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Writer's picturelenleatherwood

Burning the Midnight Oil

I have had a student here since 4 pm – she just left at 9. We are working through all the supplements that go with colleges she is applying to that have a January 1 deadline. Ouch. There are nine schools and they each have one to three supplements. That means many extra short essays in addition to the main essay on the Common Application.

Barnard had two of the best supplemental questions so far.

One is:

Pick one woman in history or fiction to converse with for an hour and explain your choice. What would you talk about?

My student picked Katniss from the Hunger Games and wrote a bang-up essay on her. The first line is: “Katniss Everdeen is the ultimate female role model, the person I want to be.”

Me, too!

The other is:

Alumna and writer Anna Quindlen says that she “majored in unafraid” at Barnard. Tell us about a time when you majored in unafraid. (250 word limit)

Again, my student’s first line: “On the second night of the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Indianapolis, after listening to the stories of my peers’ deepest struggles, I mustered my courage and stood up in front of the 1600 attendees of the conference.”

It moves into heartfelt sharing from there.

These are great writing prompts. I might include them in my upcoming Story Circle Network class on essay writing. Heck, I may need to write on them myself for this blog.

However, now I am heading upstairs for a bath and bed. I have three different students tomorrow for this same stuff at 2, 4 and 6. The last student – the same student from tonight – will probably be here until 10 tomorrow night.

We are burning the midnight oil over here as the first of the regular admission deadlines loom.

It’s a challenge to figure out when to fit in my Christmas shopping.

I hope you got yours all done.

We’ll talk again tomorrow.

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