Wednesday, 7. July 2010
- ISBN13: 9780761524267
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Get into the College of Your Dreams
An original and creative essay is one of the keys to getting into the college you’ve always dreamed of, as well as to getting the financial aid you deserve. This book gives you everything you need to make your own unique talents shine in your college application essay. Even if writing is not your strong point, author Michael James Mason shows you:
·Exactly what admissions officers look for
·What works—and what doesn’t, using actual student essays
·Proven techniques for writing your best essay
·Special tips for SAT and scholarship essays
·A last-minute checklist before you submit your essay
·And much more!
“Well written, very useful, and highly recommended.” —Hunter’s Guide to the College Guides
“Demystifies one of the most important and challenging parts of the college application process—the personal essay. . . . An invaluable resource!” —Gail Devine, director of college counseling, Louisville High School, Woodland Hills, California
“This book taught me what colleges look for in an essay and showed me how to effectively communicate my thoughts in writing.” —Ryan Miller, University of Virginia graduateAmazon.com Review
When there are kids out there reading How to Write a Winning College Application Essay and taking author Michael James Mason’s College Essay Workshop, you can hardly afford to be left behind. Mason’s method requires a lot of hard work, but, as he says in his introduction, “There is no shortcut to writing an essay you are proud to send to the colleges of your choice.” Mason recommends putting aside two hours a night for two weeks straight to accomplish this onerous task, which in the long run isn’t much of a hardship, considering the possible payoff. During those two weeks, you will come upon your best subject matter by exploring 26 different aspects of yourself. “You don’t have to be a star scholar or a superhero to write a great application essay,” Mason says. “You just have to show on paper that you know some things about yourself and that your life has meaning and perspective.” Mason knows what admissions officers are looking for, and he knows what they dread (he happens to be married to one). This terrific book also includes insightful chapters on the SAT II: Writing Test, financial-aid essays, and graduate-school application essays. –Jane Steinberg
How to Write a Winning College Application Essay, Revised 4th Edition
Posted in College Books by -
Monday, 3. May 2010
- ISBN13: 9780312343767
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
You’ve been told a million times how selective and random the college process is, how the personal essay is your one chance to speak directly to admissions officers and sway them in your favor. You have to be entertaining, persuasive, and passionate, while effectively conveying your personality, character, and ideals. And you only have five hundred words to accomplish this.
50 Successful Harvard Application Essays showcases the kinds of conventional and creative approaches that helped their authors get into the nation’s most prestigious college. From coping with family tragedy to seeing Vietnamese soup as a metaphor for one’s identity, the variety of topics covered in these essays will help you think about how to write about yourself creatively and effectively.
Each essay is followed by a brief discussion written by a Harvard Crimson staff writer who analyzes its main strengths and weaknesses. Through this analysis and our Fifteen Steps to Success, you’ll learn:
-How to pick a topic
-How to structure your essay
-How to keep the reader entertained
-How to avoid common pitfalls
The Harvard Crimson is the daily newspaper of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its staff consists of three hundred students, and it is the nation’s oldest continually operating daily newspaper.
You’ve been told a million times how selective and random the college process is, how the personal essay is your one chance to speak directly to admissions officers and sway them in your favor. You have to be entertaining, persuasive, and passionate, while effectively conveying your personality, character, and ideals. And you only have five hundred words to accomplish this.
50 Successful Harvard Application Essays showcases the kinds of conventional and creative approaches that helped the authors get into the nation’s most prestigious college. From coping with family tragedy to seeing Vietnamese soup as a metaphor for one’s identity, the variety of topics covered in these essays will help you think about how to write about yourself creatively and effectively.
Each essay is followed by a brief discussion written by a Harvard Crimson staff writer who analyzes its main strengths and weaknesses. Through this analysis and our Fifteen Steps to Success, you’ll learn:
-How to pick a topic
-How to structure your essay
-How to keep the reader entertained
-How to avoid common pitfalls
50 Successful Harvard Application Essays, Second Edition: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice
Posted in College Books by -
Sunday, 28. March 2010
- ISBN13: 9780874477115
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Revised edition of a classic bestseller, previous editions have sold over 100,000 copies, that helps college-bound students write great application essays.
This new edition of the classic bestseller is a treasure for students who want to write vivid, distinctive essays and personal statements to support their college applications. The College Application Essay builds on what students have already learned in high school to strengthen their writing skills, and then applies those lessons to college applications in particular. In a friendly, conversational tone, the guide helps students find their voice and be “heard” on paper by emphasizing both the thinking process and the technical work of writing.
This revised edition includes dozens of current essay questions and topics, with multiple response strategies; advice from admissions directors and guidance professionals, who offer wisdom and insights about how applicants’ essays are evaluated; and sample essyas written by real students. A new guide for parents shows how they can support – without interfering in – the writing process.
Amazon.com Review
Sarah Myers McGinty wants you to keep the college-application process in perspective. Don’t panic, she says. “The goal of this process is not to sell an ideal image of yourself. It is to find the right school for you.” But of course once you’ve found that school, you do have to convince its admissions officers that the school wants you as much as you want it. McGinty’s The College Application Essay discusses such topics as recommendation letters and college interviews, but its main focus is the essay. Essay questions vary from school to school (this book is loaded with specific examples), but McGinty groups them into three categories: the “tell us about yourself” question, the “why do you want to attend this particular school” question, and “the creative question” (which asks you to comment on an issue, a hero, a book, a quotation, the future, or the like). How you write is as important as what you write, and whatever you do, don’t get someone else to write it for you. “Admission people usually can tell,” warns McGinty. “If they mark the essay ‘DDI,’ they’ve concluded that ‘Daddy did it.’”
McGinty also gives some attention to non-traditional, or “high risk,” essays. While not for everyone, the high-risk essay can work wonders when you chances of getting into a given school are slim. “We’ll take a risk for the right reason,” says Simmons College admissions dean Deborah Wright, and perhaps you should, too. After all, says McGinty, “I am sure in the final hours of committee meetings on ‘gray zone’ applications, no one has ever said, ‘Hey, wait a minute, what about that kid who wrote the essay about his family?’” –Jane Steinberg
The College Application Essay, Revised Edition
Posted in College Books by -
Wednesday, 17. March 2010
- ISBN13: 9780451207135
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
These are the essays that helped their authors gain admission to Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley, Colby, and other outstanding schools-followed by invaluable comments by experts in admissions, placement, and college counseling at some of the best learning institutions around the country. This helpful guide includes:
€ 100 complete essays with professional commentary
€ Examples of essays on common topics (family background, athletics, work experience), as well as the more offbeat
€ Essays on the immigrant experience by foreign-born students
€ A “What Not to Do” chapter from a top college counselor
€ and moreAmazon.com Review
The essay is the one part of the college application that allows an admissions committee to get a glimpse not only of what you are (grades, scores, club member), but of who you are. “Applicants are constantly advised to ‘put their best foot forward,’” says Fred Hargadon, the dean of admissions at Princeton University and a contributor to this book. “But I must confess that I always liked the ones who put both feet forward.” That doesn’t mean that your essay needs to shock. It means you must put everything you’ve got into it. It means that “if you think the college might receive even one other essay like yours,” according to Brooks School college counselor William K. Poirot, “rewrite it.”
The bulk of this book, as its title promises, comprises 100 examples of successful college-application essays. There are those who believe that reading essays will make you a better essay writer and those who don’t. But reading these essays–and the experts’ comments on them–will help you figure out what you want to write and how best to write it. From the essays included here, one surmises that the narrower your focus, the more effective the essay, as long as your narrowness doesn’t cross over into insignificance. What matters most is not what you write about (these essays take on late-night TV game shows, self-induced baldness, the picture on a bag of Goldfish crackers, a family drive on the New Jersey Turnpike, and even a seven-inch plastic Godzilla), but what you do with your subject matter. –Jane Steinberg
100 Successful College Application Essays
Posted in College Books by -
Tuesday, 16. March 2010
- ISBN13: 9781592403028
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In the tradition of The Gatekeepers, a veteran counselor provides the missing key to the college admissions door with insider wisdom about how admissions committees think, and the thirteen fatal mistakes that can ruin an application.
When Don Dunbar was a college counselor for Phillips Academy, Andover, in the 1980s, he got to sit in on the meetings where the nation’s top colleges decided whether to admit his students. Prep school counselors no longer get this kind of astonishing access, but in those meetings, Don discovered a little-known key to college admissions that still holds true today. Many applicants look alike, based on their grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, so colleges want something more: They want applicants with character.
Most of us know what character means, but not in the way that admissions officers define it. Admissions officers have tremendous integrity, and to them, character equals what a student will contribute to his or her community, good or bad, over the next four years. Don explains the concept of character in terms that high school students can understand, using examples from his thirty years of working with kids. He shows readers how to avoid the thirteen fatal character mistakes that even the brightest students make when applying to college and democratizes the admissions process, making his advice available to all students.
What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out of College: A Top Consultant Explains the 13 Fatal Application Mistakes and Why Character Is the Key to College Admissions
Posted in College Books by -
Tuesday, 9. March 2010
- ISBN13: 9780345498922
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
With so many qualified applicants, competition for college admissions is fiercer than ever. Now you can put yourself ahead of the pack by making your application flawless!
When applying for college, good grades and high standardized test scores are not always enough to guarantee admission. What sets you apart, argues Michele Hernández, is the way you describe yourself in your application. But how do you present yourself with flair, and highlight all your talents, skills, and passions, in just a few pages?
A former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College, Dr. Hernández takes you step-by-step through the entire application process, revealing the details that make or break an applicant. From the multitude of short and longer essays to the myriad of charts, lists, and personal data sections, she offers essential advice, useful anecdotes, and vivid examples. Included are:
• A line-by-line look at the common application
• The truth about the essays, with samples of those that made the grade
• The best way to ask for teacher and guidance counselor recommendations
• When to provide colleges with optional essays and peer evaluations
• The ten common myths and misconceptions of the on-campus interview
• The most meaningful academic subjects, work experience, and extracurricular activities to mention
• Early action versus early decision—the trade offs
With this helpful, savvy book, prospective college students—and their parents and counselors—can now vastly improve their chances of getting into the college of their choice.
“Want to scale the Ivy wall? Michele Hernández gives you the tools to do it. This brisk, no-nonsense book is built on inside dope, and Hernández’s experience allows her to challenge conventional admissions thinking.”
—HARRY BAULD
Author of On Writing the College Application Essay
Acing the College Application: How to Maximize Your Chances for Admission to the College of Your Choice
Posted in College Books by -
Sunday, 7. March 2010
- ISBN13: 9780064637220
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Vital information for every college applicant. A former Ivy League admissions officer provides tough and funny advice on coming up with the best essay possible.
On Writing the College Application Essay: The Key to Acceptance and the College of your Choice
Posted in College Books by -