2012 Common Application | Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog

Last Minute Common App Tips

October 7, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

When I flipped the calendar to October this past weekend, I had a moment of panic that was likely shared with many high school seniors across the country. That’s right, rolling application cycles are underway, and the first round of Early Action and Early Decision deadlines is less than a month away!

Don’t panic, but it is time to allot serious time to your college applications. The Common Application can be fairly straightforward, but leaving any portion until the last minute will likely result in a more rushed effort — and a sloppy result. Here are a few tips for managing your applications over the next few weeks.

Allow yourself time to write. Thoughtful, well-crafted essays don’t appear on October 30th, they evolve through drafts and careful revision. For a college that doesn’t require a supplemental essay, those 500 words in the personal statement are your sole opportunity to breathe life and personality into an electronic file. I’ve seen too many students submit 500 words that share little information with the reader.
Think about your application from an outsider’s perspective. Is all of your data clear? Have you explained what ABCD means and your role in the ABCD organization in the extracurricular section? Have you omitted any important information? Take the extra minute to locate your counselor’s contact information and confirm your GPA and class rank.
Proofread. Yes, you’ve heard it before, anytime you enter text directly, it is easy to skip the last step. Consider writing even your short answers in a word processing program. Then edit them and your personal statement yourself or ask a parent or teacher to read over your writing for you. Don’t forget to preview your final application before submission to ensure that everything looks the way you expect.
Uploading and submitting takes time. Last year, I worked with a student who was finishing his last application at the last possible minute. Servers slow down when lots of students are trying to submit work. Browsers crash. If you use a Mac, the Common Application seems to work better with Firefox than Safari. Technical glitches happen. Sometimes, colleges will cut you some slack. Sometimes they won’t. Don’t depend on it. Finish early.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as an Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to provide you with college admissions consulting as you apply to college.

Ivy League and the Common App: New, Updated Info!

September 14, 2011 by Accepted.com

It’s a new application season, which means we have new advice for college applicants using the 2012 Common Application.

We’ve updated our special report, Ivy League and Common Application Tips: How to Get Accepted, to reflect these changes, offering Ivy League applicants up-to-date advice on how to answer the Common App questions and individual school supplements.

Stay current, stay informed, and receive the best Ivy League-Common App advice out there when you download Ivy League and Common Application Tips: How to Get Accepted now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, common application, Ivy League

Tips for Completing Your Brown Supplement to the Common Application

August 29, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Brown supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

Today, when I visited the Brown website, the academic page banner proclaimed, “Brown gives students the freedom to direct their education.” If that tenet wasn’t clear before, it should be now. The independence that Brown seeks from its students is evident in the most lengthy of Ivy league supplements. If you are seeking a Brown education, however, the included questions should be both thought provoking and interesting. Flexibility is a hallmark of the Brown experience. Unfettered by a core curriculum or even the distribution requirements of many other colleges, students at Brown pursue their own education. The courses a student chooses are based upon his or her own ideas of education and of challenge, interest, and intellectual development.

With these tenets of the Brown education in mind, consider the writing component of the Brown Supplement to the Common Application. Whether you draw inspiration from the biblical statement of “to whom much has been given, much is expected, “ or from Spiderman (“with great power comes great responsibility,”) the application makes it clear that a Brown student should embrace the application as he would the curriculum with purpose, creative thought, and determination.

The first writing section asks applicants to consider their academic interests within the context of the Brown curriculum, identifying potential areas of study and elaborating on the roots of their interests. Many other colleges ask a similar version of this question, which can be challenging for the student who is truly “undecided”. Use this short answer to share some insight into your academic curiosity and in the follow-up question, consider why the flexibility to explore and potentially combine disciplines is important to you.

The second writing section asks about your background and influential experiences, seeking answers ranging from 25 to 300 words. Brown (in a question similar to one from the University of Michigan,) looks to see how you define yourself relative to others – by asking you to write about a community with which you identify. It’s easy to identify yourself by geography, ethnicity, or politics – groups for which we already have a label. If you choose one of these more common groups, try to avoid relying on cliché and general conclusions. As always, keep it personal.

Several of the writing prompts in this section ask you to consider how you define yourself and how you react to change. As you brainstorm, consider the following questions:

How do you think about yourself relative to others? If you are a visual thinker, a Venn diagram could be useful here. Diagram the many circles to which you belong. Do you define yourself by where you have lived, or by how often that has changed? Do you remain the same in all situations or share common ground with a Chameleon, adapting to your environment? Do you seek to take risks? What kind? Are you afraid of failure? How have you reacted to a difficult or unexpected situation? It is easy to identify yourself by your hometown, or your ethnicity and more challenging to look at your identity through a variety of lenses. When I was thinking about these questions, the correlation between risk and changed perspective was evident. How do those two elements interrelate for you? Many strong essays rely on a central conflict, and these elements offer a strong starting point for this construction. Whether you choose to address these questions in the most traditional manner or a more creative way, the admission committee will learn more about you if you set a scene and tell a story.

One option for the longer essay is to discuss your reasons for attending college. For many students who are applying to Brown, they have always known that they would go to college. It’s just the next step in the path after high school for them. The straight line to college was drawn in preschool, if not before. If this is your current answer, make another choice for the optional essay. Then spend some time thinking about your reasons for attending college. You will be a better college student, at Brown or any other college, for understanding this about yourself.

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, Admissions Consulting, common application, Ivy League, optional essay

Princeton Supplemental Application Tips

August 18, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Princeton supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

I’ve always enjoyed working with students who are applying to Princeton. As a group, they have interesting and engaged minds. Extracurricularly, their accomplishments are varied and distinctive. The Princeton application tries to elicit specifics about those facets of each applicant through its supplement. In the age of streamlined “easy apps” and electronic application review that makes applicants seem more similar than different, Princeton is one the colleges whose application seeks to learn more about the person behind the papers.

The section entitled “A Few Details” has been a part of the Princeton application for years, and applicants can truly address the categories in just a few words. Complete sentences and lots of explanation aren’t necessary or even encouraged. As a Princeton applicant, you are no doubt intelligent, passionate, and accomplished. Be that same intelligent, passionate, accomplished teenager in this section. Your answers to these details need not all be highbrow, super-intellectual, SAT word answers. Resist the urge to be someone you are not in this section.

Recently, there has been a lot of press about how a high school student should spend his or her summers to enhance college applications. Princeton asks you to specifically detail your recent summer activities. Whether you travelled extensively, studied intensely, or worked a full-time job, you learned something. Think about those life lessons as you list your summer activities. There may also be material for your longer writing sample lurking in those 6 months of summer vacation.

As a longer writing sample, Princeton offers four choices for candidates to write one essay of about 500 words.

1. Tell us about a person who has influenced you in a significant way.

This question overlaps with the Common Application essay, and it is obviously crucial that your answer to this question not overlap with your previous essay. If your primary Common Application essay addresses this question, select a different topic for the supplemental essay. With this topic, it is easy to tell the reader a lot about the person who has influenced you, yet miss the opportunity to explain how that person’s influence has impacted you. A strong essay does both, with an emphasis on the latter.

2. Using the statement below as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world.

“Princeton in the Nation’s Service” was the title of a speech given by Woodrow Wilson on the 150th anniversary of the University. It became the unofficial Princeton motto and was expanded for the University’s 250th anniversary to “Princeton in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”

Woodrow Wilson, Princeton Class of 1879, served on the faculty and was Princeton’s president from 1902–1910.

3. Using the following quotation from “The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society” as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world.

“Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.”

Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University

4. Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation at the beginning of your essay.

The final three topics all address one point: “Tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world.” Each of these questions is asking you, the applicant, to tell a story. Pick an experience, large or small, that impacted you, and share it with the admissions committee. As you tell your story, ensure that you address its impact on you. Your options in this question allow you to address this in any number of ways, from the most macro, global event, to a smaller, more personal moment. Don’t be afraid to think, draw connections, and demonstrate maturity through your essay.

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, Admissions Consulting, application essay, common application, Ivy League

Tips for Completing Your Application to Columbia University

August 14, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Columbia supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

When I visited Columbia University, it was clear to me that the undergraduate college takes distinct pride in two things: the 100-year-old Core Curriculum and the University’s relationship with the city in which it resides. The Columbia University supplement reflects those emphases. As a prospective student, I encourage you to think about how these two components of the Columbia education fit with your educational goals.

The Columbia supplement consists of several lists and three short answer questions. For the quick questions about your interests, which ask you to list books, concerts, media that you have enjoyed over the past year, provide straightforward responses. As an academically engaged student, there should be plenty of media and arts that have captured your attention. Share both the mundane and the more interesting. If you have a strong interest in a subject area, chances are your reading interests at least peripherally relate. The Core Curriculum at Columbia includes humanities courses that focus on music and art in addition to literature, and the question about performances or exhibits dovetails with this component of the curriculum. These courses also take advantage of the rich opportunities available to students in New York City.

The integration of a strong campus center (the vast majority of students live on campus for four years) with the accessibility of the city and its commitment to a core curriculum, make Columbia a college with its own mission. There are many facets to Columbia that make it distinctive, and therefore, your short answer about your interest in Columbia should be specific and well connected to your interests and its strengths. If you feel that you need more information about Columbia, check the website for more information about their fall evening programs in cities around the United States.

Columbia is a member of the Common Application, and does offer an early decision program for students who are confident that Columbia is their first choice.

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, Admissions Consulting, Columbia University, common application, Ivy League

Tips for Completing Your Penn Supplement to the Common Application

August 13, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Penn supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

As an application reviewer and a college counselor, I struggle with the “why us?” question. The question from the University of Pennsylvania supplement is no different.

The opportunities, both academic and extracurricular, at Penn are broad and appealing. The admissions committee has a reputation for seeking students who are especially committed to their interest in the school and this question clearly seeks to find the essence of that interest.

Considering both the specific undergraduate school or program to which you are applying and the broader University of Pennsylvania community, what academic, research, and/or extracurricular paths do you see yourself exploring at Penn?

The trick with this question is to write an essay that addresses the question without sounding like you’ve swallowed the viewbook and at the same time providing personal insight, personality and voice to you answer. Penn offers you up to 500 words in answering the question. Consider the following:

With its emphasis on research and interdisciplinary study, if this is an area that interests you, or you have a research background, mention it. If your interests are well defined, and based upon previous experience, even if it is only in-depth reading about a particular topic, demonstrate your intellectual engagement within the context of this essay.
If you are academically undecided, consider how Penn will help you explore areas of interest. Draw a parallel to another time in which you have been able to explore something new.
What is appealing about Penn’s urban campus? How is it similar to or different from other places that you have lived?
If you have visited Penn, attended an information session about Penn either in your community or high school, draw upon your reactions to what you’ve learned. If you know students at Penn, ask them what they like most about the college.
What does it mean to be part of the larger Penn community as an alumnus/a?

Spend some time picturing yourself on the campus and use the essay as an opportunity to expand upon some of the things you find most appealing about college while sharing more about your background and goals. You can also draw briefly on some of your past experiences to highlight how they might transition onto the Penn campus.

By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, common application, Ivy League

Tips for Completing your Cornell Supplement to the Common Application

August 9, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Cornell supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

A friend of mine has a son who studying at Cornell. When I look at the Cornell supplement, it isn’t hard to picture “John”, sitting at his computer, writing the supplemental statement. It’s also easy to see why he was such a compelling applicant to their admission committee. John is a birder, and he was well acquainted with Cornell’s ornithology program. As a high school student, he had spent hours searching for specific species and summers tracking birds in northern Canada. He could tell you specifically what he was going to do with his Cornell education. Happily now, he’s in Ithaca, following through on his initial plans.

If you are searching for academic options in the Ivy League, look carefully at Cornell. Its undergraduate enrollment is larger than its Ivy brethren, and the diversity of its offerings and majors complements its size. Applicants select one (and sometimes an alternate) of the 7 undergraduate divisions when submitting an application.

While it might be tempting to check the box for a less competitive division (although they are all competitive) and then change after admission, Cornell’s supplemental essay questions ask students to write specifically about the roots of their interests. The admissions committee is searching for students who have made deliberate choices about their intended areas of study. You’ve embarked upon a tough fiction-writing task to convince the committee of your desire to study architecture when you fulfilled your arts requirement exclusively with drama, avoided physics like the plague, and have devoted your extracurricular time to soccer and the soup kitchen.

While it isn’t uncommon for students to change their minds about their areas of study while in college, devoting thought to what excites you intellectually now will help you determine what type of environment suits you in college, and will give you career direction as you move forward in the next few years.

For students who are planning to apply to a number of colleges, writing about your area of academic interest is a common question. For each of these questions, avoid general statements such as “English is my favorite class” and instead focus on the specifics about studying English that appeal to you. Did a specific project excite you? Do you enjoy a particular genre of writing? What are your career goals, and how does your intended major relate to that? If you are writing about extracurricular pursuits, which are particularly relevant to Agriculture and Hotel Administration applicants, again, be specific about your experiences and what you’ve learned from them.

Applicants to Cornell generally demonstrate very high levels of academic achievement in the classroom and on standardized tests. Each undergraduate division at Cornell, however, has slightly different requirements for admission regarding testing and high school curriculum. Double-check the requirements to ensure that you have completed all of the necessary components before submitting your application.

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, Admissions Consulting, career goals, common application, Ivy League

Are You Applying to Harvard College?

August 8, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Harvard supplement to the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

Last year, almost 35,000 students applied to Harvard College. Of those, 2158 received offers of admission to join the class of 2015. That’s 6.1%. With 35,000 applicants, most of whom present nearly perfect academic credentials and outstanding commitments to extracurricular excellence, you face a critical question: How do you stand out?

Harvard College Eliot House With the entire college process, be yourself. Be your best self, but yourself. Your Harvard application is no different.

This year, Harvard has reinstated the restrictive early action process. If Harvard is your first choice, you can consider applying early, with a preferred deadline of October 15th and a final deadline of November 1. The restrictive early action choice prohibits applicants from filing additional single choice early action, or early decision applications. It does allow for submission of rolling admission or regular decision applications prior to receiving a decision from Harvard. If you are admitted to Harvard under the early action program, you have until May 1 to decide whether or not to accept the offer of admission.

A completed Harvard application includes either the ACT with writing or the SAT exam. Harvard also requires two SAT II subject tests. To allow for your application to be fully reviewed, and to save the expense of rush reporting, try to complete all of your testing requirements in advance of the deadline, by the October deadline for early action and the November test date for regular decision.

The Harvard Common Application supplement does not require an additional essay, however, you may choose to submit one on the topic of your choice. Before you feel compelled to fill blank space, be certain that you will enhance your application by adding additional information. Has there been more to the last 18 years of your life than you have already explained? Probably. Will it take time and introspection to write a worthwhile supplemental essay? Yes. Before you begin writing, consider the information you have already provided through your common application. Brainstorm about other experiences that might differentiate you from other candidates, and put yourself at the initial center of your essay. You are the person the admission committee wants to understand. The key in answering this open-ended essay is to be certain that the reader knows more about the way you think about, engage in, or reflect on the world around you after reading the supplement than before.

One of the Harvard suggestions is to include a list of books that you have read in the last 12 months. If you spend substantial time reading for pleasure or intellectual engagement, this list might provide compelling insight on your application. If your list outside of AP English includes only a few bestsellers and a “Chicken Soup for the Soul”, consider a different approach to the question.

While it is tempting to ignore the question, or submit an essay that you have already written for another application, take the time to put your best work in front of the Harvard admission committee. When you have finished the first draft, consider the reader of your application. One extra page, times 35,000 applicants, means you best have something meaningful to say.

Photo credit: roger4336

Filed Under: Harvard College Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, Admissions Consulting, common application, Ivy League

Summarizing Your Activities on the Common Application

July 15, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about summarizing your activities on the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you complete the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

You’ll find the activities chart just above the essay questions on the Common Application. It looks straightforward, and in some ways, it is. However, given the differences between communities, high schools and your individual passions, it is important to give some thought to the way you represent your extracurricular time.

The Common Application specifically asks you to list your activities in the order of importance to you. (They bold it in their instructions too.) The activity that you believe sounds most impressive may not be your most personally significant activity, and unless you’ve demonstrated an unusual level of commitment to it in other parts of the application you’ve just lost some legitimacy with the application reviewer.

Carefully explain your activity and your role in it. The Common Application allows limited space for this, so choose your words carefully. Remember, the name of the club alone does little to clarify your passions for the admission committee.

Likewise, don’t assume that the college wants to see any specific activity listed as most important. Listing your community service requirement first doesn’t speak to your passions. Colleges want all sorts of students on their campus. They want tuba players and tennis players, presidents and prose writers. Be yourself.

While many of your activities might take place within the context of your high school, think about all of your time. Do you devote significant amounts of time to a hobby or special interest. Are you particularly involved with a church or religious group? One year, our committee had a student who had spent a great deal of time baking. She took the time to explain her commitment to the croissant. Did we find her compelling? Absolutely. Had she explained that her interest went well beyond baking a batch of cookies for the track team bake sale? Yes.

Resist the temptation to exaggerate. Many activities fluctuate in their time commitment. You might spend 12 hours a day in preparation for a debate tournament, or a week on a mission trip. When your individual club commitments add up to more than 100 hours in a week, it becomes difficult to gauge your true commitments and the reader is more likely to become skeptical of your application.

Put together a first draft of your activities, then rethink your roles and time commitments from the past few years. If you need help jogging your memory, flip through your old yearbooks.

Filed Under: College Admissions Tagged With: 2012 Common Application, common application, Ivy League

2012 Common Application Essay Tips

June 15, 2011 by Whitney Bruce

This post about the Common Application is part of a series of posts written to help you fill out the 2012 Common Application supplement for Ivy League schools.

If you are a rising high school senior, there is a good chance that the Common Application website is bookmarked on your web browser, or printed, sitting on your desk. An ominous reminder of the promise that you made to yourself: I will write my college essays this summer.

With more than 400 colleges and universities, including many of the nation’s most selective post-secondary institutions, accepting the Common Application, there’s also a good chance that you’ll be addressing one of its broad ranging essay questions. This year, the recommended length is 250-500 words. While the online format will not cut you off at 500 words, it is easy to lose focus on your essay. Here are a few tips for each of the essay choices.

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

You don’t need to have had a life changing experience to write an outstanding essay in response to this prompt. In fact, I wouldn’t wish most of the life changing experiences that students use as essay topics on you just so that you have good essay fodder. Think small and reflect on what you’ve learned.

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

An effective essay often makes it clear to the reader why this issue is important to the applicant. You’ve missed an opportunity to convey your passion to the admissions committee if you simply write an essay about current newspaper headlines. Look instead to your volunteer experiences or social action clubs in which you’ve been involved and draw upon those experiences.

Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you and describe that influence.

Many grandparents have had a significant influence on applicants. Not to belittle writing about a grandparent, or a parent, or a sibling who battles cancer, as there are some powerful stories to be told, but often the reviewer is left knowing much more about the person and less about the applicant. Thoughtful reflection and word choice will help you to shed light about both parties in an effective response to this prompt.

Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix.

This one seems so easy – simply draw upon a section of your junior year English journal or tap that essay you wrote for art history. Don’t do it. If you are a musician, or an avid reader, or a budding scientist, you have a plethora of material from which to draw. Think not only about the work you choose, but perhaps the learning process that you came through in discovering the work.

Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

This question isn’t all that different from the first essay, only with a focus on diversity. In writing about this prompt, think carefully about the diversity experience you had and your role in it.

Topic of your choice.

Again, resist the urge to revisit an English paper. This is your opportunity to tell the admission committee something. Use it. And don’t forget to include a prompt for the question – it serves as a guide for the conclusion you’d like the reader to draw from the essay.

Are you unsure where to start? If one of the essay choices doesn’t leap off the page, don’t get bogged down. Go ahead, write a paragraph or two about an experience. After you have moved beyond the blank page on your computer screen, it will become clear which essay choice you should address. You can fine-tune your answer with multiple drafts.

With all of these topics, it is easy to write a basic essay that doesn’t provide more information about the applicant to the admission committee. Think carefully of the information that you would like the admission committee to carry away from reading your essay. Ensure that your essay stands out by writing in an authentic voice and allowing your story to shed light on your academic interests, extracurricular passions or defining experiences.