How I Know You Wrote Your Kids College Essay

How I Know You Wrote Your Kid’s College Essay The college essay is an important component of the college application process. Most colleges require at least one essay from applicants, and several schools require two or three. We checked in with Jodi Then, High School Counselor at Boston Green Academy, to ask her advice on crafting the best college essay. Jodi has several years of experience guiding Massachusetts students through the college admissions process, and she offers some wise words below. This is a personal decision for you to make on your own. It might help the admissions team to understand you holistically or explain a gap in performance. When a parent gets too involved, the story does not sound like an essay written by a 17-year-old student. We can tell when the student’s voice is missing; the colleges can tell too. There is a funny article in “The Daily Beast” by Kristina Dell that shares the anecdotes of college admissions counselors from this year’s record batch of applications. Many of the anecdotes revolve around silly or even comical things students do during the course of the college admissions process. If a school has a writing section in their supplement to the Common Application you can rest assured that ALL of that writing is evaluated by admissions officers. Do your best and assume that it WILL be read and that it WILL have a bearing on your admission chances. There is no way to determine a typical scenario regarding a college’s method for reviewing applications. It is okay for a parent to review a child’s essay; it is not okay for a parent to take over a child’s essay, tell her what words to use, what story to write, what message to send. College admissions officers tell us time and again that too many essays come to them sanitized. They want to read a genuine story written by the child in the child’s words and the child’s voice. When parents get too involved, the stories do not sound genuine. We have found that students write better college essays in less time with feedback and editing from someone who is experienced in offering guidance. Your college essay can help your application stand out! An essay is an important part of sharing who you are with a school. With increased competition for admission, the essay has become an important factor in consideration of your admissibility to a school. So if a school requires an essay it is VERY likely to be read. You may decide that it will not benefit you in anyway to disclose before you are accepted to the university or college. You should discuss the pros and cons of disclosing your disability with your family, friends, and school counselors to decide the right decision for you. When parents get involved in the nitty gritty of a college application, some families find conflict arises. If your situation is one where parents can offer opinions that are helpful and if you are the kind of student who is open to listening to suggestions, then surely parents can be good editors. Further, if you have parents who know grammar and writing conventions and can recognize flaws, go ahead and ask parents to help. For many students, finding an objective evaluator who is not a relative to help edit the essay is the best bet. Having a degree in English and being a published writer of college planning articles, and having edited hundreds of essays for students, I would be happy to help you too. We’ve helped thousands of students write amazing college essays â€" one of which was featured in Business Insider. The free articles below will walk you through everything you need to know to write a successful essay. The majority of these anecdotes are drawn from ridiculous mistakes college applicants make in their college essays. Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. If you were to take bets on the percentage of essays read by college admissions personnel, I’d guess that it would be in the high 90’s.