Ashley Wellington - Admissions Essay Boot Camp: How to Write Your Way into the Elite College of Your Dreams

Copyright 2014 by Ashley Wellington

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin
Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wellington, Ashley.

Admissions essay boot camp : how to write your way into the elite college of your dreams / Ashley Wellington.

pages cm

Summary: This top-tier college admissions essay guide replicates a brainstorming and essay-writing session with Mint Tutors founder Ashley Wellington Provided by publisher.

1. College applicationsUnited StatesHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Universities and collegesUnited StatesAdmissionHandbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Exposition (Rhetoric)Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. EssayAuthorshipHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

LB2351.52.U6W45 2014

378.1616dc23

2014005258

Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60774-612-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60774-613-3

Front-cover photograph copyright Mega Pixel/Shutterstock.com
Author photo copyright Roger Kriegel
Design by Margaux Keres

v3.1

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PREFACE
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?
How This Book Is Different

INTRODUCTION
WHATS THE ESSAY GOT TO DO WITH IT?

CHAPTER 1
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS: Identifying Your Student Type

CHAPTER 2
BRAINSTORM FOR IT: The Questionnaire

CHAPTER 3
GET IT DOWN ON PAPER: The Freewrite Exercise

CHAPTER 4
MAKE IT COUNT: Choosing the Best Prompt for You

CHAPTER 5
ORGANIZE IT: The Outline

CHAPTER 6
WHEN TO USE ITS: The Skinny on Contractions

CHAPTER 7
TIDY IT UP: The Draft

CHAPTER 8
MAKE IT UNIQUE: Your Version of the Most Common Long Essays

CHAPTER 9
WATCH IT: Red-Flag Topics and How to Tackle Them

CHAPTER 10
DONT PUSH IT: How to Take a Moderate Risk

CHAPTER 11
WRAP IT UP: A Few Final Pointers

When I first started working with students on their college essays, I found that many of their parents would come to me with stacks of books on the subject. Those guides normally fell into one of two categories:

Essays that worked at certain Ivy League schools

Simple steps for getting the essay over with as quickly as possible

Although it is immensely helpful to read well-written personal statements and see the different approaches you can take in your own applications, I dont think the winning essay books tell the whole story, because they dont give you any context. Basically, without knowing the background, credentials, and interests of the student who wrote it, you cant see why the essay was successful in the first place. College essays dont exist in isolation; they enhance and explain the transcript.

As for the steps category, I love making lists as much as (and possibly more than) anyone, but trying to crank out a formulaic essay in an hour or two is not the right approach for a top-tier application. Unfortunately, if youre shooting high, you cant sound like everyone else, and you cant get away with an expedient effort.

In short, Ive tried to combine everything Ive found helpful in other books while still personalizing the process so you feel as if youre working one-on-one with me. This book will give you the full Boot Camp experience, from start to finish, without any sugar coating. You have to put time into your essays, but the payoff is great!

If you have picked up this book, you are probably in your junior or senior year of high school, which means it is impossible to augment or change what is already on your transcript. But take a deep breath. This guide is meant to show you how to successfully work with what you have. Six hundred and fifty words about (virtually) anything really can get you into the college of your dreams, as long as you remember my three Hs:

Humility

Honesty

Humor

I am going to personally walk you through the confusing, intimidating, and stressful process of drafting the perfect college application essay. Along the way, I will demonstrate the difference between a clever approach, a gimmick, and an application self-destruct button. Then I will give you some more insights Ive gleaned over the years. Remember, there is no specific right answer, but there are many, many wrong answers.

Still need convincing? Here is the more erudite version:

The essay is the keystone to an application, and as such, it can function as either an asset or a liability. Most essays are predictable, innocuous, and forgettable and do nothing to set you apart from the rest of a talented applicant pool. Bad essaysin which you come across as someone who lacks motivation, perspective, or passioncan severely hurt your chances. On the other hand, an original response to an essay question offers an immeasurable boost to your admission chances. College essays do more than just showcase your writing ability; ideally, they illustrate your priorities, admirable traits, creativity, and academic promise.

Every year, the number of students applying to college increases, and each student applies to a greater number of schools. As a result, colleges and universities can have between ten and fifteen qualified applicants vying for a single spot, and in many cases the students have comparable test scores, grades, and extracurricular interests. College essays are swiftly becoming the most significant part of an application because they often are the only variable in the admissions equation. All schools, particularly the smaller ones, have their own unique personalities, and admissions committees want to know whether youd be a good fit for the campus environment and current student body. The essay is now the determining factor.

Mastering the college essay is somewhat of a lost art in our sound-bite culture. So often, students are intimidated by the very idea of college and end up writing only what they think admissions committees might want to hear. Whether that means assuming an overly scholarly tone, discussing a backpacking trip as a metaphor for life (ugh), or debating the intricacies of global warming in Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth when nothing else on your application points to an interest in environmentalism, these attempts often fall flat. The best essays are unapologetically