Table of Contents v Table of Contents Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond This Book 3 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Putting Yourself on Paper 5 CHAPTER 1: Becoming More Than a Statistic: What the Essay Does for You 7 Understanding Why the Essay Is Your Key Opportunity 8 Factoring in Holistic Review and Test-Optional Schools 9 Forgetting about strategy 10 Choosing authenticity 11 Familiarizing Yourself with the Common Application and the Prompts 12 Considering Alternatives to the Common Application 13 First Things First: Understanding Your Timeline 14 Considering Early Action and Early Decision deadlines 15 Working out how many essays you have to write 16 Factoring in supplementary writing 16 Writing Admission Essays While Having a Life 17 Taking advantage of spare time 17 Adapting one essay to several questions 18 Tempering Frustration: Greasing Your Wheels 19 Keeping Perspective 20 Chapter 2: Exploring the Subject of the Essay -- You 21 Mining Your Life 22 Collecting the Stories of Your Life 23 Dipping Your Toe in the Writing Pool: Freewriting 101 24 Identifying Themes in Your Autobiography 25 Reviewing your life story 26 Revealing significant themes 26 Writing about difficult experiences 27 Delving Deeper with Your Personal Statement 29 Sparking growth 29 Picking the topic of your choice 30 But Enough about Me: Overcoming the Taboo against Bragging 30 Chapter 3: Beginning to Self-Reflect 33 Looking Closer at Family Ties 34 Contemplating your parents'' influence 34 Focusing on your siblings 35 Scrutinizing your grandparents and extended family 36 Answering general family questions 36 Hitting the Halls: School Days 37 Considering your strengths 38 Tackling your challenges 38 Identifying teachers'' influence on you 39 Seeing how different learning styles have affected you 39 Reflecting on group experiences 40 Ruminating on Your Community 40 Seeing how your local community plays a role in who you are 40 Musing on the global village 41 Contemplating the Future 42 Predicting your professional future 42 Looking into a crystal ball at how the world may be 43 Pondering Your Identity 43 Pinpointing How Other People Help You Figure Out Who You Are 44 Including the No-Category Category 45 Part 2: Organizing Your Thoughts 47 Chapter 4: Writing as Process, Not Product 49 Separating Your Inner Creator and Editor 50 Pre-Writing: The First Steps 52 Idea gathering 52 Narrowing down to a specific moment 53 Detail gathering 54 Structuring and outlining versus discovery writing 55 Taking the Final Steps 56 Revising 56 Completing one essay makes the rest easier 56 Sighing with relief 57 Chapter 5: Storming Your Brain: Idea-Gathering Techniques 59 Making a Mess -- You Can''t Build a Castle Until You Dump the Blocks 60 Matching Personality and Technique 61 Gathering Ideas: The Techniques 62 Visual brainstorming 62 Listing 68 Braindumping 72 Reacting to a Specific Question 76 Throwing in a Wrench -- Figuring Out a Challenge 77 Generating a Memorable (and Successful) Topic 78 Accepting Your Permission Slip for a Messy First Draft 80 CHAPTER 6: Steering Clear of Potential Landmines 81 Buying an Essay on the Internet and Other Things to Avoid 82 Finding the Right Sort of Help 83 Avoiding too many cooks in the kitchen 83 Trolling for topics 84 Dialing for details 85 Overseeing the outline 85 Roughing it 86 Checking and revising 87 Having too many editors 87 Identifying Your Parents'' Role 88 Understanding why your parents may try to micromanage the process 88 Managing your parents'' concerns and expectations 89 Locating Help When You''re on Your Own 90 Writing College Essays in the Technical Age: What You Need to Know 92 Part 3: Writing the Rough Draft 95 Chapter 7: Writing for the Tired, the Poor (The Admissions Office) 97 Meeting Your Readers: The Admissions Committee 98 Understanding the counselors'' duties 98 Factoring in your timeline 99 Strategizing for success 100 Keeping Their Attention When Yours Is the 200th Essay They''ve Read Today 101 Avoiding Irksome Writing Traits 103 My thesaurus and me: Unnatural vocabulary 103 Flowery language 104 Untruths and exaggerations 105 I am a people person: Clichés 106 Developing Your Voice on Paper 107 Chapter 8: Building a Structure to Support Your Ideas 111 Meeting the Major Players in the Structure Game 112 Chronological order 112 Interrupted chronological order 113 Survey 115 Description and interpretation 119 Cause and effect 120 Structuring Your Meaning 122 Understanding how different structures can work for your essay 122 Selecting the structure for your essay 124 Embracing Uncertainty 125 Using Structure to Explain Your Interest in your Major 126 Pursuing your interests in college 126 Answering the question: Why this field? 127 Chapter 9: Showing, Not Telling, Your Story 129 Getting Down to Specifics 130 Using All Your Senses. 137 Using the four senses besides vision 137 Discovering sensory details 138 Choosing the Best Details and Ignoring the Rest 139 Selecting Strong Verbs and Nouns 141 Verbs 141 Nouns 142 Adjectives and adverbs 143 A Little Metaphor Won''t Kill You 144 Calibrating Expectations: "But 650 Words Is So Short!" 146 Chapter 10: Leading with Your Best Shot 149 Taking the Right First Step: What the Lead Does for Your Essay 150 Capturing the Reader''s Attention 150 Sharing an anecdote 152 Intriguing the reader 152 Previewing the coming attractions 153 Setting the Right Tone 154 Taking a Closer Look: Five Strong Openings. 155 Avoiding Common Pitfalls 157 Parting with the Traditional Thesis 158 Chapter 11: Constructing Good Paragraphs 159 Punctuating Your Points with Paragraphs 160 Including some logic 160 Adding some drama 161 Creating a Strong Scope Sentence 162 Placing Scope Sentences and Details 164 Starting with a scope sentence 164 Finishing with the scope sentence 165 Putting the scope sentence in the middle 165 One more word about details 166 Setting Up a Transition 167 Using linked transitions 167 Adding transitions later 169 Chapter 12: Going Out with a Bang: The Conclusion 171 Repeating Yourself and Other Non-Answersmto the Conclusion Question 172 Not a reworded introduction 172 Not a miniature essay 173 Not an announcement 173 Not a new topic 173 Concluding the Essay Effectively 174 Tying up loose ends 174 Creating a wider context 176 Coming full circle: Completing the experience 177 Forging the last link in a chain of logic 178 Making a strong impression 179 Chapter 13: Overcoming Writer''s Block 183 Understanding Your Block 184 Confronting Your Application Anxieties 184 Overcoming a fear of failure 185 Coping with perfectionism and paralysis 185 Reclaiming power 186 Embracing change 187 Overcoming self-doubt 188 Gaining perspective 189 Leaping Over Writing-Related Blocks 189 Rising from the fog of details 190 Editing while writing 190 Stopping and starting with ease 191 Part 4: I''d Like to Finish Before Retirement Age: The Final Draft 193 Chapter 14: Leaving a Good Impression 195 Considering How Multiple Essays Work Together 196 Getting Your Point Across 197 Verifying That You''ve Answered the Question 200 Conveying Strength 201 Projecting confidence 201 Winning without whining 203 Keeping perspective 204 Checking the Essay One Last Time 205 Chapter 15: Smoothing the Rough Edges: Polishing the Essay 207 Trying the Red Pen Exercise 207 Writing Anew 209 Avoiding the Perils of Overediting 209 Creating Stylish Sentences 211 Monotony 211 Saying It Once and Only Once 213 Reenlisting Your Support System 216 Having realistic expectations 216 Keeping it tasteful 217 Chapter 16: Navigating the Submission Process 219 Getting the Lowdown on the Submission Process 219 Eyeing the characteristics of the process 220 Understanding how the process works 220 Working with word count requirements 221 Working on short-answer questions 222 Submitting your application: The when 223 Creating a Submission Plan 224 Finishing Your Submission 226 Pasting your essays into the application 226 Submitting your essay: What you need 226 Finishing the process: Signing, submitting, and celebrating 227 Part 5: Analyzing Questions from Real Applications 229 Chapter 17: Composing Essays Starring You 231 Understanding the Supplemental Essays 232 Dealing with "Why us" que.