Long Beach Cal SOAPCollege Prep Summer Camp

COMMON APPLICATION

LETTERS OF REC &ESSAYS

Most colleges will specify Teacher Community Member School Counselor

LETTERS OF REC - WHO SHOULD I ASK?

If you have a choice choose the person who will be able to provide the BEST LETTER This may not be your favorite teacher!

Items to give to person when asking Due Date Submission Instructions (online or by mail) Resume or Brag Sheet

WHO SHOULD I ASK?HOW DO I ASK THEM?

Include Academic Profi le Include all of the things listed on your “Activities”

section of college application Extra-Curriculars Volunteer work Leadership positions Employment Honors or Awards

RESUME OR BRAG SHEET

Short Answer QuestionsEssays

TYPES OF WRITING REQUIREMETNS

Choose ONE Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that

is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds l ike you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it aff ect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Refl ect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again.

Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd l ike to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its signifi cance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

APPLICATION ESSAY PROMPTS

You’ve just written a 300-page autobiography. Send us page 217. (University of Pennsylvania)

Write you own essay question and answer it. (Kalamazoo College)

Attach a small photograph of something important to you and explain its signifi cance. (Stanford)

If you could go back and change one day in your life, what would you change and why? (Santa Clara University)

If you were to develop a Mt. Rushmore representing the 20th century, whose faces would you select and why? (William and Mary) 

What is your favorite quotation and why? (Princeton) Write a haiku, limerick, or short poem that best represents

you. (NYU)

SUPPLEMENTS

How do you feel about Wednesday? Have you ever walked through the aisles of a warehouse store

l ike Costco or Sam’s Club and wondered who would buy a jar of mustard a foot and a half tall? We’ve bought it, but it didn’t stop us from wondering about other things, l ike absurd eating contests, impulse buys, excess, unimagined uses for mustard, storage, preservatives, notions of bigness…and dozens of other ideas both sil ly and serious. Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard.

So where is Waldo, really? UChicago professor W. J. T. Mitchell entitled his 2005 book What

Do Pictures Want?  Describe a picture, and explore what it wants. How are apples and oranges supposed to be compared? Possible

answers involve, but are not l imited to, statistics, chemistry, physics, l inguistics, and philosophy.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO