Live Chat: The College Admissions Essay
Author of new book on the college application essay, Sarah McGinty, took questions from Brookline Patch readers live.
Photos
Our live chat is above, and we took your questions live, Thursday, September 20 at 6 p.m.
Brookline Patch hosted a live chat with Sarah Myers McGinty, author of the "The College Application Essay and former member of the writing faculty at Harvard University, as well as a former admissions director at Sarah Lawrence College and principal of the McGinty Consulting Group.
And on Sunday, Sept. 23 McGinty will be at the Brookline Booksmith at 4 p.m., talking more about her book and about the process of making your essay say, "Pick me!"
To get ready, throughout the week we asked readers what they wished they knew about essay-writing, and what questions they have about application essays. Tonight, we answered your questions.
[Update: Tweaked the wording now that the event is finished, past tense instead of the future. Enjoy the transcript of the event! 9:55 p.m.]
Karla Vallance
5:24 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
An overarching question for you: what is it admissions officers look for in the application essay that they can't get from test scores?
Samantha
5:27 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
I feel like all my friends are writing about their parents' divorce or some other traumatic event and how they've grown from it. What should I write about if I haven't had any difficult experiences?
Abigail
5:38 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
My son seems to have no motivation to do college applications. How can I get him to buckle down and start working on them?