I’m a firm believer that the best time to work on your college application essays is the summer before senior year. But when that time comes, some juniors feel a little leery about shifting their writing style to personal narratives after spending their high school years focused on expository writing (aka thesis papers). Unlike most school assignments, your college application essays require you to tell stories about yourself.

If you want to get into a “personal narrative mindset,” you may find it helpful to do some journaling. Journaling is simply writing down your experiences, thoughts and reflections. You can spend as much or as little time as you like and you can write in whatever form you choose: by hand, on your computer, your phone, etc. It’s helpful to have a central location (whether it’s an actual journal, digital document, etc) to keep all your entries. I strongly recommend not posting your writing to social media; journaling is for you, not the rest of humanity. In add...more

Students and parents frequently ask us how they can highlight their community service in college applications.  While community service is not required for admission to highly selective colleges, it is definitely one way to show colleges your involvement in your community, your values and the way you choose to spend your time.  Here are five tips to consider as you decide whether and how to highlight your community service in college applications:

Go Beyond the Minimum Required
Some high schools require that students perform community service, sometimes with a minimum number of hours.  Given that you will first be compared to the other students at your school, if you apply to the same colleges, you should think about completing more than the minimum number of hours, which will be viewed as “checking the box” for community service, but little more.  Students who amass significant hours of community service, with ongoing involvement with local non-profit organizat...more

Are you deep into college essay writing at this point?  YOU SHOULD BE!  It’s time to get those essays going, so you don’t have to spend your entire Thanksgiving (and winter?!) break working on your college applications.  Just a little time each day will add up to save you a chunk of time later!

Here are five important questions to ask yourself as you proofread and revise your essays:

1.  Do I express something new about myself, something that the reader won’t know just from reading my resume or activities list?
Your college essay is your chance to go beyond your resume, explaining the significance of the things you’ve done in your life.  Don’t just rehash a list of your accomplishments.  They’ve seen that!  Give them some of your personality.  Tell a story that really shows who you are, and what you might contribute to their campus community.

2.  Am I memorable and/or likeable?
This is really important.  When college admission co...more

This interview was originally published on the Varsity Tutors website.

Varsity Tutors brings you insider tips and advice straight from nationally recognized admissions experts. Evelyn Alexander provides college admissions counseling services to a number of students and their families through Magellan College Counseling. She is an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University where she also served as a volunteer admissions recruiter for 15 years.

VT: How far ahead of time should a student begin working on his or her college application?

Evelyn: College applications are generally available the summer before the student’s senior year. The Common Application, for example, should open in August for the Class of 2015. While I would advise students to start their applications as early as possible, I would also encourage them to start exploring colleges long before the summer before senior year. I start working with students at the beginning of junior year, digging into possible majors and car...more