How to Help Your Rising Senior with College Admission Essays

Worried about the Common App & Personal Insight Essays?

College admissions is overwhelming for students and parents,

but you're not alone.

Here are 5 tips to help college applicants write brief yet compelling narrative reflections. 

• Replace anxiety with enthusiasm. You’re an interesting young adult with hundreds of life stories to tell. Let the writing prompt choose you. If you have a particular story of mental or moral strength, these reflections make the reader sit up and take notice. 

• Understand ALL components of the prompt. Admission readers want unique perspectives on life and stories of how you navigate challenges. Emphasize an informed self-awareness through "before-and-after" experiences. Demonstrate a significant shift in awareness by illustrating how your mindset has evolved.

• Stay on topic and follow through. Highlight and use key phrases from the writing prompt as topic headings to organize your paragraphs— this way, when you veer off-topic, you’ll know it sooner and waste less time.

• Make your writing personal and academic.  Use a brief but fitting quote from someone you admire-- a wise relative or favorite author in the conclusion, as if all the previous paragraphs are aiming toward this quote as the finale of your essay. A confident yet sincere tone is the key to connecting with your admissions reader.

• Revise. Revise. Revise. Have a trusted mentor or teacher read it and provide feedback.
  

or sign up for EAE workshops and/or remote edits: Editorial Services

Trust EAE’s Editorial Support

The one thing that sets EAE methods apart from other educational consults is the emotional intelligence Dr. B. consistently identifies in her students' writing. For academic or sports scholarship applications, business or nursing programs, first-year or graduate school, Dr. B. empowers young adults with the proactive mindset to tackle complex writing tasks in small increments.  

With EAE's actionable routines in place, student writing habits and problem-solving skills are better positioned to sustain collegiate coursework. 

Read testimonials on Google and the EAE home page