How To Write A College Essay in 7 Minutes | Common App Tips, Tricks and Mistakes!

Hey there friend! I’m Kevin Zhen, Yale 2020 grad and co-founder of the Elevated School. In this video, I’m going to explain how in 2022-2023, we helped 30 plus seniors from all backgrounds, ranging from public school students in Miami to international students from Vietnam to boarding school students in New England get Into Every Single Ivy League School.

There are two essential factors 100% in your control from now until the college application deadline. These two factors play an absolutely pivotal role in whether you get admitted, deferred, waitlisted, or rejected. Do you know what they are?

Time Stamps
0:00 Welcome Back!
1:39 Control what you can control
2:45 How many drafts does it take?
3:48 The Art of Brainstorming
4:22 Going from Drafts 1-2 to 3-4
5:44 Going from Drafts 3-4 to 5-6
6:38 Drafts 6-7+#collegeapplications

#collegeadmissions #ivyleague #essaywriting #collegeessays #commonapp #commonapplication #collegeessay #collegeessaytips

ABOUT US
Hi! We're Kevin and Jeffrey, two Yalies who want to help you get into your dream school!

About Kevin Zhen: Exeter '16, Yale '20 (East Asian Studies)
Since 2016, Kevin has personally helped more than 30+ students gain acceptances into every Ivy League University, as well as top tech schools such as Stanford and Georgia Tech. He also loves teaching creative nonfiction, flash fiction and poetry. In total, his students have won more than 75+ Scholastic Writing awards.

About Jeffrey Yu: Yale '23 (Computer Science and East Asian Studies)
Jeff is a senior at Yale double majoring in Computer Science and East Asian Studies with a concentration on China. His college admissions essay was featured in the New York Times, and he specializes in essay writing, college admissions strategy, and life coaching. He has served as a Student Ambassador to the Yale Admissions Office, written extensively about college admissions on Quora and has taught courses on motivation, passion, and leadership while sponsored by the US Embassy in Tokyo.

LINKS

MORE CONTENT

MUSIC CREDITS

[elevatedschool]

From now until August 2024, I (Kevin) will offering doing FREE intro calls with students (and parents!)
Thank you watching our videos! Your support seriously means the world to us!!

[h_roon]

Your videos helped me get accepted into Yale and I’ll forever be grateful for that! Thank you 😊

[vpnnlbg]

me watching to start the essay before 3 days until deadline.

[ellispiper]

Great tips: As an English Major who went from Community college to the Univeristy of Michigan, I heavily agree with all that's said. But to add some tips
1. Structure - As a senior in college I can bend the rules for essays. In HS and early UNI we're given written out rules. Hook and Conclusion should ALWAYS be focal point no matter what, but don't be afraid to step outside the conventional essay structure. You're writing a personal story AND an essay, or a personal essay, not an argumentative one, so forget about body 1/body 2/thesis
2.Thesis - contrary to what I just said your essay should have an underlying theiss, or better named in this context, a theme or takeaway about yourself and/or the world. It does not, and usually is best, to not clearly write out your thesis statement like a traditional argumentative essay. Instead, it should rest underneath the narrative, which leads to
3. Hook - I cannot state the importance of a strong hook. If you want to stand out your hook should be as intriguing as possible. This does not have to be some deep philosophical question, but instead, it should build tension through you. Example: 'The walls had to cave in before I understood how to push them back out'. Hook/opening paragraph should make your theme apparent. which leads to
4. Conclusion - concluding an essay is just as important as your hook/first paragraph. The most satisfying stories are usually cyclical in nature. To steal a quote from some brilliant writer, non verbatim, "A great short story ends with the inevitable unforeseen until its reached"
5. Voice - Same story with HS hammering into us the classical argumentative essay structure, cold, factual, and distant in nature. A personal essay is told in 1st person and you, the person (lol) should be heard through your words. Write as if you were talking. Don't be afraid of wit and style (But also - for the love of god, don't get too flowery - I love oscar wilde and his flowery prose, but the college board does not wanna read that. I recommend being concise and adding poetic descriptions when relevant. Contemporarily, Hemingway is a great model. Personally, I enjoy writing somewhere in the middle, but for a college app, the more concise the better. I'm going on a tangent here but the sentence: "A conversation that crashed a wave into romance" is what I'd aim for IME with college essay reviewers. Short yet deep). To bridge that long(), voice will add flair and will separate you from all the thousands of essays submitted.

Lastly, remember, although its called a personal essay, what you're writing is a short story. It should be compelling. Like Kevin mentioned, no one cares about your acolateds or how many club's you led. That's not compelling. YOU are compelling, so make sure you shine through your words. Great vid Kevin, and best of luck to all those applying!

[prod.nickmgic]

Thank you for coming back to YouTube 🙏🙏

[jacob-gcts]

Great to see you uploading again (thanks for the mention haha)! Time is the one thing I’ll make sure to cherish and use during the application process!!

[luk]

Thank you for coming back bro we want a lot more videos

[skyejme]

So amazing that such good quality advice is available for free

[kkswtcy]

Love your passion!! Great advice to elevate narratives by including ‘coming of age’, and emphasis on personal relationship building, as well as within community. 
Video helped a bunch 🙌🏽

[SkyIon]

Welcome back zhensei.

And hello Jeffrey!

[miarza]

Yesss! we r here listening and being truly grateful for all the help you provide us. You are the elder brother this little sister never had and always hoped to get guidance from. Thank youu

[skyejme]

This is such good quality advice, I am immensely grateful that this is literally available for free on the internet

[elevatedschool]

Hi everyone! It's been 3 years since we started this YouTube channel + launched this agency to help kids get into colleges. So far, we've helped more than 70+ students from all across the world and every background imaginable get into every single Ivy League School, Stanford, MIT and more! If you'd like your essay reviewed by us, just visit our website!

[shrey]

Hey thank you for this information but im sort of overthinking everything cause I have low gpa but im in music from age 12 and im really passionate like I've won some competitions arranged on youtube also im taking a gap year to improve my 12th grades gpa and along with this preparing for jee advanced exam cause I can't accept these bad grades because I was rewiring and academics got their loose in managing and doing that's the reason for improving grades in gap year but can you help me with what should be the priority that should considered in this gap year along with these stats which should be in mind to secure ivies as an option for my case what should be optimistic now instead of focusing on bad performance in high and senior school graduation(past)

[rohangiri]

i am having a really serious issue regarding the structure and implementation. it would be very thankful for me if you could read my essay. hoping for a positive response.