Resources for College Admissions Essays
Personal Statements
Writing Tips for Personal Statements
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides a brief, yet comprehensive guide to writing personal statements also known as "application essays" or "statements of purpose".
What Is a Personal Statement? Everything You Need to Know About the College Essay
Quick guide from PrepScholar.com that covers everything you need to know about the different types of college essays to get you started thinking about how to write a great one.
Twelve College Essay Examples That Worked 2018
CollegeEssayGuy.com provides a series of personal statement examples from a variety of student experiences to help writers understand how to craft essays on multiple different topics.
How to Write a Personal Statement That Wows Colleges
CollegeVine.com provides a blog post on optimizing the personal statement including how to speak to your unique experiences, qualities, or beliefs that aren’t elsewhere represented on the application.
Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block
Purdue's Online Writing Lab offers some helpful tips to avoid or remedy a case of writer's block. The article lists multiple strategies to get writers thinking and writing again.
College Admissions Process
Preparing for College as a Freshman or Sophomore
Concrete steps freshman and sophomores can take to jump start their college applications and prepare for admission to Top 20 colleges and universities.
Assessing High School Curriculum for College Admissions
Almost all colleges and universities consider course rigor, or course difficulty, as part of the process for assessing candidates who apply for undergraduate admissions. This article provides a brief guide to help students shape their curriculum in preparing for top colleges.
Requesting Letters of Recommendation
A comprehensive list of questions to consider and items to provide to professors when requesting letters of recommendation for college applications.
U.S. News and World Report College Rankings
U.S. News provides nearly 50 different types of numerical rankings and lists to help students narrow their college search. From National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges to A-Plus Schools for B Students, find the right one for you.
Coalition Application
The Coalition is a diverse group of more than 140 distinguished colleges and universities that is committed to making college a reality for all high school students through their set of free online college planning tools that helps students learn about, prepare for, and apply to college.
Common Application
The Common App presents you with the opportunity to search from more than 800 schools (private, public, large and small), find the ones that meet your needs, and then add them to your My Colleges list – an all-in-one convenient place to track the work ahead of you.