Essay Advantage

10/15/2025

High school seniors: if you haven't already, it's time to "calendarize" your college application essay-writing process by starting in the future and working backwards.
1. Put deadline for each college application on your calendar.
2. Go back one week and put "Submit" for that college on your calendar. That's right: you're going to want to submit a full week ahead of deadline. That's because a)college website and Common Application sites have been known to crash on deadline dates, and b) there may be extra submission requirements that you overlooked, such as hidden essays, and you don't want to wait until the last minute for those.
3. Go back another week and write "polish essays for X College" on your calendar. At this point you will want to have rough drafts of the essays and will just need to polish them.
4. Go back still another week (or even two weeks, which means you're now at 4-5 weeks before deadline) and list the essays due for X College. This is when you need to start writing.

I'm assuming that your main Common App essay is already done; above process is just for supplemental essays. If you haven't written your Common App main essay yet, you'll need to do that now. Tip: look over all the prompts for all the supplemental essays you'll have to do for all of your colleges, and make sure that your main essay doesn't overlap in topic with those essays.

Finally, if you haven't grouped your essays by type (color-coding can help with this) in a document or spreadsheet, do that now, too. This will save you time in the long run: for example, if you have several Why This College (or Why This Major or What Appeals to You about This College's Major, etc.), you can write one baseline essay for this and tweak it for each college. (See an article about how to craft the Why This College essay in the comments.)

This requirement for college applications is more important—and easier to write—than you may think.

06/13/2023

Are students already using Chat GPT and other generative AI to write their college application essays? And should they? I explore those questions, and how you can use generative AI to help you in the overall college admissions process -- without using it to write for you -- in this article in The Foreign Service Journal:

New technologies based on artificial intelligence are raising lots of questions for students and educators alike.

03/30/2023

College admissions results are coming out daily. This high school student is right on target when he talks about how damaging the viral videos of college acceptances are. What we don't see -- because no one is going to post that on TikTok -- are the people who stop filming when they find out they didn't get into their "dream school." And how they might feel seeing these acceptance videos. First of all, there is no single "dream school." The college where you'll thrive is the college that values you and sees who you are and very much wants you on their campus. Go where they love you and want you! You'll thrive.

Don’t make them, don’t “like” them, don’t pass them on.

07/03/2022

I heartily agree with college admissions expert Jay Mathews on this idea. Self-deprecating humor, if you can pull it off, lands much better than a "why I'm so great" essay (which I never recommend writing, by the way).

Your application and recommendations will cover the impressive stuff you've done. But to stand out, think about not what makes you great, but what makes you odd.

04/11/2022

U.S. News and World Report college rankings? Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

The ranking methodology is flawed -- did you know that 20 percent of a college's "score" is made up by peer reviews? In other words, the registrar at one college evaluates what other colleges he or she thinks are "worthy," often without much knowledge of those colleges. It's very subjective. And did you know that colleges like Reed, who refuse to take part, get penalized as a result? Do your own homework and make the decision that's right for you. Don't let rankings tell you which college is "best."

New book offers a harsh critique of the rankings industry and its impact on undergraduate colleges and law schools.

03/31/2022

Absolutely, positively know this to be true! If you are disappointed with college admission results, feel the pain, then get up and move forward and embrace the college that wants you and where you can flourish. And if you're resourceful, that's most colleges!

Your teen's identity is not defined by where he or she attends college.
Please KNOW this to be true…because it is.
27 years working in the field of college admissions with teens & parents of all shapes and sizes has taught me much.
Your teen’s success, happiness, and lifelong potential to be an incredible human being will never be determined by the name on his or her college sweatshirt nor your bumper sticker.
If you believe otherwise, it’s time to change The College Conversation.
Let’s do that together.

12/08/2021

Should you take the SAT or the ACT? Or neither one? David Huemer at Your College Strategies has some answers here on page 77 in the latest Foreign Service Journal:

10/09/2021

Are you a high school student who needs a volunteer activity on your resume? Do you have anxiety about climate change? Would you like to get lobbying experience? Then here's the perfect organization to join: Citizens Climate Lobby. There is a Youth Outreach part of this organization where you can really make a difference. Some CCL youth have had the opportunity to meet with and present to legislators. CCL has been instrumental in getting carbon fee legislation to the table, and recently, it's been gaining recognition and traction. Here's how you can get involved right now:

Price Carbon NOW Challenge! Congress is working on climate legislation right now. Both Congress and the President need to hear that CONSTITUENTS WANT CARBON PRICING NOW!! THE CHALLENGE: Can CCL Youth generate 500 Price Carbon NOW action points by November 1? How many can you personally gene...

09/24/2021

Lots of procrastination this college application season! I just blogged about that, with tips to get through all the essay writing.

We college counselors are noticing that so many kids are slower this year in getting essays written. The pandemic has done a number on everyone. It might be a depression/anxiety thing, it might be …

09/13/2021

Too many application essays to write? Take a deep breath and follow these steps...

So, you’re back in school and maybe you didn’t use your summer as productively as you’d planned. You’re human, after all. Now you have a bunch of essays to write, along with…

09/02/2021

Get those college app essays organized and grouped, and you'll be able to get them done faster. When you look over all the essays you have to write, you'll notice that there are some similar themes. The Why This College essay, or Why This Major essay. The "tell us about one of your communities" essay. The "favorite activity" essay. And, this year, there are more prompts asking about diversity or social activism. Group these -- color code them if you like -- and then you can tweak one essay for different colleges. For my formula on how to write the "Why This College" essay, go here: https://afsa.org/why-college-essay
Hint: it's all about research and specifics. If you scroll down after my bio in the article, you'll see two sample Why This College essays.

This requirement for college applications is more important—and easier to write—than you may think.

03/31/2021

It's college decision time. And that means, for so many students, some measure of disappointment. Do not make the same mistake the writer here is making, of equating identity with what college you get into. There is research that shows that the kids who are most successful are the ones who already have a strong identity and make the most of their lives at whatever college they attend, whether it was their first choice or not. Give yourself a little time to mourn, then go forward with a new attitude towards that college that welcomes you and recognizes you for the wonderful person you are.

I’m trying to accept that the school I’m going to is where I am meant to be, but I feel like my accomplishments mean nothing now.