Usacollegechat Podcast

As the college search for many of you begins in earnest this summer, here’s one way to ruin your summertime: Start talking to your child about completing the college application essay. Now, as you all know, some colleges require more than one essay and usually the second and third supplementary essays for those colleges, for example, are shorter and more geared to a specific question related to the college itself than the main essay, like the one in the Common Application. We gave one perspective on college essays way back in Episode 22 and another in Episode 49 when we recounted some sad experiences we had reviewing the college essays of about 100 kids in a top New York City high school. Today, let’s talk about that main essay.  In this episode, we would like to chat about what might be at the crux of the problem in putting together a compelling essay—and that is sounding original and impressive when the applicant is still a 17-year-old. 1. The Common Application Essays Remember, first of all, that not all c