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My daughter is thinking about applying to three ivies: Cornell, Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania. She was thinking about working on college essays over the summer, but she hasn't received the applications for Columbia and University of Pennsylvania yet. She requested that the applications be mailed to her, but they weren't. What should she do? She wants to prepare ahead of time so she won't have to worry about too many college application details when school starts, which I think is a GREAT idea. What should she do?

By Dave Berry on Sunday, August 05, 2001 - 03:30 pm: Edit

I admire your daughter's motivation to get a jump on her college applications. Essays are the best place to start. Here's an idea for an essay that can probably be modified to fit any of her candidate college's applications. Question: "Tell us something about yourself that we haven't learned from other parts of your application."

The goal here is to give the admissions people a peek into who your daughter really is. If she's good (really good) at humor, she shouldn't be afraid to use some funny stuff. She shouldn't be cute, though. They don't like cute stuff. Tell her to get Harry Bauld's book "On Writing The College Application Essay." Read my review of this book at:

http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_books/college_essay.htm

Great book! It will answer all of her questions.

By David Hawsey on Tuesday, August 07, 2001 - 08:22 am: Edit

Dear Mass.Mom:

Sometimes the answers are so simple we forget to look at the practical side of all of this. In a quick poll of my colleagues in schools across the country, almost all of us are making edits and other changes to our paper applications, with a few of us having just sent the final proof to the printers! And of course, this means that the online versions will have to be updated as well. Expect that you have been added to the college's database, and when the applications are shipped to the schools from the printer, you'll start getting more mail than you asked for.

By Roger on Saturday, August 11, 2001 - 11:48 am: Edit

I applaud your daughter's initiative, MassMom! Usually, it's like pulling teeth to get kids to focus on essays until they are running out of time.

By Roger (Roger) on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 06:16 pm: Edit

By the way, MassMom, my daughter graduated from Columbia last year - if your daughter has any specific questions, feel free to let me know or post them in the Columbia thread.

By anon on Friday, September 14, 2001 - 11:36 pm: Edit

Most essays are fairly general and could be used for several applications. One common topic is to discuss an interest or activity that had particular meaning or impact on the applicant. Your daughter can start with that then customize as needed.

One exception is Penn's which asked for page 217 of applicant's autobiography. Another might be "Why Penn?"

Try to access websites for the essay questions. I also recommend Bauld's book.

By Dadster on Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 09:44 am: Edit

Chicago also has some different questions. One really good essay will probably work for 80%, though, perhaps with a few small changes.