The biggest problem seniors are encountering when they sit down to write their college essays?
   "They talk in terms of generalities as opposed to specifics," says essay coach Debbie Merion of Ann Arbor, Mich.
   Merion -- who entered the coaching field when her daughter realized how tough crafting her own essay would be -- admits that "No one's explaining how to write a college essay."
   According to Merion, students first must "understand why colleges want essays and how admissions officers evaluate essays," then keep on track, and "edit and proofread their essay to a level of excellence."
   "Sometimes it's very hard to learn what's special about you," she tells Detroit's WXYZ-TV.

Hear more from Debbie Merion in this video:

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   Most seniors can relate to this statement: "When it comes to writing college essays . . . students tend to freeze."
   The astute (and obvious) observation come from the years of experience Gabrielle Glancy has coaching students with their essays.
  Students "have preconceptions about what they think a college essay should be," writes Glancy, on the New Vision Learning blog. "In an effort to sound sophisticated and intelligent, students often abandon their own natural style of writing in favor of a style that they think (wrongly) will make them look good.  As a result, student essays are often stilted and stiff."
   Don't rule out anything as a source of inspiration for your essay, Glancy advises. Look to the unconventional, such as poetry, dreams or snippets of random prose. If it lights your creative fire, it's a valuable resource.
   "Inspiration can come from anywhere," she says. "But you must be willing to go anywhere to look for it — even into the dark and mysterious worlds of poetry and dreams. You never know what you will find!"
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   Everybody's got Top 10 lists. But the Magoosh SAT Blog offers it's own take: Four tips to becoming a better college-essay writer:
1. Fully understand the prompt: "Not really understanding the prompt is an all-too-common mistake."
2. Make time to brainstorm: "This does not mean starting at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. the night before your deadline. Start as soon as possible. If you haven’t started already, start now! Taking three minutes right now can get your mind moving in the direction of the essay."
3. Accept the limits set forward by the school: Many applicants use a good portion of the essay to tell a story but don't save enough space "to explain the meaning of the story or how it relates to readiness for college."
4. Don’t demand immediate perfection: "Are you waiting to begin your essay until you’ve got everything ‘just right?' Does it seem like wasting time to go ahead and start now because you’ll have to make so many changes later? Sorry, but revisions are part of the writing process, and you can actually take a lot of the pressure off by simply getting some ideas out of your head and onto the page."

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 Arnie.Rosenberg.Editor@gmail.com.

   There's a "secret formula" used by college admissions committees to make their decisions: "College admissions officers want to know your story."  
   That's the seemingly simple take Adam Schwartz has on admissions and the role of your essay.
   Schwartz -- who taught writing at Harvard and Wellesley universities for 25 years, served on the Wellesley Board of Admissions and now runs Write Advantage Tutoring -- thinks that "the most effective way to hold an admissions officer’s interest is to keep the reader in suspense about the meaning you discover in the experience you narrate."
   Writing on the Wicked Local site in Newton, Mass., Schwartz relates a story of his first day on the Board of Admissions. After reading a student's file -- including the Common App, personal statement, transcripts, test scores, recommendations and the supplemental essay -- the dean asked, "What is this student's story?"
   "She had clarified for me the challenge faced by every admissions officer -- to see a compelling individual story cohere from so many different sources of information."
   Schwartz offers one strategy that is likely to make most seniors groan: Write TWO essays and pick the best from both.
   "I know that writing another essay seems like a real chore, but an additional essay can help clarify the key themes of your story," he says. "Indeed, a truly excellent personal statement can enhance your entire application by establishing a theme to which all the all the other materials contribute. More often than not, you can find a way to include details from the essay you don’t use in other sections of the Common Application."
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   I've talked here about content of your essay, the title and the psychological process to get yourself ready to write. But what about style?
   Allen Grove -- former director of a program for new college students, a professor of English and a freelance writer who focuses on college admissions -- offers (yet another) Top 10 list for college essays, this one pointing out some key danger zones of essay style. Among them:

• Wordiness and repetition: "Wordiness is by far the most common stylistic error," says Grove, blogging on About.com. "In most cases, students could cut one-third of an essay, lose no meaningful content, and make the piece much more engaging and effective."
• Vague and imprecise language: "If you find that your essay is filled with words like 'stuff' and 'things' and 'aspects' and 'society,' you may also find that your application ends up in the rejection pile."
• Clichés: "You are trying to get the admissions officers excited about you and your essay topic, but there is nothing exciting about clichés. Instead, they diminish the essay's message and reveal the author's lack of creativity."
• Flowery language: "Too many adjectives and adverbs can ruin the reading experience.

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   All too often, students "bomb" their college essays, delivering "boring space fillers that actually make them less appealing as applicants," says Sandra Moore.
   Moore, owner of Next Step College Counseling, lays much of that blame on high school English teachers, most most of whom "have never worked in college admissions and, in turn, not had the chance to see first-hand from that perspective what makes for a compelling piece."
   "These days, with grade inflation, more and more institutions going test-optional and the ease of applying to a gazillion schools using the Common Application, a well-conceived and constructed essay can truly help a kid -- even one with a so-so record--stand out," Moore writes in the Poughkeepsie Journal.


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 Arnie.Rosenberg.Editor@gmail.com.

   "What is the story I want to tell? What is the thing I want to be remembered when that reader closes the file?"  
   The questions should be basic to any senior who's now working on his or her college essays. In this case, those questions are coming from Emily Roper-Doten, associate director of admissions at Tufts University. Roper-Doten and others from the Tufts Admissions Office were interviewed on video by Lauren Day and Chandler Coble, members of the Class of 2017, who asked about essay-writing advice.
   "It takes a lot more thought than it does writing sometimes," Roper-Doten said. "Students will slave over what's the right word. You're never going to have the right word if you don't have the right idea to begin with."
   Other advice Day and Coble heard:
   Justin Pike, assistant director of admissions: "As yourself 'Why?' five times, because if you can do that, you're going to achieve something that's more authentic to you."
   Edward Picket III, assistant director of admissions: "The best essays are about the smallest moments, because they make the biggest impact."

See more advice from Tufts in this video:

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   This time of year -- well, at most times of the year -- just about everyone has a list. They're lists of how to prepare for writing your college essay, how to come up with the title and how to prepare yourself emotionally for the admittedly daunting task.
   But I came across an unusual take on the list from Kasey Carlson and Whitney Young, writing on The Mash, the Chicago Tribune's newspaper and website written by teens for teens:

• Don't choose your prompt first. "It seems like common sense to pick a prompt that speaks to you and roll with it." But Sarah McGinty, author of The College Application Essay, told the writers to “Back into the question and first decide what message (you’d) like to get across with (your) essay.”
• Treat your essay like a bonus. “Your application should be like The Wizard of Oz, McGinty said. “It goes from black-and-white to color when the reader reaches your essay.” Think of your essay as  a place to share things about yourself that might get lost in your resume.
  

• Don't ignore the prompt. “Sometimes students can be a little too focused on bells and whistles, but have an unclear conclusion to their essay,” explained Allison Bevan, associate director of admissions at Northwestern University.
  

• Be yourself. Students sometimes end up writing what they think a college admissions officer would want to read rather than allowing their personalities to shine through, according to Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz, founder of admissionpossible.com.
  

• Remember to proofread. Not just yourself, either. Have multiple people proofread your essay, Shaevitz said.
  

• Remember, it’s just an essay. Every school weights college essays differently, Bevan said, and while  It has potential as a great resource, a less-than-perfect writing sample isn’t the end of the world.

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   For all the essay tips I've seen, Ed Fessler recently surprised me surprised me with one.
   Dean of students at Sheridan (Wyo.) High School, Fessler urges students to be honest when writing college essays.
   “One wants to be candidly honest as to any assertions they make regarding themselves. Include critical information regarding your history, aspirations and why their particular school is the ideal fit," Fessler told Sheridan Press writer Christina Schmidt. "Keep in mind that your goal is to tell a story about yourself that leaves the selection committee with the hope of learning more about you in the future.”
   And more advice from Fessler on the importance of your essay in today's competitive admissions environment:
   “If schools have a number of potential applicants that are equal in terms of grade-point average and college-entrance exam score, the strength of the essay becomes perhaps the most important component used to separate similar applicants.”

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 Arnie.Rosenberg.Editor@gmail.com.

                                                                                                                      
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