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Constructing Your College Application: Essays, Activities, Honors,

Recommendations, and More

By the EditRevise Team

Copyright 2015 Editate Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical

methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief

quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by

copyright law.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ................................................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1: Understanding Yourself ........................................................................................... 5

Chapter 2: The Big Picture: What You Will Need to Do ......................................................... 10

Chapter 3: The Three Real Things Colleges Look for in Your Application ............................ 14

Chapter 4: The Myth of the Well-Rounded Applicant ............................................................. 18

Chapter 5: Playing the Game: Making the Most of the Activities Section .............................. 21

Chapter 6: Short and Sweet: Listing Your Awards ................................................................... 27

Chapter 7: Structuring Your Rsum ..................................................................................... 31

Chapter 8: Writing Powerful Descriptions ............................................................................... 34

Chapter 9: Perfect Form: Submitting an Eye-Catching Rsum ............................................ 38

Chapter 10: Brainstorming ....................................................................................................... 42

Chapter 11: How to Select Your Essay Prompt for the Common Application ....................... 47

Chapter 12: Decoding the Prompt .......................................................................................... 53

Chapter 13: The Secret to Great Writing: Revision, Revision, Revision ................................. 57

Chapter 14: The Three Keys to Writing the Perfect College Application Essay .................... 61

Chapter 15: The 40/60 Essay Rule: Story Time versus Introspection .................................... 64

Chapter 16: Show, Dont Tell: Tips on How to Demonstrate Your Qualities without Bragging........................................................................................................................................ ......66

Chapter 17: Weaving Supporting Evidence into Your College Application Essay ................. 69

Chapter 18: Getting Your Outline in Line ................................................................................ 74

Chapter 19: An Introduction to Writing Your Introduction ..................................................... 78

Chapter 20: Developing Your Thesis ....................................................................................... 83

Chapter 21: A Great Body ......................................................................................................... 87

Chapter 22: Writing Introspectively: The Three Donts .......................................................... 92

Chapter 23: The Conclusion .................................................................................................... 96

Chapter 24: How to Write a Short Essay ............................................................................... 100

Chapter 25: How to Differentiate Your College Application ................................................. 104

Chapter 26: Five Points to Clean up Your Grammar ............................................................. 106

Chapter 27: Make No Mistake about It .................................................................................. 111

Chapter 28: Important Elements of Style for Formal Writing ................................................116

Chapter 29: Choosing the Right Recommenders .................................................................. 120

Chapter 30: Writing a Killer Outline to Help Your Recommender ....................................... 123

Chapter 31: Recommendations for Recommenders .............................................................. 128

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Every fall, hordes of nervous high school students scramble to put the value of their lifes

work into a few short essays and descriptions. Get into your dream school and be set for life, they

are told. But how does one gain acceptance to their dream school? What do universities look for,

and what should applicants write about on their applications?

A select few will have the resources to seek guidance from costly private counselors, but

those who cannot afford this pricey help will depend on a deluge of contradictory advice from

potentially questionable sources. First generation college students will not even have their parents to

help guide them through the complicated application process, but even the students who do receive

advice from adults who attended college will be receiving outdated knowledge on a rapidly changing

process that becomes more competitive each year. Tragically, many otherwise strong applicants are

denied the opportunity to attend their dream schools simply because they are unequipped with the

writing skills and knowledge of the application process that they need to present themselves as the

perfect candidates they are. All it takes is a serious grammatical blunder, a poor topic choice, or a

misallocation of space on an application to seriously jeopardize any chances you have of impressing

admissions officers. At EditRevise, we aspire to maximize your chances of admission by eliminating

writing and presentation inaccuracies, so that only the best of you shines through. In order to help

us do this, we created a handbook for all applicants to use as a source of reliable advice throughout

the application season.

It is with great pleasure that the EditRevise team releases Constructing Your College Application:

Essays, Activities, Honors, Recommendations, and More, an eBook composed of a series of articles

intended to arm you with the fundamental strategies you need to best present yourself on your

college applications. Our hope is that we can provide you with a bit more certainty by giving you a

source of reliable guidelines based on common types of feedback we have provided to EditRevise

customers on their applications.

Aside from taking pride in the reference material we have produced for college applicants,

we are also happy to provide affordable access to advice and feedback. EditRevise accomplishes

this not only by releasing free content like Constructing Your College Application, but primarily through

our revolutionary online feedback services. We believe that aside from being advised on how to

write high quality essays, it is crucial that all applicants have access to extra sets of eyes that can

thoroughly revise their work and provide helpful comments to improve application and essay

content, structure, flow of thought, word choice, and grammar. EditRevise believes in the power of

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perfecting applications and essays through careful and repeated revision, and we are committed to

providing college applicants with timely, affordable, and convenient feedback. Your 650-word

Common Application essay costs only $28 for feedback within 48 hours or $37 for feedback within

six hoursno matter the day or time.

We hope that Constructing Your College Application will be your trusty guide to writing an

outstanding application. For more content on writing competitive college applications, like articles

and recommender worksheets, be sure to visit our writing center at writingcenter.editrevise.com.

After you have used this eBook to write the first drafts of your essays, save $10 on your first revision

with the promo code eBook and submit your writing to editrevise.com. After all, reading about

how to write essays can only take you so farthere is no better way to improve your writing than

practice and revision!

Write well and prosper!

The EditRevise Team

Save $10 on your first revision with discount code: eBook

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Chapter 1: Understanding Yourself

Before embarking on your college application, you should reflect on yourself, your passions,

and your goals. While your goals and vision of yourself will certainly change with time, colleges are

looking for applicants who have a solid sense of self and some concrete, achievable goals.

Increasingly, top universities are striving to curate incoming classes with diverse interests and

strengths. Therefore, you should consider what you will offer a campus community, and also what

you hope to glean from your college experience. Colleges are not only looking for candidates who

will be an asset to campus activities, but also for candidates who will make the most of the resources

provided to them. By reflecting on your own interests, you will not only gain insight about yourself

and what you are looking to gain from your college experience, but also about how you might thrive

in a university environment.

As you prepare your application, try to imagine yourself in your readers shoes. Your reader

will be trying to put together a picture of you based on your application, interests, and writing

samples, so you should strive to make your application as indicative of your interests and goals as

possible. Before you begin drafting your responses to the Common Application writing prompts or

college-specific essays, consider these questions:

What are you good at?

Which activities have you loved participating in? Which might you want to continue

in college, or potentially as a career?

What do you want from your college experience? Consider the resources a college

offers: friends, networking, extracurricular activities, access to esteemed professors,

opportunities for learning about new fields, etc.

What are the things you enjoy doing the most? These dont necessarily need to be

related to school.

What are your life goals after college? Do you want to continue in academia?

Become a professional athlete? Start your own business?

How will the schools that you are applying to help you achieve your goals? To

answer this question, you should research the faculty and resources that each college

offers. Even though you will be applying to several colleges, your application should

be tailored as specifically as possible to each college you apply to.

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What are your life goals after college? It is very likely you may switch careers more

than once after college, so try to think beyond your ideal first job, and instead

consider the life you hope to be leading many years after graduation.

When answering these questions, allow yourself to dream big. College is an incredible

opportunity that can connect you to professionals in your field, expose you to new ideas that may

completely change your worldview, and introduce you to friends who can challenge you in exciting

ways. Admissions boards will expect you to transform over your four years attending college, but are

also looking for ambitious candidates who will make the most out of their college experience. So if

you want to be the next Steve Jobs, have the confidence to say so! Colleges are interested in playing

a part in shaping a new generation of thinkers and global citizens; they know it is entirely possible

for a candidate to enter school with pre-med plans, and leave with an acceptance to a PhD program

in English Literature. Therefore, it is useful to think about how you might change in the next four

years. What interests have you not been able to explore in high school that you may be exposed to in

college? It is important to enter into the application process as both ambitious and flexible. Your

enthusiasm for learning and your open-mindedness and excitement about what college offers will be

your greatest assets.

Applying This Understanding

Once you have articulated your goals and interests, you will be faced with the task of

strategically expressing these ambitions in your application. While colleges will not explicitly ask

about your 20-year plan, there are ways of communicating your goals and passions within your

application. As we will discuss throughout this book, there are various opportunities within the

application to demonstrate that you understand yourself and your passions.

Strategy 1: Honors Section

The honors section of your application is one opportunity to direct a readers attention

towards your greatest strengths. If you have received many academic honors, focus on using the

ones which best display your specific skill set. For example, if you love the sciences and made

Honor Roll every semester, but also won a national or regional science fair, choose the science fair

recognition over mentioning Honor Roll. By strategically highlighting honors that demonstrate your

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expertise and passions, you will show your reader not only that you have won recognition in the

past, but that you are likely to contribute your passion to campus communities as well.

Strategy 2: Activities Section

With a maximum of ten activities to list (on the Common Application), you can be even

more strategic in the activities section. As we will discuss in chapter 5, you should not feel pressured

to fill all ten slots. Rather, choose to list activities that demonstrate your spikes of interest, and show

a strong time commitment to the activities that are most important to you. If you are most well-

defined by your passion for English, for example, your activities section should reflect that interest,

with several activities (newspaper, literary magazines, blogging, etc.) that demonstrate how you have

devoted your time to pursuing what you love. As with the honors section, the activities section is

also a way for readers to gauge not only your past, but also your future. Highlight activities that

correspond to your goals and ambitions, and that hint at future participation in similar organizations.

Strategy 3: Writing Sample

Your writing sample is your opportunity to shine. Think strategically about how to

incorporate your passions and goals into your essay. The following are the five options the Common

Application gives as writing prompts. Weve included examples of applicants who know how to

leverage these questions into dynamic reflections of their goals and interests.

1. Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application

would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Carla is a first-generation Mexican-American who hopes to study Spanish literature and

Hispanic cultures. While she has many stories that are central to her identity (her participation in

Girl Scouts, her love of theater, etc.), she wants her readers to know that she is passionate about

her heritage and that she will be active in Hispanic societies on campus. She chooses to write on

this prompt and tells about her experience growing up in a bilingual household. She not only

discusses her past, but also how her background has influenced her academic and extracurricular

interests.

2. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you

learn?

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Evan is a top-tier basketball player and is being recruited for athletics, but he is also a

passionate scientist. He chooses this prompt and writes about an experiment he conducted on

energy efficiency in his high school. The experiment went through several permutations, and he

modified his hypothesis after his findings were not what he had hoped. He ties in his basketball

experience when he discusses how sportsmanship has helped shape his approach to both

academic and athletic set-backs, and he makes it clear that in college, he will continue growing as

both an athlete and a member of the scientific community.

3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same

decision again?

Ambika is passionate about human rights, and wants to major in International Relations. She

chooses this prompt because it will allow her to highlight not only her time as Student Council

President, when she approached her school principal about a controversial idea, but will also

give her the opportunity to demonstrate that she is devoted to changing unfair policies. Since

this question asks if she would make the same decision in the future, she will be able to discuss

her ambitions to become involved in student government on campus.

4. Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why

is it meaningful to you?

David loves his familys lake house in Nantucket, but he knows that writing about a vacation

spot isnt exactly what this prompt is looking for. Instead, he thinks about how he hopes to

someday be the editor of a regional or national newspaper, and writes about his high schools

newsroom. Throughout the past four years, he has spent hours in this room working on stories,

having exciting conversations with his peers, and fulfilling his love of journalism. By focusing on

this place and all he has accomplished there, he can demonstrate his exhaustive commitment in

high school to his schools newspaper, and also discuss how he cannot wait to become involved

in journalism classes and activities in college.

5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to

adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Andrea is passionate about social justice, and has won various recognitions for her

leadership in her community. She has spent three years volunteering at a womens shelter in her

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town, and hopes to study public policy and law. After reflecting on this question, she remembers

the time when the manager of the womens shelter was sick on the day of a large fundraiser, and

Andrea had to spearhead the event by herself. She discusses how this responsibility made her

realize her own potential as an adult, and then talks about the values she has learned from her

volunteer experience and how she will put those values into action by becoming involved in law.

Final Tips

A thorough understanding of yourself, your passions, and your goals can deeply influence

how you put together your college application. By understanding both how you see yourself, and

how you hope your reader will see you, you can leverage your experience and interests to best

express your potential as a student, leader, and citizen.

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Chapter 2: The Big Picture: What You Will Need to Do

Preliminary Preparation

Before beginning the Common Application, you will need to create a password and

username. If you are still using that Hannah Montana-themed email address from middle school,

now would be a great time to create a more professional email address (ideally using a combination

of your first and last name). Once you have created an account, save the information in a secure

place. You may also want to take some time to ensure that your social media accounts are private,

and to remove any information that you do not wish to be available to admissions boards, which are

increasingly running Internet searches on top candidates. Once you have your account, you will be

ready to get started. The left-hand side of the Common Application will walk you through the six

major categories: Profile, Family, Education, Testing, Activities, and Writing. On the right hand

side, you will find tips specific to each section. Take some time to read through the tips while you

are completing your application.

Section One: Profile

The first section of the Common Application will ask for various details about your personal

information, including your full name, address, citizenship status, and demographics. Some of these

sections, such as Demographics, which pertains mainly to ethnicity and religion, are optional.

However, you should strive to complete all sections that you feel comfortable answering. You also

will be asked whether you feel you qualify for a fee waiver; this is an issue best discussed with your

school counselor, as he or she will be asked to verify your response.

Section Two: Family

The Family section is brief, and will ask about details about your living situation. This section

will also ask you to provide details about your parents level of education.

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Section Three: Education

We start getting to the meat of the Common Application with the third category, which

begins to paint a picture of you as a student and candidate. This section will first ask for your school

counselors name and contact information, and then will ask if any community organizations (i.e.

Boys and Girls Club) have offered you free assistance, such as mentoring or editing, with your

application. If you transferred high schools, took time off between grades, or took any college-level

courses while in high school, you will have the opportunity to disclose this information here. You

will also be required to provide details about your current GPA and the courses in which you are

currently enrolled.

Extra tips:

Pay special attention to the final two sections of the Education category: Honors and

Future Plans. The honors section will ask you to list as many as five awards or honors, and will

ask if these achievements were on the local, regional, national, or international level. As a general

rule, you should list your achievements from most impressive to least, so if you have won any

national or international awards, list these first. The Future Plans section asks only two questions:

your intended career, and the level of education you hope to attain (Masters, PhD, etc.). Remember

that your response is not set in stone by any means, but try to avoid selecting Undecided. With

options ranging from Artist to Optometrist, you should be able to find a potential profession

that interests you. Admissions boards do not expect you to have a 10-year professional plan, but

they are looking for candidates who are passionate about learning, and who hope to leverage their

education into an interesting and fulfilling career. They know that your response will very likely

change over the course of your college experience, but you will have an advantage if you

demonstrate a concrete goal.

Section Four: Testing

You will be required to submit your official test sources, but the Common Application also

gives you the option of self-reporting your scores as well. Most candidates choose to self-report in

addition to sending official test scores, in the event that the official scores arrive late to the colleges.

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If you have your final test scores when you are filling out the application, take a few minutes to

input your scores.

Section Five: Activities

The Activities section will help colleges glean a better understanding of how you pursued

your interests during high school. The Common Application allows you to input a maximum of ten

activities. For each activity, you will be asked to describe your role in the organization, and include

any specific accomplishments or honors. This section will also measure the extent of time you spent

doing each activity, with several questions geared towards the level of your participation. When

filling out this section, it is important to recognize that readers are clearly more interested in

activities in which you spent a significant amount of time. Also, remember that you do not need to

fill out all ten slots; instead, focus on activities that display your passion, commitment, and impact.

As with the Honors section, you should rank your activities from the most impressive to the least; in

this context, you should begin with the activities in which you held a leadership role or participated

for more than one year.

Section Six: Writing

The Common Application saves the best (and most important!) section for last. The final

section is your essay, with a word count requirement of between 250 and 650. The application will

provide you with five prompts from which to choose. You should spend a considerable amount of

time preparing your essay prior to submitting your application. If possible, you should also submit it

to a school counselor for evaluation before you include it in your application. When choosing

among prompts, try writing an outline for each prompt, and then see which essay seems the most

interesting to write.

Outside of the Application

Besides filling out the Common Application, you will also be required to take additional

steps in your college application journey. These include the following:

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Letters of recommendation

o Make sure to give your recommenders sufficient time to write you a letter (at least

three months), but do not be shy about reminding them about upcoming deadlines.

When you ask someone for a letter, you should come prepared with your list of

schools, each schools deadline, and each schools preferred method of receiving

letters. If schools prefer hard copy letters of recommendation, you should provide

each of your recommenders with stamped, addressed envelopes as a courtesy.

Interviews

o If you have the option to request an interview with a representative from a college,

you should take the opportunity. While interviews are optional, they provide colleges

with a more personal idea of who you are and what you will contribute to the

campus community.

Additional Essays

o Some colleges that use the Common Application will require supplemental essays.

Some of these are tailored to the school, while others ask more creative questions.

These supplemental essays are just as important as your major essay, and you should

take time to outline, draft, revise, and receive feedback on your responses.

This guide will break down each section of the Common Application and provide specific

tips and strategies for making the most of your responses. But before you begin, look over the

application and familiarize yourself with the different categories, as outlined above, and begin

planning your responses. Make sure to give yourself sufficient time to understand the application,

and to spend significantly more time on the most important sections (Activities, Honors, and

Writing). With time, strategy, and effort, you will be able to submit a successful application.

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Chapter 3: The Three Real Things Colleges Look for in Your Application

Ever read a colleges post about what it looks for in applicants? Its all fluff. Its hard to

distill the flowery language into actionable items you can include on your application and its

probably not what they are actually looking for. Take a look at Harvards How Your Application Is

Considered post. You will see phrases such as growth and potential, interests and activities,

character and personality, and contribution to the Harvard community. Many other schools say

they are looking for similar things. Some will just use a bunch of buzzwords like leadership and

teamwork. So what does this all actually mean? What do you need to think about when you are

actually putting together your application? We have the answers.

Before we dive in, the most important thing for you to understand is that there are only four

items that set you apart from other applicants: your rsum, essay, recommendations, and interview

(for schools that offer one). Grades and test scores are not as important, as you are likely competing

against applicants with similar grades and test scores. Here at EditRevise, we have helpful content

on dealing with all four items that can set you apart. For more details on how to separate yourself

from your competition, check out How to Differentiate Your College Application in chapter 25.

Without further ado, here are the specifics you need to include in your application to

differentiate yourself from your competition.

Drive and Initiative

Achieving challenging goals and consistently going above and beyond expectations is a

strong indicator of future success. Colleges may talk about growth and potential, but they really try

to understand what you have done in the past to indicate a successful future. Colleges are looking

for people who are hard-working, driven, and constantly striving for success. Make sure your

rsum, essay, and recommendations all clearly point to your propensity for taking on challenges and

being successful. Heres how you do it:

1) Write an IMPACT focused rsum. Some colleges ask for your activities to be entered into

their format; others want a full rsum; the end result is the same. When writing the details,

do not describe mundane tasks that anybody could do. Instead, focus on the impact you had

on the organization and indicate what you did to achieve that impact. There is a simple

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formula for writing your points accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]. Read

chapter 8 on writing killer college rsum descriptions to make sure you do this right.

2) Tie your essays in with your future ambitions and past successes. If you have solved tough

problems in the past that may be relevant to your future career choice, focus in on those

tough problems and situations. Ideally, focus on past successes where you needed to take the

initiative to move a situation forward and to achieve an amicable and successful resolution

for all parties. Read through chapters 11 and 14 for more specific suggestions on writing

college essays.

3) Make sure your recommenders can speak to your personal drive and continuous need to take

the initiative. Here at EditRevise, we recommend you choose recommenders who have

known you for multiple years and have seen you succeed in difficult situations (e.g., student

activity leadership, challenging AP/honors classes, athletics). Make sure your recommenders

are articulate and will put in the time required to write you a convincing recommendation.

Interpersonal Skills

Being able to interact with people in an effective, constructive, empathetic way is vital for

success. In fact, interpersonal skills are the single most important skill to success in your future

career. Colleges talk about character and personality, but what they really mean is that you need to

be a nice person who plays well with others. Its hard to make this come across in your application,

but if you do it successfully, you will have a significant leg up on other applicants. Heres how you

do it:

1) Display clear cases of leadership and teamwork on your rsum. We are sure that you will list

your leadership positions, but how can you make your leadership and teamwork show

interpersonal skills? Use examples like, Led team of four to design and create an underwater

basket weaving autonomous robot that took second place in a regional competition. This

clearly indicates that you were able to lead an effective team and therefore likely have strong

interpersonal skills. Led baseball team to second place finish does not indicate

interpersonal skills as it does not indicate your explicit role.

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2) In your essay, tell stories in which you resolved a conflict within a group of people. Relaying

a story in your essay where you played a central role resolving a conflict between two or

more individuals (including yourself) will clearly display your interpersonal skills.

3) Select recommenders who have seen you work in or lead teams. Ask your recommenders to

write about specific situations involving conflict resolution in which you played an integral

role.

4) Do an interview if offered. An in-person interview is generally the best way to showcase

your interpersonal skills because the school actually gets see how you interact with people.

You will likely get questions that allow you to discuss your interpersonal skills such as tell

me about a time where you had to lead or tell me about a time where you had to solve a

difficult problem with a team.

Diversity of Thought

Colleges are trying to build a class. This means taking people from a multitude of

backgrounds with variety of passions, opinions, and goals. When colleges ask for interests and

activities, they are attempting to understand how your unique personality will fit with the other

students they are selecting. Contrary to popular belief, colleges are NOT looking for well-rounded

people unless the people are REALLY round. They are looking for spiky people, meaning that a

person will be exceptional at one thing and may only be mediocre at others. Admissions officers

look at a persons spike to determine their potential contribution to their college community.

They combine these different areas. In other words, you need to showcase what makes you unique

your spike. Maybe it is your passion for pursuing your career choice based on your past experiences.

Maybe it is your fondness for unique and different interests and activities. Who knows, the

possibilities of uniqueness and spikiness are endless! The main thing is that you need to be

memorable and come across as authentic. Heres how you do it:

1) Showcase your uniqueness on your rsum. Highlight your school activities and your

activities outside of school. Ranked Top 10 in a video game? Include it in your application; it

is unique. Heavily involved in your church youth group? Put it down. Passionate about

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band? Make sure your description in your bullet points makes it clear that you are a band

geek. Colleges love geeks. Geeks are spiky.

2) Write a unique essay. The most memorable essays are the ones that are truly different than

the typical applicant. On his MIT application, one of our founders wrote about how he

wanted to be a roller coaster designer. Roller coaster design did not work out for him (sadly,

he is not a roller coaster designer today), but he was passionate about it and it differentiated

him from other candidates because it was unique, memorable, and authentic.

A rock star who was accepted to a multitude of schools once told us, Look at applying to

college as a sort of political campaign in which you need to make your campaign platform known.

Central to my platform was the idea that I am absurdly curious and I use everything as a learning

opportunity. Smart words. Create your platform and weave it throughout your essay this will

make your uniqueness and spikiness shine.

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Chapter 4: The Myth of the Well-Rounded Applicant

Colleges want well-rounded students. This fatal assumption leads college applicants to

rejection every year. While this misconception makes intuitive sense, the truth is that admissions

officers are trying to put together a well-rounded class, which cannot be achieved by accepting

students who are each moderately interested in a wide array of fields. In fact, the best way for a

university to assemble a class that excels in all areas is to accept many students who each excel in

only one or two disciplines. We refer to these specialist students as spiky due to their sharp

spikes of distinction in one or two areas. Spiky students are more desirable applicants than

students who present themselves as well-rounded while failing to present their spikes in a focused

way.

This chapter is not meant to encourage you to actively exclude some activities from your

application. Rather, we encourage applicants to show off spikes in areas of interest or particular

skills on their applications. This is because (1) spiky applications are memorable, (2) spiky applicants

are more likely to be successful in their area of specialty, and (3) it is easier for admissions officers to

see how spiky applicants will fit into the class. To show you what we mean, consider an applicant

named Amy who is applying to Stanford through the Common App.

Amy tried to impress Stanford by cramming all of her interests into her application and

showing the admissions committee that she can do it all, from being an active member of Habitat

for Humanity, to participating occasionally in science fairs, to having earned a few medals as a

member of her schools cross country team. She also has a powerful interest in politics, and has

served as a member of a youth city council program since the beginning of high school. However,

she chooses to stress all of her interests equally on her application to fit as much diversity as possible

with the space she has. If I show Stanford how involved and well-rounded I am, they will realize

that I am perfect have no choice but to accept me! thought Amy.

Meanwhile, an admissions officer named Melinda is in the middle of reading hundreds of

applications and has started assessing Amys. Melinda rubs her tired eyes and yawns at Amys

application as she gets ready to throw it in the rejection pile with the rest of the flat applications.

While Amys achievements in a wide range of activities are impressive, Melinda will probably not

remember Amy for the rest of the selection process.

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And why should she remember Amy? Amys philanthropic work with Habitat for Humanity

is commendable, but it is forgettable compared to the way that another applicant presented her work

by focusing on showcasing her 1,000 hours of community service. Amys participation in science

fairs shows her passion for science, but when compared to another applicants four-year science

project dedicated to developing a cheaper blood test, Amys scientific pursuits seem like just another

one of her many hobbies. Finally, Amys cross country medals do little to help her stand out either,

because another application is saturated with passion for running, focusing on a journey to a top-10

finish in a state competition.

In the end, Melinda forgets about well-rounded Amy and instead decides to offer admission

to the other three applicants. The moral of Amys story is that competitive applicants will show

passion, commitment, and skill in specific areas as opposed to weighing all of their skills equally on

their application. Perhaps if Amy had sharpened her application by focusing more on her interest in

politics and her four-year involvement with her city council, Melinda the admissions officer would

have seen a more well-defined role for her in the upcoming class and offered her admission as well.

Admissions officers favor and remember applicants who can fill specific niches within the

next class. By displaying yourself as the schools next potential student body president, famous

entrepreneur, robotics champion, or fencing star, for example, you will make admissions officers

much more interested in what you could contribute to a well-rounded class. Therefore, be sure to

advertise yourself as a specialist in the areas where you have excelled and invested yourself in the

most throughout your life. Show off your spikiness!

While showing off your spikiness on an application is easier if you have accolades like an all-

state athlete award, a national master chess title, or trophies from several debate tournaments, it is

not necessary to be the absolute best at something to make your application alluringly spiky to

admissions officers. You can sharpen your applications spike simply by demonstrating vigorous

and sustained interest in a given area. This can mean indicating strong interests in specific hobbies,

sports, or subjects, but you can also choose to emphasize more general skills, such as leadership

capabilities. Virtually any passion can give your application the spike that it needs, as long as you

have the concrete evidence to validate it. After all, admissions officers are trying to build a well-

rounded class.

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Next time you are wondering whether you should fill that last spot on your activities section

with your month-long participation in a slam poetry club, or an additional entry related to your deep

interest in music, for example, choose the latter. It is always better to sharpen your spike than to

waste space for the sole purpose of wanting to seem well-rounded. Be efficient with the space you

are given on an application and put the spotlight on what you do best. Dont fall flatbe spiky!

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Chapter 5: Playing the Game: Making the Most of the Activities Section

The Strategy behind the Scenes

The activities section of the Common Application (and most university-specific applications)

is a vital opportunity to showcase your achievements and commitments outside of class. While

listing your activities may seem straightforward, following a strategy can go a long way in helping

you distinguish yourself to admissions boards. By carefully choosing how to present your activities,

you can show evaluators not only how you have pursued your passions, but also the positive impact

you will have on their campus community.

In the Common Application, the activities section asks for the names of the clubs or

organizations in which you participated, as well as the amount of time you devoted to the activity

and a description of your work and specific accomplishments. Taking these factors into account,

your list should be ranked beginning with the most important activity and ending with the least

important. This may sound simple to do, but how can you tell which of your activities will be the

most impressive to your readers? First, start with an outline of all activities in which you participated.

Then, pare down your list by eliminating activities on which you did not expend considerable time

or effort. Finally, prioritize your list based on three factors: time, impact, and leadership roles. Lets

break down that process:

Step 1: Creating Your List

As you draft your list, consider what your activities tell about your interests, how you have

spent your time, your personality traits, and the impact you will have on campus communities.

When deciding what to include, remember that admissions boards are looking for candidates who

demonstrate spikes of interest in certain fields. These spiky applicants have a clear passion in

specific areas, subjects, and hobbies. Admissions boards are trying to build a well-rounded class of

students who have diverse interests. So what does this mean for you?

Quality over Quantity

While the Common Application allows you to list up to ten activities, it is okay to list only a

few. Focus on showing the quality of your work in specific areas, rather than aiming to fill up all

sections with activities that do not demonstrate your focus and commitment. Prioritize activities to

which you devoted at least two or three hours a week, and those in which you were a member or

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leader for at least a full year. That Photography Club you joined for a few weeks during freshman

year? Not as impressive as those two years on the Debate Team, especially if you held a prominent

role.

Diverse Interests

Your activities do not necessarily have to be related to school. Here are some examples of

activities that could help illustrate both your diverse interests and your dedication to pursuing your

passions:

Did you build a highly trafficked website that relates to your interests?

Did you start a successful blog?

Do you play in a band and hope to pursue music, or music management?

Did you start a small business?

Did you spend a significant amount of time volunteering with an organization whose

mission aligns with your passions?

Did you spend hours playing video games, and dream of designing them someday?

Do you write in your spare time?

Do you run a witty Twitter account with thousands of followers?

Admissions offers are looking to see that you have pursued your interests with creativity and

enthusiasm. Once you are in college, you will have many opportunities to participate in both

organizations and clubs, and also in the local community. If the activities where you spent the most

time are not school-related, but demonstrate your focus and investment in a certain issue, do not

hesitate to include them. The activities section is an opportunity to help colleges envision you as a

person with strong interests that you plan to pursue in a college community.

Step 2: Paring Down Your List

Once you have made a first draft of your list, it is time to make sure that each item you have

included helps paint a picture of who you are as a student, leader, and applicant. Remember, even

though you are allowed to include ten activities, the number of activities is less important than how

each activity demonstrates your commitment, leadership, and contributions to an organization.

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As you begin paring down your list, ask yourself these questions to decide which activities

are relevant:

Did I invest a substantial amount of time in this activity?

Is this activity related to something I might be interested in pursuing in college?

Does this activity reflect an interest I might want to pursue as a career?

Did my role change and grow the longer I was involved in this activity?

How did my participation and leadership positively impact this organization?

Did I receive any special recognition for my work in this organization?

After asking yourself these questions for each activity, you may be able to eliminate some

activities. However, if you did not hold many leadership positions but feel you grew as an individual

from certain activities, do not hesitate to include themjust make sure they are strategically ranked.

Step 3: Prioritizing Your Activities

Once you have a finalized list of your most relevant activities, arrange them in order from

most important to least important. What does this mean? Consider these three factors:

Whether you had a leadership role

The time you invested in each activity

The impact you made in the organization

Not sure how to prioritize your list? Read below to see how your activities and awards should rank.

Leadership and Growth

If you have held any leadership positions, they should be placed at the top of your list. Also,

consider how your role in each organization has grown and changed over the course of your high

school career. Include both formal and informal leadership positions. For example:

Did you go from a benchwarmer to team captain over four years?

Did you eventually become editor of the newspaper where you used to be a reporter?

Were you the sole founder of a website, blog, or small business?

Did you increase your volunteering hours at an organization once you realized you

were passionate about its cause?

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Were you elected or nominated for any titles by your teachers and peers? (e.g.

student council positions, athletics, editorial boards, student liaison, peer mentor, or

leadership roles within a club)

This is your opportunity to show how you have distinguished yourself against your peers.

Your application is a chance to demonstrate how you will seek leadership positions on campus, and

how you measure up against other applicants.

Time and Effort

Next, consider the amount of time you put into each activity. If you spent hours each week

preparing and competing with your Model UN team, but only attended a few meetings of a

photography club, prioritize Model UN. The same applies to volunteer experiences; in fact, if you

only volunteered once or twice with a certain organization, it would be better not to include it. That

being said, you can use your judgment; that week you spent building a house with Habitat for

Humanity might catch a readers eye, but volunteering once at a soup kitchen does not demonstrate

significant time or effort. Again, remember that the quality of your chosen activities is more

important than filling up the activity section.

Impact

Finally, consider your impact. Admissions boards are looking for applicants whose effort,

dedication, and leadership have helped an organization succeed. Prioritize activities where you had

significant quantitative and qualitative impact. For example:

Did your school newspaper win an award while you were editor-in-chief?

Did you successfully lobby for important changes as a student council member?

Did an event you organized and publicized have increased attendance this year?

Did you help lead your soccer team to a regional championship?

Did you play a major role in fundraising for your organization?

Showcase how your leadership contributed to the success of an organization, and prioritize

any activities where your effort was beneficial to your club and community.

Dos and Donts

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From your rough draft of your activities, you now have a list of activities that best showcase

your interests, strengths, and well-deserved recognitions. This list should be ranked from the

most impressive to the least, taking into account the factors of leadership roles, time, and

impact. Remember these tips as you prioritize and finalize your activities section:

Do:

Prioritize activities in which you held a leadership position (President, Team Captain,

Founder, etc.).

Prioritize activities where you had a concrete, positive impact on an organization or

event.

Prioritize activities to which you devoted a considerable amount of time.

Prioritize activities, both inside and outside of school, that showcase your diverse

interests.

Remember that activities in which you were a member or participant can go towards

the end of your list. For these activities, you will have room in the Description

section to explain why they were important for your growth as an individual, and

how you served as an effective team member.

Remember that the Common Application also asks you whether you plan to pursue

this activity during college, so make sure to include activities that reflect both how

you have spent your time in the past, and also how you might contribute to a college

community.

Dont

Include activities that are irrelevant to your interests.

Include activities where you spent a very minimal amount of time (a few hours

volunteering once or twice, or only a few meetings of a club).

Prioritize activities where you were a member or a participant with minimal impact,

especially if you held leadership roles in other activities.

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By prioritizing your activity list and considering your specific role in each activity, you can

guide a readers attention to your most impressive accomplishments. Permission to show off:

granted!

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Chapter 6: Short and Sweet: Listing Your Awards

While the activities section of the Common Application allows you to list up to ten activities,

the honors section is much simpler. Here, you can list up to five honors and you will not be asked to

describe them. Instead, the Common Application asks only for these factors:

1. Title of award

2. Grade level in which you received the award

3. Level of recognition (school, state, national, or international)

When preparing to fill out this section, first consider which of your accomplishments will fit

into the category of academic honors. Then prioritize your list, beginning with the most impressive

and ending with the least selective awards. If your high school does not give out academic awards,

you can note this in the honors section. If you are using a college-specific application you may also

be able to include a brief description of your honors. If so, follow the steps below, and then read the

Describing your Awards section.

Step One: Making Your List

The Common Application specifies that the awards you list should be related to your

academic achievements. This means that if you received non-academic awards, they should be

included in your activities section instead. For example, if you were named MVP of the soccer team,

put that achievement under the description in the activities section. Here are more examples:

Academic Awards

National Merit Award, or National Merit Commended Scholar

Presidents Award

National Honor Society or subject-based honor society

o Note: Honor societies could be considered honors or activities. If you held a

leadership position and have room in your activities section, place it there. If you

dont have space in the activities section, it is also acceptable to include it with

your honors.

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

Science Olympiad

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Winner of regional or national science fair or academic competition

Recognition from national language exams (e.g. National German Exam)

AP scholar

Any subject-based award given by your school (e.g. Latin Award, Chemistry Award,

etc.)

Honor Roll

o Note: Honor Roll is a common award. If youve won any national or

international awards, prioritize those first.

Non-Academic Awards

Any award related to one of your extracurricular activities

Athletic achievements (i.e. Varsity, MVP, championships etc.)

Community awards (i.e. Eagle Scouts, Girl Scouts)

Recognition for volunteering efforts

Many high schools offer limited academic awards, so do not worry if you have fewer than

five awards to list. However, if you do have a range of honors, you should rank them from the most

impressive to the least impressive. What does this mean? Read below to find out.

Step Two: Ranking Your Awards

As you list your awards, consider the level of recognition of the award, as well as its

selectivity.

Level of Recognition

If you have any regional, national or international awards, list these accomplishments before

honors granted on a local or school level. For example, a second place prize in a state science fair is

more impressive than winning first place at your school science fair (though both could be

included!). These accomplishments will show college admissions boards that you have distinguished

yourself outside of school. Then, list any awards granted by your school.

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Selectivity

Consider the selectivity of each award. For example, if you were one of thirty students to

make Honor Roll, but the only student in your school named a National Merit Finalist, prioritize

your National Merit award. Also, if your transcript already shows that you had consistently high

grades, you might not even need to mention that you were on the honor roll. Instead, you could use

that slot for a different award.

Step Three: Describing Your Awards

If you are using a college-specific application, you may be allowed a brief space (typically

under 150 characters) to describe your honors. If so, follow these tips:

Be precise: Because you have a limited space, each word has to count. Focus on the

selectivity of the award, and avoid unnecessary descriptions.

o Example: Selected as one of ten recipients out of one thousand

applications.

o Example: Awarded first place in national competition with over ten

thousand participants.

Choose impressive verbs: Focus on language that emphasizes selectivity and prestige.

o Examples: Achieved recognition for, Awarded, Selected for/as, and

Recognized as

Dos and Donts

Do

List only academic awards and honors in this section.

Prioritize the most selective awards.

Prioritize any awards granted at the state, national, or international level.

Remember that if you have more than five awards, you could include your remaining

accomplishments on the Additional information section of the Writing page.

Dont

Include non-academic awards; instead, try to integrate these in your activities section.

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Eliminate less selective awards (i.e. honor roll) unless you lack more impressive

honors to put in their place.

The honors section is an opportunity to demonstrate that you have achieved recognition for

your academic work. Again, do not worry if you are not able to fill all five slots; if you do not have

many awards to name, there will be many other opportunities on your application to show

admissions boards that you are a driven, passionate, and enthusiastic candidate.

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Chapter 7: Structuring Your Rsum

In Perfect Form (chapter 9) we discuss the importance of submitting a clear, polished

rsum. Once you have an easily readable format for your rsum, your next step is to strategically

structure its content. Since readers will only be able to spend a few minutes with your rsum, you

should follow the conventional formula that readers will expect and make sure that each item you

include is relevant, specific, and focused on your impact and achievements.

The Formula

Section 1: Education

Begin with the Education section, following the formatting guidelines in Perfect Form

(chapter 9). Your education section can be brief, but if you have top-performing test scores and a

solid GPA (3.0 or above), you should include them. Your readers will already have this information

from your transcript as well as official SAT and AP scores, but it never hurts to emphasize

impressive achievements. Here is an example of what your education section should look like:

EDUCATION

Central Valley High School, Williston, VT

Diploma expected June 2015

GPA 3.5

SAT Math: 720, Reading: 700, Writing: 740, Essay: 11

Note: If you transferred high schools, include the names of both schools, and add in italics the dates

of attendance for each school. Otherwise, you need not include the dates of attendance for one high

school.

Section 2: Experience and Activities

The Experience section of your rsum is by far the most important. Here you have the

opportunity to show your readers how you spent your time outside of school, and the positive

impact you achieved in your academic or local communities. Depending on your experiences, this

section could be divided into two or three categories: for example, Work Experience,

Extracurricular Activities, and Athletics. Only divide your experiences into sections if you have

more than two relevant experiences per section. If not, one section should suffice.

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Prioritizing Your Activities

Regardless of how you decide to divide your activities, these general guidelines will always

apply:

Order your activities chronologically, beginning with the most recent. If you are

currently involved in several activities, include the most impressive one first. For

example, if youre editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and also your student councils

treasurer, put editor-in-chief first since it is a more impressive leadership role. Then,

list activities you have been involved with in the past (see chapter 5 to decide which

activities to include).

Your bullet point descriptions of each activity should focus on your impact. If you

had extensive responsibilities that a reader might not guess by your title, you could

briefly describe them, but you should focus primarily on showing readers that you

went above and beyond in your activities.

Only include activities where you have enough content to write at least three and at

most five bullet points. These bullet points should highlight your impact, specific

role, and the effort you put into each activity. The example below demonstrates the

candidates impact in the activity, while also painting a picture of the responsibilities

and roles the activity entailed.

ST. JOES DAILY HERALD

Editor-in-Chief

Increased readership by 20% through local advertising and social media outreach

Facilitated weekly editorial meetings with a staff of 15, including assigning stories and

pitching ideas

Responsible for copy-editing ~30 articles per issue, overseeing layout, and proofing galleys

Section 3: Awards and Honors

This is an optional section that you should only include if you won any awards or honors

that are not already apparent on your transcript (i.e. Honor Roll). See Short and Sweet: Listing

Your Awards (chapter 6) to learn which honors and awards you should include, and how to

effectively describe them in your bullet points.

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Additional Sections

Some candidates may want to include optional sections, such as interests, languages, and

skills. Only include these sections if you have room, and if you feel they will showcase your unique

passions. Most students are required to learn a foreign language in high school, so your intermediate

French might not attract much attention, but if you speak three languages fluently, or taught yourself

American Sign Language, a reader may be more interested. The same applies to the skills section.

Colleges will assume you have a basic understanding of social media and Microsoft Office, but have

you been building websites since middle school? Having a rare skill that is harder to master can be a

bonus.

Final Tips

Consider your rsum as a self-portrait you can personally tailor and perfect. By using a clear

format and strategically selecting and describing the achievements that make you unique, you have

control over how a reader will perceive your impact and interests. A clean rsum structure and well-

written descriptions of your activities will contribute positively to a readers impression of your

professionalism and achievements.

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Chapter 8: Writing Powerful Descriptions

In Playing the Game: Making the Most of the Activity Section, we discussed how to rank

your activities in order of most important to least important by focusing on impact, time, and

leadership roles. Your next step is to write brief descriptions for each activity. The Common

Application allows you only a small space (enough for about one or two sentences) to describe

Details, honors won, and accomplishments. To do this effectively, you should use efficient,

powerful language, and emphasize your efforts and impact within each activity.

Emphasis on Impact

College admissions boards are looking for applicants whose interests have led them to go

above and beyond their responsibilities. The spikes of interest that you display in the activities

section should demonstrate the impact you have had in your various academic and extracurricular

communities. When drafting your descriptions, consider the following two questions:

What impact did I have?

Remember, your impact could be quantitative or qualitative.

Quantitative impacts are measured with numbers and will concretely

demonstrate your impact. For example, I raised money for the American

Cancer Society does not sound as impressive as I spearheaded a campaign that

raised $10,000 for the American Cancer Society, double what was raised in

previous years.

Qualitative impacts describe success that isnt measured by numbers, but is

related to leadership, entrepreneurship, achieving challenging goals, and

interpersonal skills. Did your leadership as team captain play a fundamental role

in your teams unprecedented success this year? Did your Debate Team win a

regional or national award? Take credit as a valuable team member or leader.

Did I achieve any recognition or honors for my involvement in this activity? If so, why?

While the honors section of the Common Application will ask about academic honors, this

section consists of any recognition you achieved in extracurricular activities. If you were

named Employee of the Month at your after-school job, consider what characteristics helped

you earn that title. If you undertook major projects in your community and received

recognition, describe the project and the kind of an impact it has had on your community.

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Language that Packs a Punch

Because you have only a small space to describe the activity, your impact, and any

recognition you may have achieved, you can follow this simple formula for packing as much

information as possible into one sentence: I did X as measured by Y by doing Z. For example: I

increased readership of the newspaper by 30% through quality reporting and advertising.

In addition to using this formula when applicable, you should also pay attention to your

language use. Instead of focusing on your responsibilities and what you had to do, use language that

demonstrates that you went above and beyond your tasks. Powerful language emphasizes your

impact and sounds more impressive to a reader. For example, the verbs below sound stronger than

weak language like helped or participated.

Accomplished

Achieved

Attained

Coordinated

Established

Founded

Increased

Maximized

Organized

Raised

Streamlined

Weak language, by comparison, is vague and does not highlight your accomplishments. For

example, if you have already stated you were student council treasurer, writing Managed the groups

money as a description does not tell the reader anything new. Instead of focusing on your basic

responsibilities, use language that highlights your impact. This means being specific and using

dynamic verbs like the ones listed above.

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Sample Activities Descriptions

Student council: Increased fundraising by 40% through wide-reaching school and

social media campaign.

Newspaper: Pitched and authored several front-page stories on subjects ranging

from current events to school athletics.

Yearbook: Coordinated with local advertisers and edited 200 pages of content.

Athletics: Led team to regional and national victories.

Writing: Completed a forty thousand-word novel in one month as a participant of

National Novel Writing Month.

Describing Your Academic Awards and Honors

While the Common Application does not ask that you provide a description of your

academic honors, some university-specific applications will allow you to briefly describe your

academic achievements. If so, the above guidelines can also apply to discussing your honors. As

youve read in Short and Sweet: Listing your Awards, you should focus descriptions of honors on

the selectivity and level of recognition of the award. Similarly to your activity section, you should

focus on dynamic language and quantitative evidence to help convey the importance of your award.

For example:

Recognized as AP Scholar in Chemistry for being one of only three students to

receive a perfect score.

Selected as finalist in regional science fair with over 400 participants.

By using quantitative evidence here, you demonstrate the selectivity of your award, and show

readers not only that your achievement was personally rewarding, but also that you have

distinguished yourself from your peers.

Final Tips

Use quantifiable evidence whenever possible.

Focus on your impact rather than your basic responsibilities.

Carefully choose dynamic language that emphasizes the importance and impact of

your role.

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With strong, detailed descriptions of your activities, you will show readers that not only did

you participate in activities that correspond to your spikes of interest, but also that you have had a

positive impact on your community.

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Chapter 9: Perfect Form: Submitting an Eye-Catching Rsum

While the Common Application provides space to write about your accomplishments and

experience, some university-specific applications may ask you to upload a rsum. Having a solid

rsum before entering college is an enormous benefit, and will also help as you apply for summer

jobs and internships. A professional and eye-catching rsum will attract the attention of admissions

boards, and highlight your achievements and experience. EditRevises Writing Center can help you

turn a blank document into a polished rsum that will attract attention and showcase your

achievements.

What Do Readers Look for in a Rsum?

The first thing readers will notice is the rsums format.

o Is it clearly presented, or convoluted and padded with unnecessary

information?

o Is there enough white space so readers can differentiate between sections?

o Does it prioritize relevant information that will catch a readers eye?

Then, readers will look at your grades and test scores, which you should include if

they are strong.

Next, readers will skim your headlines and focus on your experience and activities.

Readers will then go through your bullet points. Learn about how to write dynamic,

impact-focused descriptions of your activities in chapter 8.

Finally, readers will look at any other additional sections, such as hobbies or skills.

Your first priority should be to achieve a streamlined, polished format. Readers will only

spend a few minutes reading your rsum, so all of your information should be clearly presented,

and relevant information should be prioritized.

Formatting Your Rsum

Since format is the first thing a reader will notice, you should consider downloading one of

EditRevises recommended formats. If youre not working from a template, you can follow these

guidelines to ensure that your rsum is easy to read and prioritizes the most important information,

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including your GPA, your achievements and accomplishments, and any activities that are especially

relevant to your intended college major.

Nuts and Bolts

Remember, you want a clean and polished rsum; the format is not an area to get creative

in or show your zany sense of humor through liberal use of clip art and Jokerman font. Keep your

format simple to make your rsum easy to read.

Font Size

Choose a basic font like Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond, Arial, or Lucida

Sans. Times New Roman and Arial are the most commonly used fonts.

Your font size should be no smaller than 10-point font, and no larger than 12-point.

Typically, 11-point font should be large enough for the rsum to be clearly read, but

also allows you extra space.

Number of Pages

Try to include all of your information on one page (at most, 1.5-2 pages).

Admissions boards are reading thousands of rsums and need to read quickly, so

your rsum should make efficient use of limited space.

Margins

Whitespace is your friend. It might be tempting to change the margins in order to

cram more information on the page, but try to leave the margins standard.

If you want just a little more space, you can adjust the margins to three fourths-inch

for the top and bottom, and keep the standard one-inch margin on the sides. Other

options include three fourths-inch or half-inch on all sides or half-inch top and

bottom with three fourths-inch sides. Ideally, you should set your margins before

you begin writing the rsum as formatting can become frustrating if you have to

change it later.

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PDF versus Word

Check the application guidelines to see if there is a preferred format for uploading

your rsum, but use PDF if possible. Also, make sure to look at the PDF file before

you submit it in case there are any formatting errors.

Bullet Points

Try to keep the number of bullet points under each section to no fewer than two and

as much as six. Fewer than two bullet points will indicate that you may not have

accomplished much, and more than six can become overbearing. At the end of each

bullet point, do not use a period, but simply end without any punctuation.

Punctuation is not needed since your bullets should not be written in full sentences,

and periods unnecessarily add extra marks to the page. Try to keep each bullet point

to one line if possible, and do not go over two lines. Remember to include a one to

three-point space between bullet points to improve readability.

Organizing Your Content

Name

Your name should be in a larger font size than the rest of the rsum. Use

somewhere between 24-point and 36-point. Your name should be bold, in all capital

letters, and centered. The name and the contact information are the only items that

are centered.

Contact Information

Centered beneath your name should be your basic contact information. Your contact

information should include your email, phone number, and current city. While many

people include their mailing address, you could choose to skip it, and instead use the

space to include a website or appropriate social media account.

Section Headings

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There are two main sections every rsum should include: Experience and

Education. Your Education section should be brief, and include the name of your

high school, expected date of graduation, and your GPA and test scores if they are

competitive. Your Experience section can include after-school jobs and

extracurricular activities.

Leadership Roles

We go into more detail about including and describing leadership roles in chapter 5,

but if you held any title in an organization, it should be located under the name of

the activity and should be italicized, but not bolded.

Dates

You should also include the time you spent doing any activity or job. As we discuss

in chapter 5, colleges want to be able to gauge your participation in each activity. On

the left hand side of the page, on the same line as the name of the activity, write the

amount of time you held each position. For example, on the same line as Orchestra,

write September 2012-June 2015.

A well-organized rsum will be the first thing that readers notice as they evaluate

your candidacy. By paying close attention to detail and ensuring that your rsum is

clear and readable, you will have an advantage over candidates who present

themselves less professionally. Once you have a rough draft of your rsum in its

format, you can begin editing the content to make sure that your descriptions are

both dynamic and highlight your achievements and interests. Establishing a

consistent and effective format will serve you later as well, as you advance in your

career and return to tailor or edit your rsum.

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Chapter 10: Brainstorming

Even the most experienced writers often find starting to be the most difficult part. In this

chapter, you will find four of the most popular methods of brainstorming that should help you hone

in on your topic and devise your supporting points. There is no right way to brainstorm, and what

works for some writers may not work for others. If you are finding that one particular technique is

not particularly helpful in stimulating ideas, abandon it and try another.

Pre-Brainstorming Tips

1) Start early. It is difficult to produce a meticulously polished, well-articulated paper that has been

thrown together last minute. The earlier you start your brainstorming, the sooner you can come

up with an excellent thesis sentence (your golden ticket to your dream school!).

2) Analyze your prompts. Before you start thinking of answers to the prompts, make sure that you

have a very clear understanding of what each prompt is asking (for more on understanding essay

prompts, see chapter 12). However, understanding the prompt is not your only task. Simply

identifying and answering a question is not enough. Regardless of what the prompt may be, it is

very important to portray yourself as an excellent candidate for the school to which you are

applying (think of this as the question behind the question). Lets take a look at the first prompt

option for the Common Application:

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application

would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

While brainstorming, you should try to not only come up with stories that are central to your

identity, but also ones that have had a positive impact on your identity. Do not tell a story that has

helped you develop a social anxiety or a fear of heights. Try to come up with a story that has helped

you develop positive skills that are relevant to your capabilities as a student.

3) Brainstorm over a series of days. Try different brainstorming techniques for each of the different

prompts to see which prompts and techniques yield the best results.

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Brainstorming Techniques

Now that we have given you a way to approach the prompt, here are some useful

brainstorming techniques for coming up with topics, subtopics, and support.

1. Freewriting: Write down every idea that comes to mind when you think about your essay

topic. Set a time limit (five minutes is usually a good starting point) and, most importantly, do not go

back and edit. You can write anything in your freewriting; this includes things that may be

completely irrelevant. Freewriting is simply intended be helpful in getting you into the creative

thinking mode.

Take a look at Johns Freewriting sample, which he wrote in response to the first Common

Application prompt:

I used to spend summers at a cabin while growing up. My brother and I used to play on the train tracks. My

grandfather built the cabin. My mother used to always go to Germany when I was little. My brother begged my dad for

a canoe and he said he could have one if he saved up. Then I copied him and saved up for one too. My little sister got

an iPad instead. Germanythe farm house. The house was so integral to my childhood; I was so upset when my

family had to sell it. But that wasnt what was important.

From here, John may choose to write about his experiences at the family farm house in

Germany and how those experiences unexpectedly came to an end. He might choose to convey

how, although he has such fond memories of this farm house, there came a point where he had to

move on and let go. As you can see, the freewriting is unorganized and most will probably not yield

any results, but this is completely okay. Just as we mentioned before, freewriting is simply an

exercise to get thoughts flowing and can be very useful during the earlier development of your ideas.

2. Play the Journalist: Think of yourself as a journalist asking yourself questions about your

topic. Answer the "who," "what," "when," "where," "why", and "how."

Lets continue with our example in response to the first essay prompt. So far, John has

decided that he will write about his or her experience at the family farm house in Germany. Observe

how Playing the Journalist might lead to further idea development as follows:

Who? My entire family. The farmhouse used to belong to my grandparents. I hoped that when I would have a

family one day, my children could visit it.

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What? The farmhouse on property that has been in my family for years. Now it has been sold.

Where? In Germany, near Korbach, the town where my parents got married.

When? Last year it was sold. I had visited it almost every summer while my grandparents were still alive.

Why? It was sold because nobody in the family wanted to move out there to take care of the property.

How? I was able to get over it because I realized that the effect of the farmhouse was extremely positive on my

family. So, although the farmhouse is no longer around, we will always reap the benefits.

As you can see, John can cater the questions to his needs. This forces John to think about

how he might approach his topic from different angles. From here, John might decide to focus on

the short-term and long-term benefits that his family has received as a result of the farmhouse.

These benefits are intangible and much more valuable. Having a strong sense of duty and moral

background are very admirable qualities to demonstrate to a university.

3. Clustering/idea mapping: Take a general idea and circle it. From there, write ideas that are

subcategories of the original idea in surrounding circles, and join them to the center circle with lines.

Ideas can stem out from the outside circles, gradually contributing to more narrow topics. The

following example is Charlottes writing in response to the fifth essay prompt on the Common

Application:

Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to

adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

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As you can see, Charlotte has decided to write about studying abroad (in purple in the center

of the web). She has come up with three subcategories (in blue), which can be the main topics in her

body paragraphs. From there, Charlottes supporting evidence may come from the ideas in green,

which represent support for her subcategories.

4. The X is Y Approach: Try to fill in the following blanks in a way that relates to potential

essay topics:

X is/was/are/were Y

Once you think of one topic, you will then be forced to think about a different perspective

on that topic. This can be useful if you have a general idea of your topic but you would like to

present it from a different angle.

The following example is from Alex, who came from a family of self-made entrepreneurs.

Therefore, the first paycheck that each of his sibling receives is a rite-of-passage of sorts. Alex

knows he wants to write about his first job and how in his family, earning your first paycheck marks

the transition from childhood to adulthood. However, he doesnt know where to go from there and

is having trouble expounding upon his thoughts. Here are the comparisons that Alex might come up

with:

Getting your first job is the first sign of independence.

Spending money from your paycheck is rewarding because it makes you appreciative and teaches you the value

of a dollar.

Your first job is your first experience under an authority figure besides your parents.

My parents philosophy is that if you work at all, you must work hard.

Starting to work your first job early is beneficial because it makes you experience the real world before

beginning college.

As you can see, the X is Y approach forced Alex to expand on what earning his first

paycheck meant to him and his family. From here, Alex might notice that the encouragement from

his family for him to get a job has given rise to many of his positive traits. He may choose to write

his thesis on how this accomplishment has helped him become independent, resourceful, and

familiar with the way that businesses operate.

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Dos and Donts

Do

Start early. This will make sure the material you hand in is as carefully thought-out as

possible.

Try different brainstorming techniques. They can all yield different results, and some are

more useful i