Just when the four appplicants are denied an interview with the ''Adviser of Odds'' (the Wizard), the ''Good Babe of the West Coast'' (the Good Witch of the West) appears. The essays also illustrate what some students can achieve and what others should never even attempt. Fifty of the best essays selected by admissions officers at top colleges have been collected by two Yale students, Brian Kasbar and Boykin Curry, in a new book, ''Essays That Worked: 50 Essays From Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Colleges'' (Mustang Publishing/Kampmann & Company educational case study examples, $7.95). Nicholas Cooper, for example, compares his efforts to get into Brown to Dorothy's travels through Oz essay on social networking and youth, complete with three fellow applicants: Scarecrow, a basketball player with no brain; Sterling, a tin man with no community service and no heart give the plural form of thesis, and Dandelion, who has no motivation. 3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from each other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay. The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students that already got in - college essays that worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre. 4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. ‘I’ve got it! That’s it!’ I whooped, scribbling furiously, as my brother pounded on my wall for silence. For example, you might come up with “The night I was driving home in the rain after breaking up with my girlfriend and started singing along to the beat of the wipers.” That topic was used by a student who developed it into showing how important music was to them in getting over bad situations. And it’s a memory a typical teenager can have. John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ was sung by Fox’s new show audison thesis, ‘Glee.’ In one particular episode, a deaf glee club performed this song. I heard it before when John Lennon sang it: unfortunately I did not care much for it. When I watched this episode while the deaf adolescents were singing it, and soon joined by another glee club, it surprisingly affected me… As a student at a school where almost all the seniors have hired help to assist in the essay writing process, I can definitively state that there CAN be an advantage to having a consultant. Consultants don’t write essays; they edit them, and they can help refine ideas. Since it’s your memory, described in your voice, the essay will be unique. And that first paragraph – like the “cold open” for a movie like Iron Man 2 research paper on schizophrenia example, where Tony Stark jumps out of the airplane and dodges fireworks – will make the reader wonder what will happen next. On the other hand, I didn’t have one, and I got accepted early to my first choice. I’ve worked for two highly selective Universities as an admissions officer, one in the Ivy League. We’ve seen thousands of essays like the four excerpts on this page. Contrary to what many think, admissions officers love seeing great applicatons, and always look for reasons TO admit a student — not for reasons to deny a student. With that said, after reading the short excerpt from the “Glee” essay, there are five reasons why that student wouldn’t be admitted at most highly selective schools: In preparation for a segment on NBC’s “Today” show this morning, I reached out to the admissions offices at the University of Virginia and Occidental College in California for examples of essays that they considered memorable — for good, or ill. Before I share some of these samples, a caveat (one familiar to regular readers of this blog): while it can be instructive to read actual college admissions essays, trying to copy a particular approach — or in some cases avoid it — can be perilous. That’s because how one responds to an essay can be an intensely personal experience. I’ll close with an attempt at metaphor that fell a bit flat, at least in its reception at Occidental. The applicant writes: I had just won another skirmish in my ongoing battle with the crossword puzzle. It was during the awkward, hormonal summer between seventh and eighth grade when I first heard Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ The song shocked my senses — until that point my musical cosmos consisted mainly of my father’s Beatles CDs. I find these “essays,” the good and the bad ones, largely interchangeable. The admissions “essay” has evidently hardened into its own little genre. These, alas how to write thesis proposal, read like (bad) diary entries: silly, self-absorbed informatics essay, awkwardly striving for effect, and mind-numbingly trivial (jello studying in the us writing college papers, crossword puzzles or a mediochre musical performance made the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest) or clichéd (“the hormonal summer”–what else could it be?). Compare letters written by adolescents a century ago. What are our young people reading, watching, listening to–other than their friends’ blogs and tweets? Personally do research papers need pictures, I don’t like the idea that the admissions folks want to hear kids making witty quips about Starbucks, Iphones and television shows and demonstrations of their ability to analyze pop culture — since it obviously puts a lot of kids at a disadvantage (including fundamentalist Christians, orthodox Jews personal essay writing course, kids with strict parents who put the kibbosh on watching lots of TV, people who can’t afford cable TV or movie theater tickets, nerdy kids who spend all day in their rooms by themselves composing classical music and the like). These admissions folks all seem to looking for a particular type of worldly, “snarky,” sarcastic, self-satisfied, clever world outlook that’s usually only the province of upper-middle class, outgoing, sexually precocious, urban teenagers. My kids are more likely to write about hunting and fishing and spending time on their grandparent’s farm. Unfortunately, the admissions folks will write them off immediately as boring hicks — and instead choose the girl who writes the worldly example research papers on books, snarky essay about some TV show. Their loss , I’ve been struck in both this conversation and in the one that appeared a few weeks ago about the ‘novel’ prompts used at schools like the University of Chicago and Tufts y where students are given a list of objects and themes to incorporate — by the extremely heavy reliance on popular culture themes as a way for applicants and admissions committees to “connect.” Another essay, also musical in focus, got a more appreciative read at U.V.A.: To share your own thoughts on essay strategies — and, perhaps, some excerpts of your own — please use the comment box below . That said, I much prefer applications such as M.I.T. which specially state that they would rather be able to interpret who someone is than read a highly polished essay. I think even these ‘bad’ essays can lend you something about the applicants, though obviously by the comments each person has their own view of it’s success. Clearly the advice of judging and audience can only go so far, but who knows what the rest of those essays said?
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