Whenit comes to deciding who they will admit into their programs, colleges consider many criteria, including high school grades, extracurricular activities, and ACT and SAT scores.
But in recent years, more colleges are no longer considering test scores.
A college essay is your unique opportunity to introduce yourself to admissions committees who must comb through thousands of applications each year. It is your chance to stand out as someone worthy of a seat in that classroom.
Therefore, start your essay with an opening sentence or paragraph that immediately seizes the imagination. This might be a bold statement, a thoughtful quote, a question you pose, or a descriptive scene.
Starting your essay in a powerful way with a clear thesis statement can often help you along in the writing process. If your task is to tell a good story, a bold beginning can be a natural prelude to getting there, serving as a roadmap, engaging the reader from the start, and presenting the purpose of your writing.
They want to know what has brought you to this stage in life. They want to read about realizations you may have come to through adversity as well as your successes, not just about how many games you won while on the soccer team or how many people you served at a soup kitchen.
Let the reader know how winning the soccer game helped you develop as a person, friend, family member, or leader. Make a connection with your soup kitchen volunteerism and how it may have inspired your educational journey and future aspirations. What did you discover about yourself?
If you want your essay to stand out, think about approaching your subject from an entirely new perspective. While many students might choose to write about their wins, for instance, what if you wrote an essay about what you learned from all your losses?
You may want to stay away from well-worn themes entirely, like a sports-related obstacle or success, volunteer stories, immigration stories, moving, a summary of personal achievements or overcoming obstacles.
Be sure you can answer questions such as: Does what you have written make sense? Is the essay organized? Does the opening grab the reader? Is there a strong ending? Have you given enough background information? Is it wordy?
Start writing months before your essay is due to give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts. A good time to start could be as early as the summer before your senior year when homework and extracurricular activities take up less time.
Although there are often no strict word limits for college essays, most essays are shorter rather than longer. Common App, which students can use to submit to multiple colleges, suggests that essays stay at about 650 words.
In reviewing other technical aspects of your essay, be sure that the font is readable, that the margins are properly spaced, that any dialogue is set off properly, and that there is enough spacing at the top. Your essay should look clean and inviting to readers.
Harvard Summer School offers more than 400 courses for all Summer School students in more than 60 different subject areas. Our courses are offered in a variety of flexible formats, so you can find the option that works best with your busy schedule.
Many consider junior year to be the most challenging year of high school. I would argue the first semester of senior year is the new junior year. Colleges are placing more emphasis on senior year course load, so many students do not ease up on advanced coursework. And according to data from the Common Application, seniors now apply to an average of almost six colleges.
Creating a great college essay takes time. And summertime, at least in theory, provides a respite from demanding high school schedules. Summer lends itself to creativity, and allows students time to reflect on their high school years and to dream about their future selves.
I appreciate the introspection required of the essay. I even volunteer with Literary Arts, a non-profit in Portland, Oregon, where I go into area high schools to provide individual coaching on the college essay. Some detractors say the essay is formulaic and performative, but a good college essay is neither.
Spend one session reading through sample essays, and another choosing an essay prompt and brainstorming ideas. A subsequent session would involve tackling a first draft. Any further sessions could be spent editing.
Bring home donuts or go to a movie after your incoming senior finishes the essay or even a draft. Gift the small things they love that show them you see their hard work, or just tell them how proud you are of their progress.
Jen Guzman is a part-time elementary school librarian and full-time mom to two young adults. Her eldest, Noe, is on the autism spectrum. She writes extensively about the joys and challenges of raising a son on the autism spectrum and is currently finishing up a middle grade novel based on her family's experiences. She lives with her husband and kids in Portland, Oregon, where she cheers on her hometown Trail Blazers and Thorns.
It was published on Kremlin.ru shortly after the end of the first of two buildups of Russian forces preceding the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In the essay, Putin describes his views on Ukraine and Ukrainians.[2]
In the essay, Putin argues that Russians and Ukrainians, along with Belarusians, are one people, belonging to what has historically been known as the triune Russian nation.[5] To support the claim, he describes in length his views on the history of Russia and Ukraine,[6] concluding that Russians and Ukrainians share a common heritage and destiny.[7]
Noting the large number of ethnic Russians in Ukraine, Putin compares "the formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressive towards Russia" to a use of weapons of mass destruction against Russians.[8]
Putin places blame for the current crisis on foreign plots and anti-Russian conspiracies.[9] According to Putin, the decisions of the Ukrainian government are driven by a Western plot against Russia as well as by "followers of Bandera".[12]
Several months later, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, also published an article on Ukraine in the Russian daily Kommersant. In it, he agrees with Putin's essay, and declares that there will be no negotiations with Ukraine until the Ukrainian government is replaced.[14] The article, endorsed by the Kremlin, was criticized for its denigrating and antisemitic tone.[15][16]
Of course, Lenin did not create Ukraine. In 1918, he started a war against an independent Ukrainian state and then replaced it with a puppet state called the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. What Lenin really created was the Russian Federation, a state that received its constitution in 1918 and became part of the USSR four years later. In 1991, Yeltsin removed this entity created by Lenin from the USSR, thereby contributing to the collapse of the Union. Lenin was the creator of modern Russia, not Ukraine, and should be considered as such.
The same state-owned RIA Novosti published another article in April 2022, this time without any backtracking. Titled "What Russia Should Do with Ukraine", the article openly accused the entire Ukrainian nation of being Nazis who must be wiped out and in some cases re-educated.[26][27][28]
On 29 March 2022, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official government gazette of the Russian government, published an article that claims that European elites support the Ukrainian Nazis because of their bitterness over the loss in the Second World War.[29] The article quotes Ukrainian priest Vasiliy Zenkovskiy, "Ukraine must become a part of Russia, even if Ukrainians are against it".[30]
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, criticized the essay on 13 July, comparing Putin's view on the brotherhood between the nations with the story of Cain and Abel.[31] Former president Petro Poroshenko also sharply criticized the essay, describing it as a counterpart of Hitler's Sudetenland speech.[32] Former president of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves similarly likened it to Hitler's 1938 rhetoric justifying the partition of Czechoslovakia.[33] Ukraine's envoy to United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya commented, "fables about the 'one people' ... have been refuted in Donbas battlefields".[34]
According to the Institute of History of Ukraine, the essay represents the historical views of the Russian Empire.[35] The Ukrainian World Congress compares Putin's view of Ukraine "as a non-nation" to that of Joseph Stalin under whose watch at least five million Ukrainians perished during the Holodomor.[6]
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace called the essay a "historical, political, and security predicate for invading [Ukraine]".[36] The Stockholm Free World Forum senior fellow Anders slund branded the essay as "one step short of a declaration of war."[9] According to Foreign Policy, the essay is a "key guide to the historical stories that shape Putin's and many Russian's attitudes".[37] Historian Timothy Snyder has described Putin's ideas as imperialism.[38] British journalist Edward Lucas described it as historical revisionism.[39] Other observers have noted that the Russian leadership has a distorted view of modern Ukraine and its history.[clarification needed][5][9]
In Romania, a part of the essay caused outrage. The fragment in question describes how, in 1918, the Kingdom of Romania had "occupied" (and not united with) the geographical region of Bessarabia, part of which is now in Ukraine. Romanian media outlets such as Adevărul and Digi24 commented on Putin's statements and criticized them. Remarks were also made regarding Northern Bukovina, another former Romanian territory now part of Ukraine.[40][41] Alexandru Muraru [ro], then a deputy of Romania, also replied to Putin's essay, declaring that Bessarabia was not occupied but "reattached" and "reincorporated" following "democratic processes and historical realities". Muraru also commented on Northern Bukovina.[42]
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