Write Your Way In: Crafting an Unforgettable College Admissions Essay (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Writing, for most of us, is bound up with anxiety. It’s even worse when it feels like your whole future—or at least where you’ll spend the next four years in college—is on the line. It’s easy to understand why so many high school seniors put off working on their applications until the last minute or end up with a generic and clichéd essay. The good news? You already have the “secret sauce” for crafting a compelling personal essay: your own experiences and your unique voice. The best essays rarely catalog how students have succeeded or achieved. Good writing shows the reader how you’ve struggled and describes mistakes you’ve made. Excellent essays express what you’re fired up about, illustrate how you think, and illuminate the ways you’ve grown. More than twenty million students apply to college every year; many of them look similar in terms of test scores, grades, courses taken, extracurricular activities. Admissions officers wade through piles of files. As an applicant, you need to think about what will interest an exhausted reader. What can you write that will make her argue to admit you instead of the thousands of other applicants? A good essay will be conversational and rich in vivid details, and it could only be written by one person—you. This book will help you figure out how to find and present the best in yourself. You’ll acquire some useful tools for writing well—and may even have fun—in the process.

Reference

Toor, Rachel

Words, Language & Grammar

University of Chicago Press

Writing, for most of us, is bound up with anxiety. It’s even worse when it feels like your whole future—or at least where you’ll spend the next four years in college—is on the line. It’s easy to understand why so many high school seniors put off working on their applications until the last minute or end up with a generic and clichéd essay. The good news? You already have the “secret sauce” for crafting a compelling personal essay: your own experiences and your unique voice. The best essays rarely catalog how students have succeeded or achieved. Good writing shows the reader how you’ve struggled and describes mistakes you’ve made. Excellent essays express what you’re fired up about, illustrate how you think, and illuminate the ways you’ve grown. More than twenty million students apply to college every year; many of them look similar in terms of test scores, grades, courses taken, extracurricular activities. Admissions officers wade through piles of files. As an applicant, you need to think about what will interest an exhausted reader. What can you write that will make her argue to admit you instead of the thousands of other applicants? A good essay will be conversational and rich in vivid details, and it could only be written by one person—you. This book will help you figure out how to find and present the best in yourself. You’ll acquire some useful tools for writing well—and may even have fun—in the process.

Why You, Why Me, Why Now: The Mindset and Moves to Land That First Job, from Networking to Cover Letters, Resumes, and Interviews

A clear, accessible, and fun guide on everything it takes to land a job. &nbsp; Searching for a job can be hard and demoralizing work. In Why You, Why Me, Why Now, Rachel Toor delivers some good news. The most important thing is within your control--a mindset that shows you know the goals of the organization you want to work for and that you're ready and eager to contribute. Toor provides, with compassion and enthusiasm, strategies to make it easy for hiring managers to say "yes." Through useful and funny anecdotes, she offers advice from professionals across industries and focuses on the attitude applicants can adopt to find success. Revealing traits employers seek, Toor shows how to craft winning cover letters, ways to tailor resumes for each job, and practical tips to get past AI screening. She also explains how to use LinkedIn and gives tips on preparing for interviews. Throughout, the book features Toor's notes on writing well to help in landing a first job and beyond. Encouraging, entertaining, and blunt, this is a job-search guide like no other. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

Business & Money

Job Hunting & Careers

Admissions Confidential: An Insider's Account of the Elite College Selection Process

There are hundreds of books available that coach kids on writing college application essays, improving SAT scores and trying to beat the admissions system. Admissions Confidential is a definitive look at why those books don't work. Toor lifts the veil on a process that anxious parents and high school students have never had decoded before. And they may be shocked to find out: --that elite colleges spend thousands of dollars recruiting students they will never admit --why some students at the bottom of their high school classes are admitted to top schools when the valedictorians are rejected --how pricey independent college counselors can hurt an applicant's chances --why admission to a top school depends on who reads your application --why the top of the class at a high-performing high school may end up at their second and third choice Written in engaging first-person and covering the entire admissions process--from recruiting to enrollment--Admissions Confidential is a year in the life of a college admissions officer.

Test Preparation

College & High School

St.Martin's Press

There are hundreds of books available that coach kids on writing college application essays, improving SAT scores and trying to beat the admissions system. Admissions Confidential is a definitive look at why those books don't work. Toor lifts the veil on a process that anxious parents and high school students have never had decoded before. And they may be shocked to find out:
--that elite colleges spend thousands of dollars recruiting students they will never admit --why some students at the bottom of their high school classes are admitted to top schools when the valedictorians are rejected --how pricey independent college counselors can hurt an applicant's chances --why admission to a top school depends on who reads your application --why the top of the class at a high-performing high school may end up at their second and third choice 
Written in engaging first-person and covering the entire admissions process--from recruiting to enrollment--Admissions Confidential is a year in the life of a college admissions officer.

St. Martin's: Griffin

On New Year's Day, Alice Davis goes for a run. Her first ever. It's painful and embarrassing, but so was getting denied by the only college she cares about. Alice knows she has to stop sitting around and complaining to her best friend, Jenni, and her pet rat, Walter, about what a loser she is. But what she doesn't know is that by taking those first steps out the door, she is setting off down a road filled with new challenges―including vicious side stitches, chafing in unmentionable places, and race-paced first love―and strengthening herself to endure when the going suddenly gets tougher than she ever imagined, in On the Road to Find Out by Rachel Toor.

On the Road to Find Out: A Novel

Children's Books

Humor

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

As much a moving memoir as it is an amusing pet manual, Misunderstood is a unique nonfiction book for teens and tweens about domesticated rats in general and a wonderful rat named Iris in particular. Brimming with smarts and energy just like its furry subjects, Rachel Toor's text blends history and science with profiles of interesting people and autobiographical anecdotes as it joyfully sets the record straight about why this reviled creature is actually a most amazing species. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of domestic rats―and may be convinced to adopt one themselves.

Misunderstood: Why the Humble Rat May Be Your Best Pet Ever

As a single woman acquires a series of unusual pets, she finds that her boyfriends bear an uncanny resemblance to the animals, despite the fact that her love for each man inevitably fades while her love of animals deepens. Reprint.

The Pig and I: How I Learned to Love Men (Almost) as Much as I Love My Pets

Parenting & Relationships

Plume

Discusses the history, culture, and religion of the Polish, factors encouraging their emigration, and their acceptance as an ethnic group in North America

Polish Americans (Peoples of North America)

Blejwas, Stanislaus A.

Dolan, Sean

Teen & Young Adult

Chelsea House Pub

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Toor, Rachel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Toor, Rachel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Toor, Rachel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Write Your Way In: Crafting an Unforgettable College Admissions Essay (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Write Your Way In: Crafting an Unforgettable College Admissions Essay (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Why You, Why Me, Why Now: The Mindset and Moves to Land That First Job, from Networking to Cover Letters, Resumes, and Interviews

Why You, Why Me, Why Now: The Mindset and Moves to Land That First Job, from Networking to Cover Letters, Resumes, and Interviews

Admissions Confidential: An Insider's Account of the Elite College Selection Process

Admissions Confidential: An Insider's Account of the Elite College Selection Process

On the Road to Find Out: A Novel

Misunderstood: Why the Humble Rat May Be Your Best Pet Ever

The Pig and I: How I Learned to Love Men (Almost) as Much as I Love My Pets

Polish Americans (Peoples of North America)