How important is the application essay?
They are very important! Application essays and interviews are places where you can connect with admission officers and alumni. At Story To College we help you discover and share stories about yourself that are not found anywhere else in your application – small, subtle differences between you and people who may look a lot like you on paper.
Is it true that colleges are on the lookout for plagiarized college essays? Why?
Yes they are because college application essays are readily available on the Internet and because lots of parents have professional editors work on their children’s college essays. Don’t do it, and don’t let your parents do it. Admission officers would much rather hear your authentic stories and voice. At Story To College we are trained to help YOU find your own stories, to tell them in your own voice – and to have fun!
Everyone says you should write your college essays in your personal voice, but how much of myself should I really expose?
That is a really good question, and one that everyone answers a bit differently. In the college application process you start to think about which stories you want to share, how and with whom. In Story To College intensive workshops we help you to answer that question for yourself.
Why storytelling?
Our brains are hard-wired for storytelling. Long after we’ve forgotten facts and figures, we remember stories. That’s why corporate executives and community organizers lead with stories. That’s why storytelling serves as the foundation of successful college applications and interviews. That’s why Story To College uses a proven storytelling methodology to help students reduce stress, conquer the college application process, and have fun!
Oral storytelling is a critical life skill and attribute of leadership (Peter Guber, Tell to Win, 2011) and increasingly important for success in education, business and life (Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind, 2006). Most high school students struggle to speak and write in their own voice. Parents describe their children’s – and their own – frustration completing college application essays.
Story To College uses oral storytelling to help high school juniors and seniors break down “the wall” many of them describe between their life experience and their college application essays, teaching tools, and techniques that generate successful essays, interviews, and financial aid applications.
