It has become automatic for me that the end of summer means I’m heading to dance camp.  In fact, I almost didn’t go to camp this year because I had so much work to do, engagements on my calendar, etc.  But this ritual of camp is so ingrained that a week ago I cancelled all my appointments and bought a plane ticket.  The end of summer just isn’t the same without dance camp.

The end of summer also means fall colors coming, and crispness in the air.  Apples flooding the farmers market where berries used to be.  Thoughts of snow shovels encroaching.

Most important, however (yes even more important than dance camp), the end of summer means admissions season is approaching, and life is about to get even busier for The Essay Expert.  For the past nine months I have been a resume writer and business owner, as well as a career advisor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.  In a few short weeks, “College Admissions Essay Advisor” will move to the top of the list along with “Law School Admissions Consultant” for Kaplan.

I look forward to this upcoming time of year.  College and law school applicants all have unique stories to tell, and I love learning and exploring them.  I love working with students, helping them gain insights into their lives that they might not have had otherwise.  I love watching people’s stories reveal themselves onto the page in a way that captures the interest of admissions officers because no one else could have told those stories in that particular way.

And of course I love helping clients get into the colleges and law schools of their choice.

I associate apples and fall crispness, even Thanksgiving, with the process of shepherding students into their next phase of life.  It’s a rewarding venture and the results will flower with the spring.  In the meantime, I’m heading to dance camp.  I’ll have more bloggery for you when I get back.

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I’m curious…  what does the approach of the end of summer mean to you?  Are you a job seeker getting ready to buckle down in your search?  Are you the parent of a high school senior getting ready to increase your encouragement for your child to write an essay draft?  Are you a teacher writing letters of recommendation?  Please share in the comments below.

Guess what?  The importance of the essay has moved up in the list  – from #7 to #6 — since the last survey!  Part of the reason for this is that many colleges have begun to make the SAT and ACT optional with “test optional” policies.  The essay continues to be more important to private liberal arts colleges than it is at large state universities, so if you are targeting Ivy League and other top private schools, put some focused attention on the essay part of your application.

It’s hard to write a good essay without good material.  Not surprisingly, factors #4 and #7-10, are all essay-related as well.  “Passionate involvement in a few activities, demonstrating leadership and initiative,” which ranks #4, gives you great essay material.  “Special talents or experiences” comes in at #7 and is also fodder for an outstanding essay, as is “demonstrated leadership in activities” (#8), a factor that showed up for the first time on the list this year. 

It is crystal clear from this list that schools are not looking for well-rounded students – they are looking for leaders.  It is much more important to get deeply involved in a few activities than to do a little of everything.  And you’ll have a lot more to write about in your essay if you take on leadership positions that require you to manage people, organize big projects and events, and grow as a person.

Note that succeeding in these areas requires some planning ahead.  If you are not a harp player already by the time you are entering your senior year of high school, it is unlikely that you will become one.  If you haven’t been deeply involved in a student organization, it might be difficult to take on leadership suddenly.  It’s more important than ever to find your passion early and follow it.

Finally, “demonstrated enthusiasm to attend” ranked #10 in the survey.  Take this factor under advisement as you write your essay.  You would do well to write something about why you want to attend a particular school, especially if it’s your first or second choice.  Just make sure to send the correct essay to each school, mentioning the school you’re applying to and not another school!  Mixing this one up is a great way to get yourself into the “no” pile (and it happens all the time).

Thankfully, you have a lot of guidance about how to get into the “yes” pile.  Determine where you will most stand out as an interesting candidate with leadership abilities, and write a great essay about it.

For help on your essay from The Essay Expert, contact us at info@TheEssayExpert.com or by phone at 608-467-0067 OR 717-390-6696.

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.

These are questions to answer now!  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 appreciate having as long as possible to work on your LORs.  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!