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“Get specific...get down to detail...” -> Has 650 word limit

My heart was literally pounding hoping that she wouldn't say my essay topic 💀💀💀

Damn she really isnt sugarcoating ANYTHING

I love how your super-generic-and-cliched-college-essays list practically describes 90% of teen movies

"Write about your activities!" Me: *is a senior and hasn't done any extra curriculars*

Your cynicism about the mission trip essay is on point.

Summary 🦋 1. ‘Here’s my resume’ essay 1:25 2. ‘I got an A’ essay 2:45 3. ‘The mission trip’ essay 5:11 4. ‘The generic answer’ essay 6:45 5. ‘The Jesus’ essay 9:00

The most important tips are that your essay needs to tell a story (with sights, sounds, smells, emotions, etc.) and it needs to be specific. You either need to try to pull the heart strings of your reader, talk about intellectual ideas that excite you, or your essay needs to be genuinely funny. That's one reason why it's so important to get other people to read your essays, to see how they react to them. The essay can also be a chance to find out very important information that isn't coming through elsewhere. if you're working 30 hours a week to support your family because your dad died unexpectedly, I want to know that to put your academic performance in context. Personally, I think "pull the heart strings" essays work the best for elite schools because they care so much about looking for kids who overcame adversity. Try to make the admissions committee cry, seriously. At least one of your essays should be about how you overcame adversity in your life, but should be a *story* about a specific moment/event/struggle/disability (in your personal life) and how it changed you/made you mature as a person. The main purpose of the "overcoming adversity" essay is to show how you *grew* or *matured* as a person, not simply to highlight a struggle. I wouldn't recommend writing about a mental illness you had/have though because (unfortunately) colleges are kind of uncomfortable about having mentally ill students on campus. The other essay can be about intellectual ideas, be funny, or another "heart strings" story (maybe a story, with sights, sounds, etc., about your family and a bad event/moment in your family and how you relate to your family members and such, or maybe an inspiring story involving you and a family member). "Family" essays work well, although essays where you write about your ethnicity/culture are very common, so try to make it unique and "pulling the heart strings" if you go the ethnicity/culture route. Another type of essay that can be really good is where you mention a *very specific* thing about the school and why that specific thing makes the school a great fit for you. For example, you could mention the university's motto and talk about how it relates to your own beliefs. This shows that you have genuine interest in the university, that you bothered to read up on the university's history. It literally takes 5 minutes to Google information like that, but makes a really big difference.

We all need truth bombs like these in our lives. I can tell you've read WAY too many bad essays haha.

Me: Hopes she doesn’t say my essay topic Her: says my essay topic Me: *picks different topic and cries inside*

The mission trip essay reeks of entitlement

Thank you for including the mission trip ones... they're so privileged.

Where my class of 2020 at??

"Are you applying to college soon?" me: *sweating bullets* _YES_ also me: *hasn't even entered the eighth grade yet*

Also sports essays 99.9% of the time are just lame.

I wonder how many college essays are going to be about "how covid-19 affected my life" in the next few years haha

I'd really love a video about scholarships, like how to get the best ones etc.

Any '21s starting their essay early this summer? SOO nervous especially with our situation :////

"You're gonna help those children in cities by singing with them *sigh*" I laughed so hard

My essay was kind of a subversion of the "I Got an A Essay". On my transcripts I had a lot of great grades and then a few honestly terrible ones. I knew they'd wonder what happened and the grades embarrassed me so I kinda just bit the bullet and went into why I got those grades, why it's not an excuse, and why I'll never do it again. I talked about the pressure my family put on me and how I crumbled under it due to my depression that started to flare up in high school. How I just lost all motivation to work in those classes. How much I regret that and how I've grown from it. And apparently it was good enough to get me into my first choice college! I move in on the 7th ☺️

God she was so accurate about the mission trip. Kids with rich parents who haven’t had to work for anything are “so shocked” to learn people are struggling. And then they think they deserve a medal for doing posting on Instagram about how they shoveled dirt in Brazil for 2 weeks👁

I think the problem is in school we are taught that essays shouldn’t be personal

I love how she's so direct and succint

Is this good? How Iron Man's death inspired me to be a hero (I saved thousands of -ant- lives by stealing all of the pesticides in my neighborhood)

fuck i need to start studying

Can you do a video on the application process for international students.

who’s here for #classof2019 🦋💫😊

Brooke is always so helpful. I love the fact that she always explains her methodology behind what she finds useful or not so useful. Thanks once again, Brooke.

the sarcasm in this is exactly my kind of humor. :)

Hey supertutortv can you do the opposite of this video please.

Wrote applications last year. The whole time I was like "let this not be me". Borderline traumatic.

idk why im watching this im already in college

Essay Topics guaranteed to keep you out of college: -Ring and Run: The Scientific Study of Doorbells -Caps I Have Worn: Forwards VS. Backwards, A Show and Tell Project -Field Guide To Growing Locker Pot -Huffing Paint aaaannnd iiitttss aaaffffeeeect on the brrrrrrraaaaiiinnn

I did the mission trip essay😅 But I got into my dream school into one of the most competitive majors. I guess what I did differently was that it was a service camp and I did it multiple years instead of just one and done. If u choose to write about a service project, don’t just say u learned something. Say HOW you took what you learned and applied it to your life. Maybe u started helping out more often, or started advocating for change. That shows that when you learn something you don’t just throw it away, but apply it to your life, and I believe that will help make ur essay stronger. If you haven’t really done anything since that service project, then maybe it’s not that strong of a topic to write about. But at the end of the day... write whatever u want.

5:37 Omg I could literally feel the weight of all the mission trip essays that you've read just by the look in your eyes 😂😂

I kind of get where the Jesus essay people are coming from though. I attended a Christian school my whole life and we are taught that the day we accept Christ is the best day of our entire lives and the most important thing that will ever happen to us. As a non Christian I totally get why it all sounds like bullshit an most people don't want to hear about that, but on the other hand, I also see why someone would feel so inclined to write that as it is very acceptable to write a college essay about the best day of your life.

I just realized how cringy some of this stuff is.

Literally you can write any essay, just make sure it shows ur personality

Class of 2021, anyone?

Wow I should not be watching this AFTER submitting all my essays 😬😭

I want to talk about losing one of my old best friends to suicide during the middle of my junior year. It took me a very long time to comprehend what had happened and due to that, a few aspects of my academic life suffered. Of course I would go into detail about not only my academic life but also my personal life and how that affected me (a few of my close friends stopped talking to me after it happened) and how I eventually found a way to push myself back up to a happier place surrounded by people who love me and support me. Would that be a good idea?

Hey class of 2020 gang rise up

so basically don’t reiterate stuff that ur grades already show go deeper than that

Just what I needed! Currently in the process of writing my essays! #classof2018

I've been freaking out about where to start with these essays, thank you so much

wow, you posted this at the right time! i'm about to start my senior year and these college app essays have me stressed.

my father died when I was 12 years old, on Christmas of all days. I would like to explain how it impacted me/how it made me choose my passion/early career choice in the field of medicine. It has impacted my life so much and still does to this day. Would this be a good option?

So...I'm the only girl on my football team, and I decided to kick once varsity season came bc my parents wouldn't let me play contact anymore. Would an essay highlighting how at first, my coach would only let me kick when we were loosing by a lot, to him trusting me to kick the first field goal of homecoming game when it was close? I would talk about how I and others went from not believing in me, to truly having faith in me. And how I grew along the way and what I'll take away from playing football for 6 years. Good idea or nah??

"if you work hard, your grades and test scores are gonna show it. End of story." This is not true. There are many situations in which hard work would not be reflected in test scores or grades. Working a job outside of school to support your family, raising your siblings predominantly on your own, or constantly moving like many military families do are three examples of how life outside of school may detract from grades. I think an essay that shows how your life circumstances forced you to work hard outside of school can be extremely compelling. They can also serve to explain that you are a hard working person even if your grades and tests make it seem as if you aren't.

This was so funny and so true. I was looking for videos for graduate school, but high school videos are helpful too when looking for things to avoid. I've found that being completely genuine is the best way to go. As long as I feel like the letter represents me and sounds like my story - it always works for me. Being genuine (and an individual) really comes across well to anyone reading it.

What if the religion you were a part of, created a struggle for you growing up? Is it okay to write how you got through beliefs you didn’t necessarily believe but you overcame the situation?

I am a freshman and I am just freaking out by just watching these videos

I love how she's so down-to-earth and realistic, explaining every single detail of why she wouldn't recommend this and that and would recommend doing this instead. Keep up the good work :D

I wrote about a controversial subject , and I stated my opinions. I knew they wouldn’t care about what my opinions were but rather WHY. And throughly telling them why, they saw the kind of person I am.

The “I got an A/work hard-->succeed” essay is not always cliche. I worked really hard this past semester, but my grades only reflect the result of the hard work. I’m a college senior, but I’d still write this kind of essay if I were pursuing another degree because of the challenges stacked against me, which you don’t see on my transcript. I suffered a death in the family the first day of class in the spring, dealt with grief, working, singing in a demanding chorus, preparing for a competition in the summer, and a summer internship. In the fall, I missed the first week of class because I was out of town to compete in a national pageant, sprained my ankle at the pageant, competed on crutches, and came back to do two weeks worth of work in one. I was bedridden for half the semester, and made a lot of sacrifices to focus on my grades. For me, it was about so much more than working hard to achieve a goal. The sacrifices I made to succeed were more important because they changed who I was as a person. I wasn’t dealt the easiest hand in life, which is another story, but it was this past year and especially the last semester that I fully realized what it means to rise above challenges.

What do you guys think of an essay regarding how my ~5 years of volunteer work with rescued/boarded horses taught me that animals are individual personalities (along a vegan ideology without necessarily mentioning veganism), and how I want to share this with the world through the career that I choose?

I feel so happy about this video. I just turned in my college essay and there is nothing you mentioned in the video in my college essay. Now I feel I am so ready to be in the college!!

does anybody have any tips for cutting down your overall essay? I wrote my essay but it's already over 700 words :/

Brooke, I love what you've done with your hair!!

9:48. Her hair like... moved and it wasn’t the video editor showing when she fixed it. I was so frightened yo. I just happened to be looking there as it happened.

I appreciate how honesty she is!!

This is extremely broad and helpful to me while working on my college essay, thank you!

Anyone from Class of #2020? 🌸👩🏻‍🎓👨🏽‍🎓👩🏾‍🎓👨🏻‍🎓

Harvard 2022

I LOVE your videos!! Thanks so much!!

It is always good to say what's required than what's not.. really good pointers on need for originality and straight speak... as against playing to galleries in a typical manner

The “I got an A” essay can be pulled off with enough humility and crafting. If the focus is not solely on the “A” but rather you overcoming some type of adversity that results in you getting the A in the end, It can be done well. You want the reader to leave knowing more about you as a person. Not just the A. It’s all in how you present your narrative and tie everything in. However, I do believe since it’s a cliché it’s an essay topic that separates the vapid, one dimensional from the well rounded 3D student.

College essay recommendations for NYU?

This is extremely helpful!!! Thank you so much for making these videos! ;D

Love the honesty here!

If you’re writing the “I got an A” essay and now changing it, remember to use that story to pick your teacher for rec letters!!! They may tell that story in your letter so it’s still in your application!!

I just got roasted for 12 minutes

super useful tips thanks for helping me being aware of some unintended consequences

This was excellent advice. Thank you 😊

why do I feel so attacked this whole video

could you please clean up your laptop?)

you are literally the best, thank you so much

Thank you for uploading.

Do you think an essay topic about a personal passion for the Glee TV series would be considered unique?

i want to do an essay about my experience in a mental hospital but i don't want to come off as whiny/corny/irresponsible/pompous. any tips? or should i nix it all together

thank you so much i have really good idea about something big that has happened in my life and i can give details you helped so much

This is a great video. Thanks!

Can yu please make more top 5 or 5 about topics

Could I describe my thought process and successes and failures while working on a huge project for a competition? It was an engineering project so it will reflect my major

my original essay topic I was thinking of wasn’t any of these BUT in the process of watching this and reading comments I came up with a way better one so thanks lol

Amazing, Nice video, I've try to find about Essays but never got like this

I could really use your advice! Would r be okay to write about an illness that I have and how it has helped shaped me as a person? Or are illnesses too cliche?

What is I wrote about hurricane irene and how it destroyed my dads entire business and town and how I witnessed the entire town working together?

This video is a must watch for all the students in the nation of Ghana and also abroad.

This is probably the most helpful essay vid I've ever seen

Could you do a video possibly for adult moms going back to school? I enrolled and start classes 8-7-17 and Im a mom of 2 full time job and commute back and forth to work about 1.5 hours a day. I've been looking for tips and advice from other adults and hard to find anything that isn't from a high school student. Been out of school for 10 years(can't believe Im old enough to say that now) and Im super nervous. Thanks for the consideration.

Hey do you think I could email my college essays to you? I would love some feedback! Love this vid btw

What video editing software do you use? You do a nice job on these. Thanks

I LOVE THE HONESTY OF THIS VIDEO

I beg to differ about the "mission essay." I think it does say something about who the person is, it's just saying something terribly unflattering about them.

If you’re doing the “I got an A” essay, use that to pick a teacher for your rec letter!

thanks brooke that was really helpfull.

Mann I love her . For a international student this really help. Direct to the point Thank you mam If I got into a nice uni it will be because of you ❤️ tysm

What if it's an essay about overcoming a struggle and or a few struggles in your life? Of course they'd be unique and descriptive to the circumstance but is it too cliché