Product Description

Revised edition of a classic bestseller, previous editions have sold over 100,000 copies, that helps college-bound students write great application essays.

This new edition of the classic bestseller is a treasure for students who want to write vivid, distinctive essays and personal statements to support their college applications. The College Application Essay builds on what students have already learned in high school to strengthen their writing skills, and then applies those lessons to college applications in particular. In a friendly, conversational tone, the guide helps students find their voice and be "heard" on paper by emphasizing both the thinking process and the technical work of writing.

This revised edition includes dozens of current essay questions and topics, with multiple response strategies; advice from admissions directors and guidance professionals, who offer wisdom and insights about how applicants' essays are evaluated; and sample essyas written by real students. A new guide for parents shows how they can support - without interfering in - the writing process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60138 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780874477115
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Sarah Myers McGinty wants you to keep the college-application process in perspective. Don't panic, she says. "The goal of this process is not to sell an ideal image of yourself. It is to find the right school for you." But of course once you've found that school, you do have to convince its admissions officers that the school wants you as much as you want it. McGinty's The College Application Essay discusses such topics as recommendation letters and college interviews, but its main focus is the essay. Essay questions vary from school to school (this book is loaded with specific examples), but McGinty groups them into three categories: the "tell us about yourself" question, the "why do you want to attend this particular school" question, and "the creative question" (which asks you to comment on an issue, a hero, a book, a quotation, the future, or the like). How you write is as important as what you write, and whatever you do, don't get someone else to write it for you. "Admission people usually can tell," warns McGinty. "If they mark the essay 'DDI,' they've concluded that 'Daddy did it.'"

McGinty also gives some attention to non-traditional, or "high risk," essays. While not for everyone, the high-risk essay can work wonders when you chances of getting into a given school are slim. "We'll take a risk for the right reason," says Simmons College admissions dean Deborah Wright, and perhaps you should, too. After all, says McGinty, "I am sure in the final hours of committee meetings on 'gray zone' applications, no one has ever said, 'Hey, wait a minute, what about that kid who wrote the essay about his family?'" --Jane Steinberg

Review
"An invaluable how-to manual, written with authority and humor by the reigning expert on the topic. [It is] the definitive book on the college application essay." --Carl Bewig, Director of College Counseling, Phillips Academy

"...a clear, on-point, and practical guide-it takes the student from the reasons why essays count in admission decisions to the craft of college essays." --William C. Hiss, Vice President for Administrative Services, Bates College
-- Review

Review

Customer Reviews

Don't start your essays before reading this book!
I've thought very carefully about making this statement, and must submit that this book contributed significantly to my daughter's successful application process. Her grades were hardly top level, but, inspired by McGinty's clear and direct recommendations, she worked hard on her essays and is now enrolled in an Ivy League college. Unlike other purportedly helpful books in this field, this one focuses on the reflective and personal process that actually makes this rite of passage an edifying one for the student. McGinty helps her readers write an essay that will fulfill its purpose; i.e., enable a college admissions officer to learn about the applicant. Rather than dictating a series of rote "How-tos," she encourages self-exploration and -expression as a means to this end. Her unique perspective as an educator and college admissions consultant make her eminently qualified to guide a teenager through the swamp that the application essays can come to feel like. As a writing teacher myself, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Top choice in the field!
This book was all over the August U S News and World Report issue on American colleges and universities. It's a definite keeper.

One of the weaker College Application Essay books
This book seems to be written from a defensive mode. It clearly doesn't take chances where it has to, such as giving clear examples of points mentioned in the book. This book should change its name to "How to Write a Paper for College" as it does just that.

The first 66 pages are what you would find in any beginning composition class, but as seniors approaching college, students need more than just the basics. Almost all of the examples aren't even application essay examples, but literary examples which don't serve a purpose. Examples such as an introduction on Dickens is completely useless. How about an introduction for a college application essay? And the examples go on from there including, desert animals, The Simpsons, Hamlet, Moby Dick, and a comparison of FDR and Wilson. It's almost as if the writer can't write a good application essay, which is why the examples are literary and historical in nature.

What students really need are powerful introductions, a method of how to bring out themselves in an essay, and memorable conclusions, not just worthless literary examples.