I’m possibly the least well-rounded person you will ever meet. I mean it. I suck at so many things. Just terrible. I can’t do math, or draw, or cook, or sing, or… Read More »You Don’t Have to be Spiky, but Please Don’t be Well-rounded
I’m a content marketer by trade. My old life involved me creating original written content for different websites. The goal of that content was not to sell a product inherently.… Read More »Mattie Edits: My Own Common App Essay From 2009!
I have ADHD. I was diagnosed at age 12. What happened is I got to middle school, and my life fell apart. It came on like a typhoon. Things seemed… Read More »What I See When I See a Student With ADHD
First thoughts: It’s aight. I see why she got in places. My biggest negative towards the whole thing was actually how calculated and polished the piece was. Yes, it’s a wacky Costco essay. But… Read More »Ok Fine. I’ll Write About the Awe-inspiring Costco Essay
There are two reasons it seems students choose to start non-profits: They want to look impressive on their college apps They want to help people Both of these are perfectly… Read More »Why You Shouldn’t Start a Non-Profit (And What You Should Do Instead)
What I see a lot right now from you overachievers working on July 2nd is that it’s all about the Common App draft. It seems like your process is to… Read More »Hey! You Don’t Have to Start With Your Common App Essay
This is an outline for any “did a cool thing” essay. “Cool thing” is purposely vague. A lot of essays fill into this category, which is good because I find… Read More »How to Format a “Cool Thing You Did” Essay
I have read a lot of student’s essays that I neither outlined nor edited. At my old counseling job, we had something called “final review,” where editors would get a… Read More »How to Get Noticed and Stand Out During the College Admissions Process: Have a Weird Hobby
In my experience, the majority of problems students run into with their application essays are based upon picking a bad topic. By “bad” I generally mean the topic falls into… Read More »How to Create Easy, Original College Application Essay Topics. Introducing: “Half-Ideas”
I had nine students apply to T20 schools this year. Four of them didn’t quite have the raw numbers or ECs to hang, so I’d like to talk about the… Read More »The One Key Difference Between My Students Who Did and Did Not Get Into T20 Schools