11 Places to Find Great College Essay Examples

Places to Find Great College Essay Examples SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Sure, you might know the theory behind what a college essay is supposed to sound and look like. But just like reading a description of the Golden Gate Bridge pales in comparison to seeing it in person, there’s no replacement for seeing actual college essays written by students just like you. Well, almost like you – they’ve since gotten into college. But where do you find good sources for reading sample college essays? How can you make sure that these resources will actually strengthen and improve your writing? And what is the best way to use the college essay examples that you do find? In this article, I’ll go over the best books and websites for finding essays, I’ll point out a few to avoid, and I’ll explain how to make the most out of other people’s essays while avoiding common pitfalls. Why Look At College Essay Examples? There are some very good reasons for wanting to check out how other people have handled the college admissions essay. First, because you'll be able to get a better sense of what colleges are looking for, you will necessarily broaden your own topic brainstorming past your first, easiest, and most clichà ©d ideas. It's one thing to hear that a completely mundane topic is way better than one focusing on your greatest sports moment. But once you see other students writing about a family meal, or an obsession with a particular board game, or a love of cultivating cacti, you'll be convinced to find your essay in the small moments of your life. Second, you'll see how your life and writing compares to that of your peers. The great diversity of voices, topics, tones, points of view will show you just how many things you could possibly write about, and how to keep the essay connected to your personality and your voice. Finally, if you really do have a good story to tell about something that gets written about a lot, like divorce, pet death, a community service trip, or winning the big game, you can get ideas for how to approach a potentially lackluster essay topicin a novel and striking way. What Makes A Good Sample College Essay Resource? First, the basics. A source is only as good as its content, so make sure you're readingcollege essays that worked, from people who actually got into the schools they applied to. Also, it's best to focus on new essays (not older than 10-15 years), so you are reading what has worked in the most recent past, rather than seeing outdated ideas and historical perspectives. Next, what you really want is diversity in voice and perspective. Make sure the essays featured come from many different kinds of students: either from applicants to both top and lower-tier schools; or from students with different ethnic, economic, and racial backgrounds; or from writers using both formal and more experimental essay techniques. Finally, the best sources of admission essays will feature explanatory material. This will give each essaysome kind of context: commentary on what makes theessay good, explanations of the drafting process, or, at least, biographical information about students. Without commentary or context, it’s hard to know what you’re supposed to learn from the essays you read. Looking at a bunch of identical koi isn't the best way to learn about freshwater fish varieties. Where to Find Great College Essay Examples Here are my recommendations for excellent resources, as well as some warnings about resources that I think you should avoid. College Essays Collected in Books I've taken a look at many of the books that collect college essays, so here are my recommendations. I've divided them into threecategories: Excellent– meaninghaving really diverse essays or very helpful commentary on each essay, or both Worthwhile– meaning either a helpful collection of essays without a lot of context or commentary, or some great advice but a narrow selection of essays geared toward one particular type of school Don't Bother– not useful either as a source of college essays or as a source of essay-writing advice and explanations Also, please note that although I’ve listed the Amazon prices for all the books, you should definitely check your school and public library for copies before buying them. And even if your library doesn't have a copy, ask them to request one either from another library in the same system or even from the Library of Congress through interlibrary loan. ExcellentBooks Heavenly Essays: 50 Narrative College Application Essays That Worked Written by Janine W. Robinson, who blogs about college essays at EssayHell, this book features great sample essays. But it's Robinson's precise and clear explanations of how to use a narrative style in your essay to tell a story about your life that make the book really outstanding. Through long and detailed commentary on each essay, Robinson shows why narrative is exactly the kind of structure that works best for personal essays. You can check out sample sections from the book on her blog. The book retails for $10 new on Amazon. On Writing the College Application Essay, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice Harry Bauld used to be an admissions officer at Brown, so he certainly knows what he is talking about when he writes abouthow and why to avoid clichà ©s andexplains how to find and keep your specific voice. Bauld demonstrates his points with sample essays, showing how they go from first to final draft. The book iseasy to read, uses humor to make points, and hisadvice will carry over into your college writing as well. It is $12.50 new on Amazon, but there are much cheaper used copies available there as well. The Berkeley Book of College Essays: Personal Statements for California Universities and Other Select Schools This compilationfeatures college admissions essays written byseniors from Berkeley High School (which is not affiliated with UC Berkeley). Because the city of Berkeley is economically, racially, and ethnically very diverse, these essays are about manydifferent interests, perspectives,and experiences, and are written in many different styles and tones. Although there is no commentary for the essays, this collection is a great way to get a sense of the broad array of essay possibilities. Also, because many of the students from Berkeley High apply to UC schools, this collection separates out UC application essay packages. (If you are interested in UC, also check outour own guide to writing excellent UC essays!) This book is currently $15 on Amazon. 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice Edited by the staff of the Harvard Crimson, this is a great collection of essays from a not particularly diverse group of students. It is very useful to see how the very top students approach the college essay, as long as their best effort neither intimidates nor stymies you. The contextual material is excellent, with helpful explanations of what makes each essay work well. This book retails for$12 new on Amazon, with much cheaper used copies also available. Worthwhile Books College Essays That Made a Difference, 6th Edition This Princeton Review guide is mostly distinguished by its introductory material, whichhas detailed interviews with many different colleges at many different tiers about what role essays play in college applications, what kind of mistakes are okay, and what to write and not to write about.The sample essays themselves come without commentary, but each features avery short bio of the student, including test scores, GPA,alist of colleges where the person applied, and a list of colleges where the person got in. Right now, it's $.50 new on Amazon, but there are cheaper used copies as well. 50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays This collection of of collegeessays that worked, edited by Gen and Kelly Tanabe, has somewhat spare, but insightful, commentary explaining what each essay does well and what it could have done better. It also includes an interview with an admissions officer explaining how essays are used in admissions decisions andsome comments from students about the writing process. The link above is to a downloadable PDF file. 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays: Get into Stanford and Other Top Colleges If you like the Tanabes' approach (they are the authors of the previous book), then you will find this one useful as well. The narrow diversity of essay content and the style of commentary (thoughtful, but not particularly detailed or expansive) is very similar. It's priced at$13.25 new on Amazon with some used options as well. Fiske Real College Essays That Work The "Fiske" of the title is Edward Fiske, whoused to be the Education editor of the NY Times, and who therefore has some experience with what colleges want from their applicants. The book itself features an introduction with somehelpful essay-writing tips, adiverse selection of essays built around narrative, but unfortunately hasvery little commentary to go with each essay. It retails for $12.50 new on Amazon, with cheaper used options available. 2015 Elite College Application Essays Although there's almost no commentary or discussion of what makes these essays work, this book is a reasonably good collection of essays from students who are now enrolled at Ivy and other top-tier schools. What's particularly appealing about this college essay compilation is how very new these essays are: all are from students who became freshmen in 2015. The book is $14 new on Amazon. Don't Bother 100 Successful College Application Essays I'd recommend not spending your time on any of the editions ofthis collection. The essays are decades old in some cases, the topics areclichà ©d and boring, and there is little to no commentary to make any of them useful. College Essays Published Online I'll split my recommendations here into "worthwhile" and "don't bother" categories. There aren't any truly great collections of sample college essays online. Worthwhile Individual College Websites. There are many essays published online by the various colleges where these students now go. This means these essays are guaranteed to be real, authentic, and to have worked on someone's application.Some of the essays even come with brief commentary by admissions officers about what makes them great. (The link will take you to our list of over 130 essays from more than 15 different colleges.) Teen Ink Magazine. Teen Ink publishes all sorts of writing by teens, including college admission essays, which are split off into their own section on the site. The essays necessary feature a wide range of experiences and perspectives, so this is a great place to get a broad sense of what other students are writing about. The essays don't have any context except comment sections thatrun the gamut from genericâ€Å"this is good† comments to some insight. Readers also get a chance to vote on which essays are featured as #1, #2, etc., which may be misleading because readers of Teen Ink aren't admissions officers. Don't Bother Watch out for paid websites like AdmitSee, CollegeMapper, and Acceptional, which claim to give you access to college essays for a monthly or fixed fee. Because of the paywall, there's no way to verify the quality of the essays these sites have. Also, thereare enough books that you could borrow from your library that you don’t need to pay monthly fees to these places. Finally, I would particularly stay away from AdmidSee, which uses Amazon reviews for other essay resources as a marketing platform. Frogs piggybacking on each other? Super cute. A company piggybacking its advertising onto book reviews? Really not cute at all. The Best Ways To Use College Admission Essay Samples So now that you've rounded up a bunch ofsample college essays, what should you do with them? Here are some tips for your next steps. When Should You Read Essay Examples? I'd advise waiting until after you've done some brainstorming of your own before you start immersing yourself in other people's work and ideas. (If you're not sure how to brainstorm, check out our guide to coming up with great college essay topics.) This way, you can use other people’s essays to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic. For example, looking at how other people tackled their life experience can show you: how tofocus on a different detail in your own story how to change the insight you want to draw from your story how to think about different ways to start and end your narrative What Can Good College Essays Teach You? There are both broad and specific learning opportunities to be found in reading other people's work. Broadly speaking, seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your own creative process. Likewise,reading a diversity of thoughts and voices will show you that even the most normal and boring seeming experiences be made into riveting essays. More specifically,if you find essays from applicants to your target school, you can get some sense of the level of sophistication they expect to see from your writing. Finally,good context and commentary on the essays can show you how they are put together and what makes them work. You can then put this advice to use when rewriting your essay later. Pitfalls To Avoid Of course, being surrounded by other people's work, especially when some of that work is much better than what you think you can manage, has its share of temptations. So what do you need to guard against when looking at sample essays? Plagiarism. This one is basic and obvious. Do not copy these sample essays! Admissions officers have seen them all, read them all, memorized them all – you will not get away with it. Copying and mimicry. Think of this as a softer kind of plagiarism. Even if you really like someone else’s style, don’t borrow it. Even if someone’s life sounds more exciting than yours, don’t steal a piece of it for your own essay. Why? Because ifyou don’t sound like yourself, it will be visibleto an experiencedreader (and guess what, admissions officers are very experienced readers). Also, if you’re writing about experiences that aren't yours, your unfamiliaritywill show through the lack of believable details. Let this hand-in-the-alligator's-mouth image pop up in your brain every time you think about stealing someone else's work. Resources for Essay Writing Advice In researching this article, I came across books and websites that don't necessarily feature a lot of sample essays, but that give really excellent advice on writing your own college essay. I strongly recommend you spend some time checking them out. Essay Hell blog. This great resource is written by Janine Anderson Robinson, an English teacher and a journalist, whosebook Heavenly Essays I recommended above. The blog posts feature lots and lots of well-explained, detailed, easy to understand advice about how to write your essay, and are broken down into easy to understand, bite-sized nuggets of usefulness. Slate's Getting In podcast. The entire series is an interesting look at the college application process, with useful tips and explanations about all aspects what seniors are going through. Check out Episode 2: The Essay, in which astudent gets feedback in real time on their essay from a former Princeton director of admissions and apanel of experts talk about essay dos and don’ts. The episode is26 minutes long. The College Essay Trap: Rescue Your College Application Essay From the "Maybe" Pile This isincredibly concise and excellent explanation of what not to do and what to avoid when writing your personal statement. It's short, sweet, to the point, and is praised to the skies by legendary Princeton admissions dean Fred Hargadon. Currently $12 new on Amazon. The Bottom Line Look at college essay examples to broaden your own topic brainstorming and get ideas for fixing lackluster topics. Look for resources with diverse and recent essays, from many different kinds of students and with explanatory material that explains what makes each essay good. Look at essay samples after you’ve generated some of your own ideas to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic. Seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your creative process. Avoid both actual plagiarism and â€Å"borrowing†: don’t use someone else’s style, voice, or life experiences as your own. What’s Next? If you’re starting to work on college essays, check out our article laying out every single kind of essay prompt out there and a step by step guide to writing a great college essay. Are youworking onthe Common App essay? Read ourbreakdown of the Common App promptsand our guide topicking the best prompt for you. Ormaybe you'reinterested in the University of California? Check outour complete guide to the UC personal statements. Working on other pieces of your college applications? We’ve got guides tochoosing the right college for you,writing about extracurriculars, andrequesting teacher recommendations. Thinking about taking the SAT one last time, or prepping for your first run at it? Readour ultimate guide to studying for the SATand make sure you're as prepared as possible. Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Who Invented Homework and Why †Top Facts You Should Know

Who Invented Homework and Why – Top Facts You Should Know Homework is today an integral part of the educational process; it makes learning easier and more effective. We have been involved with doing tasks since school years. And very less of us were thinking about who invented homework. What is the name of that smart person to believe in a magic of homework; when was homework invented; when was the invention made? What was the initial purpose of homework? Let’s find answer to who invented homework and why in this post and discuss the practical value of at-home task a teacher puts behind it. I NEED MY HOMEWORK DONE Historical Facts Mentions of the term refer to the era of ancient Rome. In I century AD, Pliny the Younger, the teacher on the oratory who invented homework, asked his followers in Quintilian to participate in at-home activities. The practice was aimed at developing speaking skills of a person in a more informal atmosphere. Results of  homework assignments were just impressive; such teaching approach was used by other tutors moving forward. An Italian pedagog Roberto Nevilis is considered the real â€Å"inventor† of homework. He was the person who invented homework in far 1905 and made it a punishment to his students. Since time when was homework invented, this practice has become popular around the world. The end of the 19th century is notable due to significant changes in the education system. Great developments were associated with some changes in terms how frequently and what kind of homework was given by a tutor. This all affected education quality. Teachers following the approach of a tutor who invented the homework considered the fulfillment of homework as a necessary type of training; it was a compulsory part of training. From that point of view, teaching can hardly move forward without home lessons. Homework was defined as one of forms of independent work. Attaching great importance to the ability of the student to learn independently. In order for an at-home task to perform functions set by a tutor, it should meet the following criteria: it must be feasible; it should not be large and complex; it is not to be set at the beginning of training until students learn how to work independently. Learning at home can contribute to the general studying process. One of important tasks the modern school is facing is to improve quality of teaching. And homework is a great tool; a person who invented homework is a real hero in this regard. You can gain a lot of knowledge with a professional helper. ORDER HOMEWORK When Was Homework Invented? Owing to Roberto Nevilis, an Italian pedagog who invented the homework, we can notice obvious improvement in the education system and its efficiency since 1905. Since time when was homework invented, there is a real improvement in the education sector. Educators who adhere to traditional views on the learning process believe that home learning is an essential condition for efficient educational activities. According to a person who invented homework, it is a way to develop students' initiative, independence, individuality, and creative imagination. Apart from the above points, the need for home teaching is determined by following factors: During the in-school learning, a concentrated assimilation of the studied material takes place. Afterwards, the gained knowledge is forgotten. To prevent this forgetting, homework is needed; Mastery of scientific concepts requires their repeated comprehension and assimilation; The thoroughness and strength of the material assimilation being studied is achieved only when its memorization is dispersed; Home learning is important for the development of students' creative talents and abilities. The success of the teaching depends on the success of homework preparing. This aspect has been considered since time when was homework invented; organization of homework is the most difficult thing in the teaching and educational process. Many aspects of this problem require the closest attention from the tutor. When elaborating an assignment for children, teachers should realize that the process of educational material assimilation passes through obligatory stages: perception comprehension fastening the formulation of the formation of skills application of new knowledge and skills in practice If you wonder who invented homework and why, read further to know even more. What Are the Main Purposes of Homework? The role of homework has always been discussed not just by those who invented school and homework. Many people today believe that homework is not obligatory for mastering the studied material. But recent scientific research proves the opposite. According to the study, homework plays an important role in improving quality of students' knowledge. This is true about elementary school. Who invented homework and why? According to Roberto Nevilis, who invented school and homework, this academic task provides the student with the opportunity: to work without haste; to study with no outside estimation; to choose the optimal rhythm (hours) of work; to independently plan the course of work; to involve all necessary sources of information. Based on above points, the value of the academic assignment is in: fixing in memory the material disassembled in the classroom; repetition of previously passed material; consolidation and expansion of various skills necessary for independent work. The main purpose of the homework:   education of strong-willed efforts of the child, responsibility and independence; mastering the skills of educational work, expressed in various ways of teaching; formation of the ability to extract necessary information from various directories, manuals, dictionaries; the formation of student's research skills (comparison, comparison, assumption, hypothesis construction, etc.). A suitable system of homework assignments in each class and the totality of all classes is a prerequisite for the students to successfully master the program material. It necessitates to apply different types of homework. The main goal of the tutor is the rationale for the type of homework depending on material being studied. The tutor should be able to correctly combine different variants of homework in each class and in all classes. A good option would be to get students out of the box with outdoor learning. ORDER NOW - RECEIVE YOUR A-GRADE PAPER Types of Homework Since the time when was homework invented, there were not many types of individual tasks. Since the person who invented school and homework didn’t have a chance to do enough â€Å"testing† in this regards, it was difficult to him to create a formula of effective at-home studying. Nowadays, teachers involve the following types of homework in the studying process. Mastering material under study according to the textbook; Performance of oral exercises; Performance of written exercises; Performance of creative works (essay writing, etc.); Preparation of reports on the studied material (coursework writing, etc.); Conducting observations and experiments. With a balanced combination of above homework types, it is possible to help students easily perceive information. Click here to get more info about writing an A-grade argumentative essay. Become a guru of case study writing with our  guide. What’s the Role of Homework in Improving the Education Quality? One way to ease the learning process is to improve the content and organization of at-home tasks on the subject. The variety of homework variants is vast. Each is aimed at improving the quality of students' knowledge, enhancing studying process, and systemizing acquired knowledge. Psychologists have found that the assimilation of knowledge and methods of activity is critical. The primary perception and consolidation of knowledge during the lesson with any arbitrarily effective organization of the study process must necessarily be supported by subsequent thinking and applying new knowledge. And if the primary perception and consolidation of knowledge can be frontal, the subsequent work is to be individual and independent. Homework is not a means of controlling a student. It is an opportunity to devote time to the studied subject. In such a way, you can systematize knowledge gained in the class and sharpen your skills on a particular topic. Without completing at-home tasks, the student deprives himself of additional time in studying. The goal of such an assignment is to consolidate knowledge and practice the skills acquired in the lesson. If you have other ideas and questions about who invented homework and why feel free to share your comments in a below section.