Supplemental essays are personal statements. They need to be about you, tell a compelling story, and so on. I know, I know—you’ve already written a personal statement, and now you’re being asked to do so again, over and over. It should go without saying that you can’t reiterate anything you’ve
Welcome to the supplemental essays for the University of Chicago! UChicago is known for having some of the most creative essay questions of any college, but it’s easy to misinterpret them as casual opportunities to write about the first thing you think of. You’ll need to have a discerning eye
As you probably already know, the point of your college application is to give admissions committees a solid sense of who you are. You’ve written a highly personal college essay, and probably some supplementals on your intellectual and extracurricular activities and your leadership experience. Maybe on your intended major and
“SR 2xsci 10, 11. JHCTY online MV Calc 12 fits w/Hutch internship. Supp: Hutch MD a rare gem.” This is the language of admissions officers. It’s often said, rightly so, that admissions officers blaze through your application at breakneck pace—your personal statement in a minute or two, your activities in
How do you make an admissions officer believe you? This, in my opinion, is the central challenge of college applications. You probably believe you’re smart enough, hard-working enough, and talented enough to get into the schools you’re applying to, and your job is to convince the application reader that you
Once you have an idea for your common application essay, also known as your personal statement (see my article here on coming up with a strong idea if you don’t yet), and you’ve mustered the courage to write up a first draft (see this piece on writing a first draft),
After coming up with a topic (see my post here on coming up with one if you don’t yet), putting words on a page is an intimidating step. Students with primarily academic writing experience sometimes default to the standard boring introduction, structured body paragraphs, and summary conclusion of an English
College applications have various important components, but your grades, scores, and teacher recommendations are usually nearly already set in stone by the time you begin writing your essays. The 650-word personal statement in the common application (a similar essay of 500-550 words is included in the coalition application) is uniquely
One of the first and most often overlooked steps in applying to college is deciding where to apply. As a high school student, especially at a public high school but at private ones as well, you rarely receive any helpful information about what differentiates colleges. For example, my parents worked
On June 12th, Yale announced a test-optional policy for the 2020-2021 admissions cycle. This comes following the CollegeBoard’s announcement on June 2nd that they would not be offering the SAT online for the foreseeable future “because taking it would require three hours of uninterrupted, video-quality internet for each student, which
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