Pondering the Common App Questions….What Question Should My Rising Senior Chose?….None!
As the end of the semester winds down, and high school juniors start to think about the looming mountain ahead of them….the college application process, (despite still having to sucessfully move through final exams!), the majority of rising seniors know they will have to write the Common App Essay.
What is the Common App you might ask? I never even heard of the Common App when I applied to schools, (gulp, hello, 25 years ago!), does my child really need to write it?
After years of working with high school seniors on their college admissions essays, my students and I discovered the easiest and most pain-free strategies to not only write the best Comm App Essay but to learn a ton about themselves, their unique characterisitics for success, and ultimately have fun while improving their writing skills.
As you and your child beging to think about the writing expectations for her upcoming college applications, here are some effective tips to help gain a better understanding around planning, organizing, and gaining a sense of relief about how to tackle the Common App Essay – BEFORE even reading the Common App Essay prompts:
- Clear your mind, grab a blank piece of notebook paper or open up a new computer doc.
- Picture yourself from age three -present time – picture yourself feeling strong, at ease, proud of yourself through this time period of your life.
- Quickly write down the events from your life that gave you the opportunity to feel this ease, this empowerment, this positive energy.
- Label those events with adjectives that describe your strengths in this moment: perseverance, communication, helping others, taking risks.
- Make connections with yourself as a college student. Write how those strengths will clearly apply to your life as an involved, eager, well-rounded student.
Now that your child jumped “write” in with college application essay writing, we have more tips?! Check out more college essay writing tips on our Facebook or our website!
