What do you think?
Rate this book
College Essays That Made a Difference
What's the scariest part of the college application? For most, it's that big white space where an essay is supposed to go, and this book puts you in the admissions officer's seat as you set out to write those college application essays.
College Essays That Made a Difference, 2nd Edition includes 123 real-life essays written by applicants to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, MIT, and more, as well as complete application profiles of all the students, including test scores, GPAs, demographic information, and where they got in and where they didn't.
Inside you'll find interviews with admissions pros at Amherst College, Bucknell University, Colgate University, Cooper Union, Deep Springs College, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Macalester College, Northwestern University, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, Wake Forest University, and Yale University.
You'll also find real essays written for applications to the following Amherst College, Barnard College, Bates College, Boston College, Bowdoin College, Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Carleton College, Claremont McKenna College, Colby College, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Davidson College, Duke University, Georgetown University, Harvard College, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, Macalester College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, New College of Florida, Northwestern University, Pomona College, Princeton University, Rice University, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Tufts University, United States Air Force Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, United States Naval Academy, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Washington and Lee University, Washington University in St. Louis, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, Williams College, and Yale University.
College Essays That Made a Difference, 2nd Edition includes 123 real-life essays written by applicants to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, MIT, and more, as well as complete application profiles of all the students, including test scores, GPAs, demographic information, and where they got in and where they didn't.
Inside you'll find interviews with admissions pros at Amherst College, Bucknell University, Colgate University, Cooper Union, Deep Springs College, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Macalester College, Northwestern University, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, Wake Forest University, and Yale University.
You'll also find real essays written for applications to the following Amherst College, Barnard College, Bates College, Boston College, Bowdoin College, Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Carleton College, Claremont McKenna College, Colby College, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Davidson College, Duke University, Georgetown University, Harvard College, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, Macalester College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, New College of Florida, Northwestern University, Pomona College, Princeton University, Rice University, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Tufts University, United States Air Force Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, United States Naval Academy, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Washington and Lee University, Washington University in St. Louis, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, Williams College, and Yale University.
400 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 2003
40 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
The Princeton Review
2,162 books36 followersThe Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 9, 2015
I picked up this older edition just out of curiosity as I know many young people who will be applying to college this year. The upfront explanation did a lot to tune the reader's lens more closely to that of an admissions officer. I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by the writing samples, but could understand how they each stood out or conveyed something beyond the typical submission. I was also struck that the essay form was most definitely a personal narrative, very close to memoir. Many of the represented students had disproportionately had involvement in extracurricular writing activities, such as yearbook staff. While it's obvious that some kids will write better than others, it's probably not known that many kids will not have had ANY training in the written form required of them. Thus, the literary kids have quite an advantage. My one BIG complaint about the book is that it reinforced the matchmaking of the upper class to elite institutions. I read about kids who had travelled the globe, conducted science experiments in labs, and participated in an abundance of extracurricular activities, all of which screamed "my parents have money!" I wanted to cringe at the "challenges" these kids faced, and there was not a single essay in the bunch that related to economic hardship. Something tells me that had The Princeton Review published the same book with excerpts from the top essays at public schools, the writing quality and content would have been better simply due to the depth of the student experiences.
October 24, 2007
This book gives high school students tips about how to write a good college essay. They interviewed many different schools such as Yale, John Hopkins, Wellesley, and more. With the information from those interviews, i got the sense of what colleges want from an essay. So this book really helped me a lot in my own essay.
This book also contains many good essays from students all over the country. But one thing i hate most about this is that all the essays are from students with high GPA and SAT scores (1400 and above). Those students are perfect comparing to me. So it makes me feel very bad about my own grades.
This book also contains many good essays from students all over the country. But one thing i hate most about this is that all the essays are from students with high GPA and SAT scores (1400 and above). Those students are perfect comparing to me. So it makes me feel very bad about my own grades.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews