Colleges Are Tracking Applicants Browser History, According To New Report

Colleges Are Tracking Applicants' Browser History, According To New Report One of the most intimidating elements of the college application for many students is the essay or personal statement. As students begin their applications, here are some tips from the pros to make the process a little less panic-inducing. So think about what’s unique about you, and something about which you’re passionate, and begin writing. Second, students want validation that they have done a worthy job on their essay, and they naturally gravitate towards the adult mentors in their life. A college counselor or English teacher is great, but when we hear that parents, SAT tutors, or my-mom's-friend-who-is-good-at-writing are also weighing in, we start to worry. The college essay is an important vehicle for telling the admissions committee about yourself, but the academic factors are far more important, even if the essay is worthy of a Pulitzer. While strong academics and social curricula are essential to getting into a top school, for over 300 colleges it is the infamous personal essay that gets them into universities. Admission counselors heavily weigh the heartstrings pulled when presented with a well-written story outlining the applicant’s young life. For many, this will make or break their acceptance to a top-tier school. A recitation of your resume.They have already read that. They know your GPA, test scores, and ALL of your activities ad nauseum. All of those tips are really great and helpful for most of the students who wanted to write down a successful college admission essay. Thus, this kind of tips are really common but still gives a good impact to the students. Sklarow's members also, of course, help students with essays. But he noted that his members adhere to his association's ethics guidelines as well as NACAC guidelines -- and that members talk about ethics all the time. Personally, he said he would offer this guidance to members on how to avoid problems. No Red Ink -NoRedInk helps students practice their grammar and writing skills through a variety of interactive activities. Try out their daily quick write challengesand details for how you can access No Red Ink when you are away from school. There are many resources to best prepare you for writing your college essays. Take a deep breath and use the tools at your disposal below. Walk through best practices and next steps to show the college of your choosing the real you. The essay, by contrast, is a space for first impressions, for personal anecdotes, for the personality of the applicant to shine through the technical elements that elsewhere pervade the application. To reduce this space to mere data points, or sheer self-promotion, is, honestly, to blow it big time, akin to reading off the “why I’m cool” list to the bewildered party-thrower. As a writer, a personal essayist no less, I admire the craft and precision of the personal essay, the skill of taking one’s life and carefully dissecting and portraying it in a way that moves someone else. This is a wonderful skill, but not one I believe is applicable in this day and age of college admissions. The best news is that you can develop each step by reading the related blog posts , and within a couple hours of reading and writing, crank our your own killer college application essay. It’s okay to start a sentence with “but.” We know your English teacher likely told you in fifth grade that you should never start a sentence with “but.” BUT, on college essays, you sure can! Not only will that commitment result in a better-written, more personalized college essay, but it could also change the student’s perception of the value and function of writing. And even Joan Didion herself wouldn’t get into college on her writing skills if she had lackluster grades or scores. The personal essay was originally designed as a way to get to know individual students. However, with the rise in companies specializing in writing these essays and access to numerous copies on the Internet itself, that purpose is not being served. Meet Colleen Boucher â€" English language wordsmith and savvy expert on all things college-related. Based out of San Francisco, Boucher is a counselor for Collegewise â€" an independent college counseling company with 34 counselors in 22 cities across the country. Boucher is also an essay specialist for Collegewise, which means she brainstorms with students, helps them identify their best stories, and makes suggestions for how to turn those into compelling narratives. Listing them again will not sit well with the vast majority of college admissions readers. They would like to know something they wouldn’t already know by reading the rest of your application.