I see a ton of them on Amazon. Some have good reviews. Some don’t. I see plenty of good ones but of course I don’t want to buy them all because of money and because I don’t have time to read them all. Which ones would you guys recommend?
I can’t specifically recommend any books (each person is different and what works for one might not work for another person), but here is some advice:
- On Amazon, search for COLLEGE ESSAY ADVICE and start with the first five or ten of that list of books.
- Check the reviews, but with this caveat: Look for the tag "Verified Purchase" on each review. These are from people like you who actually BOUGHT the book, rather than from those who might have been asked to do a positive review.
- Also check for reviews from actual students. It turns out that college "advice" books are most often bought by parents, but whether it was useful to STUDENTS is the important question. Parents might be less critical.
- Look to see if there are any "Editorial Reviews" in the description portion. These are books that are significant enough to be reviewed by external publications.
- Look for relatively shorter books. You don't want to plow through days and days of reading trying to extract those things that will be useful.
- Look for books that include sample essays (although books with titles like "100 Essays that Led to College X" etc... are probably useless for general essay writing).
- Most importantly, check out the "Look inside" button above the photo of the cover. Typically you can read the first chapter or so and see if the style is something that connects with YOU.
- I would buy one, two, or three (at the most) of these books. Wait, make that two or three. You should get the classic, "On Writing the College Application Essay" by Harry Bauld. That one has to be on your shelf, but another one or two with more specific advice will be worthwhile.