Writing Quality in College Essays

We’re rarely surprised when a student tells us that his English teacher, track coach, Applebee’s server (who minored in English), and SAT tutor all had a hand in helping him craft what he believes to be perfect college admissions essays. And we’re rarely surprised when we then read those essays … 

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On Improving Writing for College Essays

We’ve got some thoughts on how students can improve their writing for college essays that we figured we’d share with our readers. Sometimes folks ask us what they can do to become better writers. The obvious answer is to read and write. You can’t become a great writer without, well, … 

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Writing in Admission Essays

We’ve got an idea on how to improve your writing in admission essays. Lots of folks say that the best way to improve your vocabulary for the SAT, the ACT, for everyday life is to read books. We absolutely do not disagree with this advice. How could we? Would it … 

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Colloquial Writing in College Admissions Essays

The best college admissions essays are written in a colloquial style. Maybe a student dares to start a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but.’ Maybe a student dares to write a fragment. Maybe a student writes a one-word sentence for extra emphasis. We’re all about that kind of writing — as … 

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College Admissions Essay Writing

In all of our years working with students navigating the highly selective college admissions process, one takeaway we have is that college admissions essay writing is quite bad overall. It’s so bad in fact that several years go by between instances in which we read very good college essays that … 

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Write Your College Essays

Now that school is out for summer, it’s time to start to write your college essays! You no longer have schoolwork and studying to use as an excuse. Now is the perfect time to begin the process of brainstorming exactly what you’re going to write about for college admissions counselors … 

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College Essay Writing

High school English teachers often are not the best people to give feedback on college essays.