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Writing a Winning College Essay for Bucknell: A Former Student's Take
When I first sought out help with my Common App essay, I didn't really know what to expect. I had experience working with tutors for high school courses, but never with a topic that was so important for my future. During my first session, I was very nervous and I wasn’t sure how the meeting would go. After having a normal conversation with Ben and getting to know each other a little bit, things were easier. Once I established a relationship with Ben, he began to help me dig deeper into my life and my personal goals and interests.
Top 3 Things to Know about the “Why This College” Essay
So you’ve followed our advice and written a stellar college essay, and now you’ve gotten to the supplementals. The most popular prompt you’ll have to answer is: “Why do you want to attend our college?”
Top Three Tips for the Stanford Supplementals
Stanford is one of the most competitive schools to get into, and its supplemental prompts are different from other schools. You’ll need to write 3 essays of 100-250 words and 5 short answers of 50 words, in addition to your main college essay. But remember: you’ll be competing with the best students in the country (and around the world), so you’ll need to make sure that every response you submit is both distinctive and well written. If you don’t put in the work, there’s no reason to apply, because your application will simply be removed from the pile.
If you’ve been reading our blog, you’ll know we don’t believe in reading sample college essays and we don’t think there’s any formula you can follow. But we do think some general guidelines can be helpful, so here are our top 3 tips for writing the Stanford supplementals.
How to Get into Engineering at UVA: A Student’s Experience Writing College Essays
We recently interviewed a former student, Will C., on his experience working on the Common App and supplemental essays. David was accepted to study engineering at UVA in Fall 2024, so we thought you might be interested in his responses.
Great College Essay Writing Is Not about the Humble Brag
Maybe you’re sitting down to start brainstorming and wondering, How can I brag about my achievements in my college essay? We’re sorry to burst your bubble, but you heard it here first: the point of college essays is not to brag about your accomplishments. If we could boil down the internet advice about college essay writing, it would sound like this: the personal statement should showcase your accomplishments, it should guarantee that admissions committees get as complete a view of your range of activities as possible, and it should ensure that you come across as perfectly clear about who you are and what you want. We think this couldn’t be further from the truth.
How to Get into Duke: A Student’s Advice on College Essays
We recently interviewed a former student, David B., on his experience working on the Common App and supplemental essays. David was accepted to study at Duke University in Fall 2024, so we thought you might be interested in his responses.
Why You Shouldn’t Read Sample College Essays
It’s the first thing everyone does when they sit down to write their college admissions essay. They search for “college essay examples” or “best common app essays Ivy League,” and then they read the responses that supposedly got candidates into Harvard, Princeton, and other top schools.
If you want to write a good college essay, nothing could be more damaging. Here are the three main reasons we recommend you avoid reading sample college essays and focus on your own experience instead.
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