Admit One

WONDERWORKS presents the 7TH ANNUAL COLLEGE ESSAY/COUNSELING WORKSHOP

13 – 17 July 2020 | 10 am – 4 pm, Monday – Friday | Carnegie Vanguard High School

A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter ... a writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error.

E.B. White, "The Art of the Essay," Paris Review, 48 (Fall 1969)

The college essay is the one chance most students have to give admissions committees a sense of their own voice, personality, circumstances, and potentials, apart from the clues standardized tests, coursework, and grades provide, even when supplemented by the third-person testimonials of teachers and counselors. These essays have not only spawned a cottage industry of coaches and consultants, they’ve also become a genre unto themselves, specimen examples of which are published in The New York Times annually, copiously anthologized, and even posted on the websites of some of the most selective colleges and universities nationwide.

Increasingly, admissions committees tend to be looking for “chemistry” when assembling freshman classes, so they may search for signs of “valence” in your essay. While there’s no way to outguess them, the essay is an important, possibly game-changing, opportunity to put your best self and sensibility forward. Properly understood, a college essay should be something you and only you could have written. It should be familiar in style rather than stiff and formal, as though you were telling it in a relaxed but focused way to a somewhat older friend. It should be interesting and, ideally, memorable for all the right reasons.

Over a period of five consecutive days, you will go through several drafts of an essay addressing current/recurring Common Application and Coalition Application prompts, with the help of our faculty of experienced college-level English and creative writing instructors. You will be expected to write outside of class as well as during it, and may also have the opportunity to deal with one supplemental question, if time permits.

Admit One is available free of charge and exclusively to rising twelfth-grade students who have satisfactorily completed any Wonderworks pre-college program.