College Admissions Essay Tips & Resources

The College Board has useful section on Essay Skills for the college admissions essay. Included are a section on how to choose a topic and tips on writing the essay itself.

Samples of successful essays can be found at quintcareers.com/ and at
college-admission-essay.com

The Common Application essay prompts are at http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/a/common-application-essay-prompts.htm 

Bad topics for your college essay are graciously provided for you at:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/tp/bad-essay-topics.htm

A list, "Top Ten Common College Admissions Mistakes," is at
www.college-admission-essay.com/collegeadmissionessaymistakes.html

An extensive list of college admissions essay topics is at:
http://www.eduers.com/University/College_Admission_Essay_Topics.html

True fact: You can pay more than $1000.00 to have a professional essay editing service such as EssayEdge help you with your essay. (Or you can just ask me and get help for free).

The College Board suggests you compete the following as part of your brainstorming process:

• Discover Your Strengths: Do a little research about yourself: ask parents, friends, and teachers what your strengths are.
• Create a Self-Outline: Now, next to each trait, list five or six pieces of evidence from your life—things you've been or done—that prove your point.
• Find Patterns and Connections: Look for patterns in the material you've brainstormed. Group similar ideas and events together. For example, does your passion for numbers show up in your performance in the state math competition and your summer job at the computer store? Was basketball about sports or about friendships? When else have you stuck with the hard work to be with people who matter to you?

Reading for Variety

Standard 2 in English reads: "Students will read a wide variety of literature from many periods and genres to build an understanding of the dimensions of human experience."

It's a worthwhile standard and one that we hope you continue to build on through your lifetime.

Your Quarter 2 online reading journal, which is due by Jan. 21 (no penalty for getting it done early!), should include a personal reading list of books you have read during high school. It's ok to include a few favorite titles from your earlier years as well. Details, as well as a sample list, are below:


The goal is to list 12 or more titles that you have read in entirety during high school. These can be assigned texts or independent reading. If you have read dozens and dozens of books, it is ok to list only the top most memorable titles in your post. If you have read fewer than 12 books, it is ok to list books that you have read at least in part.

Listing author names is also a nice touch.

Sample List: The Adventures of Ulysses
Monster
The Outsiders by SE Hinton
To Kill a Mockingbird
Romeo and Juliet by Wiliam Shakespeare
Night
Speak
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
After the First Death by Robert Cormier
Where the Heart Is
The Crucible
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Scarlet Letter
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Where Men Win Glory by John Krakauer --IR
Into the Wild by John Krakauer --IR
Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure --IR
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race
the World Has Never Seen --IR

*IR= Independent Reading

Poetry Out Loud!

Every senior at SDHS is expected to find and learn a poem and to present it during our classroom competition.  (The date of this competition will be announced soon).

Poems are at http://poetryoutloud.org/poems-and-performance/find-poems

Poetry Out Loud learning goals include:

• in-depth understanding of a poem
• exposure to a variety of poems through the classroom competition
• develop skills in memorization
• develop ability and confidence in public speaking
• increased appreciation of poetry

Poems that are high on the short, easy, & accessible scale include:
"Another Feeling," "Battlefield," "Boy and Egg," "Carmel Point," "Catch a Little Rhythm," "The Cities Inside Us," "Domestic Situation," "Dream Song 14," "Eagle Plain," "Golden Retrievals," "Keeping Things Whole," "Layabout," "The Last Laugh," "The Lamb," "Question," "Sadie & Maud," "Thoughts in a Zoo," "War Widow," "Youth."

Loaded Words and Your Issue

Loaded words, as we have defined them, are words that have a strong positive or negative "charge" to them.  Your job, in this part of the project, is to read a number of news articles related to your topic and to highlight any use of loaded words as you do so.

The next step is to group the loaded words according to which side of the issue is likely to use them and whether they are positive or negative.

Finally, you will use your list of loaded words to write up this section of your report.  Additional guidelines and a sample Section #6 are on a Google doc.