Research Opportunities
Ralph Becker
The Importance of High School Research

Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.

The Importance of High School Research

College Essay

Writing the College Essay

Writing the College Essay

Straight-A students from some of the best high schools in the country become unhinged at the thought of crafting a 600-word essay in response to such a prompt: “Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you. Describe that influence.” (Recent Common Application, Question #3).  It’s not surprising-- very few students learn the craft of essay writing. It’s become such a neglected art that Harvard, among many of the most selective schools, now requires all its undergraduates, without exception, to take an expository writing class.  Knowing that the state of essay writing is in the doldrums, what might you do to attack this very daunting task?

The New UC Personal Insight Questions

The New UC Personal Insight Questions

After years of steady service, the UC Personal Statements are being retired, replaced by a set of Personal Insight Questions.

To inveterate college counselors in California there are likely twangs of nostalgia associated with losing, “Tell us the world you come from…” and coaxing a story out of an applicant to fill the page and expose his or her soul todiscerning, oftentimes, overloaded readers from the UC admissions offices.

The good news is that the new UC Personal Insight Questions might also serve to begin and structure the college application process.

Procrastination and the College Essay

Procrastination and the College Essay

Even an aspiring Stanford applicant with perfect test scores, a GPA of 4.46, research referenced in the New England Journal of Medicine, and the captain of her varsity golf team, started procrastinating when it came time for her application essays. Procrastination knows no bounds. In fact, recent research indicates three out of four college students label themselves procrastinators (Thriving in College, p326, Cuseo), of whom 25% have chronic tendencies. It’s a serious problem

Two leading theories explaining essay procrastination include:

Selecting a Topic for your College Essays

Selecting a Topic for your College Essays

If you go to the ‘California Colleges’ website dedicated to perfecting the Personal Statement for the UC Application, http://californiacolleges.edu/admissions/university-of-california-uc/personal-statement.asp, you’ll be told that

“The UC personal statement is a preview to the kind of writing you'll be doing in college and on college placement exams.

Unknown Audience: You will be writing for a community of strangers.

Writer-Determined Topic: You will pick the topic for your response.

Dig Deeper: Analysis and reflection are keys.”

Conquering College Essay Procrastination

Conquering College Essay Procrastination

There are students who go through the grueling months of SAT preparation, take full loads of AP classes, and pull together summers of impressive extracurricular activities. However, when it comes to the actual task of writing college application essays, these seeming stars fade away, avoiding writing their essays until the last possible moment. This is very unwise. Procrastination can have a deadly impact on one’s candidacy. If you’re a borderline candidate (and who isn’t at Stanford, Harvard, or Princeton?) your essays can be the ultimate deciding factor. They’re one of the few things you can actually control, but only if you’re willing to devote the necessary time and effort to perfect them and breathe life into them.