The College Application Essay, 6th Ed

Ms. McGinty's book was, I believe, the third book I have purchased on the subject. And the third time is, as they say, the charm. Ms. McGinty limits her discussion to college essays, but her advice and wisdom could and should be applied to all writing: letters, emails, essays, and even I suppose product reviews. The book is primarily one on writing -- in fact Elements of Style is included in the bibliography. But where Strunk and White focus on the (very important) mechanics of writing, Ms. McGinty goes further, including chapters on //pre-writing// which I believe is very important for college essays. She points out that the typical question on a college essay has a familiar subject and knowable answer: tell me about yourself. But self-reflection isn't necessarily a strong point among many teenagers, and Ms. McGinty has excellent advice on how to gradually develop this skill. Once the writer is a bit more familiar with himself, he can benefit from Ms. McGinty's strategies on turning that knowledge into a concise essay.The college essay is perhaps unique among the writing assignments that high school students have in that the subject is known and the timeline to write it is long. Ms. McGinty advises students, as a result, to take the time to develop their warehouse of ideas and snippets about themselves and their interests to allow them to write an authentic and interesting first draft…and then to leave enough time to mercilessly edit for clarity.Which is all to say that anyone can benefit from this book. It contains advice, strategies, and excellent examples of how a student can develop an idea, express it, and improve it. Whether or not it helps your high schooler get into the college of his choice, it will certainly help him develop into a better writer. Highly recommended.

If I could give this fewer than one star I would. Couldn't get past the first chapter as it plugs all things College Board. I purchased this in haste and should have looked closer to see it was published by the College Board whose sole purpose is to crank out materials that dupe parents into believing that College Board is the only possible path to a quality higher education.There is a complete lack of any other resource mentioned in this book. No mention of the growing list of test optional schools that who recognize the tyranny College Board and Pearson have reigned down on the school system. No mention of the ACT that takes a slightly different approach to testing and is a better fit for some students. Nope. Just start using College Board when you are a Freshman. Take as many AP classes and SAT subject tests as soon as you enter your Freshman year. Don't question College Board anything.I can't review the entire book because I don't plan to read it, but there is one chapter on essay form that might be somewhat helpful to the student who is in the middle of writing an essay. If you are in the middle of your sophomore or junior year though, find a different source as this book will just stress you out and make you think you have messed up already if you haven't focused on College Board materials throughout your entire high school career.My advice to anyone who is approaching their college years is to hire a good independent high school counselor to support your process. School Counselors are so overloaded and can only serve so many students. A good independent counselor can help you strategize about what makes sense to you. Also, independent Counselors (and high school counselor's who have time to sit down and advise students) have access to so many more materials than College Board would like you to think are available.Now, take a deep breath and keep looking for a good college essay resource.

I would recommend this book to anyone starting the college application process or anyone looking to enhance their writing. This book will not disappoint as it highlights writing college essays while providing advice that will enhance any writing question you may face in an application and beyond.Additionally, the author, Sarah McGinty, utilizes her network of college admissions officers to provide quotes and insights throughout the book elaborating on what they want to see in an essay.Lastly, to solidify the tips and techniques provided in the book, the last chapter, chapter 8, provides analysis of multiple essays. This chapter was specifically useful, as I was able to get a better understanding of how to phrase what I want to say.Overall, this book enhanced my college application process as it helped me write/edit my essay, as well as provided insight into the application process as a whole.

There's a lot of extraneous information about writing general essays when the book should cut to the chase with actual college application essay information. I got sidetracked by all that stuff when I should have just skipped it and read the information that directly pertains to personal essays. So perhaps in the next edition, College Board can dump the foo-foo and give more how-tos on the essay and more examples of fantastic, good, bad and ugly, with greatest emphasis on the fantastic.

In the midst of my college application process, this book proved to be the most helpful thing that I could have come across. It helped me write and edit my essay, and also gave me tips on the application process as a whole. My essay would not have been nearly as well-written without the book and the help of Sarah Mcginty. If you are planning on applying to college soon, then I would highly recommend buying this book.

This is one of the best college essay writing resource that I have come across. It educates both parents and children on the process of essay writing. The sample essay analysis in chapter 8 was very useful

Concise n comprehensive

Very good book! But not five stars because the book has some pages not print in order...

I think that it's THE book u should look for if want a good score in the essay of SAT..