5 Tips to Write a College Essay that Hooks Your Reader

You sit on your bed, at your desk and in the library wondering where to begin your college essay. It’s not like there’s a Google map showing you how to go from here to there. How do you dig through seventeen years of experiences and select the one that shares your voice, your vision, your passion?

Was it when you sat behind Grandpa’s dented old Buick the day you got your license, or the time you figured out how to rig your book to the shower door without getting it soggy so you could finish the last chapter of Fat Angie before bed? Or are those not what they are looking for?

Panic sets in. You take another look down memory lane. You haven’t climbed Kilimanjaro, landed in the Guinness Book of World Records, or won a championship in anything. You realize nothing big has happened to you. So, what are you going to write that an admissions officer wants to read?

Unstick from that blank screen, sit back and read these tips. I promise, your life is filled with wonderful stories to share.

5 Tips to Write a College Essay that Hooks Your Reader

Tip 1: Narrow Your Lens

Think small. Forget the time you tossed the buzzer-beater to win the championship basketball game. Write about a unique sliver in time. Slow down your story and share the moment you felt the synchronicity of your crew team as your oar skimmed the water, the time you watched your first model rocket launch from the backyard swing set with your big brother or the morning you sat in the rain, on purpose. It’s the small moments that can make big statements about who you really are.

Tip 2: Start with a First-Person Story

Try starting your essay with a story written in first-person narrative. Bring your reader into your story. Share the details and emotions of that moment. Talk about the clouds in the sky as your rocket flew past the tops of the pines and wound around the edge of the forest. Write like you’re directing a scene and the story is the main character.

Tip 3: Use your Senses

Nothing grabs a reader like details. Use your senses to tell the tale. What did the moment feel like? Look like? Sound like? Taste like? Let your senses be your guide. Think about the panic that rolled down your back and up your spine when you realized that you had buried your little brother’s favorite toy trucks somewhere on Mayflower Beach, but had no idea where.

Tip 4: Add Adjectives

Dig deep and describe your moment. Is Grandpa’s old car littered with gum wrappers? Does it smell like Old Spice? Do your legs stick to the seat from those peanut butter sandwiches he always eats? Again, you connect with your reader when you are able to convey the wonderful details of your story.

Tip 5: Emotionally Connect

Share your story in a thoughtful, honest and meaningful way. Any time you speak authentically from your heart, readers engage. People respect and connect to honest emotion.

Before you write, really think about the sentiment of the moment. Were you lonely in a gym filled with kids? Did standing at the podium feel like an itchy sweater on a hot afternoon in Boston? Allow yourself to convey the sentiments that will let the reader understand something about you that is not evident from your transcript or your activities resume.

Have a college fair plan (and plan to go!)

College fair plan

With so many people and so much information, it is easy to become overwhelmed. A little preparation can make a big difference.

1. Consider the options before diving in. If preregistration is available, do so and review materials for options. Seminars are often given at a specific time so check the schedule upon arrival. If students have a college list, visit those on it first. Plan to take longer than expected. Lines can grow long and fast, so arrive early for best chance to meet and speak with college reps. Don’t dismiss schools without lines. They may turn out to be hidden gems.
2. Information sources have their own agenda. College representatives use college fairs as marketing opportunities to encourage interest in their institution. They distribute information via brochures and other items to attract attention, meet prospective students, and encourage them to visit and apply for admission. Students can use this to their advantage by getting the rep’s contact information. Follow-up with questions in a quieter and more personalized setting.
3. Students and parents should set their agenda. Students attending college fairs include high school sophomores, juniors and seniors but each are in a different phase of the college search process. For those first starting, use the fair to get educated about higher education. Sit in on seminars, visit college booths and gather college brochures to review at home. Students who have already researched schools can use the fair to find answers to questions not contained in written info and college websites. Speak with college staff, many of whom attended the school they represent, for insider tips about the campus, surrounding area, programs and internships. Students ready to apply can focus on college comparisons and unique opportunities that will help students grow, thrive and be best prepared for graduate school or careers.
4. Parents can help their student. College representatives are interested in speaking with prospective students but many get tongue-tied. Have a conversation to brainstorm questions to ask and an elevator speech the student can use to introduce himself. Step back to let the student hone some independence and leadership skills to vest herself in the college process. Attend seminars for the first time or as a refresher to get updated information because both the admission and financial aid processes can change at any time.

Viewbooks only provide a glimpse into colleges

College-bound students receive a lot of mail from colleges. Students and families may think these materials are just a good way to learn more about colleges, and that is partly correct. However, the viewbooks and publications students receive in the mail or pick up at college fairs are also marketing materials. Colleges and universities spend tens of thousands of dollars to produce, print and mail these items to prospective students.

The majority of college publications will have a few things in common. They will:

• Provide general information about the institution, including majors, location, admission requirements, cost of attendance and financial aid information.
• Present beautiful pictures of the college campus, usually showing the best weather the area has to offer.
• Show attractive students smiling at the camera and/or in deep discussion with other students or professors.
• Have catchy or inspirational phrases and themes used throughout the publication.
• Describe the location and all of the advantages the location offers students.

Most of the publications will be beautiful and eye-catching. They will boast about the institution and will make the reader want to attend. There will be no negative descriptions of the college. When looking at college publications, most people do not relate them to other advertisements that come in the mail. They are very similar to the catalogs that big corporations produce for consumers. The whole idea behind any marketing publications is to sell a product. In the case of colleges, the publications are trying to sell a four-year college degree and the experience that goes along with it. Much time, energy, and money goes into producing beautiful publications to wow prospective students and make them want to attend the institutions.

College viewbooks are beautiful and will make any college look great and give the feeling it is a wonderful place to attend. While all colleges have something special to offer students, they might not be the right fit for each student. College publications, websites, and any marketing materials will not tell students everything about a college. More importantly, although they do a great job of showing what the campus community is like, marketing materials cannot give students an understanding of how they will feel on campus.

Students should reach out to colleges and get viewbooks and publications from colleges they are considering. They provide a lot of information and can answer questions students may have as they are researching college options. In addition, signing up for college mailing lists lets colleges know students are interested and may provide information that is not available in the general publications or the website. However, as students dig deeper into the college search, they should visit colleges they are seriously considering. A college visit is the only way a student can get the full feeling of what the campus community is like and how they will feel on campus. Students should test drive colleges they are considering just as they would when purchasing a car. It is the only way to make sure students are making the right decision when making this large decision that will amount to a large purchase.

The next time those college publications come in the mail, remember they are marketing materials. Students should use them to education themselves about the colleges, but understand they will not give all of the answers students need. Viewing college viewbooks is a lot like window-shopping; students will only see what the colleges want them to see. After window-shopping and narrowing down what they like and dislike, students should move on to testing out the colleges for themselves by visiting the campus. The college visit is the best way to try the college out to make sure they feel it is a good fit for them.

Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need

Re-posted from: http://www.thecollegesolution.com/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 handy way to assess the generosity of any school is to look at the percentage of demonstrated financial need it typically meets for its students.

Teenagers, who earn an acceptance into a school that meets 100% of need, can end up winning the educational equivalent of the lottery. Whether it will be a great deal will largely depend on how a particular school calculates financial need.

 Colleges and Universities That Meet 100% of Need

To make the search easier, here are the schools that I know of that say that they meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all or the majority of its students. If you are aware of others, please let me know in the comment box below.

Also on this 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 and Marshall College (PA)
28. Franklin W. Olin College
29. Georgetown University (DC)
30. Gettysburg College (PA)
31. Grinnell College (IA)
32. Hamilton College (NY)
33. Harvey Mudd College (CA)
34. Haverford College (PA)
35. Harvard University (MA)
36. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
37. Kenyon College (OH)
38. Lafayette College (PA)
39. Lehigh University (PA)
40. Macalester College (MN)
41. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
42. Middlebury College (VT)
43. Mount Holyoke College (MA)
44. Northwestern University (IL)
45. Oberlin College (OH)
46. Occidental College (CA)
47. Pitzer College (CA)
48. Pomona College (CA)
49. Princeton University (NJ)
50. Reed College (OR)
51. Rice University (TX)
52. Saint John’s College (NM)
53. Saint Olaf College (MN)
54. Scripps College (CA)
55. Sewanee: The University of the South (TN)
56. Smith College (MA)
57. Stanford University (CA)
58. Swarthmore College (NY)
59. Thomas Aquinas College (CA)
60. Trinity College (CT)
61. Tufts University (MA)
62. Tulane University (LA)
63. Union College (NY)
64. University of Chicago (IL)
65. University of Notre Dame (IN)
66. University of Pennsylvania (PA)
67. University of Richmond (VA)
68. University of Rochester (NY)
69. University of Southern California
70. Vanderbilt University (TN)
71. Vassar College (NY)
72. Wabash College (IN)
73. Wake Forest University (NC)
74. Washington and Lee University (VA)
75. Washington University, St. Louis, (MO)
76. Wellesley College (MA)
77. Wesleyan University (MA)
78. Williams College (MA)
79. Wheaton College (MA)
80. Yale University (CT)

Generous Colleges

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 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 a federal direct loan (formally known at the Stafford) into the package. The maximum direct loan limit for a 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 or 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 federal direct 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 federal Loan.

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

Definition of Need

The financial aid packages will vary based on the underlying aid formula that each school uses. Schools that use the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE (about 260 schools – nearly all private) can modify the standard aid formula in a variety of different ways. The school, for instance, can vary in how it assesses home equity, business assets, divorce and much more. Here is a recent post that I wrote about how schools vary in how they treat home equity:

Will Your Home Equity Impact Financial Aid Chances?

You can obtain the percentage-of-financial-need-met figures by heading to the College Board. I wrote the following blog post last year that explains how to generate these figures:

A Close-Up of a Stingy University

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.

College Application Essay Tips Students Need Now

No matter the essay prompt, tell college admissions staff a story that reveals who you are.

Re-posted from: http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-admissions-playbook/2014/09/29/college-application-essay-tips-students-need-now

With college application season comes the pressure to produce high-quality admissions essays. Make no mistake – regardless of the wording of the question, virtually all admissions essays are truly asking, "Who are you?" Secondarily, they allow college or university admissions staff members to assess your ability to form a coherent narrative.

Here are several tips to help you address some actual admissions essay prompts faced by the class of 2015, as well as those of your own prospective colleges.

[Master college application essays with these tips.]

• The Common Application: "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 admissions committee is not seeking travel suggestions here. Rather, this question is meant to provide insight into your passions.

Draft an opening sentence that is descriptive, and allow your reader to envision you at that perfect moment. Ensure you address the second part of the question as well – this is your opportunity to explain what you value in life.

Is your perfect moment the last time you leisurely read a book amid your hectic schedule? Or is it when you served a home-cooked meal to your overworked family? Is it the moment before the first football game of the season when you are surrounded by your team?

A more sophisticated answer could include a discussion of "contentment" itself. You might contrast contentment with happiness, achievement or satisfaction. Make it clear that you understand the intent of the original question, but be explicit in why you consider contentment secondary to another state of being.

Questioning the question, when handled appropriately, can show that you are capable of higher-order reasoning. If it is done poorly, however, you risk seeming as if you avoided or misread the prompt.

[Explore more advice on writing a standout college application essay.]

• Pomona College: "What does freedom mean to you?"

Do not begin this essay with "According to the dictionary," under any circumstances. Admissions officers will likely receive hundreds of essays that begin this way. Remember that this essay is more about you than it is about freedom.

One approach is to share a story about a time when you simply felt free; consider contrasting it with a time you felt constrained. You might also discuss a time when you felt you were prevented from following your dreams by some sort of barrier, as well as what it would mean for you to transcend that barrier.

Better yet? Discuss how you plan to overcome the hurdles you have faced.

A riskier approach to this question would be to address the importance of freedom as a concept. It is perhaps impossible to find an individual who would argue against freedom, so you would need to find an unusual angle from which to approach the topic. As an example, you could reference this quotation by Thomas Jefferson: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Are freedom and liberty the same idea? Is metaphorical blood acceptable, or must it be literal? Ensure you explicitly state why this conversation is important to you.

[Understand how to put together a college admissions video essay.]

• United States Naval Academy: "Describe a personal experience you have had which you feel has contributed to your own character development and integrity."

In this case, the weakest answer would be to describe something you merely witnessed, such as a friend who was caught cheating on a test. A better answer would be to describe something you did that caused harm, followed by the lesson you learned as a result.

Do not merely point out that everyone makes mistakes – your reader knows this. Instead, demonstrate that you are capable of empathy by explaining how your actions made the other person feel, and subsequently, describing the lesson you learned.

It is possible, too, to answer this question with a time that you held to your convictions. What does it mean that you lost a friend because you refused to help him or her in a lie?

Remember, every essay is a chance to show an admissions committee exactly who you are.

4 Key Tips For Ivy League Admission

There are no guarantees in the college admissions game, especially at name-brand institutions like those in the Ivy League. Not everyone is going to gain admission, even if, as I noted in my previous post, they meet the top benchmarks for acceptance: stratospheric test results and transcripts. 34,295 students applied to Harvard for the Class of 2018, and only 2,023 (5.9%) gained admission. Harvard could easily fill a second class that’s just as qualified with students from the “no” pile.

So how do you improve your odds of admission with such a super-competitive applicant pool? Since I only attended an Ivy League school, Harvard, for summer debate camp, I am hardly the expert here. Thus, I turned to a specialist in college admissions counseling, Dr. Kat Cohen, of the appropriately entitled education consulting concern, IvyWise. Here’s a paraphrase — with my advice sprinkled in — of what the good doctor ordered:

1.   Start Preparing As Early As Possible

Colleges look at all four years of high school grades, courses and extracurricular involvement. They want to know that students are challenging themselves each year, and deepening their involvement in activities that interest them. Or, as I routinely tell high school students (not that they listen), college admissions teams want to see that you are a master of one thing (in my case, it was policy debate), not a jack of all extracurriculars. Sustained extracurricular involvement over all four years of high school is, thus, mission critical. Colleges, like marriage prospects, like future employers, want to see that you’re committed to your interests.

English: Widener Library, Harvard University 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, please don’t get involved in an extracurricular activity because you think it will “look good” on your college application. Get involved in a project or activity that deeply engages you. If that’s football, or chess, or the math club, or theater, or social work of some kind, it’s all good. The main thing is passionate commitment. Remember: elite colleges are not asking you to be “well-rounded.” They are looking to build well-rounded classes around a pool of world-class specialists.

2. Take Harder Courses With Each Advancing Year

This one is a no-brainer. Just as college courses are designed to get more rigorous and intense with each passing year, so too should your high school courses. As I noted in my previous post, Superhuman High School Transcripts Are Key to Ivy League Admission, colleges want to see students taking harder courses each year on an upward grade trend so they can tell if you are prepared for a heavy college course load. So, take the most challenging courses you can find at your school or nearby community college. And work hard to get the best possible grades in these college-level courses.

3.     Essays Matter: Don’t Slack On The Common App

Highly selective institutions, like those in the Ivy League, ask supplementary essay questions in addition to the main Common Application essay. For example, Brown and Columbia, ask variations of the “Why This College?” essay. These supplemental essays are very important because they are often school-specific and serve as a way for the college to get to know you better. It’s important for students applying to any selective school, let alone the Ivies, to submit well-written, compelling essays that convey their voice, interests, who they are as a person and student, and how they would contribute to the campus community. Generic pabulum about how you look up to your wonderful grandma isn’t going to cut it.

I would add that just as in the job market, elite institutions, like elite employers, want to know that you’ve done your homework on the school, what it is about, and how you specifically fit into its mission (both in the classroom and out). However, please don’t make this stuff up. This is why it is so important to know what you want out of college before you even apply. Instead of forcing yourself into what the college wants, find out what you want first. That will make answering college-specific questions so much easier and natural.

4. Boost Your IQ (Interest Quotient): Demonstrated Interest Matters

With more students applying to more colleges than ever before, colleges are having a difficult time predicting yield, or the percentage of admitted students who end up enrolling. Colleges, especially highly selective institutions that might be battling against one another for highly qualified applicants, want to admit students who genuinely want to attend their specific school and are, thus, likely to enroll if admitted. Because of this uncertainty and the pressure to manage yield, more colleges are considering demonstrated interest — the level of interest students have shown in their specific school — to predict who is most likely to enroll and who isn’t. Things like visits, contact with the admissions office, interviews, applying early, are all considered elements of demonstrated interest. Applying in the early round, in particular, is one of the best ways for students to demonstrate interest, as early decisions are binding (meaning a student must attend if admitted) and single-choice early action prevents a student from applying to another private institution until they receive a decision from the first school.

Early admission rates at Ivy League schools can be much higher than the regular admission rate. For example, for the Class of 2018 Harvard admitted 21% of applicants in the early round, and with an overall admit rate of 5.9%, that means Harvard admitted just 3% of applicants from the regular admissions pool. So, boost your IQ, and dramatically improve your odds.

Understanding Early Action, Early Decision, Restricted Early Action and Rolling Admission

Before you decide to apply "early" to a college, it's a good idea to understand what that means. Like so many other areas of college admissions, it's not exactly straightforward. Early Action (I and II), Early Decision (I and II), Restricted Early Action and Rolling Admission have generally agreed-upon definitions, but some colleges also have individual early policies that they apply independently.

Over 500 colleges and universities offer EA or ED programs; some offer both. In theApplication Info section (top left tab) on my adMISSION POSSIBLE® website, I offer up-to-date lists of colleges that offer early action, restricted early action and early decision plans, including their respective, current application due dates.

So that you can wrap your head around the concept, here are the general definitions:

EARLY ACTION (EA) I AND II
In this non-binding application program, a student usually applies EA I on or before the first of November (sometimes Nov. 15) and receives an admission decision by the middle of December. If accepted, the student is not obligated to commit to the college until the mandatory May 1 "college deadline day." EA II is a second chance to apply early at the beginning or middle of January, with a response back from a college sometime four, six, eight weeks out. Early Action colleges usually allow students to apply to other EA schools.

EARLY DECISION (ED) I AND II
In this binding application program, a student applies on or before Nov. 1 (sometimes Nov. 15) and then receives his or her admission decision by the middle of December. If accepted, the student is obligated to attend that college. (Upon acceptance, a student must withdraw all other applications.) If he/she does not get admitted to an ED college, the applicant can then apply ED II to another college with a later deadline. Some Early Decision colleges even allow students to apply to other early application programs, as long as they are not binding; but others don't. Check this out on the admission section of colleges' websites.

RESTRICTED EARLY ACTION (AKA, SINGLE-CHOICE EARLY ACTION), REA
REA is a non-binding early action admission option in which a student may not apply to any other private schools' early program, except:

• A college outside of the US
• A non-binding rolling admission program
• A public college or university whose admission is not binding.
• An ED II program, if notification of admission occurs after January 1

Like EA applicants, a student has until May 1 to decide if she/he wants to attend the college or university. Schools that offer REA programs are Boston College, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. Applicants are asked to sign a statement stipulating that they agree to file only one early application.

ROLLING ADMISSION
This is an application program at some schools -- usually larger public universities -- in which applications are accepted, evaluated and decided upon as they are received. Applications are accepted until the college fills all of its spaces. There is no limit to the number of Rolling Admissions schools to which you can apply even if you apply to EA, ED or REA colleges.

Having identified all of the above, I am sorry to report that every year many colleges seem to change what they do about early applications. The best approach to finding out how schools on your college list handle early applications is to go to their individual admissions websites and/or call admissions offices directly. The Common Application website and US News' Best Colleges 2015 are other good sources.

EARLY ACCEPTANCE RATES
Many students and parents want to know whether applying early will give applicants an edge. Unfortunately, the short answer is that it depends. Applying early will not help you if you are not a competitive applicant. When push comes to shove, though, "hooked" students tend to have a better chance of getting accepted in early plans. What does "hooked" mean? It is an applicant who has a substantial admission edge if they apply early (or for that matter, regular) admission because they are:

• A very desirable, recruited athlete
• An applicant with a distinct, noteworthy talent the college is looking for
• High potential, under-represented and/or disadvantaged minority students
• Students who are children of major donors to the college
• Students who are legacies (children of a parent who is an alumnus)
• Children of parents who are celebrities, wealthy business executives, politicians and the like
• Faculty children

Every year, college admissions websites provide information about how many students they admit from early admissions versus regular admissions. And every year, The New York Times posts early admissions rates for the previous year in a story that predictably appears sometime in March. This information can also be found atwww.collegedata.com

THE ENDPOINT OF APPLYING EARLY
There are three outcomes of applying early: Acceptance, Deferral and Denial. In an earlier blog, "Early Applications. Bad News: You Were Deferred. Good News: You Weren't Denied," I go through the steps for how to handle a deferment. In my next blog, I'll let you know what's in it for colleges to offer early applications and how you can decide whether it makes sense for you to apply early.