College Essay Writers Block Advice

Overcoming writers block is all about that single moment of inspiration. The difficulty is making that moment happen sooner rather than later. This jolt of creativity seemingly arises from the unknown regions of our subconscious. However, you can take some steps to nudge this process along:

1. Don’t sit and stare at a blank page.

Whether you are writing your essay by hand or on the computer, sitting and staring at a blank page or computer screen will do nothing for your subconscious. All that will happen is that you will feel an impending sense of doom. Your blank canvas will make you feel worse by the second. This is especially unfair to yourself because no one can write their essay in a matter of minutes. Your thought process won’t wander into creative paths but instead become occupied by thoughts of failure and meta-thoughts about the implications of your failure. Research has shown that negative thoughts are a significant hindrance to creativity. Don’t make this mistake. The key then is to surround yourself with positivity and creativity. How can we do this?


2. Listen to music.

Seriously. I’m not talking about the newest top 10 hit, though. Some of the most influential music is about significant moments and thoughts in an artist’s life. These lyrics are what you want to grab on to. Pull up a google search of the song’s lyrics and read along. Think about and analyze them. Think specifically about the impact of what the artist is saying to their lives. Now connect these words to moments in your own life of significance. You don’t have to have had a friend die of a drug overdose but we have all had these moments which have shaped us. Write these things down. These deeply personal things that have shaped us are exactly what college essay readers are looking for.


3. Read blogs with interesting stories.

There are hundreds of blogs out there where interesting people are writing about their lives. Do the same thing as with the music you were listening to. Take the authors’ stores and relate them to your own life experiences. Don’t worry if yours have trouble comparing; the people reading your essay realize you are only 17 or 18 years old and will adjust their expectations accordingly.


4. Talk to your parents.

You may think otherwise, but few people know you quite as well as they do. Ask them about the moments of significance in their lives and specifically ones that relate to you. They can be a wealth of information about your personality and how it changed you became an adult. Furthermore, ask them specifically about moments in their own lives which they consider to be significant.

You may have noticed a common theme in this list. These things are all positive, and, more importantly, will push the thoughts of your need to complete an essay into the background and will push creativity and connection making to the foreground. This is exactly what you want to happen. You want your mind to be thinking creatively while having the awareness to realize when something you stumble upon may make a good topic. The important thing to remember is that these moments can be very fleeting, and our memories are not as good as we like to think they are. Keep a notepad with you and when you think of something, immediately write it down so you don’t forget it.

Also see: How to Start Your College Essay | Tips and Outline or...The Start-To-Finish Guide to Overcoming Writer’s Block.

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College Application Resume Dos and Don’ts

The resume is an important part of your application. It is kind of like a Cliff’s Note’s guide to your application—it lists all of your accomplishments and activities on a single page. The way in which you design, word, and organize your resume can dramatically impact its effectiveness. Since most of you have never made a resume before, I've decided to put together a list of major dos and don’ts to help you with the resume-making process.

DO pay attention to how it looks. A neat, organized, professional-looking resume will make you seem like you have these qualities. A sloppy, disorganized resume, on the other hand, makes you seem, well, sloppy and disorganized. If it is a hard copy, make sure you print it out on resume paper with black ink. Regardless of whether it is online or a hard copy, make sure there are reasonable margins and a readable font. Split it into headings (such as activities, work, awards and honors), and put each heading name in a bold font. For more on format, see What to Include in a College Application Résumé and College Admission Resume Advice.

DON’T be gimmicky. This means no video resumes, no perfumed resumes, no glittery resumes, you get the idea. Yes, in Legally Blonde, Elle Woods’ poolside video resume got her into Harvard Law. Unfortunately, in the real world, a video resume will, best case scenario, give the poor overworked admissions officers a chuckle and lower your chances of getting accepted, and worst case scenario, get leaked on YouTube and make you infamous. Stick to the basics—they are the standard for a reason.

DO use action words when you describe what you did in each job or activity. These words make you seem proactive and like you have leadership qualities. They also make it seem like you actually were doing something in your activities and that you're not just a token member. Some examples of action words you can use are: managed, edited, spearheaded, organized, and coached.

DON’T make the resume too long. The resume should ideally fit onto one page, or two if you absolutely need more room. Please, do yourself and the admissions officers a favor, and leave out your starring role as Queen Esther in the JCC Purim play when you were in third grade. Leave out your dodgeball trophies from sixth grade. A good rule of thumb is to only include things from ninth grade and beyond. Of course, there are occasional exceptions. If you founded a global charity in eighth grade that you spent your high school years leading, you can include that. In general, though, do not include pre-ninth grade accomplishments.

DO give specific examples. This will give admissions officers a clearer idea of what you did in the position, and it will show that you are a can-do person with concrete accomplishments. For example, if you served as the community service chair of your youth group, put in a bullet point about how you organized the dance-a-thon for cancer research and raised 2,000 dollars. The more specifics and concrete details, the better!

DON’T use full sentences or paragraphs in the resume to describe what each position meant to you. That's not what the resume is for; it's what the essays are for. The resume should tell what you have accomplished during your high school years. It should list awards, honors, activities, jobs, education and travel programs, and what each of these entailed. Any reflections or analysis should be saved for your essays.

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How to Start Your College Essay | Tips and Outline

or...The Start-To-Finish Guide to Overcoming Writer’s Block

Writer’s Block can strike the best of us, particularly when it comes to the college essay. Many of my students (who will remain nameless!) have sat by their computers for hours, “writing their college essays,” without writing a single word. If you are like these students, know, first, that you are in good company, and second, that it is really not that hard once you have a plan of action. Here are some tips for those students with writer’s block, that will take you from staring at a blank document to the clicking "send" on the finished product.

1. Decide your goals.

Before any big project, it is necessary to know what you are trying to accomplish. The essay is about showing off your intangibles, those qualities that don’t come through in the rest of the application. Think about what you want to stress. Is it your determination in the face of adversity? Your creativity and quirkiness? Your loyalty? Make a list, and keep the goals in mind when planning the essay. For more details on this step, read all college essay-related blog posts.


2. Choose your topic.

Sometimes you get to choose the essay topic, and sometimes it is chosen for you. Either way, you are going to have some leeway to decide what you want to write about. Usually, this involves telling some kind of story about yourself. Choose which story or experience (that answers the essay question) is most interesting and significant, and would allow you to best accomplish the goals you laid out in step one.


3. Outline the structure.

Before you start writing, decide how you are going to structure your essay. One common, and effective structure is to start with a paragraph about yourself, then tell the story about yourself, then talk about the significance of the story. Another possibility is to start with the story and then connect it to aspects of yourself. However, there are other potential structures that you may decide to employ. Deciding on the structure beforehand will make writing the essay less intimidating and make the finished product more organized and coherent.


4. Outline the content, step-by-step.

Now that you have the structure, you can outline each part. To do this, just write bullet points in chronological order, covering what you want to say and remembering how it relates to the goals laid out in step one. You can write these bullet points in shorthand, but the more detailed your outline is, the easier the inevitable next step will be.


5. Write it!

You knew this part would come eventually! You already have the outline, now put it in full sentences. Vary your sentence structure, add transitions, similes, descriptive words, and all that other stuff English teachers (and admissions officers) love!


6. Trim it down or bulk it up.

Usually, the essay question specifies a word limit. Now that you have a rough draft, it is time to think about length.

If the essay is too short, make sure that it is truly complete and has accomplished all the goals you laid out. If you are convinced that it is already complete, add more descriptive details, quotes, and anecdotes. This will not only make your essay longer, but will also make it more readable and interesting.

If the rough draft of your essay is too long, go back and trim the fat. Do you have any sentences that are redundant or that don't introduce new information? Depending on how many words over you are, you might have to make some difficult decisions. If all else fails, get a trusted friend or parent to read the essay over and tell you what is essential, and what can go.


7. Edit, edit, edit!

I can not stress it enough! Edit it 1000 times, and get your teachers, parents, siblings, neighbors and friends to do the same. Even if you are the next Shakespeare and think your essay is perfect as it stands, keep editing. You'll be glad you did.

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College Application Supplemental Material | What to Include, What to Leave Out

Aside from all the required parts of the college application, there are the supplemental / optional parts. One of these is the option to include something extra that will give the admissions committee added insight into who you are, beyond the main parts of the application. Examples of extra material that you might include: poems, pictures, stories, tapes, and articles you've written — the sky really is the limit. But, how do you decide what, if anything, to include?

First of all, remember that less is more. I know that this can be frustrating — you are a complex person, and a few pieces of paper can hardly begin to sum you up. It might be tempting to add as many extras as possible, to try to show the admissions committee every facet of yourself. However, please, do not give in to this urge.

Admissions officers only have a limited amount of time to spend on each application, and if you add too much, they will be more annoyed than impressed. One Ivy League admissions officer I knew had a mantra, “the thicker the application, the thicker the applicant.” Don’t be that thick applicant—be selective about what you include.

What should you include in your college application, then? The best things are those that show off a creative talent or important aspect of your personality that can not be captured by the main parts of the application. Have you been playing piano since you were two, and your piano teacher thinks you are the next Beethoven? Include a CD of your best song. Are you a gifted photographer/painter/writer? Great! Include a photo/painting/poem/short story. Just don’t include your whole portfolio---choose one or two of the best!

What should you leave out? Articles detailing awards you won are unnecessary—you can list those in your application and on your resume. Also, if your talent is something you dabble in and not a real passion, it might be better not to bother. You can still list whatever it is on your resume. Be conservative about extra materials that you include. The last thing you want is for the admissions officer to wonder, “Why is this applicant wasting my time?”

Remember that including supplementary materials is exactly what it sounds like—optional. The application is designed to include al the information that the committee really needs to know. There is no harm in not including anything at all. Only include things that you consider to be really important and special. Do not include things just for the sake of it!.

Finally, if you decide to include something, make sure it represents your very best work. This is your one shot---put your best foot forward. Good luck!

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College Interview | Tips to Prepare for Questions They Ask

or “Tell Me About Yourself…”: Dos and Don’ts for Answering that Inevitable First Question

They say that first impressions are everything. Perhaps, then, it's good that you can prepare well for that first question of the college interview because it's almost always the same one: “Tell me about yourself.”

This question may seem like a no-brainer---obviously, you know yourself pretty well. Still, you should give some thought now to what you'll say, because your answer will set the tone of the interview and determines the first impression you'll leave. Here are some dos and don’ts to help you prepare to answer this question, and examples of good and bad responses to use as guidelines.

DO be confident. I know talking about yourself can be hard, and you might worry about seeming boastful. However, the truth is that interviewers like people who are comfortable with themselves and proud of their accomplishments. So, please, be confident, or at least fake it! Practice talking about yourself in a self-assured voice and channel that pretentious guy in your chem class. While these cocky people may not make any friends in the lunchroom, the sad truth is they are the ones who do best in interviews!

DON’T be too brief or vague. Just stating your year in high school and where you are from will not intrigue anyone. You want to captivate the interviewer’s interest, and make him/her fascinated by you. If you give details that the interviewer can ask follow-up questions about, it makes their job easier, and they will like you better for that! So, don’t be afraid to be specific.

DO give a hook. Your answer to this question should be like a teaser, making the interviewer want to know more about you. Talk about what makes you tick and be sure to include one or two of your main passions. Paint a picture for the interviewer. Make him or her feel like he already knows you, and make him want to get to know you better.

DON’T recite your resume. Yes, I said to give specifics, but this does not mean reciting your resume! If you do this, you're wasting your interviewer’s time—they have the resume in front of them, and they do know how to read. Worse, it will bore your interviewer. Instead, focus on a couple main passions, with specific details about those. Questions about the rest of your resume will come, don’t worry.

Now, for the examples of what not to do:

Bad response #1: “Um, I’m a senior at Springfield High.”

This makes you seem shy and uninteresting, and gives the interviewer nothing to work with.

Bad response #2: “I am a senior at Springfield High, on the volleyball team, in the Eastern dance troupe, a volunteer at the soup kitchen, on the yearbook committee and am Vice President of Students for Economic Justice. I have a 3.72 GPA and a 2160 on the SATs. I am in the top 10% of my class.”

This is boring, and despite all the activities listed, makes the speaker seem like a drone. Focus more on your passions, and who you are. Don’t present yourself as a bunch of stats, and don’t mention your SATs or GPA unless asked!

Good response: “I was born in Egypt, but grew up in Springfield, and am currently a senior at Springfield High. I spent every summer since I was two in Egypt. These experiences have made me obsessed with ancient history and archeology, and I hope to double major in anthropology and history in college. I loved my summers, but one consequence of them was I saw the depths of global poverty. During the year, I have spent a lot of time addressing poverty right here in Springfield, through volunteering at a soup kitchen and being Vice President of Students for Economic Justice. I have also gotten into Egyptian dance, and have performed with a belly dancing troupe at the Springfield theatre!”

This response gives insight into what makes the interviewee tick, and it gives specifics the interviewer can work with, without boringly reciting the resume. The interviewee seems self-assured and confident. They will probably wow their interviewer, as will you after you apply what you’ve learned here in the interview!

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