Admissions Blog

NYU has all new supplemental essay prompt options for 2023-2024

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

New York University has all new supplemental essay prompt options for first-year applicants to choose from as they decide whether or not to submit an optional 250-word essay as part of their Common Application when applying to the private university, which now has comprehensive campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai.

2023-2024 NYU Supplemental Essay Prompts

We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives and innovators – Choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you; or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why. (250 words maximum)

“We’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. So we did what we do best. We reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” Judith Heuman, 2022 NYU Commencement Address
“I encourage your discomfort, that you must contribute, that you must make your voice heard. That is the essence of good citizenship.” Sherilynn Ifill, 2015 NYU Commencement Address
“If you know how to fly but you never knew how to walk, wouldn’t that be sad?” Lang Lang, 2015 NYU Honorary Degree Recipient
“You have the right to want things and to want things to change.” Sanna Marin, Former Prime Minister of Finland, 2023 NYU Commencement Address
“It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair.” Taylor Swift, Change, Released 2008, 2022 NYU Commencement Speaker
Share a short quote and person not on this list, and why the quote inspires you.
Not answering this optional question.

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While having a variety of prompts from which to choose in order to write NYU’s optional 250-word short essay is new, last year’s prompt, like this year’s prompt-quotes, also demonstrated the institution’s emphasis on promoting social change:

NYU 2022-2023 Optional Short Essay Prompt (No Longer in Use)

NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience. We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community. Please respond in 250 words or less.

Though NYU does allow applicants to submit their applications without completing the optional 250-word short essay, the relative freedom the prompts give applicants should provide enough motivation for any applicant who really wants to differentiate himself or herself for the NYU admissions committee.

High school seniors applying to NYU do so through the Common Application; therefore, NYU applicants will also need to respond – and respond well – to one of the Common App’s main essay prompts in order to be considered for admission at NYU.

NYU also requires each first-year applicant to complete and submit a time-consuming Self Reported Academic Record (SRAR) after submitting his or her Common Application. A first-year applicant is only able to access the SRAR through his or her NYU Applicant Portal, which the student will gain access to after applying to NYU on the Common App. Once the SRAR is submitted, it will take up to forty-eight hours for the SRAR to show as received in an applicant’s Applicant Portal. With that in mind, applicants will have a few days after their decision deadline to submit their SRAR to NYU; yet, around NYU’s application deadline periods, it can take longer than forty-eight hours for SRARs to show as received.

Good luck to all high school seniors about to embark on the application process to become a member of NYU’s Class of 2028.

Columbia University’s 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts Announced

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Columbia University in the City of New York has released its 2023-2024 supplemental essay prompts for first-year applicants.

All first-year applicants to Columbia will complete several Columbia-specific short answer questions, and this year’s Columbia supplemental prompts represent an intriguing mix of old, reworded, and new prompts with adjusted word-count limits.

One new Columbia short essay prompt for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle that is focused on adversity very much seems inspired by US President Joe Biden’s request for colleges to consider adversity and diversity in their admissions decisions after The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in June 2023 that colleges can no longer admit students on the on the basis of race:

In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)

Also new/reworded in 2023-2024 is the following prompt:

What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer) *This prompt was reworded from last year and the maximum number of words a student can use to respond has also been lowered from 200 to 150.

Three prompts that did appear in last year’s Columbia supplement but which have now been retired include:

List the titles of the books, essays, poetry, short stories or plays you read outside of academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school. (75 words or fewer) *While this prompt has been retired, a new prompt exists that condenses this prompt and the one below into one new prompt with a 100-word limit.

We’re interested in learning about some of the ways that you explore your interests. List some resources and outlets that you enjoy, including but not limited to websites, publications, journals, podcasts, social media accounts, lectures, museums, movies, music, or other content with which you regularly engage. (125 words or fewer) *While this prompt has been retired, a new prompt exists that condenses this prompt and the one above into one new prompt with a 100-word limit.

In Columbia’s admissions process, we value who you are as a unique individual, distinct from your goals and achievements. In the last words of this writing supplement, we would like you to reflect on a source of happiness. Help us get to know you further by describing the first thing that comes to mind when you consider what simply brings you joy. (35 words or fewer)

It’s important to note that most high school seniors applying to Columbia do so through the Common Application; therefore, most Columbia applicants will also need to respond – and respond well – to one of the Common App’s main essay prompts in order to be considered for admission at Columbia.

Fellow Ivy League institutions, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Yale released their supplemental essay prompts for first-year applicants earlier in July.

2023-2024 Columbia University Supplemental Prompts

Instructions

For the list question that follows, there is a 100 word maximum. Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question:

Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons.
Items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order.
It is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications.
No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.

For the four short answer questions, please respond in 150 words or fewer.

Questions

List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy. (100 words or fewer)
A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer)
In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)
Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)
What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)

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For my advice on how to write wonderful responses to these 2023-2024 Columbia supplemental prompts, watch my latest video here. For overall advice on how to get into Columbia University, watch my in-depth video here.

Common App Essay: Size Does Matter

Posted on July 30, 2023 by Craig Meister

Every year students ask me the same question:

“How long should my Common Application essay be?”

I am never shy about providing them with the response that best summarizes how they need to approach both the Common Application essay and the Common Application in general:

“Go Big or Go Home!”

Despite what the official directions on the Common App indicate, students writing a 250-word essay – the lowest end of the range that is officially acceptable to complete this essay – have a far lower chance of convincing college admissions officers of their admissions-worthiness than students who believe in the maxim, ‘bigger is better.” The official upper limit in acceptable length on the Common App essay is 650 words.

A well-thought out and well-developed essay of any true substance is not only not possible in 250 words, it’s barely possible in 450 words. This is why none of my students have ever submitted a Common App essay consisting of fewer than 450 words. With that said, the true sweet spot in Common Application essay writing, for this current year’s prompts and prompts going back over a decade, is 500 to 650 words. This was even the case a few years ago when the Common App limited students to a mere 500 words. That experiment lasted for such a short time because colleges were getting such transparently superficial essays that they were a waste of time and effort for students and lacking in any valuable insight helpful to college admissions officers.

Think of a 500- to 650-word essay as a smooth and enjoyable flight from D.C. to Disney World. In 500 to 650 words students have the space they need to achieve proper cruising altitude: writing a strong introductory paragraph that both grabs readers’ attention and clearly states the essay’s thesis. Next, just as one wants to have an enjoyable in-flight experience with the fasten seatbelt light off and flight attendants passing out drinks and snacks, so too does a 500- to 650-word essay allow readers to relax a bit. In 500 to 650 words students are able to produce non-rushed, non-turbulent, highly valuable descriptive and specific body paragraphs that go a long way toward proving the essay’s thesis. Finally, landing a plane takes great skill, as does writing a conclusion to a college application essay. It’s not a simple rehash of the lift off (inclusive of a thesis statement); it should be complementary to it. Students who have 500 to 650 words to work with are able to smoothly touch down in a way that nicely tops off of the entire flying/essay reading experience. At the end of the day, admissions officers read your essays because they want to fly the friendly skies with you into your world. 500 to 600 words allows you to give them a proper flying experience and gives you the words necessary to differentiate your world from the world of other applicants.

In order to produce a great final draft essay, your rough drafts should be even longer than 650 words. It’s very common for my students to create first, second, and third draft essays of nearly 1,000 words. Only through consistent and high quality editing can any essay be ready for submission to colleges and universities, and starting with too few words on initial drafts is a recipe for a puny little final draft essay.

So, the big take-away ideas on the Common App Essay are these:

Don’t do the minimum because you are officially allowed to do the minimum
Go big or go home – your final draft should be 500 to 650 words and your first draft should be even longer
In your final draft, ensure that paragraph transitions are smooth – just as a good pilot and great weather conditions allow a flight to be smooth from lift-off to landing

Before I share more extremely important Common App essay advice, let’s zero in on what students are going to be writing about on this year’s Common App. None of the essay prompts are easy, and all require a great deal of time, thought, and drafting before members of the Class of 2022 can confidently hit submit on their applications.

The 2023-2024 Common Application essay prompts are as follows:

Choose the option below that best helps you write an essay of no more than 650 words.

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Honestly, I miss the old questions that existed through the 2016-2017 iteration of the Common App. The current questions indicate that the people behind the Common App are less and less interested in reading essays from normal teenagers and more and more interested in pushing teens to appear exceptional, idiosyncratic, or downright eccentric for the purpose of entertaining application readers and putting on a show of some sort of diversity. I would be surprised if many of the admissions officers could portray themselves accurately with these prompts. But we take the world we are given; this is what students in the high school Class of 2024 applying to Common App colleges and universities have to work this admissions cycle.

Remember that it’s always better to start brainstorming sooner rather than later, and if your essay is still not where you want it after working on it for a while, make sure to check out why your essay may be really bad or downright awful. You should aim to wrap up your Common App essay no later than early August, which will give you plenty of time to draft and perfect your essays for Common Application supplements.

Remember, if you want or need help with any part of your essay brainstorming and drafting, I’m here to help you.

Good luck!

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Important Related Links:

2023-2024 Common App essay prompts: the best and worst for you

The Stats You Need: Most Popular & Least Popular Common App Essay Prompts

Why Your College Application Essay is So Bad

Why Your College Application Essay is Awful

Ultimate College Application Essay Brainstorm

Secret to a Successful College Application Essay First Draft

The Common Application

University of Washington Releases Admissions Decisions

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

The admissions team at University of Washington has finished reviewing this year’s over 62,000 freshman applications, which represents another record breaking year, and it looks forward to sending most admissions decisions between March 9 and March 15, 2023.

An applicant will receive an email notifying the student that his or her admission decision has been updated in the applicant’s MyUW portal where the decision can be viewed. If the student hasn’t already done so, he or she will need to set up his or her UW NetID in order to log in to MyUW. Note that it may take up to 24 hours to create a new account.

Admitted students will receive an offer packet in the mail containing an official offer letter with their assigned major or pre-major, possible Purple & Gold scholarship offer (U.S. nonresidents only), and other information about taking the next steps to becoming a Husky. Additional information and next steps can be found at uw.edu/newhuskies.

Students invited to join the waitlist must opt in by submitting the online form found in their MyUW portal. The deadline to join the waitlist is April 1. Students on the waitlist are no longer eligible to appeal for admission off the waitlist. If a student is not admitted from the waitlist, they may appeal once the waitlist is closed.

Application increases make the selection process challenging, and sadly the university was not able to offer admission to many strong candidates. If the university was unable to extend an offer of admission, students will be notified in their MyUW account and directed to other resources.

Students with incomplete applications whose files were closed due to incomplete or missing information may appeal to have their file reopened. More details about the university’s updated freshman appeals policy and process can be found on its website.

The University of Washington is often colloquially referred to as UW, Washington, or simply UDub. The school’s sports teams are known as the Huskies, and their mascot is a Siberian husky named Dubs.

University of Washington is known for its spring cherry blossoms.

UDub is located in the heart of Seattle, with stunning views of Lake Washington, the Olympic Mountains, and the Cascade Range. The location allows for easy access to the city’s cultural and entertainment offerings, including museums, theaters, and restaurants. The campus is known for its beautiful cherry blossoms which bloom every spring. The trees were a gift from Japan in 1912. Meanwhile, the university’s Suzzallo Library is a notable landmark on campus, known for its grand reading room modeled after the Reading Room in the British Museum in London. The Odegaard Undergraduate Library is another unique feature of the campus, with modern and innovative design.

Interestingly, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is located on the UW campus and is the state museum of Washington. The museum has over 16 million artifacts, specimens, and cultural heritage objects.

The increase in applications is not a surprise, as the university was one of the last major research universities to join the Common App, which often causes a spike in application numbers. Currently, the university still accepts around half of those students who apply from out of state and roughly 60% of those who apply as residents of Washington.

Common Application Essay Prompts for 2023-2024 Confirmed

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Craig Meister

Amid growing chatter about the ease with which students can paint an entirely inaccurate picture of their critical thinking and persuasive writing skills by using AI-powered applications like ChatGPT, the Common App (known formally as The Common Application) quietly announced Tuesday afternoon that it is keeping its essay prompts and format the same for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.

Though no announcement was forthcoming on the Common App’s News or Blog pages as of late in the day on February 28, 2023, if one searched long and hard enough, one could find by late afternoon confirmation within the Common App’s Student Solutions Center – https://appsupport.commonapp.org/applicantsupport/s/article/What-are-the-2023-24-Common-App-essay-prompts – that the prompts would stay the same for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.

This is the first mention on the Common App’s website that the application’s prompts will remain the same in 2023-2024 as they were in 2022-2023.

As one can see from the image above, the Common App is also maintaining its optional COVID-19 short essay question.

Thus, starting on August 1, 2023 and throughout the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, the seven prompt options first-year applicants will have to carefully choose from in order to write one strong essay of up to 650-words will remain as follows:

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

In addition, certain counselors who get email newsletters from the Common App received an email late Tuesday confirming that the prompts would stay the same while also mentioning that the Common App wants “to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations.”

As this site has previously pointed out, there are vast differences in popularity between prompts among all applicants, which smart and strategic students can and should use to their advantage. Yet, the quote above from the Common App’s counselor email sounds like the Common App could be setting the table for making changes to its prompts in future admissions cycles by arguing that some prompts may be unfair to or create inequitable outcomes for certain demographic populations. The Tuesday email from the Common App to counselors made no mention of the recent proliferation of AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Today’s confirmation of the Common App essay prompts for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle gives the powers that be at the Common App roughly twelve months to decide upon and clarify the reasoning behind making any changes they want to make to the application for the 2024-2025 cycle. This is all happening as higher education administrators and employees in general and undergraduate admissions personnel in particular are currently stuck in a major holding pattern in anticipation of the Supreme Court of the United States’ rulings on affirmative action in college admissions. Those rulings are expected to be delivered by June 2023.

Ultimately, The Common Application serves (and exists) at the pleasure of its college members, as Common App is a non-profit organization that provides a standardized college application platform for roughly 1,000 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. The Common App allows students to fill out one application form online and submit it to multiple colleges, streamlining the college application process.

While the application includes a variety of components, including basic information about the student, educational history, and an extracurricular activities page, it is the Common App’s essay page that has traditionally caused high school students the most consternation. Some colleges and universities require additional materials through their Common App supplements, such as supplemental essays or portfolios, which can be submitted through the Common App as well.

By using the Common App, students can save time and effort in the college application process and have a more organized and streamlined way of applying to multiple schools. Yet, it’s important to note that not all colleges and universities accept the Common App, and even some Common App member colleges may require additional application materials be submitted after students submit their Common App. A handful of the biggest-name universities in the US have held off massive peer pressure to adopt the Common App: such colleges include MIT, Georgetown, and all colleges that are part of the UC system, such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara.

Also on Tuesday, the Common App announced that it has created two new senior-level roles for Constituent Engagement and Product. The hires come as the Common App aims to “expand beyond the application to empower more students to access, afford, and attain postsecondary opportunities.”

Jonell Sanchez and Dr. Ileana Rodriguez are joining the Common App.

Dr. Ileana Rodriguez will begin on March 14, 2023 as the new Senior Vice President for Constituent Engagement. In her new role, Dr. Rodriguez will lead Common App’s college and university member, student, and counselor engagement, enabling coordination across current constituencies. As Common App expands its services “to support more students, this role will also build relationships with partners in new markets to ensure those services have the desired impact.”

Dr. Ileana Rodriguez joins Common App from Colectiva, LLC. As Founder and CEO, Dr. Rodriguez provided customized strategic consulting services to non-profit organizations to navigate growth and change while advancing diversity, equity, and inclusiveness across all of their systems and practices. Prior to founding Colectiva, Dr. Rodriguez held senior leadership positions at Teach For America, The College Board, and Triton College.

“Educational equity is a centering force for my professional purpose,” said Rodriguez. “I’m excited to be joining Common App as it engages colleges, universities, counselors, teachers, and partners in its pursuit of access and equity in the college admission process, vastly expanding opportunity for all students.”

Jonell Sanchez will begin on March 14 as the new Senior Vice President of Product. In this role, Sanchez will help to identify new products and services and establish strategic partnerships “that will increase the number of underrepresented students who use Common App’s platform–not just to apply for opportunities, but to afford them and complete them successfully.”

Jonell Sanchez joins Common App from Sanchez Strategic Advisors. He provided organizations strategic executive consulting services in product development, business transformation, go-to-market and scaling growth in the U.S. and global for organizations like Educational Testing Service (ETS), Ness Digital Engineering, and others. Prior to joining ETS, Sanchez held senior leadership positions at ACT, the National Student Clearinghouse, Pearson Global, and The College Board.

“Common App’s vision and mission align with my personal experience as a childhood immigrant from Cuba and student from an underserved community and with my professional values and commitment to educational opportunity, access and impact at scale in the U.S. and abroad,” said Sanchez. “I am honored to join the team at this crucial point in the higher education landscape and to help expand Common App’s products and services to lower the barriers to college access and attainment, especially for historically underserved students.”

Sanchez and Rodriguez will join the Common App team as the organization moves into what it refers to as “its next chapter, focused on revolutionizing the entire college-going process to increase equity” with solutions that “show students all of the different opportunities available to them, streamline both the first-year and transfer process, help them pay for those opportunities, shift information and choice to the hands of students and, help organizations and colleges that provide opportunities find and support people to enroll and achieve their personal aspirations.” This comes after Common App launched “Direct Admissions,” which is basically colleges applying to students (as opposed to the traditional students applying to colleges), during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle.

2023-2024 Common App essay prompts: the best and worst

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Craig Meister

Write your best Common App Essay: 2023-2024 Edition

Here is a dirty little secret: some of the 2023-2024 Common App essay prompts will bring you down like quicksand while others give you the exact structure and framing that you need to show and tell a story that colleges will love.

In the below thirty-minute in-depth video I grade and rank each of the seven Common App essay prompts in order to help you determine which will give you the best chance of positively differentiating your college application and thus getting you into the colleges on your list.

Sit back, relax (though be ready to take notes), and enjoy this insider’s guide tackling the most important essay assignment of your life so far!

The seven prompt options that first-year applicants have to carefully choose from in order to write one strong Common App essay of up to 650-words are as follows:

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Important Related Links:

The Stats You Need: Most Popular & Least Popular Common App Essay Prompts

Common App Essay: Size Does Matter

Why Your College Application Essay is So Bad

Why Your College Application Essay is Awful

Ultimate College Application Essay Brainstorm

Secret to a Successful College Application Essay First Draft

The Common Application

Do you want one-on-one personalized college counseling? Learn more about my college admissions coaching services here.

**Bonus**: Take my “How to Build an Extraordinary Extracurricular Resume” short course here.

Should you respond to the Common App COVID-19 essay prompt?

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Only sixteen percent of students responded to the optional Common App COVID-19 essay during the 2021-2022 admissions cycle.

The prompt in question is as follows:

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces.

I say, never let an optional blank space on the Common App go to waste like 84% of Common App submitters did this past admissions cycle.

Watch the video below to learn more about why I this 250-word maximum essay is yet another place to show maturity, growth, and your value system. Use it!

January Application Deadlines Are Just a Bad Idea

Posted on November 7, 2021 by Patrick O'Connor Leave a Comment

The story is worth hearing, and even listening to again. You came home from college for the holidays, and Mom or Dad was preparing the traditional roast. You’d somehow eaten this dish a thousand times without ever seeing it prepared, so you were horrified and fascinated to watch them lop off a half pound or so from the back of the roast and toss it in the trash—perfectly good food. You composed yourself enough to make asking why they did this sound downright casual. “My mother made it this way” was the response—and it was just too convenient that the mother in question was also in the room. “That’s right” she added, “and my mother made it the same way.”

The resolution of the issue had to wait until Sunday, when great grandmother joined the family for dinner. Seated at the table with the roast right in front of everyone, the sensory elements were perfectly aligned to ask the question- why cut the roast? “I learned to do that from my mother. The pan we had was too small for a full roast, so we always had to trim it to size.”

And there is the fascination. No other generation had the same limitation of pan or oven, but the roast trimming continued without questioning or consideration for three generations.

It shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to consider just how many implications this tale of roast trimming exist in college admissions, and nowhere is that more clearly the case than with application and notification deadlines. Long before any kind of Internet presence, January 1 was an application deadline for hundreds of colleges. Remarkably enough, this pre-high tech deadline didn’t make much sense even back then, since the deadline was a postmark deadline, but post offices were never open on New Year’s Day—in fact, depending on how small your town was back then, post offices across smalltown America were hard to find open after noon on the 31^st.

Postmark deadlines are now a thing of the past, but there are other issues to consider with January 1. A clear number of high schools close for the holidays around December 23 if not sooner. This leaves most students largely on their own to put the finishing touches on the first major, multi-component task they’ve had to negotiate in their young lives—that, or it compels counseling offices everywhere to assemble some makeshift effort to offer support here and there at a time when counselors most need a break of their own. (Although there was one high school who was floating a “guarantee” that every counselor would check their email every day of the December break, thus denying everyone a chance to rest and recover. Talk about a happy new year…)

Even the efforts to offer some kind of support over vacation can miss the mark, especially for students who are the first in their family to apply to college. I am not a disciple of the “applying to college is rocket science” school, nor do I believe young people learn much about deadlines by treating them like they are amorphous, when they are not. Still, given that this is the first major multi-tasking activity most young people have that has a fairly big consequence attached to it, it isn’t unreasonable to hope the deadline would permit them the chance to have counsel—and even more important, face-to-face support—to complete the task, something a finger-wagging “just plan ahead” overlooks in a brazen, cold way. If we then add on the fact that nearly every admissions office is empty and unavailable for student support on January 1^st, it’s easy to see every director of admission with carving knife in hand, ready to lay waste to a couple of pounds of perfectly good applications, all in the name of “we’ve always done it this way.”

At the risk of sounding like someone who has never run or even worked in an admissions office, the answer seems simple—this is a practice that needs to stop. The easiest alternative would be requiring all materials to be submitted by the second Tuesday in January, a time when even the most luxurious of December vacations is over, where students have had time to seek the help they need, and everyone has had time to refresh their energies in a meaningful way. Doing something challenging doesn’t mean it has to be inhumane, and the family man in me suggests that, for as much as I value the lessons learned in applying to college, there are more important things to consider over the holidays, like developing a strategy for a successful entry in the annual family gingerbread building contest. This is the final holiday of youth, and it deserves recognition, and space, as such. It’s possible to do that and develop a strong college portfolio, given the right deadline.

This isn’t the only deadline that could use some attention. November 1, November 15, and May 1 all landed on a Sunday last school year, leaving students with a couple of days to do the best they could with what little they knew. Again, this is especially true for students whose family has no experience applying to college. Since these students tend to come from urban and rural schools where counseling ratios are typically astronomical, it’s easy to hope colleges would want to nurture applications from these populations, rather than throw more barriers in the way of these talented, but raw, applicants.

There are many other facets of the college application process where roast trimming can apply, especially when considering every facet of the application is easier for students who come from a background of wealth. This aspect seems easy enough to start with, since its effects are easy enough to understand. Let’s put the January 1 deadline and its impact back in its sheath.

To The Media: End the College Application Nightmare Stories

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Patrick O'Connor Leave a Comment

It figures that August 1 landed on a Sunday this year. What used to be just another beach day took on special significance a few years ago, when Common Application chose August 1 to launch its updates for the coming school year. It’s exciting to be sure, but with a hint of melancholy, as a few overly enthusiastic parents use the occasion to tell their high school seniors “Summer’s over”, while the seniors meekly head towards the nearest computer, even on a weekend, muttering “But what if I don’t want it to be?”

Happily, more than a few colleges agree with the seniors. While there was a stream—OK, a torrent—of colleges Twittering students on Sunday to hurry up and apply, more than a few colleges said “Start today if you want to, but our deadline isn’t until January. Take your time.” I had planned on thanking each of those colleges for posting such a message in the face of application mania. I’m pleased to say there were too many to do so.

But this is just the start, and here’s hoping more colleges get on board. The last two years of schooling have left this year’s seniors in pretty bad shape. Day after day of waking up to find out if school is in person, online, both, or neither may have left them flexible, but it has also left them exhausted. Students who fit every element of one (and certainly not the only) likely college-bound profile—from the suburbs, in a college prep curriculum, with two well-off parents who went to college—are saying out loud they just don’t think applying to college is worth the hassle. That’s not because of the Delta rebound; it’s because their last couple of years of school have left them unsure of themselves and their ability to control their destiny. Since any college admissions rep will tell you the key to a successful application is to let the student drive the bus, this is a huge problem.

Part of the solution lies with us. August is peach and melon season in Michigan, a time when very rational people who never eat fruit feel a swelling in their taste buds that can only be satiated by interaction with produce that is truly a little slice of heaven.

This same thirst wells up in the media every August, but it isn’t for fruit—it’s for stories about the confusing, terrifying, uncertain world of college admissions. With a new crop of high school seniors every year, journalists eagerly seize on their newness to college admissions, highlighting profiles of bright young people who find themselves flummoxed over how to apply to college, and when to apply to college. Curiously, these stories rarely display a student’s confusion over where to apply to college, since the media only covers students who are considering the same 25 colleges ever year that admit about 5 percent of their applicant pool. “She’s a National Honor Society president, but she can’t get her arms around Yale’s application.” Of course, these same students would be equally baffled by using a plumber’s wrench for the first time, and they easily get the hang of this college thing two weeks into the process. But apparently, that’s not the point. The very first time they do something new, they don’t completely understand it. My goodness.

The impact of this approach to college application coverage can’t be understated. Thousands of students have already had to give up most of their summers at the insistence of parents who have caught the angst early, eager to make sure that college essay sparkles, unaware that the number one cause of weak essays isn’t underwriting, but overwriting.

Parents who haven’t been on their seniors about college since Father’s Day read these August articles and panic, fearing their child is now “behind”. They plop their senior in front of a computer screen and tell them they can’t come out until an application is finished—for a college that doesn’t even start reading applications until January 10.

Parents whose children really understand themselves, and had no intention of applying to these schools, now feel their child is “losing out” on something, and suddenly insist that an application or two to the Big 25 is a good idea, “just to see what happens”, even though their student is well aware of what will happen.

This brand of media attention has never served high school seniors well, and it’s likely to make matters even worse for this year’s seniors, who are looking to gain their footing after two years of scholastic uncertainty. In the interest of their well being—or, to use a phrase that is on the verge of becoming unimportant due to its overuse, their mental health—how about a few less media stories on the impossibility of getting into college and its excessive expense, and a few more stories about the 75% or so of colleges who admit more than 50% of their applicants, and the many colleges who are forgiving institutionally-based student loans? Could the media finally discover the urban and rural colleges whose buildings have not a hint of ivy that are turning around the lives of students who didn’t have the opportunity to take 7 AP classes in high school, students who are shining academically? How about the students who are making community college work, earning a degree that costs less from start to finish than one year of Harvard, all while the students typically work about 30 hours a week?

It’s certainly true many people turn to the media to read stories that will fuel their dreams—that’s why so many people follow the Olympics, and replay the video of the woman who was reunited with her dog after two years. But stories about the uncertainty of the college selection process don’t feed students’ sense of the possible; they nourish their nightmares. They’ve had enough of that these past two years, and may be headed for more. The best thing the press can do for them, and for our society, is to admit there are more than 25 good colleges in this country, and wake the students to a better vision of how to apply to college, other than run a gauntlet that, at the end of the day, is largely of the media’s own making.