List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need

If your family will need to depend on financial aid to attend college, your best bet is to find a school that will offer an excellent financial aid package to your child.

A great way to assess the generosity of any school is to look at the percentage of financial need it typically meets for its students.

Teenagers, who earn acceptances into schools that meets 100% of need, essentially win the educational equivalent of the lottery.

 Colleges and Universities That Meet 100% of Need

To make the search easier, here are the schools that I know of that meet 100% of financial need for all or most of its students. If you are aware of others, please let me know.

Also on the list I included schools, which I boldfaced, that meet at least 94% of need for the majority of its students.

1. Amherst College (MA)
2. Barnard College (NY)
3. Bates College (ME)
4. Boston College (MA)
5. Brown University (RI)
6. Bryn Mawr College (PA)
7. Bowdoin College (ME)
8. Bucknell University (PA)
9. California Institute of Technology
10. Carleton College (MN)
11. Claremont McKenna College (CA)
12. Clark University (MA)
13. Colby College (ME)
14. Colgate University (NY)
15. College of the Holy Cross (MA)
16. College of Wooster (OH)
17. Colorado College (CO)
18. Columbia University (NY)
19. Connecticut College (CT)
20. Cornell University (NY)
21. Davidson College (NC)
22. Denison University (OH)
23. Dickinson College (PA)
24. Duke University (NC)
25. Dartmouth College (NH)
26. Emory University (GA)
27. Franklin W. Olin College
28. Georgetown University (DC)
29. Gettysburg College (PA)
30. Grinnell College (IA)
31. Hamilton College (NY)
32. Harvey Mudd College (CA)
33. Haverford College (PA)
34. Harvard University (MA)
35. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
36. Kenyon College (OH)
37. Lafayette College (PA)
38. Lehigh University (PA)
39. Macalester College (MN)
40. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
41. Middlebury College (VT)
42. Mount Holyoke College (MA)
43. Northwestern University (IL)
44. Oberlin College (OH)
45. Occidental College (CA)
46. Pitzer College (CA)
47. Pomona College (CA)
48. Princeton University (NJ)
49. Reed College (OR)
50. Rice University (TX)
51. Saint John’s College (NM)
52. Saint Olaf College (MN)
53. Scripps College (CA)
54. Sewanee: The University of the South (TN)
55. Smith College (MA)
56. Stanford University (CA)
57. Swarthmore College (NY)
58. Thomas Aquinas College (CA)
59. Trinity College (CT)
60. Tufts University (MA)
61. Tulane University (LA)
62. Union College (NY)
63. University of Chicago (IL)
64. University of Notre Dame (IN)
65. University of Pennsylvania (PA)
66. University of Richmond (VA)
67. University of Rochester (NY)
68. University of Southern California
69. Vanderbilt University (TN)
70. Vassar College (NY)
71. Wabash College (IN)
72. Wake Forest University (NC)
73. Washington and Lee University (VA)
74. Washington University, St. Louis, (MO)
75. Wellesley College (MA)
76. Wesleyan University (MA)
77. Williams College (MA)
78. Wheaton College (MA)
79. Yale University (CT)

What you’ll notice about the above list is that the schools are highly selective. Many of these schools can provide 100% of need because they are wealthier with bigger endowments than their peers, but also because the majority of students who attend these schools are typically high income. With the wealthy children paying the sticker price or getting a modest merit scholarship, this generates more money for financial aid.

How Percentage of Need Met Works…

Let’s say the financial aid formula says your family can afford to pay $15,000 for one year of college. (That’s represented by your Expected Family Contribution.) Your child is lucky and gets into a $50,000 school that promises to meet 100% of its students’ financial need.  That means the school will provide $35,000 in aid.

Schools will look for outside help first to build that $35,000 package. If the child qualifies for the federal Pell Grant for low-income students and an applicable state grant, that will be put into the package first. Nearly all schools also put in a federal Stafford Loan, which for freshman is $5,500. After that the school would kick in its own institutional money.

In this case, let’s assume the child doesn’t qualify for any state of federal grants at a school that meets 100% of need.

$50,000 Cost of Attendance

Minus            $15,000 Expected Family Contribution

Aid                 $35,000

After the Stafford Loan is subtracted, the family would get nearly $30,000 in grants/scholarships (free money) to attend this school. Some of the most elite schools won’t put in a Stafford Loan.

In contrast, the majority of schools in this country would “gap” a child. A school might provide $10,000 or $15,000 or $20,000 or even $0 dollars to meet this child’s need.

Bottom Line:

If your family will need significant financial aid, it’s important that your child be the best student possible so that he or she will be more likely to qualify for the caliber of schools that are generous.

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your ACT or SAT Score

When the ACT and the SAT roll around, it can seem like four years of club meetings, volunteering, school functions and exams all boil down to a few digits in an envelope. No matter how sharp your number two pencils are, these are tests that require much more than wishful thinking.  

“Fortunately or unfortunately, the ACT and SAT really matter a lot for scholarships and other things like that,” says Tom Pabin, president of Class 101, a national college finance and planning company. “These scores have a lot weight for colleges.”

A few points higher or lower could mean the difference between getting into an underwhelming safety school and that dream school you’ve had in mind all along. A good score could also land you thousands of dollars in scholarships.

As daunting as the ACT or SAT may seem, have no fear, pre-collegiettes! HC is here to make your scores college-ready.

1. Set a goal

Before you even think about memorizing flash cards and conquering problem sets, think about your ideal score. A few steps you should take:

1. Make a list of your top college choices and research what range your score needs to be in for you to receive that magical acceptance letter. This will give you a solid idea of what kind of score to aim for and how much time to devote to studying.
2. Consult this chart of the average scores for incoming freshmen from a huge list of colleges to get a general idea. Sometimes, setting a goal gives you the perfect motivation to improve your score and really focus on studying.
3. To gauge your progress, you can also visit StatFuse, which is basically a superhero site for college planning. It has a fantastic tool that allows you to calculate your current chances of getting into a specific college by plugging in your ACT or SAT scores, GPA and extracurricular activities. Just fill out all your information and instantly see your collegiate possibilities!

2. Memorize math formulas

Just reading the title of this step may make you cringe, but knowing formulas really is crucial for the math section—particularly if you’ve been taking higher-level classes and haven’t had to use the simpler formulas in school in a while.

“You might’ve learned it in eighth grade, so when it comes up on the test you know it, but you don’t remember how to do it,” says Pabin.

Check out StudyPoints, a site with a clear chart comparing the SAT and ACT’s math sections and how to prepare for them. Another easy online tool is this quizlet (a virtual set of flashcards) on ACT math formulas.

3.   Do free trials from major test prep websites

Why pay the big bucks if you can get a sample of the real thing for free? After you’ve taken the test once or twice, Pabin suggests focusing on your weakest section or type of question to improve.

“Figure out what areas you really have to focus on to improve your score. Knowing how you test is really important,” he says.

Kaplan’s website free online practice tests for both the SAT and the ACT. Barron’s also offers a great free trial for SAT test prep, and Princeton Review does as well. Another online test prep site,Number 2, provides in-depth free courses to prepare you for the ACT and SAT, including user-friendly tutorials, practice sessions, a vocabulary builder and more.

4. Sign up for a question of the day

A tool we love at HC is the question of the day. SAT or ACT questions of the day feature sample questions similar to what you’ll see on the tests, but are not exact replicas of test questions. One collegiette used this in her college application days and owes a lot of her success on the tests to the habit!

“It just shows up in your inbox each day, so it’s a quick method to remember studying without really thinking about it or making an extra effort,” says Erica Howes, a senior at Miami University.

These questions help you to become familiar with the wording and difficulty of the test questions in a small dose every day, which Pabin says can help you to realize how simple improving your score can be.

“Every six questions you get right, your ACT score goes up one point,” he says. “So if you get six more questions right each time you take the test, you’re already getting quite a bit better.”

You can find the SAT question of the day on the SAT website. You can also follow the SAT question of the day on Twitter.  For the ACT, you can see the question of the day here.

5. Buy a test prep book

Although buying a book requires spending a little bit of money, it’s a great way to get all the best tips directly in your hands. You can also order online versions of each prep book.

The official SAT test prep book is $31.99. You can buy it on their website and even receive a 20 percent discount if you buy it before December 30. You can also order The Real ACT Prep Guide ($30.95), which includes five practice tests from old tests.

With all these tips in mind, getting a #winning score on those tests is definitely in reach. So circle that test date on your calendar and set aside a few minutes every day to work on getting a brilliant score!

“Once you become a mature tester (meaning you’ve taken the test a bunch of times and you know what to expect) and [you] follow a few basic tips, that’s all you need,” says Pabin.

Before you know it, you’ll be a collegiette with the stress of the ACT and SAT far behind you!

More Mistakes to Avoid in Your College Application

The challenges facing Common Application may be making the headlines, but many students applying to college with or without Common App are hurting their chances of admission by failing to follow some pretty basic steps:

Send Your Test Scores -- Now! Students are already hearing back from colleges that have a rolling admissions plan, and the news is mixed -- but not for the usual reasons. Counselors report that some students are being admitted while others are being denied -- but many are being told their application can't be read because the applicant never submitted their ACT or SAT scores.

Students are so afraid a "low" set of test scores will lead to a rejection, they are waiting to see the scores before they send them to the colleges. That strategy has been discussed here many times, but the key to its even questionable success is to make sure to send in at least one set of scores to colleges that require them. Students who got off to a speedy start with their application now have to go to the end of the admissions decision line due to the lack of scores -- and that's no way to begin the application process. Go to your college's Web site and see if low scores will hurt you; if not, send all of your scores now.

Remind Teachers to Write Letters Some students are also having trouble communicating with the teachers who have agreed to write the student's letter of recommendation. Most students had the good sense to ask for letters last spring, but some are thinking that one conversation in May is all that's needed to keep your teacher in the college application loop.

If you haven't talked to your letter writers this fall, you could have twice the trouble of the students who didn't send scores. Your first challenge is getting your teacher to write the letter in the first place; if you haven't touched base since last year, there's a good chance they've assumed you don't need the letter after all. This latency period leads to the second challenge, where reigniting their passion to write your letter could also understandably ignite their frustration with wanting to help you, but now being in a time crunch. So go have that conversation with them, bring armloads of apologies and good chocolate, and be ready to understand why they may turn every color in the rainbow before saying OK -- or saying no.

Request Transcripts Early Many high schools now have an online transcript request program, where students log in to the site, enter the name of the college needing the transcript, and hit Send. This process is so easy, many students forget to make their requests until the night before the application is due -- but since it only involves hitting a computer button, how hard can it be?

It may not be hard on the student, but consider the poor secretary/counselor/registrar who comes to their high school office the day applications are due to find 300 requests for transcripts. Each copy has to be prepared before it's sent, and the student's request does nothing to make the document ready to send. That either means the person sending out the transcript will be ordering pizza for dinner, or some transcripts won't make the deadline -- and either option is avoidable.

Applying to college should be the good kind of exciting for everyone involved, and you're driving the bus to your application destination. Use these tips as your GPS to a safe journey -- and don't forget the chocolate.

Writing your college essay? How to avoid boring the reader Read more: Writing your college essay? How to avoid boring the reader.

Let's say you are at the top of your class and applying to an Ivy League school. You feel confident because you got 2200 on your SATs, are class president, run cross-country, and are in five clubs. All your life, "failure has never been in your vocabulary because you have succeeded at everything.

Guess what? I have bad news. Of the 30,000 applicants to that dream school, most have the same qualifications. Others have a quality you don't. One may be a stellar quarterback, another has wealthy forebears whose names are on campus buildings, some are geniuses from the swamps of Mississippi, and others have already performed with the New York Philharmonic. Your accomplishment? You broke the school record for the mile. And the kids in your school are slow.

Don't panic. Help is on the way. You can rise above the other applicants, be an individual that the admissions folks actually like.

Start by imagining how they feel. You hate to write one five-paragraph essay. How would you like to read 30,000? Most of them are so boring, you would need to sew your eyelids open. Why? These essays reflect all that success: When I became a leader through my role in the Spanish club. What football means to me. How marching band has enhanced my character. In other words, same experiences, same essays.

Have I just described your essay? Don't despair. You can set yourself apart. And you can write well without being Hemingway or Fitzgerald.

Just do as I say.

First, figure out what makes you different. Do you secretly collect antique coins? Do you have a special skill, like assembling Ikea furniture correctly the first time? If you traveled for Habitat, great. But don't tell them what it meant to you. Describe someone you met, or how to apply roof shingles. (Just think how many people are glued to "This Old House." Everyone loves the process of building.)

Another topic is your relatives, a perfect choice, assuming your twin is not applying to the same school. But don't describe your grandfather's death and how much you cried. Nobody wants to hear that. What they would enjoy is his experience in Vietnam. Perhaps he established a huge restaurant empire starting with a food truck. At the end, just tell them he died, and skip your tears. Make them cry that he is gone.

Or write about crazy relatives — not your parents; you don't want the university to worry about heredity. Talk about your mean, cheap, scary great-aunt whose inheritance holds the family hostage. Describe her, even how she smells like ancient Chanel No. 5.

If you want to use a family tradition, skip Christmas. It has been done a million times. Instead, write about the classic family fight when everybody stormed out because the potatoes weren't cooked correctly, just like last year, when the turkey was raw.

In other words, move the reader in some way, either to a smile or a sigh. Remember, she usually is bored stiff.

Your objections? But this won't display who I am, you whine. Right. They really want to hear another essay bragging about accomplishments.

No, now they know how well you write and how interesting you are. I mean, did you ever beg for a five-paragraph essay? But I bet you love to hear a good story.

How to make something worth reading? A few rules:

Make sure the opening paragraph pulls you in. Are your descriptions visual? Do you include the five senses? Do you use strong nouns and verbs? Be wary of adjectives and adverbs. They slow the reader down. Do any great lines walk off the page? Does your final paragraph answer the question?

Make sure you read your essay aloud to a friend. You will hear your errors, and your friend will be thrilled to find them. Keep your parents out of the process. Like the engineer dad who salivates over "helping" you with calculus, your mom will rewrite your essay so it sounds just like her. And Admissions can't tell, right? Sure.

Proofread. Don't repeat words. It's boring. Don't hit the thesaurus button willy-nilly. If you are unsure of a word, read the sentence to Mom. But just one sentence.

Spell-check.

If they want 500 words, don't go over.

And never, ever describe a single tear falling down anyone's face.

How to Choose Between Taking the ACT, SAT

Choosing which standardized test to include in your portfolio is, without a doubt, an important part of your college application strategy.

Many years ago, your choice would have been determined largely by geography. Students applying to Midwestern schools took the ACT, while students applying to schools on the East and West coasts took the SAT.

Today, however, most colleges and universities place equal weight on results from either test. This ambivalence provides an opportunity for savvy applicants to play to their key strengths as a result of the different structures of each exam.

1. Pick the exam that suits you best: Research is the first step in choosing which standardized assessment is right for you. If a school on your list prefers one test over the other, then it is essential to focus your efforts accordingly.

If you have yet to narrow your college search, then you should focus on determining which test would allow you to excel most. Taking both tests is rarely the best option. They differ enough that your time spent studying for one will not likely improve your score on the other.

It is a more efficient use of time and resources to focus on maximizing your score on just one of them. An excellent result from one test will outweigh merely good scores on both of them.

2. Assess your critical thinking skills and overall knowledge: One of the differences between the two exams is that the SAT primarily assesses reasoning ability, while the ACT focuses more on strict knowledge. Of course, there is some crossover in material.

Both tests, for example, have a math section and both require a solid foundation in geometry and algebra. The SAT is more likely to include story problems and creative application of the basic rules of geometry. The ACT, by contrast, tends to be more straightforward.

Additionally, the ACT includes basic trigonometry among the math questions. The main difference becomes one of problem-solving versus a wider range of tested concepts.

In the English section, the SAT places a greater emphasis on reading comprehension and vocabulary. In fact, it could be said that the SAT is notorious for its emphasis on vocabulary, to the extent that some of its study guides exist solely to focus on helping students get up to speed.

The reading comprehension portions of the SAT also present some challenging time management issues due to the length of the passages and the difficulty of some of the associated questions.

Although the ACT includes a reading comprehension section as well, it focuses more on grammar and syntax. As in the math sections, the ACT is more a test of knowledge than of reasoning and problem-solving.

3. Factor in your science skills: The final difference is that the ACT includes a section on science – a subject that is entirely absent from the SAT. For students with a good background in high school-level biology, earth science and physics concepts, this can be an opportunity to shine.

Furthermore, the ACT requires interpretation of graphs and charts, as well as knowledge of the proper construction of scientific hypotheses. The broader range of topics, however, can make studying for the test that much more challenging for students who do not already have a good footing in the subjects.

One of the best options for a student deciding which test to take is to take practice exams for both, either online or from a professional prep book. Be sure to follow the exams' formats as closely as possible.

Complete each test in one sitting while observing the appropriate time limits and other rules. Most students are able to do very well on the SAT when they have unlimited time to consider their answers – the time limits are an inevitably large part of the overall challenge.

When comparing your scores, look at the percentile results. Remember that raw scores – the number of correct or incorrect answers – matter only relative to the results of other students.

If your practice scores on each test land you in a comparable percentile, focus on the test that feels more natural to you. In almost all cases, however, your goal should be to center your efforts on the one test that plays to your strengths the most.

Brian Witte is a professional SAT tutor with Varsity Tutors. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington and holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

A Plea to Those Helping Students With College Application Essays: Let the 17-year-old Voice Take Center Stage

Recently, I saw a private coach inside a Starbucks using a thesaurus to help a high school senior make a college application essay sound "more mature." Another counselor encouraged one of my students to write about a troubling failure without focusing on the lessons learned. This season, yet another of my students couldn't explain to me what different sections of her story meant because her tutor, a screenwriter, had added examples into her essay that were unfamiliar to her.

I am tired of watching college applicants disappear as their adult advocates take over.

Admissions officers tell me they desperately want essays written authentically by the applicants, featuring stories, themes, and language that reflect the applicant's actual writing. Yet college coaches, tutors, counselors and parents at times take the opposite approach. They are over-editing by telling students what words to use and what to write.

My appeals to privilege the teenagers' voices grow stronger every day of college application season. What message are we sending our young people if we over-edit their essays so much that their originality and authenticity fade away?

It is time to let the 17-year-old voice take center stage.

As a national expert on college application essays, I travel around the country speaking to parents, schools, and communities about college application essays. I work with under-represented students to help encourage them to write application essays that communicate their stories, and I coach more privileged students individually.

No matter what their background, all teens need to learn that they have powerful stories to tell. While they usually don't have experience writing admissions essays, they can all write powerful essays if provided with brainstorming, drafting, and revising strategies.

Applying to college is an audition process; only the student can set foot on the stage and perform. College application readers look at student's grades, test scores, and recommendations, as well as essays. They are experts, and they can see disconnects. They can also see the other essays each student writes and can observe wild shifts in style and tone.

Teachers, coaches, parents, do what good mentors and editors do: guide and question, but do not rewrite. If you are reviewing a student's work, it is important that you understand that colleges do not want to hear your stories or read your mature writing styles. They want to hear fresh stories that reveal the unique experiences of students growing up in their era, not yours.

Also, anyone who helps students should be a mentor and a guide -- not a ghostwriter. Drafting essays takes time and is often painful, requiring students to find the allegorical stories that share powerful evidence of how they will enrich a campus. External advice, not rewriting, can be very helpful for your students. Remember, they have never done this sort of writing before. Help them see drafting as an authentic means of sharpening their voices.

And students, please understand that colleges want to hear from you and only you. When they want to hear from an adult, they will ask, usually in the form of a letter of recommendation.

Colleges want to read a story in your voice that tells them about an event or experience, quality or place that reveals what you, and you alone, can offer. What does the experience mean to you? They don't want manufactured grand stories that would belong in The New Yorker, unless you are a brilliant author who has already been published and who can demonstrate a portfolio of similarly written pieces. The process of thinking about the messages you want to send colleges in your essays can take weeks. There are no shortcuts.

As the holidays and college application deadlines approach, let's all give admissions offices a gift -- essays that enable the applicants' voices to pop off the page with originality and authenticity.

Hacking the Common App Essay Prompts, Pt. II

3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
The Approach: This is the prompt for everyone who has ever run for office, volunteered for a campaign, written an editorial, or led an uprising on campus. As with No. 2, the fun in this essay stems from tension. But, unlike No. 2 (and No. 5) it offers a more natural opportunity to reveal personal or intellectual growth. Students are implicitly asked to tell story and explicitly asked to analyze ("reflect on") it. That's a great, time-honored approach to personal essay-writing.

Traps: This prompt has too many parts. The first sentence alone should be enough to get a writer going. I fear that, as phrased, this prompt is going to result in some formulaic essays that respond to each element one-by-one, possibly with obvious topic sentences like, "I acted because...."

There's also a troubling contradiction. "Challenge" does not necessarily entail action. Beliefs can be challenged verbally, and they can be contemplated inwardly. These challenges may or may not lead to "decisions" in any proactive sense -- even though they can absolutely be worth writing about. Finally, students shouldn't merely "reflect" on the incident -- they need to narrate enough of the story so that an intelligent, but unfamiliar, reader knows what the writer is talking about.

The Hack: Just as the hack for No. 3 notes that the "failure" doesn't have to be first-person, in this prompt, the belief or idea being challenged doesn't have to belong to someone else. Students may write about reflexive challenges to their own ideas. This prompt may therefore offer the best chance to write about an academic topic -- a chance that the authors of the Common App have unforgivably omitted (as if a student's intellectual life can be neither a significant part of his personality nor a matter of any concern to his prospective colleges). Students who want to emphasize their intellectual lives can write about a research project, favorite author, or abstract idea with which they have wrestled internally.

The Super-Hack: Begin your essay with this sentence: "For the next 625 words I will be challenging the idea that a good essay must necessarily respond directly to a particular prompt." Then write the essay you really want to write.

4. Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
The Approach: I don't know where I'm most content, but I know one of the places where I'm least content: anyplace where I'm reading this prompt.

I fear a torrent of mawkish pleasantries:

"I'm content.... 
...in my mother's arms.
...on roller coasters. 
...in a field of daises.
...at the abattoir, after midnight, with cleaver in hand and a fresh herd on the hoof."

Writers who choose this prompt will, ideally, create their own tension, or at least try get beyond the blandness of "contentment." The best of these essays will describe someplace unexpected or who describe an unusual version of contentment. Students might be content in the library, where they're conducting original research, or they might be content at their menial job, because the job exposes them to fascinating co-workers. They might also contemplate a world that may be going to hell in a handbasket, and then explain and how their contentment contrasts with challenges in the world around them. These stories must be written with a very steady hand so as not to fall into vague musings on "meaningfulness."

Traps: This whole prompt is a trap.

In particular, responses about fantasy worlds and euphoric protestations will be particularly abrasive for readers who are cooped up in offices amid towers of applications. That goes double for essays about travel.

What's wrong with pleasantries? Think of it this way: How many happy novels are in the literary canon? The reason that everyone from Shakespeare to Plath to Hemingway shied away from happiness is that happiness isn't interesting. Tension is interesting. Conflict is interesting. Transformation is interesting. Reading about contentment is like waiting at a baggage carousel watching other people's luggage go by.

And perfect contentment? Who are they kidding?

The Hack: The most useful thing about this prompt is that it refers to a place. Everything happens somewhere, so almost any real-life story you want to tell that involves a place can be tweaked to fit this prompt. Even if the anecdote doesn't involve obvious contentment, such as my example above of the menial job, contentment can still lie in the student's reflection on the challenged faced, the idea learned, or the job well done.

5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
The Approach: This prompt bears an odd resemblance to Prompt No. 1, with a few potentially useful differences. The explicit reference to culture and community opens up worlds of possibility. Students can reflect on an ethnic background or analyze the ways that they go about life in their hometowns. Some of the best essays are those in which students acknowledge the world around them -- often through mention of current events, politics, or social issues -- and offer analysis thereof.

Students need to take care not to create caricatured versions of their families' cultural practices, such that they would fail to describe a genuine connection to (or critique of) those practices. I've read many a spiritless essay on Indian dance and Moon Festivals. Students from minority and/or immigrant backgrounds also must realize that any application reader is already familiar with most, if not all, of the major ethnic groups in the United States. Students must discuss their personal experiences and not dwell on the generic experience.

Traps: This one has three big traps: family, childhood, and adulthood.

Essays about family often commit the error of what I call asymmetrical importance. What is important to the writer (his mom, dad, siblings, pets) often holds zero meaning for the detached reader. Students who want to write about family must make sure that they have a unique story to tell and that they, not the sagacious uncle or patient mother, are the focus of the essay.

In the annals of college applications, fixation on childhood has undermined many a promising essay. It's tempting for students to chart their personal development by starting at the beginning of time. We get cute stories of Legos, princess costumes, and imaginary friends. But, students are not applying to college as six-year-olds, or even as 16-year-olds: they're applying on the cusp of adulthood, and the most compelling essays are those that tell colleges what a student's personality, intellect, and character are like in the here and now.

My biggest fear, though, is that students are going to proclaim their maturity in grandiose terms. Most 18-year-olds are still kids -- and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm long past age 18, and I still have no idea what adulthood is. Most of my friends would say the same. Adulthood has infinite changing definitions. Kids who are truly mature should demonstrate their maturity through stories and examples, not through assertions.

The Hack: 1) I'm always on the hunt for ways that students can discuss their intellectual development. What better way to distinguish adulthood from childhood than a discussion of ideas? 2) As with Prompt 3, the "event" does not have to involve the writer directly. Students can write about an event that they witnessed or contemplated and explain how their reaction to the event marks their maturation.

Finally
In "Politics and the English Language" -- arguably the most important essay of the 20th century, and a must-read for any author of nonfiction (do it now; there is no better use of the next ten minutes of your life) -- George Orwell presents a handful of rules of good writing. All of them are worth abiding by, even today. His final rule is, "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous." Orwell might as well have been referring to the Common App: If these prompts are so constraining that they would lead students to write something awful, then students must reject the prompts and write something great instead. (I'm sure Mark Twain would agree.)