By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. As the first wave of college application deadlines looms, high school seniors around the country are starting to feel the pressure. With so many supplemental essays to keep track of–not to mention the big personal statement essay to tackle–it might feel like the best you can do is just knock out..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’ – Arthur Quiller-Couch, British Literary Critic Increase the font size,..
By Caroline Matas, Ph.D. In many ways, July is the peak month of summer break: removed enough from spring semester to have fully broken out of your school year routines and still far enough away that you’re not yet thinking about buying school supplies for the fall. In the world of college admissions, though, July..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022), so if you haven’t yet seen it, see it (it’s a masterpiece!) and then come back. In one of the alternate realities that Evelyn Quan (played by the always impressive Michelle Yeoh) experiences after a Matrix-style awakening to..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. One of my favorite shows of all time, Breaking Bad, opens with one of the most unforgettable scenes in television. The main character, Walter White, is wildly driving an RV in nothing but a gas mask and his underpants, while his accomplice, Jesse Pinkman, lays slumped in the front passenger..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Crafting college essays is frequently more an art than a science, and how you approach your writing process should represent your individuality in experience as well as thought. But it’s always nice when you can throw in a framework that takes away the anxiety of the blank page. Fortunately, the..
The essay is one of the most revealing pieces of the college application process. Not only are you expected to bare your soul in 650 words or less, but you’re also offering a window into how you think. Most of you do it subconsciously, which can lead to mixed results. When, however, you become conscious..
By Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Unlike the rest of your application—which is about telling colleges what you’ve done—the personal statement for the Common App is about telling them who you are. That’s a daunting task for anyone, but often what it really comes down to is helping admissions officers understand your personal qualities. For many—dare I..
By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D. Perhaps you’ve heard of ChatGPT. Introduced in November 2022, it has been one of the greatest disruptions to our sense of selves as human beings in history. Its ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to produce articulate and logical pieces of writing has thrown many people, especially professional writers, into..
By Dr. Adam Muri-Rosenthal, Ph.D. Allow me to begin this post with a vast understatement completely belying its content: writing college essays is hard. As I repeatedly find myself telling students, the college essay is a genre unto itself: peculiar, idiosyncratic, and for most students, entirely novel. It also demands that students produce something exceptional..