The 5 Things You Need to Know to Write a Winning College Essay
I’ve worked with hundreds of students over the last twenty or so years to help them write a college essay that is authentic and grabs the attention of an admissions counselor. Admissions gatekeepers, who are so integral to the process of college acceptance, will spend less than one minute reading your students’ essay. That piece of information is the first really frustrating part of the college essay process for students.
Why don’t they spend more time on my essay?? I spent hours on it; isn’t it worth their time???
The short answer is No, it isn’t. Not even a little. The crestfallen look on my rising seniors faces when I say this to them shows a deep discouragment in an already stressful process. It is my hope that this article will provide advice, encouragement, and most of all, optimism as the November 1 deadline looms. The good news is that students actually have much more control over the essay than they think. And this gives them real power and opportunity!
The simple truth of the matter is that when an admissions person is reading hundreds of applications on any given day, they don’t have the luxury of reading and absorbing all of the college essays in the pile. From their perspective, it’s only one small piece of many that is part of the application process.
