The Noble App

04/21/2017

After years of working with students on their college application essays, I believe with all my heart that many, many schools offer rich, rewarding experiences—even if they're not the "it" schools.

It used to upset him that many kids he interviewed would not get into Harvard, but no longer.

04/05/2017

After coaching dozens and dozens of students through their college application essays, I couldn't agree more that that being a decent human being and allowing that decency to shine through in how you live your life everyday matters. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/opinion/check-this-box-if-youre-a-good-person.html?referer=http://m.facebook.com

On college applications, every so often, the kindness of a student can’t help shining through.

01/11/2016

"When it comes to the application, admissions counselors say the biggest red flag is a sloppy, half-baked essay." It really IS worth those 15 rewrites ;-)

12/17/2015

Some of the students I've worked with this fall are starting to hear from schools. And I'm thrilled to announce that one of my students was accepted at Yale this week, and another has been accepted into the engineering program at Michigan State. Good writing makes a difference! Congrats, all.

10/14/2015

it can help to know what admissions officers think about college essays. Tufts offers some interesting insights here: http://admissions.tufts.edu/apply/advice/past-essays/common-application-essays/

06/16/2015

Congrats to the graduating seniors, including my youngest daughter! I had a great season of college essay consulting, and the students I worked with will be attending Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, Kenyon College, Virginia Tech, Tulane, the University of Virginia, Northeastern University, Penn State, the University of South Carolina, and Miami of Ohio University, among others. Well-deserved success by each and every one of them. Go blue!

01/05/2015

As deadlines pass (and loom), the single best thing you can do to improve your college essay is tighten your writing.
"...many college students could improve their writing dramatically merely by setting their sights on shorter sentences. Many students have somehow got the assumption that scholarly writing requires a certain tone of voice..."

Ben Myers praises the short, apt sentence, noting that he's "been trying to use a greater variety of sentence types in my writing, and I have particularly been labouring to achieve good short sente...

06/15/2014

Yes, it is possible to tell TOO much in a college essay.

The raw and relevatory admissions essay reflects the blinding competition to get into elite schools.

06/06/2014

06/03/2014

Wouldn't you rather spend your summer floating around in a canoe instead of being trapped inside working on a college admissions essay? Get your essay done now, and spend your summer outside.