-In and out in an hour? Or do you spend weeks mining for jewels among your students’ experiences?   Do you think brainstorming ideas is all about finding a unique story? Or are you trying to help students identify an effective topic? We’re in the quick and effective camp.   Why? Because drawn-out, elaborate brainstorming Read More

Last year, a counselor from Atlanta asked me what advice to give a student who wanted to use his personal statement to show colleges that he “gives 110% to everything he does.”  She knew it was a cliché. But is that bad? Nope. Not really. I told her it was okay and explained why. Phrases Read More

There’s a lot of advice out there when it comes to the college essay. We know all about it. We read it. We hear it. Some share templates for writing stand-out college essays. (Email templates are useful; essay templates don’t work!) Others promise that if your students answer a bunch of specific questions, they’ll be Read More

Last month, I had an interesting conversation with our intern, Sammy, a bright and delightful University of Michigan junior and English major. He’s a voracious reader who likes to write, too. (Full disclosure: He’s also the son of my business partner, Susan Knoppow). As part of his job, Sammy – who was a Wow student when Read More

By now, you’ve surely done several reviews of your students’ college essays – first those early apps and now regular admissions. Whether they are in the content, structure or polish phase of the essay writing process, it’s important to review slowly. At Wow, our message is the same for Common App personal statements, UC Personal Read More

A few months ago, my heart sank when my sweet and very hard-working student told me his high school counselor did not like his college essay. He loved his story about acing a final term paper in Honors English after failing to answer the prompt in his first draft. He had showcased how hard work and Read More

Have you ever read an essay draft and thought, Yikes! What will readers think? Such a great kid, and he comes across as pompous (or rude or self-important or….) Maybe your student really is full of himself. Or maybe his self-confidence just doesn’t translate well on the page. We’ve all been there. The solution? I Read More

Recently, I had an email exchange with a mom who questioned her daughter’s Common App personal statement. How are you feeling about its quality?  the mom asked. Her daughter is a very smart girl. Driven by causes. Great mind. Incredibly mature. She wrote an excellent essay showcasing her interest in social justice; she focused her Read More

An independent educational consultant recently asked me this question: “Is the essay about great storytelling?” Day after day, we get emails and calls like this one from counselors, teachers and educational consultants with questions and challenges. We’re always happy to answer. This time, my answer was “Nope.” That’s a myth. We say this all the time: At its core, the Read More

Before they start, they should ask themselves a few questions to determine if they are ready This time of year, we focus on ways to prepare for the college essay, which students generally begin writing at the end of junior year – presumably in June. But lately, we’ve been getting a lot of questions from Read More