Cracking the College Essay: How To Write Winning College Essays

This 66 page e-Book will teach you everything you need to write your Common Application Essay.

Key Features:

• Uncover the innovative Bulls-eye Method: a targeted approach to craft your Common App Essay. Understand the smallest circle, your story, and how it intertwines with the outer circle, which encapsulates insights, realizations, and reflections. Learn the art of bringing all the details together in the widest circle for a powerful final paragraph.
  
• Discover how to choose the right details and anecdotes that align with your overall narrative
  
• Benefit from the insights of a former admissions evaluator who understands what stands out in Common App essays
  
• Explores strategies for creating a compelling introduction and a memorable conclusion
  
• Gain valuable insights by studying five model essays, carefully selected and annotated to showcase diverse writing styles
  
• Gain the confidence to tackle one of the most crucial components of your college application with a step-by-step guide that demystifies the writing process
  
• Bonus Section: How to answer the question "Why Our College?"

Table of Contents

Top 3 Mistakes Students Make on the Common App Essay

• The Slice of Cake Mistake
• Weak Hook, Poor Look
• Nails But No Hammer

Jumpstarting the College Essay

• The Reality Mentality
• The Babble
• Living in the Moment
• Super Charting
• Deadlines, Goals, and Accountability Networks

Structuring Your College Essay

• Smallest Circle: Objects, Stories, and Experiences
• Outer Circle: Insights, Realizations, and Reflections
• Widest Circle: Takeaways, Life Lessons and “The Big Picture”

The University Trapeze: Understanding Story, Reflection, and Insight in the College Essay

• General Ratios
• Stakes, Stakes, Stakes
  • Identifying the Stakes
  • Gesturing Towards the Stakes
• The Mini Synthesis
• The Two in One
• Sprinkling Stories into Insights
• Explaining the Stakes
• Concluding Thoughts
  

How To Show, Not Tell

• Showing experience
• Showing emotions
• Showing relationships
• Tell-all finales
• Telling to Showing Examples
• Showing and Not Telling Exercises
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
• Concluding Thoughts

The 5 Minute Mentality

• Admissions Realities and Time Constraints
• Writing For the Time Constraints
  • Writing Style Tips
  • Writing Content Tips
• Putting the 5 Minute Mentality in Action
  • The Three-Fourths Rule
  • The Essay as an Onion
• Concluding Thoughts

Model Essay 1

• Opening Remarks
• Making Use of Key Details
  • Descriptions of Intrigue
  • Leveraging Details
• Narrating Interactions and Dilemmas
  • Expressing Interiority
  • An Observant Participator
• Balancing and Structuring Experiences
• What Could’ve Been Done Better
• Concluding Thoughts

Model Essay 2

• Opening Remarks
• Get-To-Know-Me Details
• A Showman’s Masterpiece
• Narrating Inexact Moments
• The Experiential Thesaurus (Asyndeton)
• What This Essay Could Do Better
• Concluding Remarks

Model Essay 3

• Opening Remarks
• Weaving Memory and Insight
• Rolling with the Punches
• Always Be Closing (ABC)
• Getting Meta (But Not Too Meta)
• Structural Control
• What this Essay Could Have Done Better
• Concluding Remarks

Model Essay 4

• Opening Remarks
• Writing About Place
• Moving to the Bigger Picture
• Portraying Long-Term Art and Craftsmanship
• “One Step Further” Conclusions
• How This Essay Could Be Better
• Concluding Thoughts

Model Essay 5

• Opening Remarks
• Metaphorical Hooks
• Transitional Thinking
• Strong Mini-Synthesis
• Matching Memories and Morals
• What this Essay Could’ve Done Better
• Concluding Thoughts

Top Grammar Mistakes

• The Big No-No’s
• The Storyteller’s Nightmare
• The Language Barrier
• So how do I avoid grammar mistakes in my college essays?

Bonus Content: Why X School Guide

• How to Know if School is Right for You
• The “Why X School” Starter Kit
• Merging the Self with the School
• The School Research Challenge
• The Most Common “Why X School” Response Errors
• The Name Game is Lame
• The Prestige Fallacy
• The Student Body President Problem
• The Elevator Pitch
• Concluding Thoughts