...Tips for a Great College Essay Why write an essay? The purpose of the essay is to convince admission officers whom you’ve never met, in less than ten minutes, that you would be a good match for their colleges. At the most basic level, it allows admission officers to evaluate your communication and writing skills. In addition, the essay allows admission officers to discover more about you as a person – a side of you not shown by statistics like grades and SATs. The essay gives information about your history, attitudes, interests and creativity; it gives a sense of your values and goals. What admission officers are doing is creating a community…looking to see how you would fit in that community, what would you bring to that community and what sets you apart. How the essay is evaluated • • • Is your writing mechanically sound? Is your writing style comfortable? Can you write a good sentence? Can you write a good paragraph? Do you address the question asked? Can you form a thesis? Can you discuss a theme? Is your argument logical? Can you get in and out of the essay with some finesse? Do you write with style, nuance and creativity? Do you write with a distinctive voice? Choosing a topic Choose the essay topic that appeals to you most. The topic is less important than your delivery Remember: there is no right or wrong answer. The college just wants to know who you are and how your mind works. Bad essay topics - there are bad essays, not bad topics; but be...
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...Tips for a Great College Essay Why write an essay? The purpose of the essay is to convince admission officers whom you’ve never met, in less than ten minutes, that you would be a good match for their colleges. At the most basic level, it allows admission officers to evaluate your communication and writing skills. In addition, the essay allows admission officers to discover more about you as a person – a side of you not shown by statistics like grades and SATs. The essay gives information about your history, attitudes, interests and creativity; it gives a sense of your values and goals. What admission officers are doing is creating a community…looking to see how you would fit in that community, what would you bring to that community and what sets you apart. How the essay is evaluated • • • Is your writing mechanically sound? Is your writing style comfortable? Can you write a good sentence? Can you write a good paragraph? Do you address the question asked? Can you form a thesis? Can you discuss a theme? Is your argument logical? Can you get in and out of the essay with some finesse? Do you write with style, nuance and creativity? Do you write with a distinctive voice? Choosing a topic Choose the essay topic that appeals to you most. The topic is less important than your delivery Remember: there is no right or wrong answer. The college just wants to know who you are and how your mind works. Bad essay topics - there are bad essays, not bad topics; but be careful about the following:...
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...That's what I think of when I try to draw an analogy with the process of reading application essays. The bad. Ninety percent of the applications I read contain what I call McEssays - usually five-paragraph essays that consist primarily of abstractions and unsupported generalization. They are technically correct in that they are organized and have the correct sentence structure and spelling, but they are boring. Sort of like a Big Mac. I have nothing against Big Macs, but the one I eat in Charlottesville is not going to be fundamentally different from the one I eat in Paris, Peoria or Palm Springs. I am not going to rave about the quality of a particular Big Mac. The same can be said about the generic essay. If an essay starts out: "I have been a member of the band and it has taught me leadership, perseverance and hard work," I can almost recite the rest of the essay without reading it. Each of the three middle paragraphs gives a bit of support to an abstraction, and the final paragraph restates what has already been said. A McEssay is not wrong, but it is not going to be a positive factor in the admission decision. It will not allow a student to stand out. A student who uses vague abstractions poured into a preset form will end up being interpreted as a vague series of abstractions. A student who uses cliché becomes, in effect, a cliché. If we are what we eat, we are also what we write. Not only does a preset form lead to a generic essay, so does a generic approach to what is...
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...That's what I think of when I try to draw an analogy with the process of reading application essays. The bad. Ninety percent of the applications I read contain what I call McEssays - usually five-paragraph essays that consist primarily of abstractions and unsupported generalization. They are technically correct in that they are organized and have the correct sentence structure and spelling, but they are boring. Sort of like a Big Mac. I have nothing against Big Macs, but the one I eat in Charlottesville is not going to be fundamentally different from the one I eat in Paris, Peoria or Palm Springs. I am not going to rave about the quality of a particular Big Mac. The same can be said about the generic essay. If an essay starts out: "I have been a member of the band and it has taught me leadership, perseverance and hard work," I can almost recite the rest of the essay without reading it. Each of the three middle paragraphs gives a bit of support to an abstraction, and the final paragraph restates what has already been said. A McEssay is not wrong, but it is not going to be a positive factor in the admission decision. It will not allow a student to stand out. A student who uses vague abstractions poured into a preset form will end up being interpreted as a vague series of abstractions. A student who uses cliché becomes, in effect, a cliché. If we are what we eat, we are also what we write. Not only does a preset form lead to a generic essay, so does a generic approach to what is perceived...
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...A Former Harvard Business School Admissions Board Member Reveals the Insider Keys to Getting In • Prepare your resume and professional record • Discover the differences between business schools • Top essay and interview strategies • Behind the scenes of the admissions process • Qualitative factors that can make you stand out • Application insights from insiders Chioma isiadinso, M.ed. former Admissions Board Member of Harvard Business School The Best Business Schools’ Admissions Secrets A Former Harvard Business School Admissions Board Member Reveals the Insider Keys to Getting In Chioma Isiadinso, M.ED. © 2008 by Chioma Isiadinso Cover and internal design © 2008 by Sourcebooks, Inc. Cover photo © Punchstock Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. —From...
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...MBA Admissions Essay Powerful Tips for Improving Your Odds of Gaining Admission to the MBA Program of Your Choice Admissions essays are easily the most challenging part of the MBA application process, and it’s no wonder. Most people don’t like to write, and even those of us who do enjoy writing can come up blank when called upon to write about ourselves, especially when so much is at stake. The fact remains: If you want to go to business school, you have to be able to generate one or two thousand carefully chosen words that sum up your background and experience, your career goals, your reasons for seeking the MBA, and why you’ve chosen the program to which you’re applying. Step one: Relax. Writing admissions essays is stressful—it’s supposed to be stressful— but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Everyone who has ever applied to business school has written admissions essays, and so can you. All you have to do is submit essays that are a little bit better than most of the others, and if you follow the advice we’ll cover in the following pages, it will be a lot less painful. How to Write a Successful Most MBA essays are mediocre The good news is that most MBA admissions essays are mediocre at best. If you can at least come up with a marginally compelling narrative, and if you can spell and punctuate everything correctly—or know someone who can—you’ll automatically have an advantage over much of the competition. This guide is designed to help you get started (the hardest...
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...instead where there is no path and lead a trail.” I’ve always been the type of person who believes individuality is what matters most. Ithink be able to choose what we do, and how we do it, nobody else. So when I decided I wanted to go to college I knew no one could change my mind, and my mind is set on this college. Pennsylvania State University is where I have wanted to go for awhile now. Applying for college is no walk in the park, and I still have a lot ahead of me to get ready. Its for this reason why I’m glad that I have started the whole process my freshman year, of highschool. There are so many colleges out there that sometimes choosing one can be overwhelming. For me the decision process was quite easy. When the topic of which college I would like to go to came up, I Instantly knew Pennsylvania State University was the path I wanted to pursue. I chose this school because I have learned, as well as been told that...
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...stereo recording, I thought of converting two mono recorded audio cassettes into a single stereo cassette, recorded in mono mode using the cassette's LEFT and RIGHT channels as a separate channels, to be heard in sequence, not together. To my delight, the idea worked and resulted in compacting two cassettes into a single mono cassette. With good scores in the science subjects, I could choose the engineering stream to take up for Bachelors. I chose Electronics & Telecommunication, because of its wide, interdisciplinary span and the ever increasing use of electronics in every branch of modern science, from Astrophysics to Medicine. It is a field rich with opportunities for an entrepreneur. The curriculum of University of Pune introduced me to the basics of several subjects, such as Digital Signal Processing, Integrated Circuit Application, Computer Networks, Digital Communication, System Programming and Operating Systems and application of theories in practice through lab work and team projects. Presently, I am studying in the final semester of the Bachelors program. Though technological proficiency and creative genius are the internal strengths of an enterprise, another determinant of success in competition in an...
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...Summary: “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, presents proposals “that might begin to set things right’ (TSIS, 180) in education. Both professors, Hacker and Dreifus, studied institutions and interviewed higher education leaders, policy makers, and students across the country (180). According to their voluntary assignment, they acknowledged at first, their belief that “all Americans can do college work,” which basically provided a thesis for every proposal to follow within their article. Suggestions, such as persuading students to liberate their imagination instead of just focusing on a financial goal after graduating, or “replacing tenure with multi-year contracts” (181) so that all professors begin to take more initiative to improve, gave way to a deeper analysis of specific colleges and their priorities. My Response: In the article, “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, both professors maintains a perspective that is convincing, to a degree. “We believe all Americans can do college work, so universal enrollment should be our nation’s goal” (180). In making this comment, Hacker and Dreifus urge us to do the obvious. Of course everyone should have the same opportunity to be accepted at the collegiate level, but there are several problems that have to be addressed and taken care of prior to the suggestion of this desire for all. If there was universal enrollment, will that lead to...
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...Why do colleges rely heavily on the S.A.T & A.C.T. scores? The SAT is essentially a reasoning test used to evaluate potential college students in an unbiased way. The SAT, unlike high school academic tests, is not a place to demonstrate accumulated knowledge, and high school alone does not prepare a student for a good score on the SAT. The SAT is neither an IQ test nor a measure of academic potential. Higher scores on the SAT significantly increase a student’s college options, learning about and preparing to take the SAT is an extremely important part of the college process. Some students have a high g.p.a. but can be bad test takers regardless if they study or not. We all know that many college admissions offices imbue SAT and ACT scores with importance. At schools that are deluged with tens of thousands of applications, numbers matter, so these scores can play an outsized role in admission decisions. That means these scores can affect where individual students get to go to school. Through my High School experience, teachers told me the SAT would determine a lot of my potential in life. Having been told this, I still feel the ways that it has affected me, and I still remember all of the years it took to undo the feeling of having a test define the rest of your life. Having to apply for fee waivers and the worry related to not scoring "high enough." because of this experience, I didn’t apply to the schools I didn’t think would accept me (based on my grade), and I didn’t...
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...great things come to those that work. I once heard this myth that I find fascinating; as we get older we get wiser. No matter what the age, I think that getting and education is a wise decision. For many reasons, including an unstable economy, people over 40 are returning back to college campuses. Being a Senior Admissions Advisor at a Career College, I have had the privilege of witnessing this on a daily basis. As a 40 year old myself, I too have decided to return to college. That’s right I am going back to school. It is never too late to finish what you started. Why I chose to go back to school? I would be shocked if my reasons were not the same as most people. I could probably think of many reasons why I decided to go back to school. In this essay, I will share a few reasons. One personal reason is to finish what I started. In June 1996, I graduated with a B.S. in Sociology at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. In September 1996, I entered into graduate school for M.A. in Sociology, specializing in Industrial Relation. I completed two years of studies, including an internship at United States Postal Service (USPS). Following that, I got hired for the USPS, and quickly promoted through the ranks to the Office of Inspector General. I spent the next 12 years working as an Internal Auditor for the government. Life got in front of me, had an auditing career that required up to 50 percent of travel and wasn’t fortunate in finding the time to finish my degree...
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...HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS Lauren Starkey ® NEW YORK Copyright © 2004 LearningExpress All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Learning Express, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Starkey, Lauren B., 1962– How to write great essays / Lauren Starkey. —1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-57685-521-X 1. English language—Rhetoric—Problems, exercises, etc. 2. Essay—Authorship—Problems, exercises, etc. 3. Report writing—Problems, exercises, etc. I. Title. PE1471.S83 2004 808'.042—dc22 2004003384 Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition ISBN 1-57685-521-X For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at: 55 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10006 Or visit us at: www.learnatest.com Contents Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 vii Organization 1 Clarity 11 Word Choice 21 Mechanics 39 Revising, Editing, and Proofreading 55 Untimed Essay Writing Strategies 67 Timed Essay Writing Strategies 85 Sample Essay Prompts and Essays 97 Resources 111 CONTENTS HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS v Introduction n your preparations for college, you may find yourself facing a handful of high-stakes essays. Your college application requires at least one, and the SAT requires another. Depending upon the high...
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...Evan Mandery Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice • Why I'm Skipping My Harvard Reunion (A Call to Action) Posted: 05/06/2014 8:51 am EDT Updated: 07/06/2014 5:12 am EDT In a few weeks, the Harvard class of 1989 will be reuniting in Cambridge. There'll be mini-TED talks, a "Taste of New England Dinner," and a chance to sing with the Boston Pops, but I'll be spending the weekend coaching my son's Little League team and hanging out with my family. Reunions seem unnatural to me. I refuse to participate in the charade of pretending to be surprised to see a classmate, and when I'm asked, "What have you been doing?" as one inevitably is, I never know where to draw the line between "stuff" and the full, self-reflective version one might share with a close friend. I think too much detail implies an exaggerated sense of self-worth and is hence a greater faux pas than too little detail, so I've always hewed closer to the "stuff" version, but this runs its own risk of suggesting you don't think the other person is important enough to merit the full telling of your own story. It's a minefield and, in the social media era, one that's entirely avoidable. I've never been unable to locate an old friend or classmate online. It's particularly easy for graduates of Harvard, which maintains a great alumni website--it's where Facebook started, after all. Anyone interested in me can find my professional record on LinkedIn, family photos on Facebook, and many hilarious tweets. If one wanted...
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...1. Why are you applying? • For example why you want to study at higher education level. • Why that subject interests you. • What your ambitions are when you finish your course. 2. What makes you suitable? • Skills, knowledge, achievements and experience you have that will help you do well. • These could be from education, employment or work experience, or from hobbies, interests and social activities. • Take a look at the activities on the Planning your future page to see some of the things it could be useful to mention. • Explore your options • Undergraduate • When to apply • Filling in your application • Personal statement • Reference, pay and send • Tracking your application • Results • Student number controls • Fraud and similarity • Performing arts • Postgraduate • Teacher training • Flexible and part-time • International • Starting your studies • Student finance • Mature students • Parents and guardians • Advisers and referees Your personal statement Write a personal statement that shows you'd be a great student – to persuade unis and colleges to accept you on their course. • Course tutors use personal statements to compare applicants, so try to make yours stand out. • Remember it's the same personal statement for all courses you apply to – so avoid mentioning universities or colleges by name, and ideally choose similar subjects. If they're varied then write about common themes – like problem solving or creativity. Personal...
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...Writing Your Graduate School Application Essay Generally speaking, there are two types of application essays for graduate school: the statement of purpose (SOP) and the personal statement. (Refer to FAQs to find out how the two types are different.) Both types let you convince the admissions committee that you are a good fit for the program and can contribute to the department. Although different graduate schools may ask you to answer different prompts, most ask that you write no more than a two-page application essay. The application essay is difficult to write because you must pitch your candidacy to a few department faculty members who read through hundreds – or sometimes thousands – of other essays. In this handout, you will learn how to show these busy readers that you will contribute meaningfully to the university and their department. 1. Relate your past and present experiences to the future. In their application essays, many applicants make the mistake of underemphasizing the future. But it’s important that you show how your past experiences have informed your present work, and how your present work can be extended to the future or raise new research questions. Admissions committees assess many qualified applicants based on whether their research will reflect positively on the university and their department. Committees will think your past and present work is relevant only if it relates directly to your plans for the future. If you don’t know exactly where your current...
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