Do you write like a college professor? If you do, rid yourself of the habit. College graduates who write like their college professors could find their job search even harder. The business world favors employees who can write simple, declarative sentences. In contrast, college professors are masters at obfuscation. They write stilted prose. They embrace […]
Archive | Applying
Writing a Winning College Essay
The seniors at my son’s high school are in a panic. They can’t procrastinate any longer. They have to write their dreaded college essay. A lot of college essays fail because students are so afraid of messing up. It’s hard for teenagers to be genuine when they worry about alienating admission officers. I had the […]
College Blog Roundup: University Crisis, High School Applications, Dumbest Generation
For all my faithful visitors, I want to let you know that I’m trying to eliminate all the kinks on my newly remodeled blog. So please be patient! As always, here is my latest weekend round up of my college blog posts that I wrote for CBSMoneyWatch.com. Guess Who the Dumbest Generation Is Are teenagers […]
Writing Your Way Out of College
One of my most vivid memories at the University of Missouri was of the strange grade that I received on an honors term paper. The English professor gave me a “B+ +” for the final paper in my existentialist literature course. When I saw that grade I was ticked off. What the heck, I wondered, […]
A College Game Plan for High School Seniors
The other day I brought up the “E” word with my son. Ben is about to start his senior year in high school and he needs to begin thinking about the college admission essay that he’s going to write. Ben’s reaction was typical of a lot of seniors: He groaned. Undeterred, I told him that […]
Write That College Essay Now!
A strange thing happened to me last night. I had started a post about dealing this summer with one of the real pains of the college application process – the college essay. But then I got distracted and walked out of my office. I wandered out to the patio to talk to my son’s girlfriend […]
The Dreaded College Essay
It was my morning to drive the carpool and since there was one high school senior slumped in the back seat of my aging Volvo station wagon, the topic of college applications arose. Shannon began stressing out loud about the essay she had to write for her application to a University of California campus. Like […]
The College Essay Word Count
Today I wanted to pass along some advice about college essays from Bruce Hammond, a former high school counselor and the co-author of numerous Fiske Guides, including one on writing college essays. I read his advice this week on a list serve for members of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. There has been […]