Tips for the 2025-2026 season

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

I like to use Oxford commas but I have always been told they are outdated. And that more modern style guides don't require them. So I can't see this being an issue in writing for college apps. Also semicolon use is more of a choice. It's quite possible to write so you don't need to use that punctuation mark. In fact, I think that would be more common. Is the point that Grammarly rewrites to insert semi-colons? Weird thing to worry about.

The use of the Oxford comma indicates the writer is a civilised person. There’s no need to rush through a sentence.

And the judicious use of the semicolon is reflective of a person capable of expressing complex thoughts. A kid using semicolons appropriately today is, basically, a literary superstar. Obviously, this kid is a reader..

And that is a win in the college admissions game. There’s a reader here!

But I will grant you that the use of a semicolon is tricky. Not for the meek. If you’re tossing semicolons around, you better know what you’re doing.

It’s basically the Hunger Games out there when it comes to punctuation.

The use of the Oxford comma, is literally a telltale sign that a 17-year-old is using Grammarly.

[Anonymous]

using grammarly is like using spellcheck. who submits something without doing that? seems dumb to me. I dont think it's at all bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re full pay, but neither our professions nor ECs nor zip code indicate. Should I have my kid replace all the S’s in her essay with $’s?

Hahahhahahahhahahahha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

I like to use Oxford commas but I have always been told they are outdated. And that more modern style guides don't require them. So I can't see this being an issue in writing for college apps. Also semicolon use is more of a choice. It's quite possible to write so you don't need to use that punctuation mark. In fact, I think that would be more common. Is the point that Grammarly rewrites to insert semi-colons? Weird thing to worry about.

The use of the Oxford comma indicates the writer is a civilised person. There’s no need to rush through a sentence.

And the judicious use of the semicolon is reflective of a person capable of expressing complex thoughts. A kid using semicolons appropriately today is, basically, a literary superstar. Obviously, this kid is a reader..

And that is a win in the college admissions game. There’s a reader here!

But I will grant you that the use of a semicolon is tricky. Not for the meek. If you’re tossing semicolons around, you better know what you’re doing.

It’s basically the Hunger Games out there when it comes to punctuation.

The use of the Oxford comma, is literally a telltale sign that a 17-year-old is using Grammarly.

Well, right here is an example of the improper use of a comma, Oxford-style or otherwise.

You can see how breathtakingly awesome it would be if a kid uses a semicolon correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things I've learned: There are half a dozen tips and lessons learned threads already, but someone will always think they have information that no one has ever seen before and start another.

- nothing of value added; much like this comment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things I've learned: There are half a dozen tips and lessons learned threads already, but someone will always think they have information that no one has ever seen before and start another.

- nothing of value added; much like this comment

Exactly!

Unrelatedly do ppl find that others gatekeep resources? What’s the best place to find resources rather than searching through dozens of websites?

[Anonymous]

Substack has some great college counseling advice. It’s a new find/resource for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Substack has some great college counseling advice. It’s a new find/resource for me.

Like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:using grammarly is like using spellcheck. who submits something without doing that? seems dumb to me. I dont think it's at all bad

And to check for grammar/ that’s not a bad thing at all.

If the kid wrote the essay and runs it through a grammar and spell check—-that’s what I’d expect.

We didn’t hire a college essay coach and that’s what my kid did with his finished final drafts. Parents reviewed as well.

Grammar isn’t writing the essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The things I’ve learned:

- full pay matters now. Show privilege in your EC, parent professions and hints in essays. Won’t hurt this year per counselor, if done tastefully.

- with AI, admissions readers are wary of perfectly polished essays. Make sure there’s a few grammatical errors and it does not read too smoothly. Do not use Grammarly.

- a lot of essays have shifted from diversity/community, to future plans/ambitions (see Michigan). It is increasingly more important at top universities for kids to know what they want to study and have drive an ambition in a clear area. Make sure the career plan section states something aspirational that can provide a framework for the entire common app so they can understand your candidacy and trajectory.

- Addtl Info: with the newly revised version there are new strategic ways to use this section. Have read on Reddit that some counselors are suggesting to customize that section for different colleges like UVA, which do not have a supplemental essay?

What have you read/heard?

in today's Dartmouth Admissions Beat, Dean Coffin basically said this.

We had our Common App Bootcamp and we met with the seniors, and we talked about how the colleges want to hear their authentic selves. They want to hear that verb, the teenage language, the spin that only teenagers can put into a college essay. Tufts just came out with a great piece.
You can use AI maybe as a thinking partner or a brainstorming tool, but not as the author of your essays. I think that's the critical part. I think for my years of reading essays, and I'm sure Lee would as well, when you read a kid's essay, you can tell within the context of their grades, their school, their testing, is this essay actually aligned with what I see in the file?
It's almost like you're a detective, you're understanding, you're putting together this kid's narrative. If the essay doesn't align, that mom wrote the essay, they had an essay consultant, it doesn't align, it just doesn't feel right. I think with AI, the way it writes, it just writes in a way that just doesn't sound like a teenager.
But we want them to have that that zip that a teenager has. And I think[…]”

“I love that sentence, Matt, the zip that a teenager has, and AI doesn't have it.
It makes a huge difference. It could be a funny phrase, it could just be a bad punctuation moment, but there's an element of like, there's this, these moments these kids have, and sometimes you have to pull it out of them, because they don't feel like their story is unique or special, but it is. And when you get to that point with the kid, it's so wonderful.
Yeah, I come to it from the perspective of a writer, and it's all about voice. I've sat with Lee and colleagues as they've read so many essays, and they have an unbelievable ear for voice. And I think they can tell when that voice is not authentic or when that voice is filtered.
And I would say from my years of reading admissions files at Harvard, I have one essay that I saved from a girl from Saginaw High School who typewrote the essay about growing up in Saginaw. Her dad worked at the GM plant and read her poetry, and he never went to college. It was a very blue collar, non-college[…]”

From Admissions Beat: Headline Headaches? Don't Let Them Derail Your Search, Sep 16, 2025

[Anonymous]

Oh please!

You have AI write out the essay giving out the structure and putting in all the meat.

Then you tweak it to put "the zip that a teenager has" by reworking a few sentences.

This would put you in the top 1% of essays not written by AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh please!

You have AI write out the essay giving out the structure and putting in all the meat.

Then you tweak it to put "the zip that a teenager has" by reworking a few sentences.

This would put you in the top 1% of essays not written by AI.

Or, your kid just sits down and writes an essay from their own thoughts. That’s what mine did. Lots of teenage zip in there.

[Anonymous]

The typo thing is real. They don't want a super grammarly edited perfect essay anymore.

Times have changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

I like to use Oxford commas but I have always been told they are outdated. And that more modern style guides don't require them. So I can't see this being an issue in writing for college apps. Also semicolon use is more of a choice. It's quite possible to write so you don't need to use that punctuation mark. In fact, I think that would be more common. Is the point that Grammarly rewrites to insert semi-colons? Weird thing to worry about.

The use of the Oxford comma indicates the writer is a civilised person. There’s no need to rush through a sentence.

And the judicious use of the semicolon is reflective of a person capable of expressing complex thoughts. A kid using semicolons appropriately today is, basically, a literary superstar. Obviously, this kid is a reader..

And that is a win in the college admissions game. There’s a reader here!

But I will grant you that the use of a semicolon is tricky. Not for the meek. If you’re tossing semicolons around, you better know what you’re doing.

It’s basically the Hunger Games out there when it comes to punctuation.

The use of the Oxford comma, is literally a telltale sign that a 17-year-old is using Grammarly.

Well, right here is an example of the improper use of a comma, Oxford-style or otherwise.

You can see how breathtakingly awesome it would be if a kid uses a semicolon correctly.

+1

We would be friends IRL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh please!

You have AI write out the essay giving out the structure and putting in all the meat.

Then you tweak it to put "the zip that a teenager has" by reworking a few sentences.

This would put you in the top 1% of essays not written by AI.

You might want to read up on this?
https://mashable.com/article/ai-college-admissions-essay