CommonApp

4 Reasons Why It’s Important to Tell the Truth and How It Can Get You Into College

 tagged admissions process / applications / college essay by

Let’s face an unpalatable truth together, shall we? We ALL lie. Yup, when occasion suits our needs, even those of us who are honest almost all the time and pride ourselves on our integrity are still prone to exaggerate, understate, omit, prevaricate (go ahead, look it up), or explicitly speak what we know not to be true. Human beings have emotions, and to paint in broad stokes, we prefer the good ones to the bad ones; so sometimes we delude ourselves that telling a white, or sometimes black, lie will feel better than suffering the short-term pain that telling the […]

Attention Underclassmen and Parents: CommonApp 101 & Hot Tips for Extracurrics

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                “Passion is no ordinary word” – Graham Parker  One of the most common words bandied about in the college admissions game is “passion,” and not without good reason. Indeed, one of the keys to writing successful applications is effectively communicating areas in your life–whether academic, athletic, extracurricular, or volunteer and work experience–about which you are passionate. These days committees aren’t as impressed with “well-rounded” as they are with “depth of interest,” in other words, passion. So how and where can you communicate your passion on the CommonApp?  Good question, glad you asked. Many mistakenly think it’s only the “Personal […]

College Admissions in the Digital Age

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio Applying to college is different in 2011 than ever before.  Dr. Yo is joined by Steve Cohen, author of Getting In: The Zinch Guide to College Admissions and Financial Aid in the Digital Age, and Dean Tsouvalas, Editor-in-Chief of StudentAdvisor (http://www.studentadvisor.com), as they discuss: The Common App   What Admissions Committees are looking for   How prospective students can evaluate college web sites virtual tours connecting with students watching videos

Reminiscences of Summer Travel and Study Abroad

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It would be no exaggeration to say that my trip to France in the summer of 1980 changed my life. As a typical angst-ridden teen—with a slightly atypical penchant for Existential literature—I found myself in a funk at age 16, the promise of three months’ vacation notwithstanding. An extended journey through France changed all that, opening my eyes to the world beyond my hometown classrooms and ho-hum haunts. In particular, a little five-year-old boy named Florian (who patiently taught me French vernacular), his ten-year-old brother Cyril, and my French “parents”—all of whom are among my friends on Facebook more than […]

4 Tips to Make Your CommonApp UNcommon

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Even though many colleges have graciously extended 11/1 deadlines on account of Hurricane Sandy, many students and their parents (especially the latter) remain in get-it-done mode. While the desire to remove this stressful boulder from your shoulders is understandable, it can lead to eleventh-hour rushing, inattention to detail, and ultimately disappointing mail come mid-December. While I am a huge fan of the CommonApp in general, one of its potential pitfalls is that it’s a web form, which to the net-gen means it can be done really quickly. And, strictly speaking, it can. With simple check boxes, drop-downs, text boxes, and […]

Tips and Tricks for the CommonApp

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio What’s one relatively easy way to separate yourself from the pack in the most competitive era in college admissions ever? With  scintillating application materials, of course! Join Dr. Yo and his panel of experts–Northwest Catholic’s Director of Guidance, Joyce O’Rourke, and teen Samantha Udolf (Harvard ’16)– who’ve been through or are going through the process as they share tips and tricks for writing winning essays, filling out the activities list and extracurricular blurbs, managing supplements, and more!   If you haven’t started or you’re still working on your CommonApp, DO […]

Mash-ups, Texting, and The CommonApp Activity Blurb

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Thank God for loud music during exercise class.  I don’t know about you, but when I start hearing myself breathing hard—okay, panting like an almost-50-year-old—I take a psychological hit, convince myself I’m more fatigued than I am, and stop pushing myself.  So when the instructor cranked up her iPod during this morning’s 6:00AM Boot Camp, I smiled to myself and kicked it into high gear—er, higher gear. Funny thing about her playlist.  It was all mash-ups.  And as I did my 237th squat in a row, I got to thinking about what a fitting metaphor for our time the mash-up […]

Conquering the College Admissions Essay

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   Join me and Alan Gelb, author of Conquering the College Admissions Essay in 10 Steps, as we discuss any and all topics relating to college application essays.   Topics include: CommonApp Writing Brainstorming & Strategizing Telling stories (aka, anecdotes) Drafting & Editing Polishing Examples of Great Essays and Why They’re Great Questions from Rising Seniors Currently in the Throes of the Process   And, of course, we invite YOU to pose questions and offer comments when you call into the show live or post them in advance! SaveSave

Two Ways to Choose a College Essay Topic

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For many students, the hardest part about the whole dreaded college essay is choosing a topic. While it’s true that HOW you present your essay is important—that is, your writing style, mechanical correctness, personal voice are all formal qualities that generate the overall impression your essay makes—WHAT you say does matter. In choosing your topic, consider the two most important substantive features (i.e., as opposed to the formal features noted above): your story your message For some students, it’s easier to think of an anecdote or two they’d like to relate in their essay, some highly memorable or meaningful experience, a moment […]

Application Essays and the Common App: What You Need to Know

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   Join me and three teen experts who have recently gone through the application writing process as we discuss how best to respond to those pesky personal prompts on the Common App! Topics include: managing all the written pieces of the Common App changes to the 2011-2012 Common App what to write about when to write them what admissions officers are looking for review of what the “College Essay” books  say managing the supplement sections how to maximize the extracurriculars list maximizing teacher recommendations advice from students who’ve recently gone […]

Four Things You Must Know About the Common App

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What is It? The Common Application (lovingly referred to as the “CommonApp”) is the way most students apply to most colleges today, which is to say, electronically via a website (http://www.commonapp.org).  The CommonApp boasts more than 400 prominent colleges in its membership, a number that grows every year: in 2011-2012, for example, 49 new schools will begin to accept applications via the CommonApp. From the student’s perspective, there are two major components to the CommonApp, a generic section that goes to every college in your “My Colleges” list, and a school-specific section that goes only to each individual college, known […]

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The Scoop on Interviews: Distinguishing Yourself from the Crowd

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by Liz Deakin Why Prepare For Interviews?  It’s been widely reported that we’re in the midst of the most competitive year ever for college admissions.  While grades, test scores, and impressive applications remain the mainstay of admissions committees’ criteria, any minor edge can make the difference between landing in the “no thanks” pile and the coveted “acceptance” pile. So given that you’ve invested so much time studying, taking tests, writing essays, researching schools and touring campuses, why not seal the deal with a fabulous interview? Most colleges offer interviews to prospective students. Some offer “campus” and “alumni” interviews, while some […]