app deadline Feb 15)

Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy: a residential language immersion program that is part of Middlebury’s world-class Language Schools (apps are accepted on a rolling basis, so get on it!)

Young Writer’s Workshop at UVa: a two- or three-week intensive residential course focusing on songwriting, screenwriting, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Gap Medics: an international medical shadowing program, with satellites in Tanzania, Poland, Croatia, and Thailand. You get a pretty close-up view of the life of a doctor (surgeries, et al.)

As for Early Action to Stanford, you may have seen my post yesterday, which showed the very low acceptance rates for Stanford early applicants, and which explained at one point why it’s so difficult to get in early at these top-ranked schools. I’d say, however, that if you have the grades and scores, and the extraordinary accomplishments on top of that, then the only reason not to apply early is that your apps (especially your essays) are not perfect. Sometimes - most of the time - taking those extra weeks to polish your personal statement and supplements will improve your chances of getting in. Remember, Stanford is Early Action, which means you don’t have to commit, which means Stanford has no reason to accept you unless they really, really want you. They’re using early admission to get some leverage against their top-tier competitors for the most accomplished students. 

Applying early, in other words, will give you no real advantage. If anything, it can hurt your application because it might not be perfect by November 1.

That said, use the next few months to really amp up your involvement in the things you are passionate about, and you will be set up for some fantastic acceptances next year! Break a leg!

[atthecolledge]

I was wondering if you'd be willing to read over some Stanford essays or if you know anyone who'd be willing to do some last minute editing?

Hi! Last minute is right. If you'd like to send them to me, I'll try to take a look today (I've got quite a few other last minute apps to look over, but I'll do my best). Send to [email protected].

[atthecolledge]

7 Things You Can Do To Go From "Deferred" To "Admitted"

Last month, many seniors were finally able to exhale. They had been holding their breath for six weeks, eagerly waiting to hear from their dream schools about early application decisions. Many students were fortunate enough to get the answer they were hoping for (congrats!).

Others felt the sting of rejection (ouch!).

Still others received something a little more ambiguous - a deferral, the college application equivalent of the answer my dad used to give me whenever I’d ask if we could go somewhere like Disneyland or Yosemite over the summer: “we’ll see.”

If this is you, you’re probably thinking what I was thinking back then: “What does that even mean?!” Is deferral a promise of deeper consideration or a nice way of letting you down? Are they really just not sure or are they too chicken to just tell it to you straight? The truth is, it’s both, and maybe neither, too.

Let’s put it into context, by way of some stats:

Harvard deferred 4,292 applicants to regular decision out of 5,919 students who applied “single-choice” early action this fall.

Brown deferred 1,968 of its 3,016 binding early decision applicants.

MIT deferred 4,456 of its 6,820 early action applicants.

Princeton deferred 2,918 out of 3,854 applications.

The University of Michigan was perhaps the biggest surprise, cutting their early application acceptances by half this year compared to last year, accepting only about 35% of their applicant pool, and deferring most of the rest.

In other words, nearly everyone who applied early to these schools was deferred. 

Stanford, on the other hand, deferred a mere 593 students out of 6,948 restricted early action candidates, while Duke deferred only 691 out of 3,108 early decision applicants to regular decision. The students who weren't admitted were rejected outright, and only very, very few were admitted. 

Seen from this angle, it's almost a blessing to be deferred. I mean, at least you still have a chance.

So who got in? Check it out:

Image source: IvyWise, compliments of Lynn O'Shaughnessy of The College Solution.

You may have noticed that the acceptance rates seem higher for early than for regular decision applications. This is true, as far as it goes.

But remember, data lies.

The percentages may be higher, but this does not mean it is easier to get in early. Keep in mind that the bulk of athletic recruits, legacies, development cases, first gen students, and minority applicants are getting in through early application programs, and together they can make up more than 60% of this pool of accepted students. The remainder of acceptances go to the most highly competitive and accomplished students in the country (and the world). Think national and international award winners, Olympians, cyborgs (OK, not really, but it can seem that way sometimes). 

The real early numbers, for your “run-of-the-mill” academic overachiever, are much tighter, and probably no better than the Regular Decision numbers.

Your next question should be, What can I do now? Here are a few pointers:

Contact Your Admissions Rep. Selective colleges have admissions officers who are assigned to particular regions. Most likely, he or she was the first reader of your app. Find out who yours is (if you haven’t been in touch already) and give them a call or shoot them an email. This is NOT an opportunity to badger or cajole your rep into giving you another shot. This IS, however, an opportunity to get some feedback about your application, to ask if there is anything he or she thinks you can do to strengthen your candidacy, or to inform them of any significant changes to your academic record (i.e. improved grades or test scores or an award you won since submitting your early application). You can also clarify something that might have been ambiguous or confusing on your initial application.

Update Your Application. Although your high school will send each college a mid-year grade report, get ahead of the curve and send it yourself with an attached letter, in which you reinforce your commitment to attend if you're admitted (only if this is true!). Use this opportunity to update them on any significant changes in your academic record or extracurricular activities (as stated above). Send anything, as well, that you think will help them see what great things you’ve been up to since submitting your application in November. But don’t inundate them. Be selective about what you share. Only significant new information counts.

Visit Campus. Make an appointment to meet with your admissions rep on campus in January or February. Bear in mind that this is the busy season for them, so they may not be available. But at the very least you can take in a class, schedule a meeting with a professor, or just stroll the campus to really get a sense of it. You can then include these impressions in any further contact with the admissions office (see #1).

Send Another Rec Letter. A recommendation letter from someone who knows you in a way that is underrepresented on your original application can help the admission office get a clearer picture of you. Consider asking an employer, a coach, a faculty sponsor for one of your clubs or organizations, or a senior year teacher who knows you a little better now to write an additional letter of recommendation. One will do (remember: do not inundate the admissions office).

Keep Working Hard. Avoid the lure of senioritis. Use this semester to show that you are serious about excelling. This goes for community activities too. Don’t just ease up on the volunteering or community involvement because the apps are all in. Double down and take a leadership role.

Meet With Your Counselor. Update him or her on everything you’ve done since submitting your first apps. They may have a contact in admissions whom they can update and whose eyes they can direct back to your app. At the very least, they can include a brief letter reinforcing your commitment to attend if you are admitted (again, only if this is true!) along with the mid-year grade report.

Onward and Upward. Once you’ve done everything in your power to get them to see how amazing you are, turn your attention to other schools. I like this student’s attitude. We could all learn something from his poise and self-confidence. (And I bet he sent a copy of his Op Ed in the LA Times to his early application school.)

[nevver]

Found in Translation

[atthecolledge]

The Germans really are the best at capturing complex, nuanced (usually negative) emotions we can all relate to in a single word.

[atthecolledge]

How to write a solid personal statement, Part 3

[atthecolledge]

thecolledge:

In my previous two posts (here and here), I outlined some of the tenets of creative non-fiction writing and provided some tips on how to translate those gobbits of wisdom into a real live, in-the-flesh, super-fantastic personal statement. 

But I’ve saved the best for last.

Mmm. Wait, sorry. I got distracted for a second.

Now that you’ve got some tools in your college essay toolbox, here are some exercises to help get you started with the actual writing of the thing.

Exercise 1: The Thirty Random Facts List

This brainstorming exercise is pretty much what it sounds like, but let me give you an example of what I mean by “random.” I don’t mean it in the sense of: “that grilled cheese gif is totally random.” (Although it is.)

I do mean it in this sense:

"I once poured soapy water all over the kitchen floor so I could make an ice rink in my house" (from a student who used to be a competitive ice skater)

Here’s another:

"I don’t like to match my socks" (from a student whose essay ended up talking a lot about the importance of diversity in her life)

How about one more?

"I like to imagine I’m shooting orcs and trolls during archery practice" (from a student who loves The Lord of the Rings and is a competitive archer. Duh)

Q: What’s the point?

A: The point is to fish out some of the more unique and interesting details in your life that might be useful as you craft your story. Most of your random facts probably won’t make the final cut of your essay-movie, but the one or two that do will likely add a lot of color and “pop” to it. 

Q: How do I know which details to use in my essay?

A: Use the ones that show a specific quality or value that you are developing in your story (for the “ice rink” student above, the qualities that her anecdote evokes are imagination, ingenuity, and independence; for the “socks” student, the values are an appreciation for diversity and offbeat creativity). 

Even if you don’t use the details you list, they serve the very important purpose of highlighting particular qualities and values, not to mention quirks, that you most likely will be developing in your essay.

Exercise 2: Your “Lifeline”

This brainstorming exercise is essentially a timeline of your life, your lifeline. Maybe you’ve seen those biographical timelines that sometimes appear in the back of anthologies of a particular author’s works? No? Just me? 

Well, nevermind. Yours can follow a simple pattern, like this:

Start with your birth, but fill in the rest of the timeline with meaningful memories or significant events, like “moved to the US from China” or “broke my ankle playing soccer.” Most of the timeline should cluster around your middle school and high school years, since that’s when meaningful things start to happen with more frequency (or at least that’s the way it feels, right?), but also because your essay will be telescoping in on those four or five years much more closely and extensively than on your childhood years. 

The end result might look something like this:

OK, it doesn’t have to be this epic, but why not let it all hang out? The boring old template I shared above is way less interesting and absorbing than this wonderland of liveliness and color. Get into the spirit of the thing and make it a project. At the very least, your essay should evoke this kind of vibrancy and drama, so think of this exercise as the “map,” or even the “screenplay,” of your essay-movie.

Exercise 3: The Values Diptych

What the heck is a diptych?! Aside from being one of my favorite words (it just barely misses sounding like an expletive, i.e. “don’t be such a diptych!”), it was originally a painting or tablet in two hinged pieces representing related scenes, often religious or ritual in nature, like so:

Your diptych will take this principle and break it down to its essence. Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. At the top of the left column, write “What I’ve done.” At the top of the right column, write “Qualities / values I possess.” Now, start filling in the space in each column. The activities and interests on the left should map onto the qualities and values on the right. Draw lines connecting the activity with the value/quality, and you now have an image of how the things you do speak of the person your are. Simple as that.

Q: What’s the point?

A: The point is to visualize the way your activities and accomplishments and passions and hobbies manifest your values and characteristics, your personality.

What you do + why you do it = who you are.

Your essay, your personal statement, should be a word-picture of the person who is you. Many schools, like the UC, don’t interview applicants, and many of those that do offer only alumni interviews, which are conducted not by admissions counselors but rather by graduates of the institution. These alums will report back to the admissions committee, but the fact remains:

Your essay is your best chance to present yourself as a three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood, coherent, interesting, vibrant, curious, intelligent individual.

The Values Diptych is a great way to start to see how the pieces of your life, outside and inside, on campus and off campus, fit together like complex, many-sided puzzle pieces. 

Exercise 4: Desert Island Objects List

If you were banished to a desert island, what would you bring with you that keeps you connected to home? What objects, ideas, memories, experiences are more than mere objects, ideas, etc., because they carry with them feelings of significance and familiarity and comfort and happiness? Because they represent who you are?

I would bring my 1975 Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar, not only because it reminds me of the years I spent as a musician in my teens and twenties, but also because it connects me to my dad, whose passion for 60s soul and R&B, and music in general, infected me at a very young age and set me on a path that would shape who I am today. I taught myself to play listening to old Albert King blues records and joined my first band when I was 15. I’ve been writing songs ever since. Obvi, it’s got both real and symbolic meaning for me.

I’d also include a little yearbook photograph of my wife when she was in tenth grade. I didn’t know her then, but I like to look at it and imagine what it would have been like if I did. The pic is also kind of goofy, like most high school photos, and makes me laugh and reminds me of how warm and loving and adorable she is, so I keep it in my wallet and look at it whenever I need a mental hug.

I’d also put my memory of traveling cross country with my family when I was 11. It was the most epicly awesome trip ever. We ate a ton of great food (ribs in Memphis! fried ravioli in St. Louis! roadside burgers in Flagstaff!) and I got to see so much of the country. It’s one of my favorite memories, and represents how close I am with my family, how traveling and food and music and sing-alongs have defined who we are as unit for my whole life. It also represents the fact that most of most vivid memories are tied to meals I’ve eaten.

Whether or not any of these “objects” ends up in your essay, getting them down on the page and reflecting on what they mean to you and why they mean that to you will inevitably help you discover the building blocks of your story.

Now, get writing!

[doctorlo-blog-blog]

Daily nGram #6: Geek v. Nerd

The geeks shall inherit the earth!

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How to write a solid personal statement, Part 2

[atthecolledge]

thecolledge:

In my earlier post, I listed ten things to do to write an amazing, gripping, authentic, and meaningful personal statement that will win the hearts and minds of even the stodgiest of admissions officers. You can find them here.

Where was I? Oh right, #7: forget everything you learned about writing so far.

Good. Now. The five paragraph structure is more hindrance than help when writing a personal statement. Concepts like “thesis statement” and “topic sentence” don’t really fit into the world of the personal statement. What is the thesis of your life?

"My life is an excellent example of how hard work and determination can lead to success."

Ick. No.

I prefer the idea of a theme: the qualities and values you have developed through your interests and activities (see #6 in Part 1). And rather than topic sentences, think in terms of scenes: each paragraph will give us a new scene that will advance the ideas of the previous scene and set up the ideas of the next scene, like in a movie or play or novel. (You’re getting the idea.) These scenes should be vivid and specific moments in your life that speak to the theme you are evolving through the essay.

To reuse an example:

So I was taking her leg apart with a screwdriver.

Yes! Vivid, snappy, and, well, a little weird. But unique!

So, rather than the five paragraph structure, think in terms of three acts (see #4):

Act 1: where it all began. This is your first, and/or maybe your second paragraph. The opening can be like the one I shared above, an action scene from the more recent past. My student is beginning “in medias res,” or in the middle of things, with what is called, in creative writing circles, the “inciting event.”

But paragraph two should double back to the “origin story,” where the actions of the opening scene are rooted. Probably childhood. In my student’s case, his childhood fascination with disassembling things. This gives much needed context and establishes a link between the present and the past.

Act 2: what you’ve done since then. This is the bulk of your story, probably taking up the next three or four paragraphs. Act 2 should tell the story of how your interests have evolved over the past three or four years. In my student’s case, how his childhood compulsion to take things apart was given focus by his AP Bio class, leading eventually to an internship in a microbiology lab where the lessons of his early tinkering were applied to the “machine” of the human body. The is the “climax” of his story, where things come to a head that need resolution. Or, since there isn’t so much of a conflict needing resolution here as a series of activities evolving toward an insight, the climax will appear as an “aha moment.”

Act 3 is trickier. For some students, the third act is the culmination of everything they’ve done in some grander project (an invention, a patent, a prestigious award, a big performance, a publication). For others, it’s more modest, a higher-order insight that pulls the threads of the first two acts together in a way that shows where they will be taking these lessons and insights into the future.

If you know what you want to do when you grow up, the third act is where you show how the first two acts lead (inevitably but maybe also unexpectedly) into a particular field. In my student’s essay, his tinkering led to AP Bio and eventually the lab, experiences which converge to form the insight that things need to be broken, and broken down, in order to both learn how they work but also to improve upon them. Without saying it explicitly, without telling it, in other words, he is clearly showing his interest in engineering.

A simpler way of thinking of the three acts is chronologically:

Act 1: past

Act 2: present

Act 3: future

In Part 3, I’ll give you some exercises you can use to get started!

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10 tips for writing a solid personal statement, Part 1

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Deadlines are nigh. As a college essay mentor, this means I am staring down the barrel of yet another frantic holiday, with students scrambling to put the finishing touches on their personal statements with one hand while forking some cranberry sauce into their faces with the other (it can get messy). 

In the spirit of the holidays, I thought I’d share some of the jealously held secrets of successful college essay writers, which are essentially the same nuggets of wisdom most writers of creative non-fiction use when weaving together a great story.

To start, remember the three axioms of every creative writing program:

Show, don’t tell (I prefer show, then tell)

Write what you know

Find your voice

I’ll explain what each of these means in the context of a few specific writing tips:

1. Always brainstorm first (use the exercises I recommend in Part 3)

2. Outline your essay before writing a first draft

3. Your story is going to emerge out of the things you’ve done (as in “write what you know”), so focus on those (this is what you’ll want to show, as in “show, don’t tell”)

4. Have a clear beginning, middle, and ending (this goes back to Aristotle, who literally wrote the book on narrative back in the fourth century BC. It’s also called the “three-act structure,” which almost always moves chronologically, like a movie or a play or a novel)

5. Every sentence should play a clear role in advancing the story

6. Your story should be built on the what, the why, and the how: what you’ve done, why you’ve done it, and how those activities and reflections manifest your qualities and values

7. Forget just about everything you learned about writing in your high school English classes (this is not formal persuasive or analytical writing; this is a personalstatement, so it should sound like the voice of a unique person, as in “find your voice”)

8. Close the circle (the ending should come back to the beginning)

9. Rewrite the beginning after you’ve written the ending (this can help with #8, closing the circle)

10. Open with a short, snappy sentence that both creates an image or scene in the reader’s mind but also gets them wondering what you’re talking about. The second sentence should then clarify what’s happening.

Some of these are self-explanatory, so I’ll only focus on the ones the need some fleshing out.

I’m going to work backward from #10, starting with an example of what I mean by a snappy opening line. A student of mine just finished writing his personal statement, which opened like this (used with permission):

So I was taking her leg apart with a screwdriver.

Wait, what?!

Exactly. That’s what you want from your reader. You’ve just “hooked” them in, but now you need to give them the pay off (aka, what’s happening, the context):

Her prosthetic leg, I mean.

(FWIW, his friend with the prosthetic leg was totally cool with his taking her “spare leg” apart.) 

The essay goes on to talk about the student’s lifelong fascination with taking things apart to see how they work, and how this speaks both to his passion for STEM and to his intellectual voraciousness and curiosity (see #3 and #6). This snappy opening came to him after he’d more or less finished his essay (see #9), because he could now see his story holistically, as a complete whole. Which means he was able to think about how the beginning would already contain the ending, and vice versa.

This is what literary theorists call creating “the sense of an ending,” and it is very, very powerful. Next time you watch a  good movie or read a good book, flip/rewind back to the opening scenes and see if you can find the ending hinted at in there somewhere. I bet you will.

I’ll go over the rest of my writing tips, as well as offer some handy exercises to get you started, in Part 2.

[doctorlo-blog-blog]

Daily nGram #3: SAT vs ACT (1960-2008)

[atthecolledge]

I'd love to see 2008-2014. Get on it Google!

[atthecolledge]

(I just stumbled across your post on the "intellectual vitality" essay and I was prepared to be so annoyed because every other post I've read about that has been total bs but you got it right. Wow. Thank you for spreading actual quality information on here, god knows everyone needs it.)

Thanks for the feedback! I've worked on many of these with students over the years, so I've figured out a thing or two along the way.