Future Cost of College Calculator

Although grants, scholarships and loans can significantly lower the costs of college, prices have increased faster than the rate of inflation. 

Use this tool to estimate the future cost of college.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/14/your-money/20090415-college-calculator.html

Writing Do's

Writing Do's

Below is a list of writing suggestions to ensure your essays have an enthralling style and voice that win over admissions boards.

Take a risk

They will likely remember you, and that will make all the difference. As one writer has said, “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more."

Write your first draft with your heart, your second with your head

Get the raw thoughts out first. You’ll get a better sense of what you want to say. Then you can focus on how you want to say it.

Show, don't tell

Evoke sensation in the reader. Don’t tell us you hated being caught in the rain, but rather show us how you were weighed down in a cold, waterlogged sweater.

Use specific details

General: My uncle Mike has been a huge influence in my life.

Specific: My uncle Mike was the man who told me my brother had broken both his legs skiing in the Alps. Mike was the man who took me to the father-son picnic when my dad was ill. And when I found myself in need of help that late Friday night that would forever change my life, it was Mike’s number I dialed.

Color your language with sensory writing (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Use power verbs

But don’t overdo it.

Employ rhetorical devices (allusion, alliteration, foreshadowing, hyperbole, looping, metaphor/simile, repetition, satire, symbolism)

Don’t overdo this either.

Have a compelling style that fits your topic

Note how a slightly altered wording can change the entire effect of a line. President Kennedy once said: "The New Frontier is not what I promise I am going to do for you, the New Frontier is what I am going to ask you to do for your country." Months later he said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Make sure every sentence matters and makes one want to read on

Begin with an attention-grabbing introduction

Finish with a spectacular conclusion

Give your essay a great title

This is by no means necessary, but a forceful title can make all the difference.

Seek out others for feedback

Proofread for clarity, content, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word count

Take a break from your essays before editing for final changes. You will gain new perspective and clarity so you can be more judicious in your criticism. Focus first on substance and style, then pay attention to the technical details. And, of course, make sure the right name of the college is on the right essay.

If you break a rule of language (such as using sentence fragments), make sure it serves a key purpose and stands out against a backdrop of otherwise perfect prose. All these rules are meant to be broken if there is a good reason behind it.

Good Essay Topics - Bad Essay Topics

Often you'll have the option: Topic of your choice.

Good Essay Topics

Below is a list of general topics worth considering.

What are your favorite activities and hobbies? Why?

What are your talents/skills? How did you develop them? Who helped you?

Who have been the most influential people in your life?

What was your most memorable experience? Best? Worst?

How have you changed in the past four years?

What makes you special/unique?

What is something about you that others do not know and would not expect?

What have you done during the past four summers?

What academic/intellectual interests drive you?

What is a strong belief/philosophy you embrace?

What is something challenging you've done?

What is the most pressing issue our society faces and what can you do about it?

When and how have you shown leadership?

What are you passionate about?

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

What makes you you?

Bad Essay Topics

Below is a list of general topics you should typically avoid. There are always exceptions, so use this only as a guide. Just make sure that if you cover one of the following topics, you do so in a unique way that highlights your strengths.

Sex, Drugs, Booze

Crime you've committed

Character flaws

Excuses

You can, however, include a short supplemental page that addresses a slip in your grades or some other negative aspect of your application.

The "Big Game"

Essays about coming through in the end for your team in the final seconds of the season are cliché and don’t typically reveal much about your character. They mostly just show how people sometimes get lucky.

Why that school is perfect for you

Your college essay is a love letter demonstrating why you want to be with that school. In a love letter, you don’t demand, "Be with me! We're perfect! Can't you see that? Why, for the love, can't you see that?" You come off as, well, a little crazy. Beyond that, it sounds needy and turns the person off. You write your love letter by simply expressing your own feelings for the other person. Similarly, you do not want to try to come off as the school’s prototypical student but rather want to craft your essay from the heart and with subtlety. Let the colleges say, "Hey, this person is perfect for us. We need her here." In essence, let them come to that conclusion on their own. You do this by showing, not telling.

Deep confessions

Save it for therapy

Sob stories

Really, therapy can be a truly cathartic experience

Sensitive political or social issues

You never know who is reading your essays and what his or her personal biases are.

Summer camp tales of growth

These tired stories make the “Big Game” essays seem distinctive

Summer abroad program working with poor community

Just because you escaped your posh lifestyle for the summer to help build a jungle-gym for some third-world kids and suddenly realized how fortunate you are, it doesn’t make you enlightened and certainly doesn’t make you a more qualified applicant. While such approaches could work, they typically come off as pretentious and cliché, even if your experience was genuine and valuable.

All-purpose essay that says a little about everything but really says nothing

List/Résumé as a replacement for an essay

Information they can get from your application

Overly philosophical or intellectual essay

If you are indeed a philosophical soul, convey that and write away. But don’t try to feign an academic aura if one does not already surround you.

Community-oriented theme

Again, if you have contributed something meaningful to your community, then write about it in a compelling way. But don’t try to invent yourself as a devoted citizen of your school or town if your experience does not naturally reflect this.

What you think they want to hear

Don’t fall into the common trap of giving the colleges what you think they’re looking for. You want to, of course, present a case for why you are a worthy candidate for each unique school. But the best way to achieve this is by being honest with yourself regarding why you are applying to each school and expressing this honesty. Show them who you are, not what you hope they will perceive you as. If you follow this sincere path, you will end up writing a more natural, compelling essay, plus it will allow you to reflect on whether or not a school is actually right for you.

Major news events – unless you have a unique and personal connection

Hordes of applicants in 2001 wrote their admission essays about the defining cultural event of their generation, which occurred right at the start of the college admissions process: the events of September 11. While each student’s experience of this day and its aftermath held its own individual significance, essays addressing this topic poured into colleges and thus failed to distinguish applicants for their originality. Unless your perspective of such a shared event is truly unique, pick something else to write about.

World peace

If applying to college is really just practice for the beauty pageant you’re secretly planning to enter, then go for it. Otherwise, move along.

A topic the application doesn't ask about

Answer their question directly. Don’t just force an already-written essay on a completely different topic into other schools’ applications. Also, if they ask for 500 words, try to stay within the limit. Doubling the word count is unacceptable.

Writer's Block...Starting the essay tip!

Stuck on the Essay? Try Writing a Letter to an Imaginary College Roommate

By DAVE MARCUS

You’re a high school senior staring at a blank screen. The weather’s getting colder, the deadline for college applications is nearing, and your best friends have finished their admissions essays (or pretend they have).

You’re befuddled. You haven’t sequenced a human genome or danced in “The Nutcracker” at Lincoln Center. How do you find a topic for the personal statement and supplemental essays?

One way is to write an introductory letter to an imaginary college roommate. Discuss your favorite movies or books or a favorite word. Then split off the section you enjoyed writing the most and build that into an essay.

That’s the suggestion of Rebecca Joseph, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles.

“Think about the important traits that colleges should know about you when they finish reading the application, and make sure those come across in the essays,” Ms. Joseph said Friday in a quick interview after participating in a panel about essay writing at the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, in Denver.

Ms. Joseph’s suggestion is a variation on essay prompts by Stanford and Harvard universities in recent years, which suggested writing a letter to a future roommate.

Ms. Joseph read a student’s essay that included these lines: “The first things I look for in someone’s room are the books they keep. … I’ve been sleeping with a two-foot stuffed bear for nine years. … I’m obsessed with the game Bananagrams.”

“Any one of those lines could’ve been made into a full essay,” Ms. Joseph said.

Other panelists recommended coming up with essay topics through brainstorming techniques. Here are a few of their ideas:

Find the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Jessie Hill, an admission officer at Yale University, said she did not need to be wowed by extraordinary experiences. She discussed a simple but memorable essay about a father kissing his daughter goodnight as she grew older and stayed up later.

Another favorite was by a boy who left a liberal New England community for an internship that challenged his political beliefs. The boy began by describing his bookshelf, featuring authors like Jon Stewart, facing his roommate’s shelf, with authors including Bill O’Reilly.

Write About Something That Isn’t on Your Transcript

Erica Sanders, the managing director of recruitment and operations at the University of Michigan’s undergraduate admissions office, was impressed by the essay of a boy from a politically conservative high school where one of his parents was a teacher. The boy discussed his reluctance to acknowledge that he was gay, and his desire to attend Michigan, where the word “respect” is part of the curriculum.

Ask Yourself, ‘What Am I Proud Of?’

Ms. Joseph recalled a time when one of her students decided to make a difference in his community. He had seen parents getting tickets for dropping off students in a “no standing” zone at school, so he spent months lobbying local officials for a safe place for drop-offs.

Ms. Joseph summed up the purpose of the essay: “Give the admissions officer a gift – the gift of you.”

Essay questions on the Common Application

 Examples of types of essay questions asked with the Common Application 

v     Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you  have faced and its impact on you.

v     Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

v     Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

v     Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence on you and explain that influence.

v     A range of academic interest, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Give your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you

v     Topic of your choice.

What is the Common Application?

WHAT IS THE COMMON APPLICATION?

The Common Application is a not-for-profit organization that serves students and member institutions by providing an admission application – online and in print – that students may submit to any of our 488 members. 

With the Common Application you can apply to multiple schools using one application!

Not all schools use the Common Application.
Schools that do use it often require supplemental essays!

Explore schools that use the Common Application here:

https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Default.aspx