We’ve spent the past few weeks breaking down each Common App essay prompt one by one, and now it’s time for the grand finale: our ultimate guide to writing the Common App essay. Sure, there are seven different prompts, but at the end of the day, every school is looking for the same thing: a story.
Getting waitlisted or deferred from your dream school is hard. We know it’s hard! You feel rejected, but it’s this weird non-rejection rejection that can leave you feeling lost and confused. And while a lot of things in college admissions are totally out of your control, there is something you can do if you’ve been waitlisted or deferred to give yourself another chance. A letter of continued interest, sometimes known as a waitlist letter or deferral letter, is one of the few, actionable things you can control when admissions decisions seem so out of your control. It’s your only chance to make a good second impression, and we help students write them every single year.
Getting waitlisted is the ultimate limbo – it’s not not a rejection, but it’s not a full-on denial, either. And depending on your circumstances, you could be feeling everything from mild disappointment to full-on panic. Don’t get yourself into a tizzy just yet, because there are things you can do to give yourself a shot at getting off the waitlist and make sure that you have a plan in place for the next year.
Hey, look, sometimes ED doesn’t work out the way we want it to, and we have to change strategies. If you just got rejected or deferred from your ED/EA option, we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Early Decision 2. ED2 is just as binding as ED, and it signals to the school that you are serious about attending that school, and guess what? Schools like when you’re serious about them.
Back in your parents or grandparents’ generation, applying to college usually meant applying to a handful of first-choice schools and calling it a day. There were no AP tests, less competition, and fewer essays to churn out. Gone are the simpler days. You might have heard recent news stories about kids applying (and being accepted into) 20+ schools, including . While we don’t think anyone should apply to 20 schools, we are encouraging our students to apply to more schools than perhaps their parents did. In our years of helping students become the strongest possible applicants they can, we have discovered a range of schools that works best for our students.
The summer is upon us, which really means that it’s basically September in our minds. The summer is not a time for play, it’s a time for work. It’s a preview to the rest of your life, if you’re a student. Not to get too dark, but it’s true. Parents, while summer might be a time that you associate with vacations and relaxation, if you have a kid who is applying to colleges next year we’re going to strongly encourage you to wait to schedule vacations for winter break.
You might have read or heard about University of Chicago’s announcement that the school is dropping the ACT/SAT requirement of its application. Previously, it was required that all applicants sit for the SAT or ACT and include the scores on their application to the university. Now, University of Chicago has gone “” along with numerous other top-tier .
Nearly every student we work with either wants to apply to the University of Michigan or asks if they should, and about 50% end up applying. This includes kids looking to be in urban areas, or totally ok with going rural. It includes kids who want a liberal arts education and those who are certain that they want to specialize. It includes athletes and artists, bookworms and filmmakers, and city kids and suburbanites. So, it begs the question, “Why is Michigan so popular?”
Great college essays aren’t built on a formula, but there are a handful of things that every strong essay has and a bigger handful of things that it most certainly does not. For rising Seniors getting ready to write their essay, it’s crucial that they know what to emphasize and what to avoid. When it comes to the college application process, there’s little worse than realizing that the essay you’ve spent months on is a dud.
We recently had a student who was incredibly motivated and was interested in delving into the world of materials engineering. We gave them many online course suggestions, had them read a book from the book list we created, and helped them put together a plan to create a makerspace at their school. Over the course of three months, barely anything happened. The student was able to start the book and the online course, but kept putting off the real project: creating a makerspace at school. This was because they were so preoccupied with homework during their off-time between track tournaments and after-school track team practice.
If you’re the parent of a rising senior who is just finishing up their , odds are that you’re starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the deadlines, to-dos, and applications that will surely be coming your kid’s way. is undoubtedly transferable, and any stress that you or your kid might be feeling will inevitably make its way to your family and your home. We want to help prevent that as much as we possibly can by helping you stay organized.
The hardest part of any writing project is the first sentence. Staring at a blank white page can be terrifying, especially when the stakes are as high as getting into your dream school. One of the things we do at TKG is guide students through writing stellar college essays, but there are some things you can do at home to help you get through that initial rut.
Some say that the college application essay is formulaic. If that were to be true, the stereotypical formula would go like this: Typical high school experience + dramatic interpretation attempting to raise the stakes + a grand takeaway that is often along the lines of “and then I realized that life has meaning beyond becoming homecoming queen!”
After the Common App essay, supplements are the second-most creative part of the college application process. Actually, they’re really the only other creative part. Grades and test scores are quantitative, and recommendations are out of your control once you’ve requested them. The essay and the supplements are the places you get to speak in your voice and to be yourself. But where the main essay needs to work for every school you apply to; your supplements need to be tailored. Reuse a story, sure. Copy and paste a supplement, though, and you’re setting yourself up for failure. (We’ve all heard horror stories of when a supplement about Hamilton is accidentally sent to Middlebury, and it happens more often than you’d even imagine.)
The transfer process is a lot like applying to college the first time. You need transcripts and teacher recommendations; there are far more supplements than you’d like, and the all-important college essay is still mandatory. So, in many ways, it’s the same. However, transfer essays are pulling double duty. In addition to showing schools that you are a great student, a community member worth coveting, and an overall stellar human being, you need to answer one more question: Why? Why are you looking to transfer? Why is where you are now not good enough?
We talk a lot about topics to avoid. Avoid writing about death, avoid writing about grandparents, avoid writing about volunteer experiences, and avoid things that could be read as you trying to ‘impress’ the reader — we want to engage the reader, not to show off. And then, sometimes, there is a way of bringing together a handful of those “don’ts” to create a piece that is engaging, beautiful, and that does one of our favorite things: it proves that even our rules aren’t really rules at all, they’re guidelines.