College Essay Announcement
A week ago, the folks at the Common Application announced that their essay prompts will be the same as last year's.
On a related note, Class of 2025 students will write the same crappy essays as last year's college applicants.
One big error revolves around choice of prompt. I'll share which one is the worst in a moment, but first let me give you a little overview if you're new to the wonderful world of college essays and applications.
The Common Application comes out August 1. The overwhelming majority of the colleges your son or daughter will apply to accept the Common App (Georgetown University is one notable exception that has its own application).
The Common App really isn't that big a deal. A lot of it is rote - name, address, parent info, list of honors, etc.
However, the areas that require thought and attention are 1. essay writing (the personal statement and supplemental essays) and 2. the Activities Section.
In my experience, the amount of time and emotional energy devoted to the essays is extremely disproportionate to the essays' actual impact on your everyday admissions officer. If I were to hazard an estimate, I'd guess that the essay counts 10%, maybe 15% of the overall application. Not insignificant, but far less heavily weighted than grades, rigor of course load, SAT or ACT scores...
...as well as a bunch of non politically-correct factors such as race, zip code, income and other items that are out of the applicant's control.
Still, the essay should be great, as near-perfect as you can make it. Because it's part of your "closing argument" why YOU should be chosen out of a Sea of Sameness, filled with 50,000 nearly identical competitor-applicants.
Your entire application, especially your extracurricular activities, recommendations and academic chops should be part of an easily identifiable Thread of Continuity that shares the VALUE that you will bring to campus one day.
Not just the essay -- everything should be as close to perfect as you can get it, if you want to have a fighting chance to get into the college you deserve to get into, in today's upside down, politically-charged college admissions world.
Back to the essay prompts. The most popular choice -- and the WORST -- is Number 7: Write whatever the hell you want.
C'mon. Just don't.
Think about it. When you get to college, is that how things work? Or will you have to answer specific questions on exams.
What signal are you sending an admissions officer by choosing to respond to that prompt?
There are other reasons not to use that prompt, but this note is long enough already. For more hands-on help and advice, we offer two programs: our summer bootcamp and 1:1 college advising.
If you'd like information on private 1:1 college advising, just reply to this email.
Bootcamp info (and our Early Action pricing) is on this page:
Hope this helps, LMK if you have any questions.
- Andy "Writes Whatever The Hell He Wants" Lockwood
P.S. The main purpose of our 10th annual Get College Ready Bootcamp is to help students stand apart from their peers as "Incomparable Applicants."
Getting into college today is definitely NOT a meritocracy. It's about your you MARKET yourself.
That's what this program is about, plus help with a whole lot more...
Go here for the rest of the deets and the $500 off Early Action Scholarship:
