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by Steven Tagle
The Common App opens on August 1 for the 2025-2026 application cycle, so the summer is the perfect time to start drafting your college essays. Your essays show admission officers the person behind the application. They highlight and elaborate on your personal context, what drives you, the challenges you’ve faced, and how you might contribute …
by Steven Tagle
Undergraduate admissions have become dramatically more competitive, with greater numbers of students applying to more colleges every year. In February 2025, the Common App reported that the number of students applying through its portal in the 2024-2025 cycle increased by 4% from the 2023-2024 cycle, while the total volume of applications rose by 6%. With …
by Marie Todd
We understand that getting started actually writing your college essays can be difficult. Even if you’ve gone through all the steps of thinking, brainstorming, and maybe even the “clustering” and “circling” of interconnected ideas, you might still feel intimidated by the writing process. And after all, there’s a lot on the line with your college …
by Marie Todd
In our post “A Stress-Free Brainstorming Plan for Your College Essays,” we outline the basic process of brainstorming to prepare for writing your college essays. In this post, we offer a more-detailed, “circular” method that can help you uncover additional ideas and stories. This circular method is also called “clustering.” To begin, write the essay …
by Marie Todd
A valuable first step in devising a writing plan for your college essays is identifying the attributes that are most important to your target schools, which you can glean from their websites and promotional materials. If you have not already done so, download the current Common App essay questions, as well as any supplemental essay …
by Marie Todd
No matter how much your parents love you and want the best for you, their attempts to help you with your college application essays can sometimes go awry. In some cases, their personal concerns, biases, and style might do more to impede your progress than encourage it, even though they have your best interests at …
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