College Application Hacked: 1. The College Essay

“Strong essays may not transform modest achievements into winning applications but weak essays can hide what makes your accomplishments distinctive. Umair will not let you write a weak essay.”  - Jeff Brenzel, former Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Yale

 “A wildly engaging, honest, and irreverent book. You will die to share its insights with friends and family. Khan puts the focus on what moves and drives a young person to act in the world. This book offers a concrete action plan for college essay writing, and frankly, for life. We should all read it."   - Dr. Clare Talwalker, Faculty, U.C. Berkeley

“A warm, easy-to-read, and practical guide to a most important part of college application, the personal essay. As a professor with over 20 years’ experience in the student selection process, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of clear, concise, interesting college essays. Khan’s book is a “must-read” for anyone applying to college.”   - Dr. Charles Browne, Professor of Applied Linguistics Meiji Gakuin University, Japan

“This essential guide to the application essay writing process can change your essay from weakest link to deciding factor in your favour!”   - Thomas Hayton, Former Director, Macmillan Education; former Application Coach, The Princeton Review and Kaplan

“Fun AND instructive! Applicants will find the before and after versions of real college essays especially helpful.”  - Radhika Nagpal, Professor, Harvard University

“Khan’s entertaining and informative look at college admissions provides a plan to win the college application game and also imparts wider wisdom on how to play the game of life.”  - Paul Riley, former Director ELT, Oxford University Press

“Congratulations to Umair Khan on the publication of College Application Hacked! The advice on writing style is pithy and equally applicable to other forms of high-risk correspondence."  - Joseph Noble, Head of Partnerships and Innovation, Oxford University Press

“The criteria identified by Umair are EXACTLY what college admission staff have in mind when reading application essays!” - Mustafa Menai, Faculty, University of Pennsylvania

"All I can say is, I hope my sons read this book and heed the advice as they write their essays." - Dr. Irfan Essa, Professor, GeorgiaTech

“The college essay may be the most important essay most of us ever write. Before you write a single word, read this book. Umair lays out the keys to rocking this part of your application.”  - Charles Huang, Trustee, U.C. Berkeley Foundation; Co-creator, Guitar Hero

“A great guide to clear and effective writing – even beyond the college essay – that could be of benefit to everyone.”   - Raka Ray, Professor, U. C. Berkeley

“I hate Umair. Why couldn’t he have written this amazingly practical and no BS book when I was applying to colleges?  Umair expertly breaks the process down into such easy-to-understand pieces, it’s like he’s plugged into every college admission office. I actually feel sorry for the students that don’t read this book.”   - Joe Miller, GM & Vice President,  Cengage Learning