From the category archives:

application

Cliché Essay: The Extended Metaphor Essay

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“Cliché Essays” is a series of posts reflecting on the stalest admission essay topics we’ve received at Centre. In this post, we review the extended metaphor essay. Some of the best essays we’ve ever read employ this formula, but so have many of the worst…including every essay in which the applicant compares him or herself to a spork.

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Cliché Essay: “The GSP Essay”

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The Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program is the source material for a number of college application essays. Unfortunately, what feels like a highly differentiating 5-week experience makes for a fairly predictable essay; one we read several times every year.

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Cliché Essay: “The Mom & Dad Essay”

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“Cliché Essays” is a new series of posts reflecting on the stalest admission essay topics we’ve received at Centre. In this post, we review the mom and dad essay, which tends to forget it’s purpose isn’t to make mom and dad feel good, but to get into college.

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Cliché Essay: “The Sports Essay”

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“Cliché Essays” is a new series of posts reflecting on the stalest admission essay topics we’ve received at Centre. In this post, we review the sports essay, perhaps the most overused topic in the history of admission essays.

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College Essay Retrospect: “I Was So Pretentious”

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That’s the high school version of yours truly in the photo above: younger, thinner, and sporting a pair of regrettable four-inch sideburns. But those sideburns weren’t the only unfortunate product of my senior year. Not too long after this photo was taken I began work on my personal statement–my college essay.

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Does Applying Early Action Increase Your Odds of Getting In?

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As a high school student trying to stand out in an increasingly competitive applicant pool for college admission, you’re looking for anything that will give you an edge. Recent studies suggest that applying early action to colleges will increase your odds. So, is it true?

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