“There is always, of course, that terrible three weeks, or a month, which you have to get through when you are trying to g
et started on a book. There is no agony like it. You sit in a room, biting pencils, looking at a typewriter, walking about, or casting yourself down on a sofa, feeling you want to cry your head off . . . .”
―
A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania has a nice bit of advice for finding a frame of mind that could help you dig out of the rut.
As an applicant, you might not want to touch this image with a 10-foot dandelion. But if you’re stuck on a subject to write about for your common app essay, try staring at this picture for a few minutes. What do you see? What does it remind you of? Riff on those memories. Make some stream-of-consciousness notes. Continue reading Can’t think of a good topic?
These are examples of successful admissions essays that Johns Hopkins shows on its website.
Mark where each of these three essays reflects the values that you described in your one-sentence summary of the pop-out quotes that we studied in Day 1 of this exercise. Continue reading What is a college looking for? Part 2
You’ll find this knowledge very helpful to composing a great essay.
Later we’ll figure out how to use it in your writing. Continue reading What is a college looking for? Part 1
