Importance of Writing in College Admissions

Importance of Writing in College Admissions July 5 Robin Williams character was a fantastic English teacher in Dead Poets Society. But most English teachers across America arent very good at teaching writing. There, we said it. In many years of working in the private college counseling industry, one key takeaway of ours is a rather simple one. The vast majority of college applicants cant write well. This is true of the C students and the A students. This is true of the students with perfect and near-perfect SAT and ACT scores. This is true of the students whose SAT and ACT scores make you wonder if they were at all conscious for the exam, even for a few brief moments. And, yes, even the students with perfect 800s on the Writing portion of the SAT so often cant write well. In fact, in all of our years in this business, we can only think of half a handful of students who could write well. And weve worked with quite a few students at Ivy Coach. Late night shows often feature interviews of folks on the streets in which they ask them who America fought in the American Revolution or who  is featured on the $20 billfold. Its always rather astonishing to observe how much people dont know about our countrys own history. Admittedly, its a little bit amusing. But its high time that more attention is given to the writing abilities of our graduating high school students. While their teachers mostly all  have good intentions, so many students are writing, well, formulaically. Theyre starting sentences with however and nevertheless. They start each paragraph with a thesis sentence so we dont have to bother reading the rest of the wordsuntil the next thesis statement. Its old. Its tiresome. Its stale. Its boring. It encourages the reader to just skip ahead. Dare to write a fragment. Dare to not start a sentence with the word I. Dare to not start every sentence with the word I. You may think this suggestion is silly, but youd be surprised how many college essays feature tons of sentences beginning with I. Enough. Dare to be different. Dare to write creatively. Dare to write in your own unique, individual style and voice. And then, admissions officers may just take notice. Yes, were aware we began the previous sentence with the word and. And were absolutely ok with this! Deal with it. While youre here, read about how we encourage our students to ignore their English teachers  (most of the time). Sorry English teachers.