We will be answering all questions and providing private demonstrations as requested. Plus, one IECA member who stops by will win a FREE master account with four student accounts to be used this season or next!

It has been a terrific year for us at College Essay Organizer, in large part because of IECA and its wonderful membership, and we're excited to be joining you in Dallas.

See you soon!

Many schools update their primary applications before their scholarship requirements, so we'll continue to revisit scholarship requirements through the year. Take note of schools that have special messages below their names in your QuickFinders about the status of their scholarship requirements.

And as always, if you have any notes about the contents of the College Essay Organizer database, let us know! We are always on the lookout for new departments, programs, and scholarships that weren't available last year.

Jeter's Leaders announces a partnership with College Essay Organizer!

College Essay Organizer is proud to announce its new partnership with Jeter’s Leaders, the youth leadership and social change program named for the Captain of the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter, and funded by his Turn 2 Foundation. Jeter’s Leaders is designed to promote healthy lifestyles, academic achievement, and social change activism among high school students.

College Essay Organizer, the web-based college essay management tool, is now providing free accounts to all rising seniors sponsored by the program, supporting the students’ dreams of attending college.

Daniel Stern, founder of College Essay Organizer, ran a college admissions workshop for Jeter's Leaders students in the spring and announced that all rising seniors would be receiving free accounts. "This is a truly terrific program," Stern said, of Jeter's Leaders. "As someone who has worked to level the playing field for college applicants who need financial support, and as a lifelong Yankee fan, I am thrilled to be assisting Jeter's Leaders students as they chase their academic and personal goals."

“We are excited to partner with College Essay Organizer to assist our students with the college preparation process,” says Betty Wiltshire, New York Jeter’s Leaders Program Director. “We hope the Leaders will gain valuable writing skills and tools, which will further help the students to identify and attend schools that best suit their needs.”

College Essay Organizer is now in its third season of helping college applicants throughout the world achieve their creative potential by streamlining the essay writing process and helping students work smarter during the notoriously hectic application season. “The fall season is when it matters most,” Stern said. “Whether you’re a Yankee aiming for the World Series or a hopeful student applying to college.”

And you're right. The purpose of these essays is not to talk about them but to talk about you. Your job in all of your college essay writing is to convince the reader that you're an interesting person who belongs in their highly-selective class. You're trying to get them to choose you instead of someone else.

Easier said than done, indeed. So today we direct you to a post written last year that has gotten a lot of traffic: How to tell a college that you're interested.

Always keep in mind that your job is to express what you have that they want. It's already implied that they have what you want - a great education and a raft of opportunities for your future, whatever that may be. Do this by identifying your own intellectual interests and developing them from a personal standpoint.

• State University of New York at Stony Brook
• State University of New York at Oneonta
• State University of New York at Buffalo State College
• State University of New York - College at Brockport
• State University of New York at Old Westbury
• State University of New York at New Paltz
• State University of New York at Potsdam
• State University of New York at Cortland
• State University of New York - University at Buffalo
• State University of New York at Albany
• State University of New York at Geneseo
• State University of New York at Fredonia
• State University of New York at Oswego
• State University of New York at Plattsburgh

These schools have many overlaps but are not identical by any stretch. Be sure to explore their departmental and scholarship options if these schools find their way onto your list.

Many more schools are updated daily at College Essay Organizer, so be sure to check in on our comprehensive list of updated schools, which is updated and re-posted each Friday on the blog.

Among them are the Parks Scholarships Program, the Forestry and Environmental Resources (FER) Scholarship program, and the Wood Products Scholarship Program, each of which can be addressed in part by using your intellectual interests essay.

Remember that College Essay Organizer can be a prime tool for finding free money for college, because while we centralize the essay requirements you need for all your schools, we also include departmental and scholarship essays, many of which you can satisfy by turning in altered versions of your essays for other school applications.

Campus of The College of William and Mary

In addition to the Common App's basic essay requirements, The College of William and Mary asks students to respond to an optional prompt that's wide open:

Beyond your impressive academic credentials and extracurricular accomplishments, what else makes you unique and colorful?

We know that nobody fits neatly into 500 words or less, but you can provide us with some suggestion of the type of person you are. Anything goes! Inspire us, impress us or just make us laugh. Think of this optional opportunity as show and tell by proxy and with an attitude, but please restrict your submission to what will fit on one sheet of paper.

These kinds of prompts should always be taken advantage of. Remember that the college essay is a vital opportunity to let the school know specific details about your background that the application itself won't reveal. You have precious few chances to let the school know about your side of "the deal" - those qualities you have that the school wants in its student body. Make sure to take them!

Even if you feel like you don't have a special extra curricular or professional experience that makes you stand out from the crowd, choose to focus on the things you love, and your passion for those subjects will shine through. Anything that improves the chances of the admission officer remembering you and your application is worth the effort.

For example, the requirement for the Buchanan Social Justice Scholarship requires applicants to address all of these points:

• What social justice issues are of concern to you and how you are personally involved in addressing those concerns?
• What leadership position have you held within a social justice organization?
• Have you attended a local, national, or international conference focused on a social justice issue? If yes, please share more about what you experienced.
• Have you received any awards or recognition relative to your involvement in social justice issues?
• Student leaders at Lake Forest often effect change and leave a legacy from their contribution to the College community. As you look forward to your educational experience at Lake Forest, what social justice issue will you champion and how will you effect change within our community or the world at large?

It might look like a lot of work at first, but using College Essay Organizer can be a shortcut to money you didn't know was there.

Each year we comb school websites not just for primary application requirements, but also for optional, department-specific, honors, and scholarship essays. Your College Essay Organizer Essay RoadMap can be your map to extra achievement, not to mention cold hard cash.

• Have you ever participated in a community service project abroad? Please explain your experience.
• Have you ever studied abroad? Please explain your experience.
• Have you ever been involved in a community service project other than one required by your school or another organization?  Please explain your experience.

These are the kinds of questions that give applicants an opportunity to stand apart from the pack a little bit, so Tulane's decision to present these questions to all applicants was the right choice. It works in the applicants' favor as well as the school's - after all, they want their student body to be as strong and diverse as possible, so no need to make it difficult on people who have these kinds of exciting elements to their backgrounds.