University of Virginia Info Session

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Please join Senior Associate Dean of Admission Ryan Hargraves and a panel of recent graduates for a presentation about the University and admission process.

Monday, October 20, 2014
UVa Club of New York
50 Vanderbilt Avenue
New York, NY 10007
Writing a College Essay 101 at 6:00pm
Evening Program at 7:00pm

Please RSVP at www.admission.virginia.edu/uva-visits-you

-jmp

Underclass Dates to Remember

McKee High School College & Career Office has teamed up with Princeton Review to help students in every grade with college planning and preparation. Check out some of the dates coming up on next year's calendar.

Oct 1 – Senior Night! – College Admissions workshop-

Applying to college is more sophisticated than ever before. Our 2-hour seminar provides reliable, easy-to-understand explanations and step-by-step instructions. You will understand what you need to do and when you need to do it to take complete control of your college application process.

Topics covered include:

• Positioning yourself for admission
• Navigating the application process
• Understanding your academic credentials
• How selectivity influences admission decisions
• How admissions officers evaluate applicants
• The impact and importance of what you do outside the classroom
• A strategic approach to choosing standardized tests (PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests)
• Owning the interview
• Choosing a topic and writing a standout essay
• How to strengthen your application
• Getting organized and keeping on top of deadlines

(This workshop is usually $99 per family! FREE FOR MCKEE FAMILIES!)

Oct 7 & 9, Sophomores & Juniors:

PSAT Scores…Now What?

These free workshops are designed to help students make sense of PSAT scores and jump-start the college admissions process. Topics covered include: how the PSAT correlates to the SAT and ACT, the next steps in the college admissions process and the ideal SAT and/or ACT testing timeline.

Oct 14 – College Application Essay Writing workshop

 Most colleges require students to submit an essay or personal statement as part of the application process. It may sound like a chore, but it's actually a unique opportunity to be an individual and distinguish yourself from other applicants with comparable scores and grades.

After completing our College Essay Writing Workshop, you'll walk away with two (that's right, two!) complete college essays—your Common Application essay and a second supplemental essay.

The Princeton Review College Essay Writing Workshop instructors have been carefully selected from our pool of SAT and ACT instructors because they've shown the unique skills needed to guide (not lecture) students through the creative writing process. Certified through our Admissions Trainings, your instructor knows what colleges want to see and will work to cultivate a writing community where you'll feel free to explore and develop essay topics that are focused and meaningful to you.

No boring lectures here. This is a highly interactive and participatory course, so come prepared to read, share your thoughts and play nicely with others.

Jan 6 – “SAT and ACT: What’s the Difference?” 

The two tests are accepted at all colleges and the main thing that colleges want to see is which of your scores is the highest, without preference for which test you took! So how do you know which test you will get that higher score on? This presentation will go through the two different types of tests and exploring students' strengths and weaknesses and which tests will be better for which students. 

Feb 24 – “Making High School Work For You”

Freshman workshop teaching the importance that each year of high school plays in the college admissions process. A college-bound culture in high school begins in freshman year!

March 19 – Junior Night! – College Admissions workshop

Fun Essay Samples

Read this post from www.gawker.com with some sample essays students used to get into Columbia University. They're really fun and interesting!

http://gawker.com/this-personal-essay-will-get-you-into-columbia-478217730

Does your college essay stand out?

The college essay is one of the most important parts of your application. While it is important for you to have good grades, rigorous curriculum, and strong standardized test scores, the essay is the part where you get to make yourself stand out as more than just some numbers. You are more than your scores, aren't you?

Your essay is the moment when you get to be YOU on your application. Are you going to write a stuffy essay that sounds like you're doing an English assignment that you didn't want to do in the first place? Or are you going to do your essay as if your future depends on it? Because - get this - your future DOES depend on it.

Imagine the job of an admissions officer: tens of thousands of applications; some great grades, some average ones; some extraordinary SAT scores, some okay scores; recommendation letters; and then ESSAYS. Can you imagine reading thousands of essays and remembering every single one? I can't! But which ones do you think they'll remember? The ones that stand out! And what makes an admission essay stand out? Let's see...

Top Ten Admission Essay Tips

From www.essayedge.com

Unlike every other aspect of the application, you control your essay. Make sure that the glimpse you give the admission committee into your character, background, and writing ability is the very best possible.

Keep the following in mind as you write:

1. Do answer the question. Many students try to turn a 500-word essay into a complete autobiography. Not surprisingly, they fail to answer the question. Make sure that every sentence in your essay exists solely to answer the question.
2. Don't bore the reader. Do be interesting. Admission officers ave to read hundreds of essays, and they must often skim. They're not looking for a new way to view the world; they're looking for a new way to view you, the applicant.
3. Use detailed and concrete experiences. Specific, clear details provide strong support to your arguments. Too often, an essay with an interesting story will fizzle into a series of statements that tell rather than show the qualities of the writer.
4. Do be concise. Wordiness not only takes up valuable space, but it can also confuse the important ideas you're trying to convey. Short sentences are more forceful because they are direct.
5. Don't "thesaurus-ize" your essay. Do use your own voice. Admission officers can tell Roget from a high school senior. Big words, especially when misused, detract from the essay, inappropriately drawing the reader's attention and making the essay sound contrived.
6. Don't use slang. Write an essay, not an email. Slang ter,s cliches, contractions, and an excessively casual tone should be eliminated.
7. Do vary your sentences and use transitions. The best essays contain a variety of sentence lengths mixed within any given paragraph. Also, remember that transition is not limited to words like nevertheless, furthermore, or consequently.
8. Do use active-voice verbs. Passive-voice expressions are verb phrases in which the subject receives the action expressed in the verb. Passive voice employs a form of the verb to be, such as was or were. Overuse of the passive voice makes prose seem flat and uninteresting.
9. Conclude effectively. Avoid summary. The conclusion is the last chance to persuade admission officers or impress upon them your qualifications.
10. Revise, revise, revise!

-Ms. Miller-Pecora

ACTION WORDS

In researching resume and essay writing for college, I stumbled across this great little blog post about some of the most important words you can use when talking about YOURSELF and how amazing you are (your essay and resume are all about bragging and giving colleges a reason to accept you over the next person applying). This post was written by Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz, who posts often for HuffPost College and runs the amazing website www.admissionpossible.com.

Read the full post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/150-great-words-and-phras_b_2746301.html

A: Academic, adventurous, an advocate, analytical, animal-lover, animated, articulate, artistic, assertive, astute, athletic, autonomous
B: Balanced, brilliant, business-oriented
C: Can-do attitude, capable, caring, cerebral, good with children, class clown, community service oriented, compassionate, competent, concerned about others, confident, conscientious, considerate, courageous, creative, curious
D: Daring, dependable, detail-oriented, diligent, disciplined, down-to-earth, driven
E: Empathetic, enthusiastic, an entrepreneur, ethical, an explorer
F: Fearless, a finisher, fitness-oriented, flexible, focused, a foodie, friendly, doesn't suffer fools, fun, funny
G: Generous, gentle, genuine, never gives up, goal-oriented, goes beyond what is expected, good natured, good with the elderly, gracious, grounded
H: Happy, hard-working, health-oriented, honest, humble, GREAT sense of humor
I: Imaginative, fiercely independent, inspirational, an intellectual, intelligent, interpersonal, involved
J: Jovial, joyful
K: Kind, has real know-how, knowledge-seeking
L: Good with languages, a leader, a fast learner, logical, loyal
M: Mature, mechanically oriented, methodical, modest, motivated, multi-lingual, musical
N: Natural, nonconformist
O: An "old-soul," optimistic, organized, original, outdoorsy, outgoing, his or her own person
P: Passionate, patient, persistent, poised, polite, popular, positive, has stage presence, a problem solver
Q: Quick, quirky
R: A reader, reliable, a researcher, resilient, resourceful, respected, respectful, responsible, a risk-taker
S: Scholarly, scientific, a self-starter, science-oriented, sensitive to others, sincere, sparkling, spiritual, a sponge for ideas, a sports nut, stands out from the crowd, social, strong-willed, studious, supportive
T: Take-charge person, talented, a natural teacher, a team player, techy, tenacious, deep thinker, thirsty for knowledge, loves to travel, trustworthy
U: Unafraid, unique, unpretentious, upfront
V: Vivacious
W: Willing to step up, worldly, beautiful writer
X: A xenophile (love of foreigners)
Z: Zealous

Her suggestion is to print out the list and circle any words that describe you!

-Ms. Miller