Clay Burell on 2008-07-26
Exactly: VOICE (last line).
This link has been bookmarked by 5 people . It was first bookmarked on 26 Jul 2008, by Clay Burell.
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26 Jul 08
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TIPS FOR STUDENTS, PARENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR CHANCESThe selective college admission process has been compared to a lottery, but Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, a college admission packager in the ultra-competitive Great Neck area of Long Island, N.Y., doesn't see it that way.
"I think there are specific things you can do to get into the college of your choice," she says. Her sons, Alex and Zachary, both made the All-USA High School Academic Team, among a long list of accolades.
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How much does the essay really matter?
"Applicants and their families have somewhat of a belief in the redemptive value of the essay," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. "It's an urban myth that a student who has goofed off his whole academic career can get in with a come-from-behind epic struggle in which the essay serves as the primary tool."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Washington | Internet | New York University | Dad | University of Virginia | Mom | Ph.D | Liz Claiborne | Admissions Officers | Association of Collegiate Registrars | Brandenburg | Barmak Nassirian"It's not a substitute for a rigorous curriculum, good grades and evidence that you're going to do well," he said.
Still, the essay can make a difference.
At the University of Virginia, Parke Muth, the associate dean of admissions, talks about the "10 percent rule."
"If you have 18- or 20,000 applicants, for some of those students, the essay makes a huge difference, both positively and negatively," he said.
Admissions counselors at the University of Virginia read every essay looking for the student's voice.
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They range from how to help kids cram for the SATs (play hooky to study together the day before the test) to how to ferret out undersubscribed majors at a dream school (chat up a department secretary).
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Clay Burell on 2008-07-26
Interesting angle, the undersubscribed majors.
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But getting kids into that dream college starts with raising kids who'll be a college's dream candidate. Parents have to find and create opportunities for kids to develop their interests from a very early age rather than leaving it to the schools, Wissner-Gross says.
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The first challenge for the writer: picking a topic.
Any topic can work — or fail, Muth said.
"It shouldn't be an essay about community service. It should be about a moment of time," he said. "Start writing an essay about John who you met at a homeless shelter who talked to you about his life. Like any piece of good writing, then you're going to make that come alive.
The biggest problem for students, he said, is starting with too wide a focus. "By the time they get to the details, they run out of space," he said. "I'm all for cutting to the chase."
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She recommends monitoring all class work to check the teachers' math against their own formulas.
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Hilary Brandenburg, who will attend New York University in the fall, wrote about her summer internship at fashion house Liz Claiborne in New York. "I used my experience as a way to frame myself and what I was interested in studying at the schools that I applied to," said Brandenburg, 18, of Washington, D.C.
"I had a lot of different topics I started," she said. "At school we were told to come up with a list of anything we thought would be interesting about ourselves. We went through a lot of workshops and they gave us prompts and then we had to think about ourselves."
She said her internship "was the easiest thing for me to write."
Brandenburg said her biggest frustration was keeping within the word limit. "In the end, it helped me refine what I wanted to say and it became more to the point," she said.
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• Organization. Rather than berating or belittling your kid for not being organized, Wissner-Gross recommends secretly organizing them. "If we set an example and show them, teach them, then they know a system, and kids take that with them to college."
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Muth advises students to read their completed essays to their best friend. If it sounds like them, they've probably done a good job, he said. "If it sounds like a Ph.D. thesis, it's probably not their voice, the voice we're looking for."
It's OK to seek feedback from a couple of people, he said, but don't overdo it.
"I think increasingly we're seeing essays by committee," he said. "They've written a draft for their high school English class. Then their high school counselor looks it over, Mom looks it over and Dad looks it over and a friend. By the time it goes through that many people, the life is out of it."
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Clay Burell on 2008-07-26
Good advice.
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Then there are those who seek assistance from professional counselors or the essay companies that have cropped up.
Nassirian said college admissions officers have become good at "detecting paid embellishments" to essays.
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Clay Burell on 2008-07-26
A good writing coach would be invisible by not helping "embellish," but helping cut to the voice of the writer.
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She said company counselors know what admissions officers are seeking and how to "elaborate the achievements and strengthen the grammar, context and content of the essays, so that they stand out apart from the numbers and details of their application."
College-Admission-Essay.com charges students $199 to have a professional writer edit a 500-word essay. For services from a counselor, the company charges $150 per hour, with discounts for multiple hours. The counselors also provide general college counseling.
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Clay Burell on 2008-07-26
Quite a business. Lordy.
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24 Jul 08
Public Stiky Notes
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