1 Very good
The essays are seperated into topics (eg. Applying to College, work experience, coming to america), and each include good essays.
The book includes essays of the admittants to top tier colleges (Ivies), and some second tier ones. Interestingly, there are no essays from MIT! (No surprise though, considering the rivalry betwene MIT and Harvard -- the book was organized by Harvard newspaper)
Overall, great book.
2 BUY THIS BOOK!
Before I bought this book I thought my essay was pretty good until I bought this book. Then I knew that I could make my essay even better just by just following the essays in the book. I didn't even think I needed to get a guide book for my essay because I thought it was pretty good already without help from an essay book. But apparently this book worked really good because I did not get deferred from college! I got into my first choice just by using this book and I recommend it to anyone even to those who do not think they need a guide book for their essays because they think their essays are already pretty good like I thought mine was.
BUY THIS BOOK!
3 Amazing
This book is simply amazing. Thanks to this book, I'm now studying neurology at Harvard. As a matter of fact, I'm in my room and I decided to look for things that would bring back pre-college memories when I came across this one. It helped me a lot with my essay and I know some of the people that wrote it. They are pretty good at what they do. If you want to get into a good college and hate looking at that blank piece of paper, then this is the book for you.
4 uninventive and most unhelpful
There are a few gems here, but for the most part, these essays are the same well-written but dry, uninventive slop every other high school senior dribbles out: how the abroad student haf a Life Changing Experience! how an athlete Crossed the Finish Line! how when pet Fluffly croaked it was a Formative Experience! If you really want insight into how to write a well-crafted, unique essay, with sounds suggestions, seek out the great book by Harry Bauld.
5 Varied College Essays
I purchased 3 College Essay books (100 Successful College Application Essays, 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays, and Essays That Worked), and have the following comments... I believe that the Harvard book has the best suggestions on how to write an essay, along with the best commentary/critique. However, the essays are a bit too polished. I think for 90% of prospective college students, their essays would be more like those in and patterned like those in Essays That Worked. For varied ideas on essays, the 100 Successful book gives some good ideas, but I believe many of the essays to be subpar. I did each book to have some interesting general reading, especially if one likes "short stories"... or if one is interested in 17 & 18 year olds, and what goes thru their minds.
6 Reality
This book has lots of college essays that could be used for reference when writing an college essay. However, it's too concentrated on Ivy League schools and not other competitive schools. The comments that are suppose to be reviewed by college counselors and admissions officers are poor. Most of them just explains that they are creative. It does not comment much on how the author should redo or learn from their mistakes and do this thing. Not as informative as they claim to be.
7 Great for Ivy League School Admissions
This book starts off with informative advice from Admissions counselors. The book, however, did not focus on admissions to average Graduate Schools. It seemed to appeal to new college students, ivy-league admissions, and essays for financial award contests. I was disappointed.
8 For students applying to college, this book is a must read.
There are many books devoted to the "How to write a college admissions essay" topic, but after all these years this book continues to top our list (along with our very own application and essay kits).
We've read almost every book remotely related the college and graduate school admissions process, and most of them will prove to be a waste of your money. This book, however, is well worth its cost.
We strongly encourage all students applying to college to read this book. We know because we're the admissions essay authority.
9 a sure help
the woderful essays inspire you to write your own!!! comments from admission officers help a lot and show that one essay can be viewd very differently
10 Excellent compilation of essays
I read this book at my career counsellor's office. It was indeed a wonderful book, I tried to order it but I could'nt get it as the online ordering facility was not working. I also tried various book stores but could'nt find a copy of it.
