On the Bright Side: My Bad College Essay

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Maybe you’re a senior sending out last minute applications to beat those regular admission deadlines. Or maybe you’re a junior staring down the tunnel at college application season (which is, terrifyingly enough, mere months away).

Either way, if you’re reading this, you’re probably worried about your college essays.

I’ll be honest: There’s a really good chance that the early drafts of your college essays stink. Over the years, I’ve read a lot of college admission essays, and out of all of those hundreds upon hundreds of essays, there aren’t many that start of good. There aren’t even many that start off okay.

If you’re staring at your college essay thinking, “Man, this essay is just really bad,” congratulations! You’re just like almost every student who applies to college.

We’re here to help. Keep reading for some tips on how to write a killer college application essay.

BAD College Essays

A lot of bad college essays fall into one (or more) of these categories:

  1. Boring Essays
    These essays tell the reader about you without adding a single bit of color or imagery. The opening line makes the reader roll their eyes and groan. By the end of the essay, the reader just wants it to be over. If your essay opens with this, it needs some help:The person who I admire most is my grandmother…If, on the other hand, your essay opens like this, you might just have some great stuff to start off with:My grandmother claims that the secret to a long life is to refuse to wear shoes…
  2. Clichéd Essays
    There are certain trends that anyone who reads a large volume of college admissions essays learns to hate. We’ve got a whole post on some of the worst essay clichés. Here’s a bonus cliché to avoid: I got an A after working really hard or this essay’s close cousin, I didn’t get an A, and it was the worst moment of my life. Just about anyone with good grades (which, if you’re applying at a selective school, is probably everyone else applying) could write either iteration of this essay. It’s boring, it doesn’t tell the reader anything meaningful about you, and no one is particularly interested in reading it.
  3. Riddled with Error Essays
    By the time your essay reaches a college admissions officer’s desk, it had better have been proofread – multiple times and by multiple people. There is absolutely NO excuse for submitting an error-ridden college essay.
  4. Pretentious Essays
    The whole point of this essay is to make yourself look good, and it can be really easy to go from making yourself look good to coming off as pretentious, snobbish, or just downright unpleasant. Admissions officers admit people, not just some cardboard cutout of “the perfect college student.” Your essay is the only place on your application to show yourself as a person – make sure you show yourself as a person people would actually want to get to know.

GOOD College Essays

Good college essays usually share a lot of these traits:

  1. They’re interesting. Even a mundane topic (like, for instance, getting ready for school in the morning) can be made interesting if you tell the story right.
  2. They’re focused. Good essays do one thing, and they do it really well. Don’t try to make your essay tell your life’s story – just a little piece of it.
  3. They’re well-written. They’re not just error-free – they use syntax and word choice and humor and imagery to good effect.
  4. They’re self-aware. Know yourself, know your audience, and know what positive image of yourself you hope to convey. Let this awareness shine in your essay.
  5. They’ve been read by many trusted people. You’re too close to your essay to judge it objectively. Given how personal the essay is, your mom and best friend are probably too close to the essay to judge it, too. Your English teachers, college counselors, and tutors are your best bets for truly objective and brutally honest feedback.

We have some great college essay examples for you to read, and for more tips on writing essays that definitely don’t stink, check out 10 Tips for a Great College Application Essay. And don’t forget about essay help with 宝博体育. Our expert teachers can tell you exactly how to take your essay from blah to awesome.

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College Programs for Middle School

Each year, 7th grade students across the country compete for admission at one of a small handful of university-based talent search summer programs. Keep reading to learn more about how students can get a college experience as middle school students.

Duke TIP

Duke’s Talent Identification Program (TIP) 7th Grade Talent Search is the first step to attending TIP’s educational programs. Students qualify for the Talent Search by scoring at or above the 95th percentile on an approved grade-level test. To qualify for the Summer Studies Program, students must then take the ACT or SAT by the end of February.

TIP’s Summer Studies programs are structured to mimic a real college experience. Students gain opportunities to not only get a glimpse into their college futures but to also explore their intellectual abilities and interests, meet other motivated young students, and develop their academic passions. Learn more about Duke’s TIP here.

Johns Hopkins CTY

Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) Talent Search identifies students with qualifying SAT or ACT scores. Qualifying under the Talent Search allows students access to a range of educational opportunities including the CTY Summer Programs. Depending on student test scores, students have the option of enrolling in either Academic Explorations, which provides enrichment classes taught at a level equivalent to an advanced high school course, or Intensive Studies, which provides courses comparable to college-level work and is only open to students who meet stringent test score qualifications.

Both of the available Johns Hopkins CTY programs provide a college experience as students live and study on campus. Students will find themselves pursuing academic passions alongside likeminded students in classes taught by some of the nation’s leading instructors. You can learn more about the Johns Hopkins CTY here.

Northwestern CTD

Northwestern’s Center for Talent Development (CTD) provides similar summer programs for middle school students. To qualify for CTD Spectrum, open only to 7th and 8th grade students, students must submit qualifying test scores for the course in which they hope to enroll. Credit Intensive Spectrum Courses allow students to earn honors-level high school credit and accelerate in a particular subject area. Spectrum is a three-week residential program that allows students to live on campus while developing their academic passions. Learn more about Northwestern CTD here.

What’s Next?

Application deadlines for these programs are just around the corner, but these programs are open to both 7th and 8th grade students. If you’re currently in the 7th or 8th grade and you hope to apply to one of these prestigious programs, you will need to finalize ACT scores this February, and the February test date is nearly here! Check out our recent post about getting ready for the February ACT for help.

If you’re currently in 6th or 7th grade, now is a great time to get a jump start on SAT or ACT test prep so that you can be ready to take the test in the fall. Prepping early will allow you to maximize scores so that you can be sure to snag a coveted spot in one of these summer programs for the 2019 sessions.

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Don’t Waste Summer Break!

Summer break – 10ish weeks away from the demands of school, homework, and extracurricular activities. For some students, these weeks represent a blissful period of late mornings and relaxation – but for others, these weeks are a chance to get ahead of the crowd.

You should certainly take some time for a little R&R, but make sure you don’t waste your summer break. This is a time when opportunities abound, especially for students hoping to earn admission to top colleges.

Enroll in a Selective Summer Program

Many students enroll in summer programs offered by states, universities, and other organizations. Here are some top summer programs for high school students that you can pursue each year:

Boost SAT and ACT Scores

Maybe a high school summer program isn’t for you. When you’re trying to balance a full day of school, hours of homework, and multiple clubs and teams, there’s not a ton of time left for test prep. That makes summer a great time to work on boosting SAT and ACT scores.

Lots of students choose to self-study for the SAT or ACT during the summer. If this is your plan, here are some tips:

  • Take a diagnostic test – you don’t know how far you need to go until you have a starting point
  • Choose a test prep book with several practice tests – practice tests will tell you how much progress you’re making
  • Focus on weaknesses but don’t ignore strengths – if you don’t work on areas where you’re already scoring well, you risk losing knowledge and skills
  • Time yourself when you practice – a big part of the challenge of the SAT and the ACT is the time limit, so if you don’t time your practice sessions, you won’t get a good idea of how well you’re really doing

An intensive SAT or ACT Boot Camp might be a better option for you. 宝博体育 offers both an SAT Boot Camp and an ACT Boot Camp. Both summer programs include 4 weeks of test prep sessions and three practice tests, instruction from expert teachers, custom content designed for summer study, and a focus on the knowledge and skills that will lead to the biggest score increases. Visit a local 宝博体育 center today to learn more!

Get Ahead in Tough Classes

If you’ve taken a full load of AP classes before, you know how hard it can be to keep up with the work during the school year. Some of our most successful students get a jump start by reviewing some of the material during the summer. AP students might consider investing in a good AP exam prep book and reviewing concepts in advance.

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Are You Ready for the February ACT?

The February ACT is a good test to take depending on the student’s situation. Keep reading to find out who benefits from taking the February ACT and whether you’re ready for the test.

Who should take the February ACT?

Anyone can take the test, but there are a few groups of students who will see the most benefit from the February ACT test date, including:

  • Waitlisted seniors: If you were waitlisted at your dream school, you might try to boost your test scores with this test date to submit fresh scores for consideration. If you plan to remain on the wait list, don’t forget to inform the school of your continued desire to attend and remember to submit a deposit at a backup college by May 1 to ensure that you have a spot in the fall if you aren’t accepted off the wait list!
  • Seniors applying to schools with late or rolling deadlines: At colleges with regular decision deadlines in March or April or with rolling admission deadlines, you can often still submit February ACT scores. So if you want one last chance to boost your test scores, this is it!
  • Juniors starting the college admission process: This is one of the first test dates recommended for college-bound juniors. This early test date gives juniors a chance to finalize their test scores ahead of time and leaves plenty of future test dates to try to boost scores to reach ACT score goals.
  • Duke TIP/Johns Hopkins CTY Talent Search Applicants: 7th grade students hoping to enroll in Duke TIP or Johns Hopkins CTY summer programs need to finalize SAT or ACT scores by the end of February, so if you’re hoping to apply to one of these prestigious programs, now is the time to take the ACT!

Are you ready for the February ACT?

The ACT lets you pick and choose which test dates you wish to report to colleges, so a lot of students see no harm in taking the official ACT just for practice. Sometimes there really is no harm in a practice run, but a lot of colleges (including schools like Yale and Stanford) require that you submit ALL of your test scores, so that practice test date could end up being part of your college applications. For that reason, it’s generally not a great idea to use official tests just for practice.

Look at this checklist to see if you’re ready for the February ACT:

  • Your practice test scores are at or near your goal score range.
    Take more than one practice test to get a good idea of where you’ll likely score on the real ACT. If you’re scoring at or near your ACT goal score, you’re probably ready for the real test. You can receive a free practice ACT test from 宝博体育!
  • At least two of your ACT subject test scores are near the top of your goal score range.
    A lot of college superscore, meaning that they look at the highest section scores from multiple test dates. If you know you can ace two or more sections on the ACT, you might want to go ahead and take the test. You can focus on boosting the other scores on future test dates. Be careful, though – plenty of schools won’t superscore, so you definitely want to make sure that all of your section scores are respectable!
  • You’ve done some ACT test prep.
    It’s rarely a good idea to go into an official ACT test blind. Tests like the ACT require specific skill sets that most students don’t naturally obtain from school. ACT test prep will help you master specific testing skills and strategies to boost your scores, and the extra familiarity with the question types and test format will reduce stress and speed up your test-taking skills. If you feel pretty good about the test, you might just need to brush up on some core skills and take a practice test or two, maybe a proctored practice ACT; if you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, you might need a much longer course of study to really get ready for the ACT. Schedule a consultation with a 宝博体育 expert to learn more about how 宝博体育 can help you prep for the ACT.
  • You feel confident about taking the test.
    Confidence goes a long way toward testing success. The more confident you feel on test day, the better your scores will be. Build your confidence with thorough ACT test prep and plenty of timed practice tests.

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What’s Better: An A in a Regular Class or a B in an AP Class?

Colleges want to see students get good grades in tough classes. This seems like a pretty tall order, but it makes sense: Students who can get good grades in hard classes are more likely to be able to succeed in college courses.

This tug of war between grades and course rigor gives a lot of students pause – how do you find the right balance to make sure that you’re checking off both boxes? When you’re picking your classes for the next school year, should you take regular US History, where you know you can get an A, or AP US History, where you’re pretty sure you’ll end up with a B?

You’re not going to like the answer.

It’s better to get an A in an AP class.

Here’s how to do that:

  1. Start out slow: Depending on your school, you might have a lot of freedom to load up on AP classes as a sophomore or junior. A word of advice – resist the temptation. When you’re taking your first AP classes, start with just one or two AP classes and add more each year. Starting your AP experience with a full load of 5 AP classes is like training for a marathon by running 26 miles on your first day.
  2. Know your limits: If you’re a varsity athlete, an officer in Key Club volunteering 20 hours a week, or peer tutoring all weekend every weekend, you probably don’t have the time to take 4 or 5 AP classes and still get A’s. Likewise, if you just hate reading and history holds absolutely zero interest for you, getting A’s in AP history classes is a pretty tall order. Know yourself, recognize your limits, and work with them. If you know you won’t be able to do the work to get the A in that AP class, think twice about taking the class.
  3. Be ready to put in the work: AP classes are no joke. If you want to get an A in an AP class, be prepared to do a lot of work. You’ll need to be able to engage in self-learning, take detailed notes in class, and study consistently for every test and quiz. In English or history classes, be prepared for a lot of writing assignments; in math or science classes, be prepared for mind-bending problem solving tasks.
  4. Build a support system: Don’t be afraid to seek help with all that work. Whether it’s a study group of fellow AP students or a tutor from 宝博体育, having a strong support system to help you master key knowledge and keep you motivated through the AP obstacle course can be the difference between an A and a B.

If you take AP classes and get B’s, don’t worry too much. Colleges take the difficulty of your classes into consideration, and a lot of admissions officers are impressed by students who challenge themselves with the tougher courses. Don’t be afraid to reach out for support – from friends, classmates, older siblings, AP teachers, or 宝博体育 tutors – and always do your best.

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The Season of Giving

Charitable giving tends to reach a peak during the holiday season, when a feeling of warmth and goodwill tends to spread. There are many opportunities for giving back to the community at this time of year, from food drives to toy drives and everything in between.

If you’re moved by the season of giving, why not jump in headfirst? You can make a big difference to members of your community while building your resume and college applications by joining a local volunteer effort or by organizing a charitable event.

Check out our recent post about volunteering during the holidays.

Organizing a Donation Drive

What’s in it for your community?

Organizing a charitable event or a donation drive will allow you to help people in need in your community. Here are some motivating statistics:

  • 3% of U.S. households face food insecurity
  • Food insecurity exists in every county in America
  • More than 1 in 5 children in the U.S. is at risk of hunger
  • Over 20 million U.S. children receive free or reduced-price lunch at school – during holiday breaks, that guaranteed meal isn’t available

Local food pantries and community food banks are often in need of donations during the holiday season to help provide holiday meals to families in need.

Particularly during the holiday season, many families experience needs that go beyond food. Families with children may lack the means to provide necessities like winter coats or simple holiday pleasures like gifts. National organizations like Toys for Tots and local community or church organizations accept donations to provide basic holiday pleasures to children in need.

What’s in it for you?

Of course there’s the warm and fuzzy feeling that charitable work lends – generosity to others is an inherent good. Moreover, there’s plenty of science to support the idea that charitable giving benefits your mental and physical health. But there are also plenty of more tangible benefits to high school students who organize donation drives or other charitable events:

  • Gain resume-worthy leadership and event-planning experience
  • Satisfy mandatory community service hours
  • Demonstrate initiative and community involvement on college applications

Getting Started

Step One: Identify a charitable organization to help. Do your research through organizations like Charity Navigator or Guide Star to make sure your efforts truly help those in need.

Step Two: Contact the charity of your choice to determine their needs and to learn how to deliver donations.

Step Three: Make a plan. Get your friends, classmates, and neighbors involved. Gather your donations and deliver them in time. Bask in the warmth of holiday generosity.

We wish you and yours a safe and happy holiday season!

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On the Bright Side: My GPA Stinks Right Now

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In our three-part series about what college admissions officers looked at, we explored the importance of grades in admissions decisions. College admissions officers consistently rank grades as the most important factor in admissions decisions, so it’s no wonder students worry about less than stellar GPAs.

What is a bad GPA?

There’s no magic number that defines a good or bad GPA because how good your GPA is will depend on what your goals are.

Let’s say you’re a San Francisco native who wants to stay local. If your goal is UC Berkeley, you’re going to need a pretty perfect GPA – 85% of incoming freshmen at Berkeley have unweighted GPAs above 3.75, so if you’ve got a 3.0, you don’t have a good GPA. But that 3.0 looks pretty competitive at nearby San Jose State University where a fifth of incoming freshmen have GPAs in the low 3’s. And that same 3.0 looks really good at a college like Sonoma State University where nearly a third of incoming freshmen have GPAs below 3.0.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

Weighted vs. Unweighted

High schools across the country weight GPAs in entirely different ways. For example, let’s say high school A adds 10% to final grades in AP classes, but high school B doesn’t add anything for AP classes. The student who took a lot of AP classes at high school A is going to have a much higher GPA than the student who took a lot of AP classes at high school B, right? To account for these differences, colleges look at your unweighted GPA. Any bonuses added on by your school probably won’t have much impact in terms of college admissions.

So I should take easy classes, right?

If colleges don’t really count the bonuses that schools add to adjust for course difficulty, then you might think you’re better off taking easy classes to get higher grades.

You would be wrong.

The second most important factor in college admissions is course rigor, so colleges want to see you get good grades AND take tough classes. Taking the easy way out won’t offer you an edge.

Then what can I do about this bad GPA?

Even if you’re a senior about to apply to college, there are still things you can do to ensure that you’ll end up attending a college that fits your needs.

  1. Reexamine your goals. If your GPA is only low when you compare it to the GPAs expected at super selective colleges, you should keep trying to bring your grades up while exploring more college options. There are literally thousands of four-year colleges in the country; limiting yourself to the top 20 or top 50 nationally ranked colleges cuts out hundreds of great options, and one of them might just be the perfect college for you.
  2. Show a pattern of improvement. If your GPA is low because you slacked off in 9th and 10th grade, there’s no time like the present to make a change. While earning better grades in 11th and 12th grade might not bring your overall GPA up to where you want it to be, it can show a pattern of improvement over time. Colleges want to see students who have grown and matured in their time in high school, so by showing that growth through stronger effort and better grades, you improve your chances of admission even with a lower-than-desired GPA.
  3. Establish your smarts with stellar test scores. A great SAT score won’t erase a low GPA, but a series of really strong test scores can help. SAT, ACT, and AP scores show how you compare to students across the country; if you can post some really strong test scores, you can show intellectual capability despite low grades.
  4. Consider a non-traditional route to your dream college. Think about attending a less competitive college for a year or two before applying as a transfer student to your dream college. As a transfer student, your high school GPA is of far less importance than your college GPA, so going the transfer route gives you a second chance at a better GPA.
  5. Highlight your non-academic accomplishments. You’re more than just numbers on a page. By highlighting your extracurricular accomplishments, you can showcase your strengths in a way that can help to balance out those bad grades. If you have a mediocre GPA but you’ve done amazing things outside of school, you can still be a competitive applicant at some pretty awesome colleges!

The Takeaway: It’s Never Too Late

It’s never too late to make improvements. Whether that means working to bring up your grades in junior and senior year; prepping for the SAT, ACT, or SAT Subject Tests to balance out some bad grades; or exploring other college options, tutoring with 宝博体育 can help to make your road to college a little less bumpy. Contact your local center to schedule a consultation.

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Volunteering: Giving Back During the Holiday Season

It’s wonderful to think about the holiday season. You probably think of food, time spent with family and loved ones, and, well, more food. But at its core, the holiday season is a time of giving, which makes this time of year a particularly good time to dedicate your efforts to others through volunteer work.

Why volunteer?

There are tons of reasons to volunteer!

  1. Giving to others and contributing to the well-being of your community gives you the warm and fuzzies. In fact, there is science indicating that volunteering impacts your brain chemistry. Performing these acts of kindness releases “happy chemicals” like dopamine and oxytocin.
  2. Volunteering reduces stress and improves overall well-being. Did you know that people who volunteer tend to live longer?
  3. Volunteer activities help improve college applications. Volunteerism helps students stand out in the college admissions process. They demonstrate civic responsibility, leadership, and community involvement.
  4. Volunteering helps build a stronger resume. Volunteer work may be unpaid, but it’s still work; hence, it has a place on your resume.

Volunteering and college admissions

There are several factors in college admissions decisions that are easily quantifiable – your grades, how tough your classes are, your test scores, and so on. Intellectual accomplishments are not the only things colleges look for. They want students who will develop into leaders, and these potential leaders possess strong social and emotional skills. These students are the ones who will work to enrich their communities. This is where volunteering comes into play.

Finding volunteer opportunities

High school students can get started with volunteering easily. There are tons of resources at their disposal. Many students find local volunteer opportunities through their schools or through service clubs like National Honors Society. Others search for local volunteer opportunities online or through their network of friends and family.

To really leverage your volunteer work for college admissions, consider joining an organization like Lion’s Heart. This organization links student volunteers with hand-picked local volunteer opportunities. Students receive a variety of volunteer opportunities to choose from based on their passions and interests. Volunteer hours and duties are submitted to colleges through a portfolio that is received. Students connect with others nearby who share similar interests, and scholarship and awards opportunities increase based on volunteer experiences. You can learn more on the Lion’s Heart website.

There are other less formal options that can still make a big impact. You can always launch your own food drive. 41.6 million people in the U.S. face food insecurity, including nearly 13 million children. Most of these families do not live in poverty, and food insecurity exists in every single county in the country. That means some of the people most in need of food right now may well be your neighbors. This holiday season, why not give to a family in need of a meal? Launch your own food drive to donate to a local food bank or gather donations for a food drive that’s already been organized. Your Thanksgiving meal will taste better knowing that you’ve done your part to help someone else enjoy the holiday.

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Safety Schools: Why Every Student Needs Them

There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to deciding how many colleges to apply to, but there is one hard and fast rule that applies to every student: Everyone should apply to more than one safety school.

What Is a safety school?

Many people think that a safety school is a “bad” school, but this isn’t true at all! Sure, safety schools are less prestigious and selective than dream schools. The truth is that there are many truly excellent colleges out there that are easier to get into.

For example, a California student might set her sights on schools like UC Berkeley or Occidental College. She wants to stay in state and has a 3.3 GPA and a fairly strong 1350 SAT score. These are both great schools. The fact is that she’s unlikely to earn admission at Berkeley and only has about a 50/50 chance of earning admission at Occidental. Clearly, this student needs a safety school.

How about San Jose State University? It’s got a great regional reputation, ranking 35 among regional west universities. Like Berkeley, it’s a large public campus in the San Francisco Bay area; and it’s got some impressive grads, including author Amy Tan and more than a dozen Olympic medalists. Its admissions stats make it easier to get into, so it’s a safety school – but also a really good school.

I have really strong grades and test scores – why do I need safety schools?

Students with excellent grades and test scores tend to target colleges with pretty low admission rates. No matter how strong a student’s academic profile might be, competition at such schools is fierce. In fact, we would consider any school with an admission rate below 20% to be a reach school for any student, no matter how good the student’s grades and test scores. At these schools, even a perfect GPA and perfect test scores are no guarantee of admission. Safety schools ensure that students have plenty of available options once admission decisions are received.

I already applied early at my top choice schools. I can wait to look at safety schools, right?

A lot of students who apply early decide to wait to identify potential safety schools until they hear back from their top choice schools – but by January or February, when these admission decisions arrive, regular admission deadlines are already starting. A safety school means your academic profile gives you a really good chance for admission, but you still can’t shrug off the application. You need to treat every college application with the same degree of care. If you don’t, you risk being left without any college options at all. Your takeaway – don’t wait until you hear back from your top choice schools to gather your application materials and write your essays for potential safety schools!

Okay, okay. I’ll apply to a safety school. But just one, right?

All students should apply to more than one safety school. First, even at a safety school, admission is never guaranteed. Second, it’s always nice to have options to compare. If you apply to two safety schools and you only get in at those two schools, you’ll still have two financial aid award letters to compare and a choice between two different campus cultures.

How can I find safety schools?

Start with a good college search tool like NCES College Navigator. Enter your search parameters and examine the search results. You’ll need to look for colleges where the 25th percentile SAT score is way below your SAT score. Once you’ve got a good sized list of colleges from this tool, you can learn more about those schools through the colleges’ websites or through tools like the College Board’s Big Future. Remember, though, that these should be schools that you would be satisfied in attending. Look beyond the numbers to learn more about the campus. Learn about the surrounding area, the school’s culture, and the faculty and course offerings. If possible, visit the campus to get a better idea of what life at this school is like.

All 宝博体育 Education students receive personalized college admissions counseling as part of their 宝博体育 programs. Our experts help students make better college choices, from how many college applications to send out to which colleges to consider applying to. If you need help on the road to college, contact your local 宝博体育 Education center today!

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