Write Your Way Into College

Transcription

1 Write Your Way Into College By Kim Lifton and Susan Knoppow

2 Contents Stand Out from the College- Bound Crowd... 3 Our Story... 3 The Competition is Fierce... 3 How Can You Stand Out?... 4 Wow Them With Your College Essay... 5 Finding Your Voice... 5 Mundane Moments... 5 Who Are You?... 6 The Essay as Interview... 6 Listen to Your Writing Voice... 7 Sound Like a Student, Not an Adult... 8 What Should I Write About?... 8 Ten Steps to a Great College Essay... 9 Follow the Process Content First Structure Next Polish Last College Essay Checklist: Am I Done? Get the Wow Advantage Counselors, Consultants and Other Professionals About Us

3 Stand Out from the College- Bound Crowd You ve come to the right place to get all the information you could possibly need about writing college application essays, prepping for the ACT or SAT writing test and submitting an application to the college of your choice that reflects your voice. As a member of, you will get helpful tips, tried- and- true tools and simple instructions to help you write your story the way colleges want it: in your voice, and in your words. Beyond grades and test scores, the college application essay is often the only piece of your application that can differentiate you from other applicants. You will also get the inside scoop from the best in the business. We have been doing this for a long time. Our Story The Wow story goes back more than 20 years to the day Bonnie called us for help. She had been waitlisted at the University of Michigan, and she wanted to write an essay to improve her chances of admission. She had no idea where to begin. Times were different back then. Though the college essay might not have weighed as heavily on students as it does today, the reason for writing it was the same. The process for composing the essay was also the same. Bonnie wanted to stand out. Could she do that with a story? I don t know what to write, she said. Bonnie s face went blank when asked why she had decided to become a nurse. Though she knew this was the career she wanted, she couldn t articulate her reason. She needed help brainstorming ideas to figure out what had prompted her decision. She got in! Every day, we teach students like Bonnie how to tell their stories. We are professional writers and teachers who help students just like you figure it out. We give you tools that make writing a little bit easier and take off some of the pressure. We believe everyone can write! The Competition is Fierce The competition to get into the nation s top colleges gets tougher every year. Despite that, we know what it will take for you to get noticed. Before we tell you how to stand out and make your essay shine, let s take a minute to look at some numbers. 3

4 Consider Harvard, top among even the most elite private colleges. For its incoming freshman class of 2014, Harvard accepted fewer than 6% of its applicants. It is safe to assume that far more were qualified. This year, Stanford accepted 5% of its applicants the fewest number of freshmen in history. Four Ivies hit record lows for admit rates: Yale, 6.3%; Princeton 7.3%; Penn, 9.9% ; and Cornell, 14%.The University of Michigan, one of the nation s most prestigious public institutions, received a record 50,000 applications for a freshman class of 6,000. How Can You Stand Out? Whether you have Ivy League ambitions or want to study at a local university, you can write an application essay that sets you apart from the crowd of qualified students. We have interviewed hundreds of admissions officers from major universities, and each one says the same thing: Relax, take a deep breath and focus on the things you can control. If you have taken the ACT or SAT four times, and your score isn t rising accordingly, you may not be able to do anything about it. But you can work hard to improve your grades, and you can take classes that are both challenging and appropriate for you. You can also write a stellar story about yourself in your application essay! A couple of years ago, a friend took his son, a talented member of his school s rowing team, on a tour of elite East Coast colleges and universities. We asked him to let us know what he heard at those schools regarding admissions essays. Most college representatives mentioned the essay during their presentations, but MIT took the message a step further. While talking about the quest for the perfect ACT or SAT score, she reminded parents and prospective students that test scores merely indicate whether a student is academically ready for freshman courses. Above a certain level, scores didn t make much of a difference, she told the group. In fact, she added, those trying to get perfect SAT scores were wasting their time. She said they would be better advised to put that time and effort into their essays. Wow Writing Workshop can help you prepare for this journey. 4

5 Wow Them With Your College Essay Our process works, and our students get results. In the last four years, Wow students have been admitted to seven of the eight Ivies, as well as numerous private colleges, including Stanford, Northwestern, Georgetown, the University of Chicago, Washington University, Rice, Johns Hopkins, Case Western, Tulane and Duke. Add to that list top public institutions such as the University of Michigan, UC- Berkeley, the University of North Carolina and Virginia Tech. What do our students have in common? Great stories, unique voices and trust in the Wow Method. Finding Your Voice At its core, your college application essay is a story a story about you. It s not about the orphans you met on a summer trip to Ecuador or your favorite novel. Some essay prompts will ask you to reflect on why you belong at the school or what you hope to accomplish, but most students will have to write a basic personal statement, whether for the Common Application, the Universal College Application, the University of California, ApplyTexas or any number of other colleges and universities. That s why you need to tell an excellent story. Your personal statement is not about your Great Aunt Lucy or the time you ran for student government. It s about how that person, book or experience affected you. Are you different now? Did you learn something meaningful about yourself? Mundane Moments Some of the best essays we ve read focus on the most mundane moments: two brothers on a bike ride through their neighborhood; a talented dancer choosing to drop all but a few of her dance classes; a boy and his sister stuck in traffic; a high school junior trying out for the pom- pom team at her new school; an aspiring baseball player watching his cousin take endless batting practice. Frequently, we learn our enduring life lessons during these ordinary moments the moments when our best and most authentic selves emerge. 5

6 Everyone has a story to tell. If more students (and parents!) would relax and let those stories develop, the essay wouldn t seem like such a stumbling block. Instead, it would be seen as the opportunity it is a chance to tell people who may never meet you something compelling about you. Who Are You? The essay is the perfect place to demonstrate who you are. Let s assume you participate in some extracurricular activities: sports, robotics or theater. Maybe you work after school, tutor middle school math or volunteer at a food pantry. All of these things are important, but they might not distinguish you from everyone else. There s another girl similar to you in Florida; there s another boy who plays drums and tutors algebra in Oregon. That doesn t mean your accomplishments and activities don t matter. They do matter. A lot. But they might not set you apart. Fortunately, you can stand out in your essay because no one can write your story the way you can. The Essay as Interview Beyond grades and test scores, admissions officers need ways to get to know applicants on a more personal level, and most do not have the time or resources to conduct personal interviews. In most cases, the essay is a substitute for that face- to- face meeting. Without an interview, how will you convince someone you don t know someone you may never meet that you are the right choice for a particular college? First, think about your audience. It is not your mom or dad or your high school English teacher. Your audience is a college admissions officer whose job includes reading piles of essays every day. How can yours possibly stand out? Listen to your writing voice. That voice will set you apart. 6

7 Listen to Your Writing Voice Your story, told in your own voice and in your own words, will show readers something genuine about you, something they can t get from scores and grades and long lists of activities. What does your voice sound like? How will you recognize it? That is one of the first issues we address with the Wow Method. Just like your speaking voice, your writing voice is distinctive. Are you funny? Be funny. Are you serious? Be serious. Do you write in short, concise sentences? Then write this way in your essay. Don t get distracted by the thesaurus. Don t try to sound like Ernest Hemingway or Toni Morrison. And don t try to sound like your mom or dad, older sister or science teacher. Just be yourself. What do you think of the following sentence for the first line of a college application essay? When I was little, I licked my cat. Yep. Gross comes to mind. Others felt that way too when they heard a Columbia University college admissions officer read it aloud during a college night presentation. Parents and students reacted with a collective eeuw. It was a powerful line, one that made the Columbia representative read on and ultimately helped them decide to admit this student. The applicant did exactly what he was supposed to do. He told readers what happened in a way that made them want to know more. The student explained why it mattered that he licked his cat, in a compelling story about political power. The admissions counselor who read it didn t get into the details of the essay, but he shared the line about licking the cat because it stood out. It was one student s story, in his own words, in his own voice. And it worked. You can be bold in your writing, or you can be conservative, he said. Just give us your voice. 7

8 Sound Like a Student, Not an Adult Jim Cotter, the director of admissions at Michigan State University, told us that voice is as important as grammar or spelling in application essays submitted to MSU. The tone of a 17- year- old student is far different from the tone of a 40- year- old parent, Cotter said. I can tell the difference. There is no magic formula to help you write your story; there is no rubric to define your style. Your voice cannot be copied. It s your signature. Read a few of our favorite lines from our students, and you ll get the idea: At home, we ate beans, rice and ramen noodles for meals, and I was always hungry. I got my first pair of skates before I could walk. I jumped into an empty Dumpster and scrubbed it with a heavy duty brush using Pine Sol and Comet cleanser. My body trembled as I heard the words, If you hear the siren, you have 15 seconds to save your life. When I was in tenth grade, I waged a campaign to save my district s middle school French program. Because I am short, I managed to wiggle my way through the crowd to the front to see the list. I wanted to be a normal kid, just like them, not the kid with a sick dad. It was an overwhelming smell that reminded me of a thrift shop filled with unwashed clothing. I love the sound of the boat straining under the pressure of eight perfectly synchronized oars, and the copper taste in my mouth when I pull my absolute hardest. These examples tell us something about the writer. They are written in different styles and different voices. Your voice will shine only if you put yourself front and center. The college essay is not an academic assignment. It is not a five- paragraph essay. You are required only to answer the question and put your story into perspective. What Should I Write About? Many students are confused when they start the Wow Method. They are unsure of what to write. They have not had a lot of practice doing this type of writing, and it matters. For most students, this is the first time in their lives that a piece of writing can affect their future. 8

9 Here s a case in point: Hillary came to us asking for input on a few essays she had already written for the University of Michigan. Her mom thought something was missing; she said the essays didn t sound like Hillary. The essays were grammatically perfect, and the young woman had a knack for writing. But her mom was right. The stories read as if Hillary were standing on top of a mountain talking about someone down below. What was missing? Hillary s voice, her essence, her personality. I don t like writing about myself, she confessed. We noticed immediately that three of her essays included quotes from Dr. Seuss. Did she want to write about a Dr. Seuss book? Would that feel more real? Can I do that? Hillary wondered. Of course. As long as the essay is genuine and is about you, you can write about almost anything. Hillary seemed relieved. She was excited to write about Dr. Seuss because the author inspired her. (Her dad remained doubtful.) Fortunately, she had plenty of time to rework the essays, and we were able to guide her through a process that required several drafts. In the end, the Dr. Seuss essay about Oh, The Places You ll Go! was beautiful. Her voice shined through. No one could have written that story the way she did. She later showed her essay to an admissions officer for the University of Michigan. He loved it, and Hillary's dad forgave us. Many students can relate to Hillary s experience. Her essays evolved, and she became more confident as she immersed herself in the process. As soon as she relaxed, she didn t mind writing about herself. When she was done, Hillary s essays sounded like her: a bright, interesting 17- year- old girl. Ten Steps to a Great College Essay Once you recognize and believe in your writing voice, the ten- step Wow Method makes perfect sense. Our method helps students reflect and put their genuine stories on paper. We don t provide a template, and we never tell anyone what to write. Instead, we teach our students how to do it themselves. As a result, they end up with beautiful stories and a great sense of pride. 9

10 Michael, a young man who worked with us on the personal statement for his law school application, put it this way: I didn t know I could write. My friends just help each other, and they end up ing [their essays] back and forth to three or four friends for review. They just keep rewriting without any real input. You taught me a process so I can do this again by myself. You helped me come up with my own ideas. Here s another comment, this one from a parent in New York whose daughter got into eight schools, including Princeton, Yale, Columbia and Georgetown: "I'm convinced her essays made a big difference, and we are so grateful for everything you did for her." And finally, a comment from Peter, a transfer student who was already a skillful writer when he came to us: Wow did much more than help me craft strong and effective essays for my college applications, though they certainly did that too. They taught me to approach writing in a new way, and gave me a process that I will keep with me forever. It is hard to explain just how useful their approach has been, but within minutes of sitting down (and I was skeptical at first) I was in awe of its efficacy. Follow the Process The best essays emerge during the process of writing. Don t start with preconceived notions about what makes a good essay. Just write. The results might surprise you. Because we believe so completely in the writing process, we frequently share excerpts from our students work, but we never share full- length samples. If we showed you six great essays, you might set out to model yours after one of them. That defeats the purpose. Content First As you begin the process of writing an essay, you don t need the perfect opening line, and you shouldn t worry about keeping everything in the right order just yet. In fact, our students don t even start writing a first draft until step five of our ten- step process. Why? Preparation is paramount. It is critical that you understand exactly what you are trying to achieve before turning your ideas into an actual essay. By the time you finish that first draft, the content of the essay should be absolutely clear. 10

11 Structure Next Once content is solid, you re ready to concentrate on structure, making sure every part of your essay is exactly where it belongs. Through revision, you will find new and better ways to express yourself. Many students find that their essays go in wonderful and unexpected directions as they revise. When you understand that revision involves re- seeing your essay, it feels less like fixing something that is broken and more like a process of discovery. Sarah, one of our students, had this to say about revision: I am not just becoming a better writer. I am learning to transform something I have written into something totally new. It is no longer taking apart something that I made but creating something bigger and better than I had before. Polish Last After revision, it is finally time to polish. This is where you cross every t and dot every i. Content and structure are still in play, but now you will move from revision to editing and proofreading. By this point, you should be ready to send in your essay with a completed application to the college of your dreams. College Essay Checklist: Am I Done? When you think you are done writing, review this list of key elements. Don t bore college admissions officers! Make sure your essays stand out. The checklist below can be used for a traditional personal statement, such as the Common Application essay, the Universal College Application, the University of California, ApplyTexas or the primary prompt from schools that use their own applications. ü Have you focused on a specific moment? ü Is your theme clear? Can an impartial reader tell you WHY you shared this story? ü Is your essay about YOU, or is it really about the place, person or experience in the story? ü Does your essay move smoothly from beginning to end? ü Do you use the same verb tense throughout? ü Have you avoided sentence fragments and run- on sentences? ü Is your punctuation correct and consistent? ü Is every word spelled correctly? ü Do you use active voice and avoid passive voice? ü Do you feel confident and proud of your work? 11

12 Get the Wow Advantage Do you like what you ve read so far? Upgrade your membership and see how the Wow Method can give you an advantage in the college admissions race. Then write YOUR essay with the professional guidance of a Wow writing coach, or send it to us for one last review. Counselors, Consultants and Other Professionals If you are a professional who works with students, we have great training and resources for you, too. Encourage your students to join for free, then work with us to improve your skills so your students get the edge they deserve. About Us Wow founders Kim Lifton and Susan Knoppow are professional writers who love to teach. Kim comes to Wow with a solid background in journalism and corporate communications, and can draw a great story out of anyone. Susan brings years of experience as a writing teacher, poet and instructional designer. Her clear instructions make the writing process accessible to confident and reluctant writers alike. Now that you ve read the ebook, you have a taste of what we do. Log in to often to keep up with the latest in college admissions. Your membership page will keep you up to date so you can stand out where it matters most inside the admissions office! 12