High schoool students, no matter how smart they are or how well they write, generally panic a little when faced with the prospect of writing their college admission essays.

Even if they are good students with rich, multi-faceted lives, college applicants often look at the blank page and have no idea what they should write. No amount of parental nagging will help these students get started – what they need is a plan!

We have broken essay writing down to five basic stages; tackling these steps one at a time will give you an easy-to-follow framework for handling your essay.

Step 1: Find the Right Topic
Brainstorm with a friend, family member or teacher to come up with the right topic. Try free association: write down people, movies and books that come to mind and see if they trigger a topic idea. Write down memorable events in your life. Consider writing about ways in which you’ve helped others or overcome adversity – but don’t try to portray yourself as overly noble.

Stage 2: Write the First Draft
Before you have a chance to obsess, just get going – write a few paragraphs and see where that leads you. Once you’ve gotten something down on paper, try to map out the path of the essay. Start with an opening sentence and paragraph that will grab the reader’s attention – a quotation or song verse can be a good starting point.

The main body of the essay should contain several paragraphs, each with a topic sentence you will go on to explain and illustrate. When you write the conclusion, make sure to refer back to the introduction in some way – this will bring the essay full circle.

Stage 3: Revise the First Draft
After finishing the first draft, wait at least a day before looking at it again – this will give you a fresh perspective. Then take a close look at what you’ve written to make sure you’ve answered the question and supported your main point with personal and concrete examples. Make sure you haven’t wandered too far from your topic. Check to see that the essay sounds personal and that your thoughts seem to flow smoothly throughout.

Stage 4: The Final Edit
This is your chance to fine tune your revised draft with some smart editing. Now is the time to take out extraneous words and phrases you might have overused. Make sure your point is clear. Remove any cliches and ty to vary the length of your sentences. Read the essay out loud and see how it sounds.

Stage 5: Proofread
Last chance: check for typos, correct use of capitalization and proper punctuation. Use spellcheck but don’t rely on it too much – it won’t catch every problem. Make sure there is subject/verb agreement and that your use of the past and present tense is consistent. It’s a good idea to have someone whose writing ability you trust proofread too.

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These five steps will put you on the right path for a successful essay. Using them as a guideline will keep you focused and organized, and prevent the essay writing process from becoming overwhelming.

By any standards, the sticker price of a college education is exorbitant. But there are a variety of financing options available to students and their parents that can drastically reduce the out-of-pocket expenses you’ll have to pay.

Applying for financial aid might seem intimidating, as there are many forms to complete. It may help to know that although these forms are long, they are fairly straightforward; if you read the instructions carefully you shouldn’t have too hard a time.

The most important app you’ll fill out for financial aid is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This form is required if you want to be considered for any type of aid or loan, and must be completed for dependent and independent students. The FAFSA determines need-based aid for both graduate and undergraduate students; several weeks after submitting this form you (and the schools you’ve selected) will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) which summarizes the information reported.

Another form required by some colleges is the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE. The information reported on this form determines non-federal student aid; you only need to fill out this form if a school you’re interested in asks for it.

New York State residents must complete a Tution Assistance Program (TAP) form for state aid. To qualify for these funds, you must be a resident of New York State for at least a year before applying. Several states have similar programs, so you should check on your state government website before applying for aid.

The out-of-pocket cost of college can be dramatically reduced by scholarships – need and merit-based grants offered by colleges, as well as private ones available from a variety of sources: civic organizations, foundations and corporations, just to name a few. You’ll be able to learn more about scholarships and other ways of reducing college costs by speaking to the financial aid officers of the colleges and universities you’re applying to.

Be sure to keep careful track of all application and financial aid deadlines – in today’s challenging economy it’s especially important to get all the financial aid you qualify for.

I was surprised and saddened recently while reading the second draft of a high school senior’s college admissions essay. Whereas her first attempt had been a personal and endearing glimpse at her character and personality, this revised effort included several pompous and awkwardly added mentions of her extracurricular and community service activities. When I asked why she made these unfortunate changes, her answer was weary and to-the-point: “My dad made me do it.”

Guided by the most loving of intentions, parents can be the personal essay’s worst enemy. Even more than their children, parents often get caught up in the competitve frenzy of college admissions, and the essay tends to be a common target of parental over-involvement. Despite the fact that guidance counselors, guide books and admissions officers all advise keeping the essay clear of “hard sell” descriptions of academic or other achievments, parents often insist on trying to cram this information in. The results are rarely subtle and often interfere with the theme and flow of an otherwise good essay.

Another trap parents fall into is simply over-helping with an essay – trying to change their child’s topic or rewrite the piece altogether. I can totally identify with this impulse – as an adult it’s tempting to think you can do a better job and it’s natural to want your child to make the best possible impression. But taking over the essay – besides being completely unethical – deprives your child of his or her rightful place at the helm of this process. And it robs the essay of the genuine and personal “voice” it’s supposed to have.

As I have heard from more than one admissions officer, it really isn’t hard to spot an essay that’s has been written by a forty-five year old tax attorney. So help your child with brainstorming and proofreading – then step away from the essay!

Almost every high school senior (along with his or her parents) harbors a deep-seated fear of graduating from high school without a college acceptance in hand. Like losing at musical chairs, this scenario leaves the unlucky applicant stranded, with nowhere to go.

If you want to avoid this fate, you can’t just apply to colleges you might get into – or even ones you will probably get into. You also need to apply to one or two that are pretty much a sure thing. These safety schools have admissions criteria that you exceed – your GPA, class rank and standardized test scores should be higher than what you’d need for admission. This is a school that acts like a safety net in case more selective schools don’t admit you. It’s important to remember that people do sometimes end up going to their safety schools, so make sure you have at least one that you’d be comfortable attending. The fact that you can get in is meaningless if you’ll be miserable going there.

Most of the schools on your final college list will probably be target or level schools. These are colleges where you would fit in as an average student. Some admitted students will have higher grades and test scores, while others will have lower. You would have at least a 50-50 chance of being admitted to this kind of school.

A reach school may be your first choice, but it’s a long shot. You should not apply to more than a few of these schools, where your GPA and test scores will be in the bottom one-third of students admitted.

Schools in the Ivy League, as well as other top colleges and universities always need to be considered reach schools, no matter how good your credentials are. The most selective schools reject hundreds of valedictorians and students with perfect SATs every year.

It’s important to remember that numbers only count for so much with college admissions – your GPA and test scores may be perfectly on target, or even on the high side for a certain school, but a poorly written essay, obnoxious interview behavior, or a lack of extracurriculars can still sink your chances of admittance.

A woman I knew in college used to talk about her overwhelming – and unfulfilled – desire to attend Cornell University. So I wasn’t particularly surprised when I learned that both of her daughters are currently enrolled at Cornell. It is an excellent school and I’m sure those girls will do well there, but I can’t help wondering about that family: whose goals and dreams are being fulfilled?

Today’s high school parents are highly involved with their children’s lives and, in general, there is nothing wrong with that. But the college admissions process is often a time when parents – without even knowing it – impose their own hopes and unrealized dreams onto their children. It is important to remember that this is your child’s turn to experience college – it is not a “do-over” for you to correct the mistakes and bad choices you made at 18.

Naturally, you will be involved in the school selection and application process. But when you discuss schools with your child, keep in mind that the college landscape is extremely different than it was when you were applying twenty-something years ago. Schools’ reputations, admission criteria, standardized tests and the application process have all changed dramatically since then.

Be careful of trying to impose a school you like on your child. The teenage years are known for oppositional behavior – you should consider the very real possibility that pushing a particular school too hard may create an overwhelming desire on your child’s part to go somewhere else.

Finally, be careful of sending subliminal messages: if your weekend attire consists of a Dartmouth sweatshirt worn over a Dartmouth T-shirt, you are sending a powerful message to your child – even if you never open your mouth.

Have you ever seen one of those massive college guidebooks – the ones that list hundreds of colleges and universities throught the country? If so, you can probably understand why picking the right school can seem like an overwhelming choice. And you may have wondered, given all those choices, how you would ever find the school that was the best fit for you.

An enjoyable and successsful college experience depends on finding the right school – and focusing on the following three factors will help you figure out which school is right for you.

Location

The first criteria to consider in college selection is location – which region of the country do you want to live in for the next four years of your life? Climate is certainly part of this consideration – you’ll need to think about how you’d feel if you lived someplace without four distinct seasons. Are you interested in a school that lets you pursue your love of snow boarding, or are you happier spending time at the beach?

But you shouldn’t choose a school simply because you’ll be able to wear flip flops all year long. Think about how far you want to be from home and whether or not you’ll want to deal with flying back and forth for visits home. The cost of transportation to and from school will probably be a factor in this decision.

More than you might imagine, the location of a school also determines the pace of life, the cuisine and the local culture. These elements are a big part of college life.

Type of College or University

The next factor to be considered is the type of school you’re looking for. The college experience you’ll have at a large state university will be very different from the one you’d have at a small private college. And military school is another experience altogether!

Large universities have graduate and undergraduate programs and an enrollment of 10,000 students or more. If you would feel lost or overwhelmed on a campus of that size, you should probably consider a smaller university or a liberal arts college. This type of college has between several hundred to a few thousand students and is focused on undergraduate studies.

Other types of schools you may want to consider are colleges with special characteristics, such as schools with a religious affiliation, women’s colleges, and historically black colleges and universities. There are also a number of schools geared to a particular carreer path, such as business colleges, engineering or architectural schools, or colleges that focus on the performing arts.

Community colleges are another type of school you might consider – these schools generally offer two-year programs for local students commuting from home, and they can be an excellent starting point for students who then transfer to four-year colleges.

Competetive Level

The final consideration in picking the right school is its selectivity: how tough are admissions? Some schools accept 70% of their applicants, while others admit less than 20%. Which level of school you should aim for will depend on your high school grade point average, and your SAT/ACT scores. You should also think about whether you want to be at the top, middle or near the bottom of your college freshman class.

The most selective schools are hardest to get into, and will generally only admit students with high standardized test scores and mostly A’s on their transcripts.

Very selective schools accept students with very competitive test scores and a mixture of A’s and B’s in their high school classes.

Selective schools are not too difficult to get into but still require competitive test scores and mostly B’s and C’s in high school course work.

Less selective schools are the least competitive – they accept a large percentage of their applicants, and do not require particularly high grades or test scores.

While evaluating the selectivity of a college you should also pay attention to its retention rates – how many students stay on to graduate? A highly selective school that doesn’t do a good job of supporting and keeping its students may be a poorer choice than a less selective school.

Keeping these three selection factors in mind will help you narrow down your possible college choices to a manageable list. Schools that meet your needs and preferences in all three categories are the schools you’ll want to research further.

What has your experience with selecting a college been like so far? We’d love to hear from you!

A common misconception shared by many students is that if a 500 word essay is good, that same essay stretched out to 700 words will be great. This is not the case.

A good essay should be long enough – just long enough – to answer the question that’s been asked in a clear, personal and compelling way. Padding the essay to increase the word count will make you seem long-winded but not any smarter. Admissions officers recognize fluff when they see it; and since they have dozens (if not hundreds) of essays to plow through, they will not appreciate having to read an essay that is longer than it needs to be.

Until recently there was 500 word maximum for the Common App essay. It’s acceptable to write more than that now, but you may still want to stay in the 500-600 word ballpark.

To some extent you can be guided by the minimum word requirement of 250 words: twice the minimum – or a little more than that – is a reasonable length for an essay. Five times that amount seems like overkill.

The real guideline should be how well the essay reads. Is it repetitive? Are there unnecessary words and phrases? These are signs that you need to do more editing.

Be careful not to go off on a tangent. One student I worked with wrote an essay about his favorite book; two entire paragraphs were devoted to his lengthy (and not very interesting) search of area bookstores for the hard-to-find novel. This kind of detail is a waste of space: stay focused on the central theme of your essay.

Standardized tests are an important component in the college admissions process. Many schools place a great deal of faith in these tests as indicators of how well a student will do in college, and base a good part of their decision on test scores. The SATs and ACTs are the two national, standardized tests administered today.

At some point you will have to decide which test to take – or should you take both?

Most colleges will accept the results of either test, but you should check and make sure that’s true of the schools that interest you. Both tests take roughly the same amount of time to complete and are given throughout the school year, but there are significant differences between them.

The SAT tests critical thinking and problem solving, as opposed to the subject matter taught in school. It is composed of a math section, a verbal section and a writing portion.

The ACT, on the other hand, tests the core high school curriculum taught in most schools. Unlike the SAT it includes a section of science questions, and is sometimes considered to be a better test for students who are strong in science. Yet, I have seen average students do relatively well in this part of the ACT.

The tests are also scored differently – the ACT does not penalize students for incorrect answers (in other words, it’s safer to guess with the ACT).

But nobody should rely on guesswork when taking these important college admission exams. Both tests are challenging and you should prepare for them rigorously. There are many excellent guide books available for both, as well as test prep classes and tutoring centers. Because of the amount of preparation they require, it is not a good idea to take both – your study time will be better spent preparing for just one test. To find out which is best for you, take a sample of both tests and see where your strengths lie.

The time honored advice when it comes to writing has always been to “write what you know.” This is never more true than when writing a college admissions essay. No matter what story you decide to tell, a college essay is always fundamentally about you. And what I’ve learned after reading countless essays is this: if you stray from reality, if you write about yourself as you wish you were as opposed to how you actually are, that will come across. Your essay will hit more false notes than a tone-deaf soprano, and without actually knowing what is wrong, the reader will be able to tell that something is off.

The good news is that if you write about yourself honestly – even if you are not a saint or a scholar – you will probably come across as likeable and sincere. Which means the challenge of an essay is self-discovery – finding traits that are genuine and relatable and putting them down on paper. This is no easy task but there are ways to do it.

One technique is to create a list of adjectives that best describe you; make another list of the activities you most enjoy, Be brutally honest – if you’re cautious by nature, don’t claim to be a thrill-seeker. If your passion is karaoke, don’t pretend it’s practicing the violin. Remember, the essay is the place to reveal yourself, not sell yourself. It may help to ask friends and family to describe your character and attributes. As you write and edit your essay, check it repeatedly to make sure it is reflecting an honest picture of you.

Students often dread writing their college essays, but looking inward will definitely get results – and not just in an effective essay, but in a surprising reward of self-discovery. All in all, a nice payoff to a stressful enterprise!

With the average cost of a private undergraduate education topping $40,000 per year, it’s easy to understand why many families experience “sticker shock” when it’s time to apply to college. And while it is certainly expensive to attend a college or university, it doesn’t have to be as costly as you might expect. And until you know how much and what type of financial aid you will receive, it’s impossible to tell what the cost of your education will be.

The fact is, 75% of students pay, on average, less than $8,500 for their educations, and most students pay far less than the official “total cost” of attending any particular school. At most colleges and universities, it’s very common for a high percentage of students to receive some sort of financial aid, so it’s important for applicants to become familiar with their aid options. And don’t be put off by a more expensive school: the good news is that schools that charge higher tuition also tend to have more financial aid available!

Students may be eligible for financial aid based on their family’s demonstrated financial need. There is also non-need aid available – this is sometimes referred to as “merit” aid and may be rewarded to students based on their academic records or for achievements in sports, music, theater, etc. Both types of aid require filling out the same standard application forms. Financial aid is not just for tuition – this money can also be put towards the cost of books, room and board, personal expenses and transportation.

There are two types of financial aid available: “gift aid” refers to grants and scholarships that you do not have to pay back or work to receive. “Self-help” aid includes campus jobs or educational loans you’ll have to start paying back after graduation. While loans may be necessary to pay for college, it’s important to think carefully about how much debt you will accrue before you’ve even entered the work force.

The amount of money you get from a school may depend on whether it’s a reach school, a safety school or something in between – schools tend to give more financial aid to more qualified students.

For many, attending a state university as a state resident can be a great way to obtain a high-quality education at a significantly lower cost. Tuition at these schools is much less expensive than at private colleges, despite the fact that state schools can be very selective. For some families, however, the cost of attending a higher-priced private college may actually be cheaper because of more generous financial aid packages.

No matter what, college is not an inexpensive way to spend four years. But think of this time as an investment: with a college degree you will earn, on average, over one million dollars more in your lifetime than you would with a high school diploma.