Welcome to the June 10, 2009 edition of carnival of college admission. This is the second time we've hosted the Carnival and I'm really excited to have all of these wonderful bloggers featured here on the site again...
Let's get started!
Choosing the Right College
Elizabeth Kraus presents Affordability and Flexibility: Two Great Reasons to Pursue Online Education posted at myUsearch.com, saying, "If you're heading to college next year or are considering going back to school, you might be wondering how on earth you will fit your college classes into your busy schedule. Laurelin Kruse, student blogger for myUsearch.com, suggests that you might want to consider an online degree as a flexible and more affordable college education option."
Mark Montgomery presents Adjunct Faculty and Student-to-Faculty Ratios: What Universities Don’t Know posted at Great College Advice, saying, "College marketing is sometimes out of touch with what is actually happening in the classroom. Sometimes, university administrators have no idea who is teaching the most students. But you should be asking the question--get them to pay attention!"
College Life
TJ Hanson presents You're Still Young - Earning Respect in the Workforce posted at The Digital Student Blog. It's a must read for any young adult looking to enter the workforce and make the bets possible impression.
Andrew Skinner presents What To Bring To College: Things You Might Forget posted at DormDelicious, saying, "A quick list of oft-forgotten items by freshman moving into the dorms."
Ray presents Best Student Credit Card Tips For Smart Credit Use posted at Money Blue Book. If you're going to be using credit cards in college (and who doesn't!) then you should definitely take a look. It even has a list of good cards for college students.
Diane presents What to Expect During Freshman Orientation posted at ULS Blog for International Students, saying, "No matter how many campus visits you made before being admitted, freshman orientation often gives students their first tastes of what college life will really be like."
Getting In To College
Linda Abraham from the Accepted Admissions Almanac graces us with an awesome article about the college admissions essay titled Yikes! My essay is too long!!! Her tips are golden!
Graduate Schools
GeekMBA360 presents An in-depth look into MBA Admission Consulting posted at GeekMBA360. It's a great, personal look at hiring an MBA Admissions counselor written by an up and coming student.
Other Cool Stuff
Lynn Mattoon presents Career Article - A College Degree Can Help You Get a Better Job, But What about an Online Degree? - CollegeJobBank.com posted at CollegeJobBank.com. A quick and useful summary, I think that Lynn's article does a great job of outlining why a online degree might be good for you.
Alvaro Fernandez presents Book Announcement: The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, "While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few understand what “it” means, or how to properly “use it” in order to maintain brain function and fitness. Here's the story on how my interest turned into a blog and now a book!"
jim presents Is College Worth the Cost of Tuition? Yes. posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, saying, "Based on some recent data, it's clear that going to college is worth the price of graduating, despite an increase in costs."
College Degrees presents Academic Credential Evaluations: What is Your Degree Worth? posted at The Degree People,
saying, "People who immigrate to the United States arrive in this
country with a wide variety of foreign degrees and other education.
Because of this, most people must have their degrees evaluated by a
foreign credential evaluation agency prior to getting a job or
enrolling in a higher education program in the United States."
Sarah Scrafford presents Top 10 Commencement Speeches for Tech Lovers posted at Online Colleges.
It's a great collection of speeches from the likes of Ray Bradbury and
Bill Gates that not only reminds you who said what, but also points you
to a copy of the speech itself!
That concludes this edition hosted on the Omniac Attack blog. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
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The next edition will hosted by Eric Perron at Dreamstrategy.com. The URL to submit a post for the next edition is http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_5094.html
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Hey all!
Over the past few months, Omniac has been proud to help the Carnival of College Admissions by supplying blog posts and even hosting! We love how awesome all the links are that Mark Montgomery collects!
This week the 13th edition of the Carnival was released and we were once again proud to be a part of it. Here are a few highlights:
- The current recession has made many students re-think their college
choices and even transfer to a more affordable school. Student blogger,
Ally Demos from myusearch.com, presents a video blog about how the
economic crunch is affecting college students. Elizabeth Kudner
presents College Students Feel the Economic Crunch posted at myUsearch blog.
- Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Awesome Open Courses and Lectures for Digital Artists posted at Online Universities.com
- Eric Perron, the host of our last edition of the Carnival of College
Admission, likes to talk back to the television. He offers his
critique of a recent program on college admission, aptly titled Come On “CBS Early Show”, This Is The Best Advice You Have To Pay For College? posted on his blog, Dream Strategy.
Go check the whole thing out! It's definitely worth it!
This past weekend I began working with my rising seniors on their college essays. Although it may seem strange to start in July, one of the best ways to write a great essay is to get started early!
With that in mind, one of my students and I sat down to read over and discuss a few sample essays. The first one can be found here. Take a minute to read it! The second was a more traditional essay documenting a student's trip to Africa and the great life lessons she learned while she was there.
After my student took a few minutes to read over both works, we had the following conversation:
Me: What did you think of the two essays?
Student: I thought the first one was funny and interesting, but the second one was deeper. So I think the second one is a better essay.
Me: Really? Why?
Student: Because it shows how the writer thinks. She cares about the people in Africa and she's a good thinker. She's traveled a lot, so I bet colleges will like her. I don't know much about the writer of the first one.
Me: Okay...what can you tell me about his personality?
Student: He's funny and creative. He's also pretty weird. He's really brave. There's no way I'd send in an essay like that.
Me: Why?
Student: Because the college wouldn't know what you've done.
Me: Do you think the college cares about what you've done? Do you think your experiences are unique enough for them to admit you because you've won an award or gone to a different country?
Student: *blink*
Me: High school experiences are kind of universal. Everybody has won something important, gone somewhere interesting, or met someone special. That stuff doesn't matter.
Student: So even though he just made all that stuff up, he told the college all about who he was?
Me: Yup. He's a creative, dynamic, intelligent student. Although both essays are really strong, his will definitely stand out in the crowd. Trips to Africa are commonplace. Good writing isn't.
Student: My mind is blown.
Most essays that college admissions officers read are incredibly boring explanations of some accomplishment that the student thinks will impress the school. Schools want just the opposite! They want to know who you are and what you care about. They want to hear your voice ring through and feel confident knowing that your will add something new to the student body.
Anything you write that reeks of "college essay" is probably dull, uninteresting, and repetitive. They've read it before. If you want to stand out, write something worth reading. Then they remember you!
Writing a college essay is tough work. Although it's only one piece of the overall application, many of my students find that writing it takes up nearly as much time as filling out all the other paperwork put together.
Yet, nothing is as scary as a blank computer monitor. You know you need to write your essay, but getting started is probably the hardest part. Here's a few tips that might just get your creative juices flowing and your essay streaming from your fingertips!
1. Start Writing Early
It never hurts to start work on your college essay long before you need to submit your applications. Even if you discover that the schools to which you are applying require radically different essays than the one you wrote, your initial writing can always form the basis for your final work. If your first attempt gets tossed in the trash, don't stress. It will help you figure out what you want to write about in the end.
I strongly suggest that you start writing in the summer before your senior year. While most kids hate the idea of writing an essay during the break, it's the perfect time to get the ball rolling without the pressures of normal school. If you can wrap up your first draft by the beginning of your senior year, you should have roughly three months to revise it to fit the schools you eventually choose.
2. Stop Trying to Find the Perfect Topic
Contrary to popular belief, there is no perfect college essay topic. While the death of a parent or an unexpected teen pregnancy might sell tickets at the movies, colleges are looking for students who write interesting essays, not sob stories that demand sympathy. If you have an event in your life that is weighty and serious, by all means write about it. But don't feel like you have to invent a tragedy just to get into the school of your dreams.
In fact, one of the biggest myths I hear students repeat is that colleges "like" or "dislike" certain topics. This is patently untrue. Colleges like essays that convey the personality of the writer. They don't care if you write about your burning passion for milk, your best friend at summer camp, or your goldfish named Fluffy. As long as you display your personality through your writing, consider your essay a success!
3. Write About You, Not Your Awards
As I noted a few weeks ago, students don't often spend a lot of time writing about themselves. Instead, they spend time in their English classes learning how to write essays that examine literature from a critical perspective. While most students understand that the college essay is their time to showcase their interests and passions, the average student usually ends up writing a boring, scholarly essay that focuses on achievements rather than emotions and thoughts.
Your proudest moment may have been when you won the State Championship in Mock Trial as a Junior, but you need to focus on how the trophy made you feel instead of how you won it. Colleges want to know about your hopes, fears, and dreams. They care little about how other people view your list of awards or what it took to get those awards. If you can focus your essay so that it gives colleges insight into who you are by explaining your emotions, they will value that far more than your descriptions of your own academic excellence.
4. Don't Overwrite
The temptation to spend vast amounts of time working on your college essay is enormous. While you might initially be afraid of starting work on such an important piece of your college application, you will quickly find yourself obsessing over every last word. This can be a detriment to your essay; it's very easy to poke and prod until you've managed to kill any last bit of spontaneity and excitement you initially captured with your first draft.
So once you've chosen a topic, write your essay over the course of a day or two. Then put it away for at least 24 hours. If you have time, leave it alone for a week! Then take out the essay, read it, and rewrite it. Once you are done with the second draft, show it to a few people you trust (parents, friends, your trusty college consultant) and note their responses and advice. Rewrite it, put it away, and then pull it out again to edit it one more time. If you still don't like it at that point, start from scratch. The fifth draft is rarely an improvement over the fourth!
Good luck!