GOOD ADVICE

Here’s what Mike Sexton, vice president for enrollment management at Santa Clara University in California, says about the college application essay:

“. . . the essay is that opportunity after a student fills out all the blanks of an application. They should ask themselves, ‘Is there something else about me that this college should know about that there wasn’t a blank for?’ And if there is, the essay is one of the ways you can create the blank and fill it in. It should be something unique to you; it should give us a glimpse into your personality; it should not just be repeating what’s evident other places in the application. So I think it’s that opportunity for somebody to say: here’s who I am—I’m more than a set of grades and scores.”