One of the toughest things about college essay writing is that kids have never done anything like it in school.
In English or History class, most of the assignments involve writing about something else: a quote, an event, a book, whatever.
College essay writing is a PERSONAL statement. You're writing about yourself.
One trick is understanding your audience. What qualities are your admissions officers looking for?
Once you get a handle on that, the rest of the task is to serve it up to them with examples or anecdotes that support your thesis, and ultimately your candidacy at each college.
Your English teacher may not grasp the truth about what you're REALLY doing when you apply to college, because in all likelihood, she has never engaged in this activity herself.
What am I talking about? What are you REALLY doing when you apply to college, and submit your essays, description of your extracurricular activities, recommendations and transcripts?
Marketing
Colleges are businesses, I think that's obvious.
But what's less obvious is that your child is in business for him or herself too. The business of persuasively advocating for herself to demonstrate why she should be picked out of a crowd of similar applicants.
50,000 similar applicants.
A college applicant should not think of himself as "Billy, College Applicant." Instead, he's "Billy, Marketer of Billy the College Applicant."
Once you try this little trick and shift your perspective, you can begin to objectively evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, from a third party perspective.
This is easier said than done, but it's critically important to attempt. I'll spend a little bit of time talking about it in tonight's free online class: Top 10 College Essay Mistakes -- How to write an essay so compelling that college admissions officers will practically crawl naked over broken glass to admit your student.
You're officially invited, and please share this with anyone you know who needs this info.
Here's where to sign up:
- Andy Lockwood
P.S. At the end of the class, I will make a one-time, "exploding" offer, after I'm done teaching.
I won't be offended if you decide not to stick around for that, if you're not looking for 1:1 essay editing and brainstorming help.
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