September 1st, 2010
Sometimes knowing what not to do can be as useful as knowing what you ought to do. There are many essay topics that spring to mind quickly. These ideas can be enticing, too - in many cases they seem to almost write themselves... until you realize that they don't paint a particularly flattering portrait of you, or that the reason they sprung to mind so easily is that you've read essays just like them several times before.
Always look out for cliche! Avoid it like the plague, as well as essay topics that center themselves around your faults or around things that you are not, rather than things that you are.
Any advice about what not to do, of course, always comes with a grain of salt. There are always exceptions, so use this only as a guide. Just make sure that if you cover one of the following topics, you do so in a unique way that highlights your strengths:
- Crime you've committed
- Character flaws
- Excuses for your shortcomings
- The "Big Game"
This last one might surprise you - the big success at a sporting event is a common topic, and it talks about a positive, emotional event. So why not use it?
It often leads you down very well-worn paths without necessarily telling us much about what you will be able to bring to an academic or social environment. More often than not, these essays focus on one-off events that don't translate to your everyday life. But worse, they aren't memorable.
Picture an admissions officer reading through five hundred essays. Five. Hundred. Essays. How many of these feel the same? How many are about a success in a sporting event? Push further, past cliche and into the elements of who you are that are specific to you and what you do. Things no one else in your school can say.
There are many, many more. Take a look at CEO's list of college essay topics to avoid.
If you have more suggestions of good essay topics (or bad ones), we look forward to seeing them in the comments!
Tags: Admissions, avoid, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, holistic, mistake, Organization, personal, procrastination, Recommendation, School, statement, Tips, Top Choice, university, What not to do
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August 31st, 2010
As students head back to school and the application season starts to really heat up, we thought we'd take this week to focus on things you can do to hone your work and make your writing more memorable to those overworked admissions officers.
One of the most obvious things you can do to make your writing stand out is to choose an exciting, accessible topic for your essay. Of course, many of the prompts will be decided for you, but that doesn't mean the topic is. College applications are known for their broad, interpretable questions that have a surprising amount of flexibility to them if you think about it for a bit.
Here are a few good places to start:
- What are your favorite activities and hobbies? Why?
- What are your talents/skills? How did you develop them? Who helped you?
- Who have been the most influential people in your life?
- What was your most memorable experience? Best? Worst?
- How have you changed in the past four years?
We've got more good essay topics for you here. Remember to not always choose the first thing that comes to mind. It's much more important to have a good piece of writing than to just get it over with.
Tags: Admissions, Application, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, personal, Recommendation, School, statement, Tips, Topic, university
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August 16th, 2010
If you had a flag for every essay... That'd be thirty flags.
30? You read that right. The powers that be at New York University have so specifically divided the school that there are now 30 essays for undergrads to consider waiting in our database. 30!
To the school's credit, no undergraduate applicant will have to write thirty individual essays when applying to NYU. The numerous essays mostly belong to specific departments, like the Tisch School of the Arts or the Silver School of Social work - all told, the Violet Bobcats of NYU have essays for programs in Film, Photography, Music Business, you name it. They even have a new satellite school in Abu Dhabi. While no applicant will have to address them all, each applicant will have to write several essays, regardless of which school within the university he or she chooses.
It just goes to show that the breadth and reach of schools like NYU should not be underestimated, and that with tools like CEO you can get a shortcut to those requirements, and in turn, see the opportunities that schools of such great diversity offer.
So keep in mind that the big schools often pose as many challenges in their applications as they do in their classes! It's all benefits in the long run, but managing the task from the get-go can be daunting. Make sure you have the right tools to guide you on your journey.
And while you're at it, make sure you're not just avoiding questions like this guy.
Tags: Admissions, avoid, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, New York University, News, NYU, Organization, Overwhelming, personal, procrastination, Recommendation, Regular Decision, School, statement, Stern School of Business, Tips, Top Choice, university
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August 13th, 2010
Cree Bautista! Congratulations, you're on CEO blog! Weird, right?
This new article in the New York Times' Education section talks about unlikely hero to college applicants everywhere, Cree Bautista. Mr. Bautista saw fit to apply to NYU just a few hours after the Common App went live at the beginning of this month, and in so doing became the first applicant of the year through the site.
Cree's eagerness, though exceptional in degree, isn't uncommon in practice. The Common App's directors have already started talking about the speed of this year's applicant pool, and the sheer number of applications students are managing. From the Times' article:
"Rob Killion, executive director of the Common Application, said he was particularly unnerved by the flood of early submissions through the organization's website because he feared that students were rushing their essays. (This year’s Common Application was actually posted several weeks later than last year’s — not as a prod to get applicants to file later, but instead to allow high schools extra time to send final documents before the new year begins.)"
Remember, your top choice is not your only choice! There are many applications to be managed, and sites like CEO are here to get that work out in front of you and help you keep it under control from the get-go. While we can't all be like Cree, we can all save ourselves from those last-minute crushes of papers and apps.
Tags: accomplishments, Admissions, CEO, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, New York Times, New York University, News, NYU, personal, SAT, School, statement, Top Choice, university
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August 6th, 2010
Where does the road in that logo roam? To new technologies, my friend.
The Journal of College Admission, a publication that discusses the National Association for College Admission Counseling (or NACAC), recently put out an article called "Using Technology in Undergraduate Admission: A Student Perspective."
It points out that nearly all students are using various forms of technology to guide them through the admissions process. In fact, the article mentions that, "One survey found that 88 percent of college-bound prospective students would be disappointed or possibly eliminate a school from consideration if the institution's web site did not meet expectations."
We encounter many college websites that are more complicated than they need to be, especially in their organization of honors, scholarship, and departmental essays, so we commiserate with applicants who are frustrated by this. Lucky for you, CEO's goal is to design a simple technology that provides a solution while streamlining your efforts to simplify and organize the process. Glad to have you with us as we head into the new application season.
Tags: accomplishments, Admissions, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Extra Curricular, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, Journal of College Admission, mistake, NACAC, National Association for College Admission Counseling, New Technologies, News, Organization, Overwhelming, personal, procrastination, Recommendation, Regular Decision, School, statement, technology, Tips, Top Choice, university
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August 2nd, 2010
That's right. It says 35 years.
The Common App has updated for the class of 2015. This year's application features twenty-nine new schools, including Columbia University, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, UConn, and three SUNY schools - Maritime College, Morrisville State College, and Potsdam.
As in past years, many schools require supplements to the Common App, which means additional writing, sorting, and organization. CEO is right on the edge of these releases and we make sure our application information is up to date. So as these supplements are made available, we'll have them here, and your Essay QuickFinders and Essay RoadMaps will update automatically to reflect the latest information for the schools you've selected.
Make the most of these early releases and get your writing done ahead of time! Remember that CEO is a great resource for finding scholarship and honors programs, too. That's cash money and respect! What else could you ask for?
One of the reasons schools make these requirements known so far ahead of time is to allow you to explore the departmental and honors requirements so many of them have without getting overwhelmed. Too often we hear about students who choose not to apply to programs or even entire universities just because of the application workload! That just won't do. So use CEO's tools as much as you can and keep your eye on the prize.
Tags: Admissions, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Extra Curricular, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, News, Overwhelming, personal, Plagiarism, procrastination, Recommendation, Regular Decision, School, statement, Tips, Top Choice, university
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July 22nd, 2010
With the latest Common App coming on August 1, we will be opening up a forum here to give you feedback on miscellaneous issues related to the college essay process. This way you'll not only save hours of work and enhance your efficiency with CEO's web tools but also get some clarity with the more confusing aspects of the process.
In the next few weeks we're going to up the ante a little bit and open the floor to you in a more hands on, nuts-and-bolts way. If you have a question you'd like answered about the college essay process in general, about a specific prompt, or about CEO, let us know by dropping us an email.
As we roll into the fall and the admission season heats up, we'll continue to maintain an open forum so you can get answers to your questions about your struggles, your curiosities, and your successes.
Tags: Admissions, CEO, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, News, Organization, personal, Regular Decision, School, statement, Tips, Top Choice, university
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July 16th, 2010
The Scottsdale Community College Fighting Artichokes are clear about what they want from applicants: a love of fighting and delicious cuisine. Other schools will require an essay.
The Independent Educational Consultants Association recently released a bit of press about what colleges are really looking for in applicants. And while a number of things we know to be vital remained vital - academic performance, difficulty of schedule, a willingness to challenge one's self - this particular quote caught our eyes:
"The importance of the essay moved up since the last survey, perhaps reflecting the essay’s role as more colleges move to ‘test optional’ status. The essay was also seen as more important to private liberal arts colleges, as compared to large state universities."
Schools continue to add essay requirements to find ways to distinguish their applicants and to find unique elements among them. Though on the surface this appears to make more work for applicants, much of that work is easily avoided with tools like CEO's, and simultaneously delivers to applicants the opportunities they've long asked for to be considered as people rather than numbers. Not bad.
So recognize that our trusty friends at the IECA have spoken - get your essays right. They are truly your greatest opportunity to speak directly to the universities themselves. But even more than that, they are becoming opportunities to distinguish yourself clearly in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Tags: accomplishments, Admissions, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, IECA, Independent Educational Consultants Association, News, Organization, personal, procrastination, Recommendation, Regular Decision, School, statement, Tips, Top Choice, university
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July 9th, 2010
Maybe after you get the acceptance letter you can think twice about getting the tattoo to match.
The University of Miami got a few new ways to recruit students this week - Lebron James and a few of his friends.
The King's decision caused us to pause and consider His Majesty's... shall we say... not so tactful way of revealing where he was headed. Let's compare it to the somewhat less prickly process of letting your family know which college you'll be attending. Yes! I said it! You will get in! Somewhere! After that initial joy wears off, take your tips from the Chosen 1:
1. Don't schedule an hour-long slot on prime-time television, no matter who asks for it. We understand you're going somewhere. We understand it is very, very important to you. And to many other people in your life. Even to people you have not yet met. But the process of telling people should take you fifteen seconds at best. Perhaps thirty when speaking to the elderly. An hour is pushing it for anything that can be safely squeezed inside a single sentence.
2. Don't surround yourself with children like you're Mother Theresa. You are not bringing wider peace to the populace. You are bringing academic potential and all the hard work of preparation that comes along with it. You are not, however, raising a city from the ashes. If, for example, you're going to college in, oh, say, southern Florida, remember that southern Florida has seen a lot and has done okay without you.
3. Don't tell people where you're about to "take your talents." We also understand how talented and wise you are. Just get in there and get those straight-As like your mama made you to. Just get in there and get 'er done. And if there is, oh, say, someone else who might have a leg (or six) up on you, pay them respect and just let everyone know about where you're headed quietly. A phone call, an email, even a press release to the proper media outlets, and you'll be fine.
Follow these three simple tips and it is highly unlikely that anyone will shove life-sized cutouts of you into the garbage face first. Better yet, very few people will set anything on fire with your name on it. Stay strong.
Tags: accomplishments, Admissions, avoid, CEO, Cleveland Cavaliers, College, College Essay Organizer, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Guide, Help, Humor, Miami Heat, mistake, News, Overwhelming, personal, Recommendation, School, statement, Tips, Top Choice, university, University of Miami, Videos
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July 6th, 2010
Fun Fact: This picture was taken in February. Amherst's physics department can change the weather locally.
Amherst College is a Common App-exclusive school, but unlike many of its peers, it has gone ahead and released its 2011 essay requirements to the general public. They're quite lengthy, so we won't reprint them here, but Amherst's decision to put them out ahead of the Common App's August update points out a few great things about top schools like Amherst and what its actions mean for other schools that follow.
1. The more open a school is with you, the more open you can be in return. By putting out such a complex series of questions early in the admissions season, Amherst is showing you that it's worth preparing to write your application essay. Amherst's questions are challenging, and they require quite a bit of thought. Go ahead and put in the time it takes. Write multiple drafts. Get it right.
2. You have more work ahead of you than you think. Amherst recognizes that senior years are busier than they get credit for. So take advantage of the time the school has afforded you by putting this info out ahead of time. With opportunities like this and tools like CEO, your workload can be a lot more manageable than, say, those of your overworked and underprepared friends.
3. The college essay is the most underrated and under-appreciated part of the application. The admissions officers at Amherst know what it's like to read half-baked and ill-conceived essays. Sure, they see writing from a lot of the top students in the country, but they also see it from people that have rushed themselves through a pile of applications, regardless of their grades and resumés. This is your opportunity to speak to the college - your chance to create something of a dialogue and show them who you are. Make the most of it.
If we were hard pressed to add a fourth element to this list, it would be that Amherst appreciates how many movies you have to watch this summer. That vampire flick ain't gonna watch itself. Thank the school for its foresight and watch all the movies. There are so many. Then fire up CEO and get back to work.
Tags: Admissions, Amherst College, avoid, CEO, College, College Essay Organizer, Common App, Deadline, early decision, Essay, Guidance Counselor, Guide, Help, junior, News, Organization, Overwhelming, personal, Recommendation, Regular Decision, SAT, School, statement, Tips, Top Choice, university
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