Writing the College Admission Essay:
From Blank Page to Polished Document
A Workshop For High School Seniors
Instructor: Mieke Eerkens
The competition to get into a good college is stronger than ever these days. Students work hard at getting good grades and cramming for the SAT, ACT, and AP exams. But they often overlook one of the most important elements of a college application: The personal essay or personal statement. This element of an application can make or break a student’s chances of admission, and often is the weak point in an application package. Institutions are looking not only for applicants who can demonstrate that they have the character to fit into their academic and social community, but those who are able to communicate this effectively in their application essays.
This course will help high school seniors bring their A game to their application packages. In this workshop, we’ll build the admission essay from the ground up, allowing students to emerge from the process with a thoughtful, polished, edited essay to maximize their potential of gaining admission to the college of their choice. Each student will hear exactly what elements college admission officers are looking for in their own words, look at successful essays, do helpful exercises to start building their essay, participate in an interactive workshop for peer feedback at each stage of their writing process, and get a high degree of personalized one-on-one feedback and guidance from the instructor, a published author and college instructor in writing who is specialized in personal narrative, academic, and composition writing and has a graduate degree from the top-ranked graduate writing program in the United States, The University of Iowa.
Tuition: $1250 (Partial tuition scholarships available based on demonstrated financial need)
2 Sessions:
October 11-October 31 (for early admission college applications)
Nov. 2-23 (for regular college application deadlines)
