I was a pretty awful writer during the dark days of middle and early high school. For a long time, I thought the heavier and flashier the vocabularies, the better the essay- so for a brief period of time, I replaced the word "support" with "buttress" in all aspects of my life. "A prime example that buttresses the argument is," I would write in all my essays in my 8th grade English class, before Mr. Campbell finally pulled me aside and asked me if I'm using that word constantly because it has the word butt in it.
 
It turned out that the thesaurus wasn't the key to Mr. Campbell's heart or the path to an A. Luckily, I figured out how to write better essays as high school went on and I continued to improve on how to write a killer college admission essay as I finished my studies at Harvard and helped other high school students with their applications. And no, I have not used the word buttress in a writing piece since middle school...until this newsletter.
 
Think of the last great movie you watched, or the last fantastic book you read, or the last 12 seasons long TV show you binge watched- what made them so great? A good story. 
 
We are captivated by interesting anecdotes and we are fascinated by intriguing tales- that's the key to writing a great essay. We are naturally drawn to stories; as such, your essays should contain as many interesting stories as possible. Imagine you are the admission officer and you have to read two essays in response to the prompt "What was your most meaningful extracurricular activity, and what did you learn from it?". One of the essays lists the date and time, number of people attending, all the traits the applicant gained from the camp, and how that made him want to pursue soccer in high school; the other essay tells a story on how the applicant and teammates were stranded on a boat during a camping trip and worked together to survive through the night. Which one would you rather read? 
 
But choosing what kind of story may be difficult, as all of our moments are essentially stories that we can write about. So how does one decide what kind of story to tell? EmpiricEdge's rule of thumb is PMU: Personal, Meaningful, Unique. The personal component brings you closer to the admission officers on an emotional level; the unique component helps you stand out among the other applicants; the meaningful component bridges your story to whatever prompt or question they are asking you. Go through your past activities, go through the most memorable moments in your life, go through some of the saddest and happiest snapshots of your life, and think about which of those would be relevant and can be tied to which essay. Not only will the essay feel easier to write for you, it will also be much more enjoyable to digest for the reader.
 
Think of the number of essays that an admission officer or scholarship judge read through on a daily basis- make yourself stand out by including a PMU story in your essay.
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As the scholarships and Regular Admissions deadlines are fast approaching, I would like to once again extend our services to you- we help you polish your Common App essays, scholarship essays, supplemental essays, and resume. We also offer a comprehensive package that will walk you through every step of the process if you are still underprepared and overwhelmed. Contact us for a free consultation!


Our affordable and flexible tutors are also available to help you get that dream SAT/ACT score. Our published book is a great resource for any of you stressing about what to write for the Common App & Supplemental essays. 

Surprisingly, one of the more frequently asked questions that I receive from students and parents is this: Should I write the optional supplemental essay?
Imagine you’re in one of your more difficult classes at school- and your teacher has graciously offered a few optional extra credit questions on an exam that is worth 50% of your final grade. In order to maximize your score, would you take a stab at the optional extra credit or would you leave it? Hopefully the answer is pretty clear.
Supplemental essays are used by colleges to gauge the applicants’ interests and background in addition to the information provided in the Common Application. The same concept illustrated in the above scenario applies to the supplemental essay question- in order to maximize your chances of being accepted into an university, you should ALWAYS write their optional supplemental essays. By not taking that extra step to tell the college more about yourself, you are doing yourself a disservice and indirectly telling the colleges that you just don’t care that much. Always write the optional supplemental essay. Psst- It’s not really that optional.
 
So, what makes a good and effective supplemental essay?
Short answer: One that shows how your background, interests, and ideals are aligned with the college. Our next week’s newsletter will show you exactly HOW effective essays do this.

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As the scholarships and Regular Admissions deadlines are fast approaching, I would like to once again extend our services to you- we help you polish your Common App essays, scholarship essays, supplemental essays, and resume. We also offer a comprehensive package that will walk you through every step of the process if you are still underprepared and overwhelmed. Contact us for a free consultation!


Our affordable and flexible tutors are also available to help you get that dream SAT/ACT score. Our published book is a great resource for any of you stressing about what to write for the Common App & Supplemental essays. 

To get teachers to write nice things about you, prime them on what you want them to write about you.
Here are a few quasi-scientifically proven facts:

1. Your favorite teachers and guidance counselor have MANY other students asking them to write recommendations.
2. They don’t remember how great you are.
3. They have a go to format and generic things to write about a student.

And these facts have these ramifications:

1. They are busy and will rush your recommendations.
2. The things mentioned about you in the letter will be generic, and lacking in details.
3. Unless you are their absolute favorite student of all time, you will get a lukewarm recommendation letter.

 
Remember the last time you used Yelp or any of the thousands of review apps? A good restaurant or business always has very passionate, unique, and specific recommendations; the same can be said about successful applications- an outstanding recommendation goes a long long way in the college and scholarship application process. Your chances of getting into a great college improve dramatically when you have someone vouching for you. So how do you do it?
You write a short note, detailing of the things you’ve learned at their classes and how you have grown. You use examples in this short note when you are giving them the required documents for the recommendations. By doing this, you are not only showing maturity in self-reflection and telling them that you’ve learned many things from their class, but you are also feeding them materials that they can use in the letter. At the very least, you are refreshing their memories about you- and when they add in those specific stories and details, your recommendation will become THAT much stronger.

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As the scholarships and Regular Admissions deadlines are fast approaching, I would like to once again extend our services to you- we help you polish your Common App essays, scholarship essays, supplemental essays, and resume. We also offer a comprehensive package that will walk you through every step of the process if you are still underprepared and overwhelmed. Contact us for a free consultation!


Our affordable and flexible tutors are also available to help you get that dream SAT/ACT score. Our published book is a great resource for any of you stressing about what to write for the Common App & Supplemental essays. 

Sophomores & Juniors: I’m sure you have heard the SAT and/or ACT tests whispered in the halls and dark corners of the school- they will soon take over your life (if they haven’t already). If you don’t already know, they are standardized tests that many colleges use to determine your academic prowess (aside from your GPA and courses) and knowledge of Math, English and/or Science.
Two of the most frequently asked question we get from clients are “Should I take the SAT or ACT?” and “When should I take the SAT or ACT?” Today’s post will focus on answering those questions and explaining what the lesser known SAT IIs are.
 
Should I take the SAT or ACT?
Back in the dark ages, when the definition of “app” was appetizers, there was only the SAT. ACT was created as a direct competitor to College Board’s singular reign in the college readiness assessment testing department. Since the ACT was relatively untested and we humans generally don’t like change, it wasn’t really considered as an alternative to the SAT nor was it taken seriously by most- especially the more traditional schools (think Ivy League). As more students take the tests, and more colleges accept the ACT as an alternative form of testing to the SAT, ACT became synonymous to the SAT to the new generation (even though they are vastly different in techniques and styles). Now, most universities across the U.S. will look at ACT the same as the SAT. One is not better than another, or preferred by colleges. Regardless, the way to decide between taking the SAT and ACT is simple: pick the one you’re scoring higher in the percentile. If you are scoring in the 88th percentile on the SAT and the 86th percentile on the ACT, you should be spending all of your time in improving your SAT score and taking that test comes junior spring.

Wait, junior spring? That’s when I should take the SAT/ACT?
Yes. Most of our students take the PSAT/PACT during the fall, prepare for a few months and then take the tests during junior spring. The timing is important in not only maximizing your score on the tests, but also on scoring well on your school work, participating/leading in a bunch of extracurricular activities, and acing your APs/IBs; by taking the SAT/ACT in the spring of junior year, you give yourself enough time to practice and improve your score while also giving yourself a few extra shots to take them senior fall if you don’t do so hot during junior spring. Of course, if you are batting perfect scores, feel free to take them whenever you want.
As part of our services, we also hold mock tests throughout the year for SAT and ACT with full length tests- they simulate a real test environment and the students get immediate feedback, all without having to wait or worry the colleges seeing the scores.
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So what’s this SAT II thing?
SAT IIs are short for SAT Subject Tests. They are supplemental tests to the normal SAT/ACT tests that test you in different subjects: English, History, Languages, Mathematics, and Science. They are hour long, content based tests that allow you to showcase achievement in specific subject areas where you excel. While not required by most, some colleges do highly recommend you take the tests. By taking these subject tests, you are improving the quality of your applications and letting the colleges know that you excel in subject areas other than just SAT/ACT level Math and English.

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