Common College Essay Mistakes: Word Choice

Over the last couple of weeks, essay review season has really started to pick up at College Coach. We’re diving into drafts each day, providing both the big picture ideas and the small-scale tips to help students find success with their college application essays. Our past blog entries have focused more on the big picture: how to approach the “failure” prompt from the Common App; ways you can effectively use the Additional Information section; brainstorming through writer’s block. Today I want to focus on the smallest of issues with college essays: the words you choose to use.

Write Like You Talk

Most students who come into my office have normal vocabularies. There’s a big word dropped here or there in reference to an idea they’ve discovered in school—maybe it’s existentialism or photosynthesis or even spectrophotometer—but multi-syllabic mouthfuls are rare when I’m just chatting with a student about what he cares about and why, and that’s the way it ought to be.

How to finish your application essays on time

One of my colleagues at College Coach sent an email to our admissions team today. “Six weeks until November 1!” it said. I had to check my calendar just to be sure. Yep, she was right. Six weeks until the first big deadlines of the student admissions cycle. Six weeks until those precious ED applications would be shipped off to my students’ top choice colleges with personal statements perfected, activities lists completed, and supplements fully executed. Six weeks until we could all pause and breathe a heavy sigh of relief and either begin the anxious wait for decisions or take a well-deserved rest before diving back in to more applications.

I like to encourage all of my students to treat November 1 as a “soft” deadline. Whether or not you plan to apply Early Decision or EA, it’s helpful to give yourself an endpoint to aim for—an endpoint that ensures your supplemental essays don’t hang over your Thanksgiving dinner like a dark cloud.

If the college admission season has gone according to plan, you’re likely putting the finishing touches on your last supplemental essays, penning personal thank-you cards to your teacher recommenders, and hunkering down for a congratulatory bowl of ice cream and Netflix marathon. While this dream scenario is appealing to parents and students alike, it doesn’t quite match up with reality for so many seniors scrambling to stay on top of things during this stressful fall. If you’ve put off your applications for the last few months, waiting until a sense of urgency kicks in, you’re not alone. But we’re here to tell you that the time to get started is now (if not a month ago), and to help you take the first big steps towards college application success.

Earlier this week, we suggested five ways for students to begin to get involved during their high school careers. Today we pick up where we left off, with the last five tips on our list!

6. Part-time jobs

Whether a student is looking for a little extra pocket money or experience in the working world, a part-time job is a great way to demonstrate independence and initiative. Even 15 hours a week at the local ice cream shop can reinforce a strong work ethic (and a bank account balance).

7. Volunteering

Many high schools these days are requiring students to do community service or complete volunteer hours as part of their graduation requirements, but regardless of the requirement, giving time to a cause your child cares about can be wonderful for a number of reasons.  Interest in animal science? Volunteer at the local shelter. Curious about medicine? See if there are opportunities to help at the city hospital. Is your child itching for political experience? Tell her to sign up to canvass for a local campaign. Volunteering isn’t just about stacking up hours, it’s also about exposure to new experiences and organizations.

When it comes to the college application, some parts are easy to understand. Take tough courses. Get good grades. Write a strong essay. But when students are also encouraged to “get involved,” it’s hard for them to know exactly where to begin, and understandably so. For freshmen in particular, high school is a new experience with a wide variety of clubs, organizations, teams, and activities to be a part of, and getting involved in just a few of those activities can enrich your child’s four-year experience in high school.

So where do you begin? Before helping your child decide what it is he may want to do, it’s important to first spend some time looking at what his passions and talents are, the time he has committed to each of his current activities, and how much he enjoys participating in those activities. The start of high school can be a great opportunity to make changes to your student’s extracurricular involvements, or to introduce her to something new. Remember, this isn’t just the first step in her new academic career, it’s also her introduction to a brand new community.

Every Thursday this summer, we are introducing students and families to a different member of the College Coach admissions team. Drop in to see what we’re reading, where we went to school, and our strategies for beginning the college essay. As you work with us to find an educational consultant who best fits your needs or the needs of your child, we will help you consider the personality and working styles that will bring out the best in you or your student. Today we introduce Mary Sue Youn, who works with students in our Ridgewood, NJ office.

Where are you from?
Mary Sue: I grew up in South Jersey, and have lived in New York and Southern California.  I have lived in Montclair, NJ since 2000.

Where did you go to school?
Mary Sue: Cornell University.  I also did graduate work in Psychology at the Claremont Graduate University.

What did you study?
Mary Sue: Psychology, with minors in Statistics and Music

There’s a new set of college rankings on the scene, and the finance educators at College Coach are pretty intrigued by them. Created by Money magazine, the focus of the rankings is on the financial aspects of a college education including how much you might pay at different colleges and how much you might make after graduation.  The three categories they use to construct their rankings are quality, affordability, and outcomes. You can read more about their methodology here.

They aren’t perfect—no set of rankings is—and we could write pages about whether or not this system can truly capture the diversity of higher education institutions and the students who are attending them. But those arguments aside, we like these rankings because they should prompt you, the soon-to-be higher education consumer, to ask colleges (and yourself) some good hard questions as you decide whether or not to include them on your application list.

Let’s take it one ranking category at a time:

This summer we are introducing students and families to a different member of the College Coach admissions team. Drop in to see what we’re reading, where we went to school, and our strategies for beginning the college essay. As you work with us to find an educational consultant who best fits your needs or the needs of your child, we will help you consider the personality and working styles that will bring out the best in you or your student. Today we introduce Steve Fernandez-Brennan.

Where are you from?
Steve: Fowler, Indiana.

Where did you go to school?
Steve: Undergrad: Marquette University; German classes: Loyola Chicago; Grad school, University of Hawai`i – Mānoa.

What did you study?
Steve: Majors? English and history. Minor? French. Grad Degree? Urban and Regional Planning. Studied? Philosophy, theology, statistical modeling, East Asia political structures, community planning, and lots of data on the variables of seatbelt use in Hawai`i.

How to Prepare for Financial Aid as a High School Freshman

During my tenure as a financial aid officer at MIT, Babson College, and other schools, I read thousands of financial aid applications and talked to hundreds of parents about how they could cover their share of the costs of their children’s educations. I learned very quickly that the earlier a family began to think about how they would pay for their children’s education, the more likely they would be able to do so without too much financial stress.

When you get right down to it, there are three ways students can secure funds to reduce the costs of their undergraduate educations. First, there is need-based financial aid: the money that colleges and the federal and state government provide to students after some kind of analysis of their family’s ability to pay for college. Second, there are “outside scholarships”: money that the student can compete for and—if they win—bring with them to any college they choose to attend. And third, there are scholarships awarded by the colleges themselves.