so im prob not getting in, rip
LOL. No college is going to take the risk on someone who admits to committing a crime, making a bomb, etc. They will think you are a psycho. Donât give them a reason to not accept you. They are looking for it!
2 Likes
No you are probably not. But keep your essays clean and you will have good options.
1 Like
im just âinquisitiveâ jk, lol thanks for helping ground expectations
is there anything i can do to strengthen my profile before college apps season?
Your profile? Not in my opinion.
Your applications? Yes.
Go through the colleges on your application list and read their About Us sections and any other locations where they talk about their mission, values, and goals. Look to see how you are a fit for the institution, and then think about how to include that in your writing supplements for that particular school.
When you get to the highly-rejective colleges (which comprises most of your list) and highly accomplished students (like you), itâs not about saying how great the college is or how great you are. Itâs, at least in part, about showing how you understand what the school is about and how youâre a great fit for that and whatâs unique about you thatâs going to help further their mission/goals.
ETA: Regarding the fact that you call yourself âaverage,â you may want to read this post that talks about high achievers using this type of language.
6 Likes
Living in the woods didnât play a role in your kids getting into college, but it could have. What if by living in the woods, your kid noticed crazy amounts of lichen on rock outcroppings on your property and that got them interested in natural medicines and then in becoming a pharmacist? What I was getting at is that living next to a horse ranch and out in the middle of nowhere could become a unique essay if it actually has influenced OP. Just a little encouragement to think outside the box.
1 Like
I donât understand why itâs necessary to relate this to speeding in a car or motorcycle. Given the previous suggestions about fitting a description of the rural setting where you live into your essay, couldnât you open the essay with an evocative description of flying a fast drone over the surrounding landscape, horses, etc? (As noted, your rural home isnât a true hook - donât try to make that do too much heavy lifting - but it could set the scene nicely.) You can even note that this is a safe way of indulging your love for speed, without in any way implying that youâve been doing anything stupid on the road. (Hopefully your â30 minute driveâ isnât 60 milesâŠ) And you can talk about how you love the technical aspects of designing drones, as well as the rush you get from flying them, and where you hope to go with that in your education and career. I honestly donât see whatâs difficult about covering a lot of good bases with this essay, without sounding like a reckless adrenaline junkie. (You can even work in the watchmaking, to make the point that even complicated things that donât go 200 mph are rewarding to buildâŠ) No bombs though, please. Can you seriously imagine that any college wants to admit a self-described hobby bomber? Just no. This is common sense. Personally, Iâd stay away from sounding like a âcrypto broâ too. You have plenty to work with here, without turning your essay into a red flag parade.
7 Likes
Your loan limit for freshman year is $5500. Will your parents take out loans or co-sign them if you need more than that?
An essay about this could be an interesting one.
So I need to focus on essays now?
So drone+watch for the essays, if I have them in essays should I remove them as ecs?
They would cosign
Generally, essays should not incorporate a bunch of oneâs activities (unless thatâs specifically what the prompt asks.) Generally I also would avoid writing about your major in the common app personal statement (thatâs the main 650 word one). But yes write about the major in any supplemental essay where that is the topic âwhy X major?â If you do mention an activity in the personal statement, it should still be in your activity list.
The college essay guy website has many free resources for essay writing, including essay examples and brainstorming exercises. Do those this summer, and get a lot of your essays complete before the craziness of senior year starts.
4 Likes
Your essay should be your voice talking about yourself in a positive way.
We also have an essay writing group of members on this site who can give you some guidance.
Here is my suggestion, and itâs what my own kids did. Start some drafts with a variety of topics for your essays. Save them on your computer and edit every so often. One might just rise to the topâŠor others will simply drop off.
5 Likes
Re the rural home â it, on its own, is NOT a big deal. Literally tens of thousands of applicants come from rural areas. Itâs like class salutatorians â impressive, but actually between them and valedictorians there are something like 75,000 of them, most of whom are college applicants. So to me, by itself, not really a distinguishing characteristic.
(Also, I question if living 30 minutes from a city is truly rural).
Now, if being in a rural area affects you in some way, that can be a differentiator.
5 Likes
No⊠if youâre writing about your ECâs in such a comprehensive way that you no longer need to list them, then you are (as Mwfan explained) missing the point of the personal statement. The point is to give the reader a window into who you are as a person - your inner world, and perhaps your outer world too.
So, to be clear: I am not saying that itâs necessarily important to address drones, or watches, or speed, or open fields, or horses. What Iâm responding to is your stated desire to use speed as a unifying theme, which seemed more than a little problematic as you presented it. I was trying to imagine a different, more positive way of doing that - using a droneâs-eye-view as a window into your life, your personality, your passions. (And when I say passions, I donât mean a âWhy Aerospaceâ essay either; merely a glimpse of how your mind works, which might in turn make the reader say, âOh, I see why this kid wants to do what the rest of his application says he wants to do.â But you donât have to be explicit or heavy-handed about connecting those dots for them.)
I am not in any way saying that this has to be your essay topic. You can write about breakfast cereal and it can be amazing, if you use that as a vehicle for showing your personality and outlook on life. I made the suggestion because you seemed to have an idea that you liked, and you were getting a lot of âDonât do thatâ in response (which was correct because of the problems with your approach), so I was trying to say that you donât have to throw out your idea altogether if you donât want to.
I agree with the suggestion to work on multiple topics and see what rises to the top. This can be one of them, or not.
Nobody is saying to focus on essays exclusively. But it takes time to let ideas percolate in the way weâre suggesting. The finished product will be better if you start working on it now (which your original post suggested you already were) and allow time for the process to be organic rather than forced.
This kind of writing, whose purpose is to introduce you to the reader rather than to info-dump or build a persuasive case for a hypothesis, is new and difficult for many students. You need some time to experiment with it, and figure out what topic and approach will portray you in the best light. That doesnât mean you have to focus on essays to the exclusion of anything else. Just have your creative-process subroutine running in the background as you also work on other things, and come back to it regularly.
5 Likes
I think that you should be cautious about taking on loans. You should be particularly cautious about taking on any loans in excess of the federally subsidized amounts.
You might want to get your parents to run the NPCs for MIT and Cornell. They have pretty good need based aid, although it is hard to guess how much you would get. It might be enough for you to avoid loans, or at least avoid loans beyond the federally subsidized limits.
Some of the out of state public universities might just not be worth the cost even if you do get in. UCB comes to mind as one example (even though it is a very good university). You should however be able to find several out of state public universities that would come in under your $60,000/year limit (one daughter did, with stats that were good but not as good as yours).
2 Likes
And understand how repayment works and how much each monthly payment will be. My daughter borrowed about $20k (at interest rates much lower than they are now) and repays about $240/mo on the (typical) 10 year plan. She could get a different repayment plan, but the interest doesnât stop accruing and she wouldnât pay that much less but a lot more in interest over 15 or 20 years.
If you are borrowing the $27k direct loans plus another $30-40k PER YEAR, you are going to be drowning in debt before you even start. You have other options. You are not going to make $60K more per year because you got an engineering degree from Cornell or MIT than from your state flagship.
3 Likes
Thanks for the advice, I didnât know I shouldnât write about major in the common app main essay, thanks
Iâma start this Summer