Your senior year will be busy.  You will probably be visiting college campuses, formulating your list of schools and taking the SAT subject tests, in addition to balancing your regular plate of schoolwork and activities.  So it’s important to do anything you can do for your applications now.

If you want to avoid last minute panic, follow these suggestions and get a jump start on your college applications:

1.    If you are having essay-worthy experiences this summer, don’t trust that your memory will recall all the details of those experiences.  **Write them down!!**  Trust me, it will make the essay writing process SO much easier than it would be with just your memory to rely on.

2.    If you’re not engaged in some interesting activities and adventures this summer, do some self reflection and find something to jump into.  It doesn’t have to be glamorous – you could get a job in a bakery or video store and make an essay out of it.  A great essay is more about who you are and how you experience your life than about the actual things you do.

3.    If you haven’t already, ask your teachers NOW for letters of recommendation.  They will appreciate having the extra time to think and write.  See my article, http://theessayexpert.com/blog/2010/05/29/before-you-graduate-start-now-on-your-letters-of-recommendation-lors/

4.    Write an essay draft.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Just get something down on paper.  It will get your ideas flowing and take off some of the pressure you might otherwise experience in the fall. 

5.    Talk to your parents and friends about your ideas.  And if you do write a draft of your essay, share it with others.  They might have insights into your experiences and growth that you don’t have.  After all, you only have one brain and it can only recognize so much about itself!  

6.    On August 1, download the Common Application Form and fill out all the generic information you can (name, address, etc.)  Get those details out of the way so they don’t clutter your brain and you can focus on writing your essays.

Follow these six suggestions and you will have much more peace and brain space so you can focus on your other senior year activities — and you’ll have more FUN too!!

While this image is hilarious, if the interview were for a mechanic  or an assembler of chairs at IKEA, the scene would not be so farfetched.  And in fact, it is not unusual for an interviewer to test an interviewee with a task to perform on the spot.  A good interviewer might test your practical skills in an interview, or your ability to respond to criticism, by asking you to perform a task or adjust your demeanor mid-interview.

I once interviewed a young man for a social worker position at the non-profit where I worked in Brooklyn, NY.  There were two of us interviewing him, and I really liked him.  He answered questions well and I was considering hiring him.  My frustration was that he never made eye contact with me.  It seemed as if he were gazing off into space and not fully connecting with me.  And I knew there was no way I would actually hire him if he couldn’t make eye contact.

I did something perhaps unconventional.  I stopped the interview, told him what I was experiencing, and asked him why he wasn’t making eye contact.  He gave a reasonable response that he was struggling with having two interviewers and didn’t want either of us to get all his focus.  From that moment in the interview, he made full eye contact with either me or my associate.

I hired him.

Why?  Because I knew beyond doubt from that interview that this man took criticism and coaching well, and could implement a suggestion quickly and effectively.  He also had all the other qualifications we were looking for.

He is still working at the organization today, and is appreciated for his work ethic and great attitude, as well as for the results he produces.

So this IKEA cartoon, while humorous, might not be that far off the mark for something you might be called upon to perform on the spot in an interview.  Luckily, all the tools you need are already in your possession.  You just need to be good at following directions.

The fact is, we all love a good story.  Admissions committees love good stories.  Hiring managers love good stories.  Customers and clients love good stories.  Always remember:  the person you’re writing for is a human being!  How do you get another human being to read your document?  Spin a good yarn!

If you’re applying to college, tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.  I had a client who wrote about teaching his sister to ride a bike.  His first draft was all rosy about how great the experience was, and it did not have a compelling beginning, middle and end.  He felt lost in the writing, and the essay was boring. 

What ultimately made the story great was that he started at the beginning, when he was annoyed at his sister for being small and clumsy, then moved through the process of a breakthrough in becoming a teacher, and a better teacher — and finally to where he released the seat and the sister took off on her own on the bike.  Victory!  A great story.

In college applications, many times what makes a great story is to admit to a struggle or fault, and show how you broke through it.  In a cover letter, believe it or not, you can do the same thing. 

All kinds of people are saying “No one reads cover letters anymore.”  Well, of course no one is reading them – because they are stilted and boring and no one can get through them!  Have you ever considered that if you write a good enough story in your cover letter that it really *will* get read!

Do you have an example of a time when a project was failing, and you stepped in to fix it?  That makes a great story!  Is there an example of something you achieved that relates to the job you’re applying for?  Don’t be afraid to tell these stories in your cover letters!

On your resume, too, tell as much of a story as you can in a bulleted line. 

What not to write:  “Assisted scientists with their research.” 

What to write: “Conducted genetic, epidemiology, and behavior research on sport fish in Illinois, Canada, and the Bahamas.”

Ah, now that sounds kind of interesting!

For an example of a bio that tells a great story or two, see Senior Investment Analyst Bio on The Essay Expert’s website.   This client reported to me that she loved her bio story so much that she kept reading it to herself after it was done!

Whatever the reason, we all love a good story.  Tell one in your college and job applications.  Tell one in your bio.  If you do it well, your intended audience will keep reading…  and reading…  and reading.

I have a secret to share:  I sometimes wish I had gone to Oberlin where the students might be a bit more hippie and down to earth, i.e., more like me.  But I will never regret having a Yale degree on my resume.  It helped me get into another prestigious school (NYU Law ‘98) and has gained the respect of several employers and clients.

A recent article by Eve Tahmincioglu on msnbc.com, “An Ivy League degree no surefire path to success,” explores whether an Ivy League degree really makes a difference when it comes to how well a candidate will do in a job.  The article concludes that hard work, not the college name on your diploma, leads to career success.  Nevertheless, people with Ivy League degrees have significantly higher incomes than their non-Ivy counterparts:

“The typical Ivy League bachelor’s graduate earns about 27 percent more early in their career, and about 47 percent more by the time he or she is about 40, than the typical bachelor’s graduate from all U.S. schools,” according to compensation website PayScale.com.

I wonder:  Do employers like to hire someone from the “right” school simply because of the prestige, or do they beleive they can rely on the pre-screening that the Ivies (and other top schools) do on every admittee?  It seems to me that there’s a really good chance that someone who made it into an Ivy League school is among the best and the brightest.  That’s not to say that a huge number of the best and the brightest — and the most hard working — did not go to Ivy League schools, either because they did not get in or because they chose less pricey options.

It’s understandable that many students prefer to attend Ivies, regardless of whether this education is essential to career success.  Ivy League colleges come with a guaranteed caliber to the student body and community, to the professors, and to the education.  And of course, the degree opens up many doors with ease. 

The competition to get in to Ivy League and other top schools, as reported by Ms. Tahmincioglu in her msnbc article, is fiercer than ever:  “According to the Harvard Crimson, the school accepted a record-low 6.9 percent of applicants this year even though the number of applications actually went up 5 percent — topping 30,000 for the first time in the school’s history.”

The long and the short of it is that if you want to have an easier path to some of the most prestigious jobs in the country, a Yale, Harvard or Princeton degree will go far.  You still need to do well once you’re there, and you still need to work hard once you’re in the work force.  But the big names on the resume don’t hurt a bit.  And in my book, that’s enough to make it worthwhile to shoot for the best.

In a recent article posted on Work Coach Cafe, “15 Job Search Tips from a Guy Who Just Got a Job,” a successful job seeker named John relates how the CEO of a company personally reached out to him to thank him for sending a cover letter!  In fact, John was the ONLY candidate to send a cover letter, most likely because everyone else believed the rumor that cover letters never get read.  John made an impression.

This topic is also covered on Great Resumes Fast in “Cover Letters: Does Anybody Read Those Anymore?”  The author points out that the cover letter is your opportunity to show genuine interest and to make a case that you are specifically qualified for this job.

Why would you tailor your resume to a job and then write a generic cover letter?  If you are truly interested in a position, it is worth your time to write a unique letter to the company about who you are and why you would make a difference for that company.  Do not write a generic cover letter and send it along with a generic or somewhat tailored resume to zillions of job listings, hoping that you‘ll somehow win the numbers game. That is NOT the way to get a job!

Instead, begin building a relationship right from the start with the company that might be your future employer.  Imagine yourself in this job and write down what you will bring to the position.  Sell yourself. 

Anyone can spot a cover letter that is really just a mail merge.  Remember…  you are a human being and, if you get past the computer scanners, so is the person who reads your cover letter.  By writing a custom letter, you reveal your humanity and respect the humanity of the HR person or hiring manager.  If you begin early to develop a relationship with that person, you are in great shape to be asked for an interview.

I STRONGLY recommend against both tactics.

1. Copying current job descriptions:

Your current job description is just a list of job duties.  The cardinal rule for resumes in today’s job market is to write your resume as a list of achievements and accomplishments, NOT as a list of job duties!  I would go so far as to say that your job description has very little to do with what you actually do and accomplish in your position.

I’ll take myself as an example.  The job description for my current position at the University of Wisconsin Law School says that I counsel students on their legal career search.  It doesn’t say what my success rate is, or how creatively I work with students’ cover letters and resumes, or that I created a PowerPoint presentation on Resumes for Law Students.  It doesn’t mention the 5 job search resource manuals I created for various big cities across the United States.  It doesn’t mention the positive feedback I get from the students I work with.

It is my job to put these successes, which are nowhere to be found in my job description, into my resume.  They speak much more to what I will accomplish in my next position than that I “assist students with resumes and cover letters.”

Guess what?  You don’t need your current job description to write your resume.  Just write about the things you’ve really done that will be relevant and impressive to the reader.

2. Copying future job descriptions:

I’m willing to bet that a lot of people make this mistake.  If you make it too, you will have a lot of company from people who do not get called for interviews.  Copying and pasting requires no creativity and actually makes it appear that you did NOT do the things you claim you did.  All it does is show a hiring manager or HR person that you can cut and paste.

Instead, FIRST write your resume to highlight your accomplishments.  Create the best document you can create.  AFTER you have put together a great resume, THEN see if there are small tweaks you can make to include some of the keywords from the future job description.

For instance, I recently worked with a client applying for a Senior IT Director position.  The position description listed “Develop and approve exceptions to policy…”  His finished resume did not have the phrase “exceptions to policy” in it, but he worked with exceptions to policy regularly.  He was able to add this phrase into an already existing bullet regarding his program management accomplishments.

In general, when crafting a winning resume, truth and honesty are the best policy.  Don’t get lazy or think you’re “working the system” by using the cut and paste functions on your keypad.  What will get you an interview is your unique accomplishments.  Focus on those and you will see success in your job search.

These are questions to answer before you go away for the summer.  Once you have your answers, make a list of the people who would be your best recommenders.

After identifying your best recommenders, ask them if they are willing to write you an LOR.  Ask in particular if they will write you a strong one.  If they can’t, see if there’s someone on your list who can.

Teachers will really appreciate having the summer to work on your LORs.  Many teachers have more time over the summer months and are not drowning in recommendation requests on top of lesson plans and other school-related activities.  So you can get a leg up by approaching them now!

If you remember particular instances where you demonstrated your intelligence, creativity, responsibility, or other great qualities, don’t be shy about reminding your recommenders about those instances.  You can even give them a list of things you think they might want to cover in their letters. The best letters tell stories, and you probably remember those stories better than anyone else!

Examples of things you might want to share with your recommenders:

• Copies of your best papers in their class
• Copies of your creative writing
• Notes about particular contributions you made in class
• A list of your activities and accomplishments
• Your transcript
• Your student resume (yes you should have one!)

All help you can give your recommenders, whether it’s giving them plenty of time or helping them with material to put in the letter, will generally be appreciated and will make for a stellar LOR!

The benefit to you, besides great LORs, is that when December rolls around, you won’t be biting your nails worrying whether your letters will be in by deadline.

That’s worth a bit of thought and action now, isn’t it?

The content of the article was of course valuable, and 17-year-old Saffa gets points for making a Tom Petty reference.  But I’m not concerned with her content.  The thing that caught my attention is simply that a high school senior got published in the New York Times!  Saffa took huge initiative, worked hard to write a piece that would be of value, and put it out there to the world. 

If you were a college admissions committee, do you think you might take notice?

This student stands out amongst all the others who just sit there, waiting, hoping, wondering.  She even stands out amongst the students who send additional essays, or letters about why X school is their first choice, or new letters of recommendation.  All those things might help you to get off the waitlist, but getting published in the New York Times takes the cake.

Do you have something you can achieve that is truly out of the ordinary?  Can you get published in a national newspaper?  Win a poetry, science or chess contest or competition?  Self-publish a book?  Solve a problem that hasn’t been solved? 

If you’re serious about getting off the waitlist, my advice is to follow Saffa’s example – and stop waiting.

Top 4 reasons to visit colleges this summer:

1. The college visit is the best way for you and your son or daughter to get a feeling for what a school is really like, beyond the two dimensionality of a web page or brochure.  Meet students, see dorm rooms and dining halls, and maybe even sit in on a class (though classes are not as numerous in the summer as they would be in the spring or fall).  Your child will get a sense of whether he or she wants to spend four years in this place. 
2. At schools that offer on-campus interviews, this is your child’s chance to meet an admissions representative before even submitting an application.  It is a chance to make an impression early on so the committee has a face – or at the very least an interview report — to attach to the application.  Alumni interviews don’t happen until after the application is submitted, so the on-campus interview is an opportunity not to be missed.
3. Visiting shows the school that your child is serious about that school.  Who takes their summer vacation to go and visit colleges?  Not too many people.  Show up at colleges when you could be out on Cape Cod, and you make an impression.  Want to make the biggest splash?  Visit in June or July.  Most families wait until August, when your son or daughter will be just one face in a sea of hundreds.
4. Summer visits give you time to revisit.  If you and your child like what you see and want to know more, or if you’re not sure and need a second look, making the first visit in June gives you plenty of time for a second round.  If you visit for the first time in February, your family will have to make decisions based on one visit alone.

 So…  before hitting the beach, sit down for a college conversation, pull out a map, and start planning!