High school juniors…it’s your turn up at bat. 2017 will be the year you reach an extremely important milestone – applying to college, which of course means writing your college essay. AHHH! PANIC! Wait, no, don’t. Because if you’re reading this post, then you’re already WAY ahead! We here at CEA say that the most […]
Let us be the first to say it. CONGRATULATIONS! You made it through the 2016 college application season. With most major deadlines approaching in just a few days, finally you can breathe. All the stress releases with the click of the “submit” button. Today, we’re here to tell you that it’s your time to sit […]
The day has come… almost. Regular decision deadlines are just a few weeks away, and soon it will be time to kiss those admissions essays goodbye and send them off into the wide world. They grow up so fast. After spending so many hours laboring over each individual application, it can be hard to let […]
A popular format for supplement questions is short answers. Don’t confuse these with the why, activity, community, or oddball essays. These are an entirely different beast. These little critters provide a different kind of creative challenge for aspiring college-goers. Take this set of short answer questions from the 2014 Yale application: “What excites you intellectually, […]
There are certain schools, like the University of Chicago, who have always taken special pride in developing craft questions for their applicants to answer. In recent years, more schools are jumping on the bandwagon, luring students to their applications with questions like “What does #YOLO mean to you” (Tufts, 2013). This is both fun and […]
The community essay is a standard supplemental rascal that mines for information about your social habits and favorite causes. Prompts that ask about a “community you belong to” often leave themselves open to interpretation: Are you part of a community of sports fans around the world who can connect with other strangers over the amazing […]
At one time, not so long ago, the Common App asked all applicants for a brief description of their most important extracurricular experiences. When that requirement became optional in 2013, many individual colleges took it upon themselves to issue a similar prompt as a replacement. The activity essay is an excellent opportunity to expand beyond […]
Students, we hear the sniffle in your voices. We see the feverish looks on your faces. It’s the final month before the regular decision deadline, and you’re thinking your college admissions essay might not be in the healthiest shape. The topic has been complaining of blurry vision, something about your introduction is making you itchy, […]
Procrastinators, you know who you are. You’re the ones who waited until December to start your college essays and spent 15 minutes frantically scouring the internet before you landed on this post. You have a month (maybe less) before the deadlines start to hit and you don’t know where to start. First, just take a […]
Black Friday usually entails going to the mall, waiting in long lines, and spending all of your hard-earned money. However, for this year’s college and grad school applicants, it means FREE essay advice, all day long. This is the Black Friday Deal you won’t even have to leave the couch for. So get comfy, log on […]