Writing Your College Essay

Well, it's senior year, and it's likely that there will be no greater, more important, or more daunting task than completing your college essays.  But don't worry, not only can you do it (millions of students do it every year), but it's not the worst part of the whole endeavor.  The worst part is the waiting game that begins the moment you submit your first application until the moment you finally hear back.

Attached below are some documents that we will be working with in the first few weeks of the school year.  These should give you a sense of the various ways to approach writing your college essays—what schools are looking for and what they aren't.

For those of you who may not be applying to college this year—you're a junior, you're planning a gap year, you're going to get your GEs out of the way at a Community College—I would still like you to draft a college/reflective essay.  You can do this by visiting any college's Admissions page, look at the prompts, select one, and write.  You may also look over the attachment below titled "27 Offbeat College Essay Topics."

When submitting your essay on the first day of class, if you have written (as everyone who applies to college must) mnore than one essay, select the one that you feel needs the most work/feedback—you may show me any of your other essays outside of class (e.g., during Student Support), but I can only collect one per student if I am going to get through them in a short amount of time and since turing this in on time earns you full credit, it does you no good to no get the help being offered.  Also, be sure that its formatting matches MLA expectations (see my Style Guide attached to the Formal Writing Assignments page) and that it is prefaced by the PROMPT being responded to, the word limit (if given), and the word count of your response (not counting anything other than your response):

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Name

Course

Teacher

Date

Essay for [Name of College/Common App]

Prompt: What is a time that you have . . . .

Word Limit: 650

Word Count: 720