New York Times writer Janet Morrissey hits the nail on the head when she describes the essence of your essay: It's a megaphone.
   "It’s not just a resume or a regurgitation of everything you’ve done," Morrissey says. "It needs to tell a story with passion, using personal, entertaining anecdotes that showcase your character, your interests, your values, your life experiences, your views of the world, your ambitions and even your sense of humor."
That's a tall order, to be sure, and pretty daunting to a lot of rising seniors. But consider the stakes. College is a lot tougher than it was 10 or 20 years ago -- for a whole list of reasons -- and "the personal essay and interview can often make the difference — either way," according to Morrissey.
   Keys that I teach about college essays will take you a long way, and hopefully will lead to an admissions officer to paying attention and moving you on to the next step.

• This isn't a term paper. Don't write like you're in English class. Talk about yourself, be descriptive, have some fun, surprise the reader.
• Be genuine. Don't try to be something, or someone, you're not. The idea is to let people know who you are and why you'd contribute to their freshman class. 
• Hook the reader, then reel them in. Don't dump all you want to say in your first paragraph. Drop little hints of what's to come and make someone curious to read the next paragraph. And the next.
• Tell a story. Your story.

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  Use straightforward language. Tell the story of a day in your life that gives a little "snapshop" about your humanity. Watch this video to see more about your essay from Robert Springall, former dean of admissions at Bucknell University and now vice president for enrollment management at Muhlenberg College.
Watch the video:

   Here's a revolutionary thought: The goal of your college essay shouldn't be perfection.
  That's the proposition offered by Brennan Barnard, writing for Forbes. Rather than perfection, your goal should be to present yourself in your own voice, says Barnard, director of college counseling and outreach at The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire.
   "Writing about one’s self is perhaps one of the greatest challenges in college admission, especially for the overachieving perfectionist," according to Barnard. Your essay "is not just about how you write but also how vulnerable you are willing to be."
   Barnard offers seven tips for writing a strong college essay. And he quotes Todd Rinehart, vice chancellor for enrollment at The University of Denver:
   "Committees aren't looking for the perfect essay, topic or set of activities and achievement. We simply want an interesting, authentic and well-written glimpse into a student's life."
   Simple enough.

Arnie Rosenberg is the founder of The Center for Essay Excellence. He writes regularly about college essays and their importance to the college-admission process. Contact him at [email protected].

   The Class of 2019 has a lot to look forward to. The fall will be here before you know it, and with your last year of high school will come a barrage of activities, tasks, obligations and responsibilities that will dwarf your last 11 years in school.
   So this summer is the time for you to kick back and relax in anticipation of it all, right? Well, yes and no.
   No one expects you to spend all day at the computer, researching colleges, prepping for tests and searching for scholarships. Do some of that . . . but also lay the groundwork for your all-important college essays.
  My recommendation for the best way to ease your way into the sometimes-stressful process of writing your essay? Take it step-by-step:

• Review the Common App and The Coalition for College essay prompts for 2018-19. Common App is reviewing its questions every-other year, so this year's essay questions are the same as 2017-18. Read through them, think about how you can relate to each question (and how each applies to you) and what kind of examples and life experiences you can talk about through the lens of each question.
  
• Don't be a slave to your essay. It's still summer vacation, and you deserve your time off. But get into a routine where you're sitting down to write for 15-20 minutes each day. Don't stress about perfect writing, style and sentence structure. Just ramble some of your thoughts onto the screen. Don't worry about tying them together, either,
  
• By the end of the summer, you'll have lots of short snippets, but nothing cohesive. But then you can start tying them together into an essay that flows and tells the story you want colleges to see.
  
• You'll have a draft that's 80 percent done. Then -- hopefully with someone who's your editor -- you can work to cut the length if necessary, polish your essay and end up with something that tells YOUR story . . . something you're really proud of.
  

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  "The truth is, most essays are typical. Many are boring. Some are just plain bad."
  OK, that's blunt. But it's true. But in delivering that blunt that assessment, The New York Times offers some simple but oh-so-important advice: Choose a topic that you care about. If that topic doesn’t matter to you, it won’t matter to the reader.
  Writing in The Times, Rachel Toor, a creative-writing professor at Eastern Washington University, offers a list of 10 things to avoid when writing your college essay. Here are a couple to help plot your way through the writing process:
  Avoid clichés. If there's a good way to make that admissions officer's eyes roll back in her head, it's offering up that worn-out phrase she's already seen  25 times that day.
  Don't repeat the prompt. Don't waste 12 words out of your 500 by starting with "The event in my life that made me a better person was . . . " Get right to it and say what you want to say.
  Use past tense when writing about past events. Present tense, Toor says, doesn't allow for reflection.

Arnie Rosenberg is the founder of The Center for Essay Excellence. He writes regularly about college essays and their importance to the college-admission process. Contact him at [email protected].