Last fall, during the National Association of College Admission Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Duke University Dean of Admissions Christoph Guttentag told me he would like students to answer questions, rather than write beautiful prose in a college admissions essay. He and I had been chatting about all the misinformation on the Internet, inside Read More

As high school counselors, you already know the competition to get into the nation’s top colleges gets tougher ever year. But do you know that’s not because students are smarter or more qualified than they were five or ten years ago? It’s a simple matter of impossible math. Year after year, more kids apply for Read More

This is the time of year many high school juniors (and even sophomores!) start to get nervous about the journey to college. Seniors are either done, or at the end of the college admissions process; some have been admitted to their dream schools, while others were deferred or rejected. Parents are starting to ask questions, Read More

Early applications to college are in, and now many students are scrambling to finish personal statements and essay supplements for regular admissions, beginning Jan. 1. Whether you are writing a personal statement for the Common App, Coalition App, or a supplement for an Ivy, private liberal arts college or public university, make sure you follow Read More

The clock is ticking for students applying to school for next fall as the regular college admissions deadlines loom. Are your students’ essays stressing you out? Are they done? Do the essays they’ve already written look messy? Or is something missing from the story? We don’t want your students’ college application journey to ruin Thanksgiving. Read More

Holly Bennetts, president of the Michigan Association for College Admission Counseling, sees countless students break down in her office because a trusted adult in their life said a personal statement for their college application was not good enough. “The student takes that as ‘I am not good enough,’” said Bennetts, a high school counselor Mercy Read More

Over the years, many high school counselors have come to us, asking for tips to guide students through the college essay writing process. They want to help their students, but they’re not sure how to use their limited time most effectively. We have been talking to admissions officers and school counselors about essays for years, Read More

Does this scene sound familiar? Your student is sitting down, staring at a fresh sheet of paper, pencil poised in hand, but not writing anything. It can happen for an AP Language paper or a college essay. The students say they feel stuck; they call it writer’s block.   Many of Wow’s college essay and Read More

Every writer feels nervous in the moments when they are revising, starting over or drafting a new piece of prose. So it’s not surprising when even students who are well-prepared, understand the college essay prompt, and have a great story to tell also get the first-draft jitters, or writing anxiety.   In a few months, Read More

The New York Times recently published examples of 4 great college essays that stood out from students in different parts of the country. Writing the college essay is very difficult for many students. These examples may give your students some ideas on how they should approach writing their own: Jonathan Ababiy – Blaine, MN ‘The Read More