the college entrance essay tutors wayne

the college entrance essay tutors wayne

Effective Strategies for College Entrance Essay Tutoring: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to College Entrance Essays

A brief overview

As the cost of college tuition skyrockets and the competition for admission also rises, almost all college-bound high school students and the nontraditional adult students they often study beside know that the college entrance essay is one of the most important components of a valuable college entrance portfolio. Patterns of acceptance at elite, selective, and accessible colleges are well known in the secondary schools, but the effects of perennial, ever-increasing college costs are such that the intelligent student must, and the uninvitedly invited international student more often must, attend local or unusual colleges and universities with less scholarships. College entrance essays, therefore, if well crafted and instructive in the genre, will always enhance and evaluate applications at selective colleges and give one even more of an edge at less substantive higher education destinations, both in terms of scholarship consideration and in charting career paths.

This essay offers college entrance essay tutoring methods and advice for getting into the dormitories and classrooms of your dreams, as well as for finding the rooms and corners of fulfilling self-assessment and re-examination. From prewriting, drafting, editing, to the final polished versions of the essays, coaching and tutoring may be performed for the “personal narrative” used at most private colleges or the analytical essay required or suggested by public universities. If your essay is better, even if not revolutionary for additional reasons, that essay enriches not only the college application but others’ thinking as well or other writing challenges to be addressed in any college course.

2. Understanding the Common Application Essay Prompts

In 2015, the Common Application announced seven essay prompts to choose from, including the following:

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. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale.

5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

6. Students also have the option to write about literally any topic of their choice.

The writers of the Common App essay consider both the formatting and the word count to revolve around the concept of sharing what an application would be incomplete without. They choose to align their guidelines with the more humanistic approach to college admissions, favored by private counseling resources and elite institutions, such as MIT. A consideration of whether or not an application would be incomplete without a specific aspect of students’ lives is an expansive way to foster engagement, not necessarily an attempt to avoid repetitive approaches to writing, since advisors like the authors believe that no two students will be exactly the same.

3. Crafting a Compelling Essay: Structure and Content

A common misconception among students is that they are the ones who need to do all the talking in their entrance essays! Instead of focusing solely on themselves (and why they “should” be accepted into a given institution), students should also address the admissions officer directly, engaging that individual in a conversation. They must reinforce their obvious desire for acceptance by demonstrating that they truly understand and appreciate the opportunities that an institution has to offer, proffer a myriad of compelling intellectual and other qualifications to the admissions office, and offer personal anecdotes that depict them as approachable, intellectually curious, and sympathetic human beings. These points are particularly important to the admissions personnel at those boarding schools where future interests may be ascertained—just by looking at a student’s boarding record.

Students should also avoid overwhelming the admissions officer with a “laundry list” of extracurricular activities. Although important, these non-academic activities should complement, not overshadow, academic performance. Specific examples and personal anecdotes that illustrate the impact of those experiences on the individual are essential. In general, students may find it easier to place paragraphs about their various abilities in the context of stories about their struggles and triumphs. For example, if a student has been captain of the soccer team for two years, a fascinating tale chronicling a struggle over adversity—such as the narrator’s outstanding performance in a game while battling the flu—is likely to be much more compelling than a mere resume of athletic accomplishments. A picture is certainly worth a thousand words, but a picture that relies solely on empty words and phrases is really not worth anything at all! In general, the student should strive to present him/herself as a warm, intellectual individual who holds a singular passion or distinguishing strength. A possible format for such an essay structure might look like this:

1. An opening that entices the admissions reader to want to know more about this fascinating individual. 2. A brief intellectual autobiography that serves as a complete summary for the essay, perhaps linking one or more institutional opportunities to the student’s career goals. 3. An extended discussion of a major intellectual interest and/or talent. 4. A short paragraph about the student’s future career goals. 5. A brief paragraph discussing why the college should be interested in the student. 6. A brief paragraph about the institution itself. 7. A conclusion that ties the essay together.

4. The Role of the Tutor in Essay Guidance

As a personal tutor, I work with students from diverse backgrounds and preparations. Some students come to me with standard five-paragraph essays; some write in what I would call a “creative” manner. In all cases, my objective is to help students find their own voice. I spent several years as a screenwriter in Hollywood, and I am familiar with the dialectic of structure and creation that writers face. My work with students is very much rooted in this understanding. It is important when coaching college entrance essays that tutors take an approach that goes beyond traditional editing skills.

In readings of college essays published in The New York Times on the Web, (Mark) M. West, who was an admissions officer at Stanford for ten years, found the operative narrative element in each essay and the “authenticity” with which the story was told. The bottom line is – every college student needs to find his own unique narrative voice – the story that only he can tell – in a voice that is authentic to him. Identifying and writing that essay is often the most difficult thing to do.

With younger kids, the hardest thing is getting them to come up with something that doesn’t sound like a 17-year-old Gates Scholar who spent 20 hours a week for four years at a nursing home. For all students, while self-discovery is the first step, self-surroundings are the key. Go outside, says Bauld, take a walk, read, talk to your prospective colleges’ former students, take long naps. Then turn introspective and think again about the roles, properties and thoughts that are unique to you. First, Bauld says, ask the right questions. “Be introspective about it. It’s a revelation about yourself, so treat it with the respect it deserves.”

5. Effective Feedback and Revision Techniques

Josh Mayer If you discovered that a good essay has a title, an introduction, a thesis statement, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, you are right, but don’t stop there. Most students know the components of an essay, but they do not understand how to go about writing a first-rate essay. Too many students think that “writing is rewriting,” but good first drafts usually make for better final drafts.

Feedback and improving are not synonymous terms. In fact, it is best to avoid the term “revising” and use “improving” instead because “revising” typically means that a student will change a few things in a paper before he or she handwrites a final draft. Students believe this because they were taught to write outlines in high school, and they were taught to write as few drafts as possible. This does not work. Good writers should expect to write as many as six drafts, and these drafts should make significant changes. I recommend that students begin each draft from scratch. Why bother with modifying the old draft when an entire new piece needs to be written? It could be that my students were trained in the traditional ways of writing an essay, and they naturally expect me to train them in the same ways. Instead of teaching them using a prescriptive model, teachers should use a descriptive model. A teacher need not even direct a student to write the first draft; a student can ask the teacher to approve a draft or a portion of his or her essay. All help is totally free.