Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays

130 Pages·2014·0.72 MB·English

by  Robert Cronk

Concise Advice:
Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays
THIRD EDITION

Simple techniques for the Common App® and other
supplemental essays

Robert N. Cronk
Copyright © 2014
By Robert N. Cronk
All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact Arasian
870 Yarnell Dr.
Larkspur, CO 80118
[email protected]

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cronk, Robert N.

Concise advice: jumpstarting your college admissions essays – 3rd ed. / Robert N. Cronk.

Techniques for writing college admissions essays (including sample essays).

ISBN 978-0-9743867-9-9 (ebook) Education – College admissions

Typefaces: Cambria; Courier
Photographs licensed through istockphoto.com.
Front cover photograph by Ariane Belisle.
Back cover photograph by Paco Romero.

“Common App” and “Common Application” are Registered Trademarks of the Common
Application Association. Prompts from the Common App are used with permission.
Published by

ARASIAN

Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Feedback on the First and Second Editions

"If you are currently a high school senior who worries that you've never cured cancer or published a novel and thus will have nothing
significant to share at application time, this book is for you." (College Confidential Book Review)
“Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays should be your trusty GPS when it comes time to tackle those pesky
admissions essays.” (College Admissions Strategies)
“Great advice about how to tackle the challenging ‘Why This College?’ essay.” (Morrison Educational Consulting)
"It's a fabulous book with concise, dead-on pointed advice." (Organizer, International Student Competitions)
"The book is very impressive. I loved the movie analogy and the way a plan was clearly outlined with very specific ways to write the
essays. It was easy to follow and there were good examples." (Parent)
"Concise Advice provides a step-by-step process to help [students] overcome writer's block and craft an entertaining and compelling
personal statement." (Amazon Customer Review)
"The book helped [my son] get started writing in a non-threatening manner. It then helped him to come up with methods to write
interesting papers by using simple straight-forward strategies. My son loved the way the book related writing to movies." (Amazon
Customer Review)
"Love the film connection as that makes this user-friendly and inviting. Let's face it, the audience is overwhelmed with books and
handouts and packets and more than they will read. This might do it!" (Teacher)
“Robert Cronk has something different to say. He advises students to think about their essay as a screenplay... a story by which the
reader will get to know the main character. And that main character is you.” (Charlotte Observer)
"Robert Cronk's recently published book, Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays, suggests a clever cinematic
model for 'showing' and not 'telling' your story." (Examiner.com)
“Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays offers some excellent tips on how to craft an imaginative essay from
the fabric of ‘ordinary’ lives.” (Senior Advisor, College Confidential)
“It's a wonderful framework to get started." (Student)
"I wish we had this book when my own children were applying to colleges." (Parent)
"I'll be recommending your techniques to my students. Thanks." (Teacher)
"Anyone creating application essays will find that this book will reduce their stress levels dramatically." (Amazon Customer Review)
"My daughter was feeling overwhelmed by the multitude of essays and free response questions that were required on the Common
Application and the individual supplements. This book not only helps students get prepared to write in a direct and simple manner, the
step by step process helps them create unique and memorable essays that will stand out during the admission cycle." (Amazon
Customer Review)
"Thanks for your advice. It helped me so much in writing my essay."
(Student)
Photo by Wes Cronk This book remains dedicated to Dusty, a rescue
from a puppy mill who, in her too-few years of freedom, spotted moose in
Alaska, kayaked the Colorado River, climbed mountains, and had more
adventures than most people will have in their lifetimes. In November 2013
her ashes were carried to Mt. Everest Base Camp, her ultimate adventure.
My heartfelt thanks to Bevin Baughn, Zach Madden, Caroline Moore, Peter Yoder, and other
students (who wished to remain anonymous) for graciously allowing me to use their essays in this
book.
Table of Contents
BRAIN FREEZE
SHOW, DON’T TELL
WHY DO COLLEGES WANT TO TORTURE YOU?
SECRET RECIPE FOR SCREENPLAYS
YOUR LIFE AS A MOVIE
WRITING AN ESSAY: THE ESSENTIALS
THE EVOLUTION OF AN ESSAY: THE COLD OPEN
THE EVOLUTION OF AN ESSAY: FINISHING IT BEFORE IT’S
WRITTEN!
THE EVOLUTION OF AN ESSAY: THE IN-BETWEEN
A MUSICAL SCORE FOR YOUR ESSAY?
DO YOU NEED A UNIQUE TOPIC?
THE COMMON APP: NOW YOU CAN PEEK
THE EASY ONES: YOU’RE DONE!
TRICK OR CHEAT: THE ONES THAT LOOK HARD BUT ARE
ACTUALLY EASY
THE MORE DIFFICULT ONES: A FEW STRATEGIES
WHY THIS SCHOOL?
WHY THIS MAJOR?
BEWARE OF ADVICE
WRAPPING IT ALL UP
STUDENT ESSAYS THAT WORKED
Chapter 1
Brain Freeze
T
he exact moment when severe stress creeps into the college admissions
process is when the applicant first reads the prompts for the personal statement,
the essay which needs to be written to answer one of the questions being
presented.
Imagine staring at this:
Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, which marked
your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture,
community, or family.[1]
Or this:
A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life
experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal
background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would
bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that
demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.[2]
Well of course brain-lock would set in. What could you possibly say in response
to those? The stress begins.
And there are other choices as well, which brings on more stress. Which one
should you choose? You may be trying to create six different topics in your head
just to figure out which would be the best choice to tackle.
For the über-important “Personal Statement” on the Common Application, the
best way to avoid stress is to avoid even looking at the choices of topics!
It sounds counter-intuitive. How can you best write an essay to respond to a
prompt you haven’t seen?
The trick is to realize that there is only one topic for the personal statement on
the Common App: You! Any specific prompt just provides the background
fabric in which to weave your story.
If you are reading this book, chances are you’ve already peeked. You’ve looked
at the essay prompts. You’re already panicked. You can’t un-see them.
So relax (as much as you can) and try to forget what you saw, and let’s get busy