After a recent College Essay Pro Chat, I received this email from a colleague: What do you think about a student athlete/performer choosing to write about their sport/performing in their main essay, if they are pursuing this in their college experience (e.g. recruited/varsity athletics, a talent-based major), since it is already strongly represented in their Read More

Here are the 10 most common College Essay Topics (over 90% of all Scholarship Essay Prompts are related to one of these topics): 1: How will this scholarship help you? 2: Have you contributed to your community? (or other community service question) 3: Tell us about yourself (or generic personal statement request) 4: Tell us Read More

I received this email from a parent last month, shortly after her son submitted his early applications. She was concerned about his supplements for the University of Pennsylvania, where he is applying Regular Decision. For his second essay, I don’t think that his second and third paragraphs answer the questions how Penn will shape his perspective Read More

During a Zoom meeting earlier this year, I heard a familiar lament from a bright, successful counseling colleague who was running on fumes, exhausted because her students just weren’t coming through with the essays, she thought they were capable of. I love brainstorming, she said. I love getting to know my students, but the essays Read More

While there is still time, it’s important for rising high school seniors and their parents to understand why the rest of summer – besides being a great time to hang out at the pool! — is a great opportunity to start writing that all-important college application essay. In this article, we’ll explore why tackling this Read More

As the school year winds down, it’s important for incoming high school seniors and their parents to understand why summer – besides being a great time to hang out at the pool! — is a great opportunity to start writing that all-important college application essay.  Tackling this crucial task early on can lead to a Read More

During a recent interview about college essays with College and Career Clarity podcast host Lisa Marker-Robbins, the topic of sample essays came up. We don’t like sample essays, even though a lot of people use them when coaching students on the college essay. To be clear, it’s not that the sample essays can’t be good examples. It’s Read More

This time of year, we talk to a lot of high school counselors and other professionals about gearing up for another college application season. We’d like to share a favorite message we tell our own students at the beginning of every season. Trust yourself. This is your journey, so own the process. When you are Read More

A few weeks ago, we hosted a discussion about the “threat” of ChatGPT to college essay coaching with more than 100 colleagues. The very same day, OpenAI officially launched GPT4. As you can see, there’s always a shiny new object on the horizon. But just because we were a few hours behind on the latest Read More