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Ball State 2011 Essay Requirements

August 22nd, 2011

Ball State UniversityBall State University has now been updated by College Essay Organizer. There are fifteen program-specific questions, as well as four additional scholarship program questions.

Using College Essay Organizer can help you not only find these hidden questions, but also explore your opportunities while writing your responses to them. Many applicants are unaware of the many different options they have when it comes to applying to a college or university, so College Essay Organizer can be your primary tool for finding out about departments and specific programs that suit your interests.

Some applicants might have a better chance at admission if they apply to a program or department that best suits their interests and talents. Make sure to explore them all via College Essay Organizer and make sure your admissions chances are as strong as possible!

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State University of New York Essay Questions 2011

August 18th, 2011

State University of New York - SUNY LogoThe SUNY (State University of New York) schools have many specific differences, including certain essay questions, scholarship requirements, and the like. But they share this question in common:

Please provide additional information that will help us better understand your academic performance. You may also explain any chronological gaps in your academic history (e.g. a period of time after high school graduation before applying to college).

At first glance, this question seems like it could be an optional "tell us anything" prompt, or even a required "disciplinary" question, telling you to explain any suspensions, or run-ins with authorities that have disrupted your time in school. At College Essay Organizer, we recommend that anybody without the kind of disciplinary problems or "gaps" in the academic record use this prompt as an opportunity to discuss his or her intellectual interests.

We have discussed the intellectual interest essay here before on the blog, but most importantly, it is the piece of writing that tells the school why you are interested in what they can offer you, and what you bring to the table as a member of the student body. It is a chance to discuss your interests while also implying what you are good at and how you spend your time most effectively. It can be a chance to distinguish yourself from your peers in a unique way, which is something you should always be looking for opportunities to do.

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The Common App and the Difference Between Online Applications & PDFs

August 16th, 2011

Common App LogoAt College Essay Organizer we research college application requirements like it's our job. Actually, it is our job. And one of the odd sides of this job is that we are constantly finding inconsistencies between different versions of applications that schools put out, not to mention inconsistent or incorrect information explaining the application documents on the schools' sites.

One of the most notable disparities we've found is with the Common App itself. That's right, even the trusty old Common App has a significant difference between its paper (or PDF) version and its online version.

The paper version of the Common App calls for 150 words for it short essay, while the online version calls for 750 characters. The distinction is important, especially if you're running long, in which case the online version on the Common App will simply cut your writing off at the 750 character limit. So that 150-word essay can be significantly shorter if you're using big (some might say college-ready) vocabulary.

The Common App's short essay and optional space question are also worded differently. It's not a significant difference, though in many cases with colleges, different forms of college applications often feature different word counts, character limits, or even completely different questions! Just remember that College Essay Organizer is here to research these elements full time and contact the colleges to help resolve any confusion. So feel free to rely on us - it's our job.

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Brown University and the Common App Supplement

August 15th, 2011
Emma Watson Brown University Student

One of these people goes to Brown University. Exciting! You should probably not write your essay about that.

Brown University has always been known for its distinctive academic requirements - distinctive in that it has nearly no traditional academic requirements at all. Brown does not have a core curriculum, and allows students to shape their learning around a required number of credits each semester. As one might expect, a number of Brown's essay requirements address this atypical aspect of the school, one of which goes a little something like this:

"A distinctive feature of the Brown Curriculum is the opportunity to be the 'architect of your education.' Why does this academic environment appeal to you?"

This is another way of asking why you are interested in the school, something we've addressed here on CEO Blog before. When Brown asks you what's so great about leaving your educational requirements for you to choose, what they're really asking is what you are interested in and how you plan to take advantage of the opportunities such an arrangement allows you more than anything you might find in a Brown University promotional pamphlet.

Don't forget that your writing is always about what you can do for the school and its student body, regardless of the question. The implied meaning of all your responses is that you are a desirable candidate, and that you have qualities that set you apart from the thousands of other applicants. So when writing about a school-specific quality, like when addressing this prompt from Brown, make sure that you are identifying your own interests, and detailing how they would come alive in such an environment. Be specific, clear, and assertive and find the spots where their interests are yours, too.

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New York Times Stresses the Importance of the College Essay

August 8th, 2011

New York TimesThis article recently featured on the New York Times stresses the importance of the college essay, even going so far as to suggest that students should devote their summers to crafting an experience worthy of a college essay. One of the more interesting aspects to the article is that students do not need to necessarily spend an enormous amount of money, or even travel great distances to come up with an experience that makes for a stand-out essay. Trips can be small, or even local, just so long as they are targeted, specific, and memorable:

Students do not have to spend a summer abroad for an essay-worthy experience. When Mary Lang Gill was a rising senior at the Atlanta Girls School, a private school, she hired Pam Proctor, an independent college counselor and the author of “The College Hook,” a college admissions guide. After learning that Ms. Gill loved to paint, Ms. Proctor connected her to the Florida Highwaymen, a band of renegade painters active during the 1950s and ’60s.

“I spent a whole day with them,” painting and observing, said Ms. Gill, who just graduated from Dickinson College. “It was one of the coolest things ever, and I love that and I got to put it on my application.” Ms. Proctor said she spent a great deal of time with students helping them find the right topic for the college essay. “Picking the essays is as important as writing them,” she said. After that, she said, the stories “write themselves.”

Creating a strong college essay is often about specificity and significance of subject as much as command of basic writing. By keeping that in mind, often just a few hours' work in selecting a topic, and a day or three of effort to make it a reality can yield a truly unique piece of writing, not to mention a genuine experience and new sights for the student.

Keep in mind, though, that most articles and books about the college essay process fail to point out that you'll have many essays to write, not just one. Check for free here to see how many essays your colleges require.

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Harvard University Returns To Early Action for 2012

August 3rd, 2011
Harvard Shield

November 1 comes quickly, little crimsonites.

In 2007, Harvard eliminated its Early Action program and required that everyone send in applications on the same date, January 1st, but this year, it returns to Early Action, with the first round of applications due on November 1, 2011.

The move in 2007 was seen as a reaction against the increasingly competitive admissions environment in America, and many applauded the effort. But other popular schools took this as a competitive advantage and did not follow suit, so Harvard has done its applicants a favor by sparing them the difficult choice of a binding decision from another school when they'd really like to take a shot at Harvard.

Early Action and Early Decision programs certainly increase the pressure on students and parents alike - decisions are often made with a limited amount of information and on very short timetables, but they have their upsides for schools, allowing them to increase yields and fill large portions of their classes with students that are sure to attend.

This decision - coming from the top, as it were - should be read as a firm statement that Early Action and Early Decsion programs are here to stay. Get your work done as early as you can, do your homework, and learn as much as you can about your top choices before committing to your number one school.

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The Common App for 2011/2012 is Live

August 2nd, 2011

That's right. The wait is over.

The Common App went live yesterday officially beginning the application process for the class of 2016. The Common App, now totaling 456 schools, has added 45 new members this year, including Caldwell College, Howard University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

College Essay Organizer is now in the thick of the updating process, keeping track of all the new changes and supplemental essay questions for you. Expect hundreds of updates by the end of the week!

We continue to receive feedback on how College Essay Organizer is the perfect partner for using the Common App. It instantly delivers not only the supplemental essay questions, but also the department-specific questions and scholarship questions, which are often not included in the Common App. Check here for some great tips on how to use College Essay Organizer and the Common App to write winning essays.

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Fox Searchlight's Another Earth, and the Power of the Essay

August 1st, 2011
Fox Searchlight's Another Earth

Another Earth, starring Brit Marling

The remarkable new film ANOTHER EARTH, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival and is currently expanding around the country, hinges, funnily enough, on an essay. Brit Marling plays Rhoda, a young girl stricken with grief after driving drunk shortly after being accepted into M.I.T., and killing all but one member of a young family in a crash.

After serving a four-year prison sentence, Rhoda is released, and finds that the "little blue dot" that had appeared in the night sky on the same night of her accident has crept closer to Earth and revealed itself as a mirror world to our own. It has the same geography, the same environment, and even the same people, all living parallel lives to those on Earth.

Soon enough, a contest emerges, put together by a Richard Branson-like entrepreneur who wants to allow a normal person to be among the first to travel to Earth II. The application to go revolves around a 500-word essay, and Rhoda focuses on her prison time in her application. She wins.

What we found amusing was that the tack Rhoda chooses for her essay makes all the difference, which actually felt very true. Rhoda, like any good college applicant, chose from among her specific life experiences and painted herself as the ideal candidate. She did it not by focusing on her own desire to be on Earth II (something that she shared with all the other applicants), but by focusing on the one thing that made her distinct from the others she'd be judged against. Few things are more important than this when choosing your essay topic. You've got to make an effort to stand apart from the pack.

The film's sci-fi elements hang over every scene, but what drives the drama is the interpersonal connection between Rhoda and her one surviving victim. The way in which this very small film is able to engage audiences on both a micro and an interplanetary level should not be lost on us. The shocking truth of your unique emotional responses to everyday scenarios can carry an unforgettable strength, even for complete strangers. Commit to those instances in your life in which you felt something powerful and you may be surprised how far these pieces of writing can take you.

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College Essay Questions Released for 2011-2012

July 2nd, 2011

What makes you tick? Colleges want to know.

Several colleges released their 2011-2012 essay questions this week, giving students an enjoyable way to spend their 4th of July holiday!

Updated schools including University of Colorado-Boulder, Georgetown University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor kept their essay questions the same, but others did not disappoint in delivering more creative options.

As expected, all of the schools kept with the theme of, as one of Tufts’ questions from last year puts it, “What makes you tick?” Tufts replaced it with another question demonstrating that it still wants to get to know its prospective students:

For the second short response we asked you to consider the world around you. Now, consider the world within. Taste in music, food and clothing can make a statement while politics, sports, religion and ethnicity are often defining attributes.  Are you a vegetarian?  A poet?  Do you prefer You Tube or test tubes, Mac or PC?  Are you the drummer in an all-girl rock band?  Do you tinker? Use the richness of your identity to frame your personal outlook.  (200-250 words)

University of Virginia also had a couple of interesting developments in its application, adding a question about its Kinesiology program, and swapping its question related to Mark Bauerlain’s The Dumbest Generation to a more intriguing prompt: “Discuss something you secretly like but pretend not to, or vice versa.”

Definitely thoughts to ponder, while relaxing on the beach this weekend!

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Forbes: Technology Revolution Changing College Admissions

June 8th, 2011

This post today on Forbes' blog discusses how the use of technology has revolutionized the college application process, and, in turn, the selectivity of the nation's top colleges. Many schools have seen precipitous drops in their acceptance levels in the past year, with Columbia University posting the most significant year-over-year drop after deciding to allow the Common App in 2010. In just one year, Columbia increased its applicant pool by more than a third, and saw its selectivity drop to just 6.7%. With this kind of selectivity, diversifying your number of applications to increase the odds of success is the best solution.

College Essay Organizer is discussed in the article as a service that can help you manage your large number of applications easily - but the schools that Steve Cohen cites are particularly good examples of where our site excels. Schools like NYU, USC, and Syracuse are very popular, and the amount of work required to apply there - and their departments especially - can be deceptive. Make sure to get out in front of the work that's required of you and pace yourself accordingly.

Another benefit of College Essay Organizer that Cohen points out is the simple fact that we help you keep the requirements manageable! College Essay Organizer is the site that puts all your requirements in one place, and can be modified as your college list grows or contracts. Instead of managing a large number of applications, PDFs, and essay documents, our Essay RoadMap technology can function as a repository for all your work during the application season. This makes a complicated process simple and keeps things sane.

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