Your audience is a college admissions counselor tasked with reading 50 essays per day...how will your story stand out?
The personal essay is the centerpiece to your application because it is your story. Your unique set of characteristics, skills, talents, values, experiences are woven into a reflective piece of writing. The reflection and topic sentence evolves within conversation and developed into paragraphs that highlight your strengths, values, passion or contributions, and a vision for the future. Consider the one thing that needs to be understood, to understand you as a person. This is your introduction to a new community...what do they need to know that is not already in a text box or drop-down menu. You write at your level (with grammar and spell check) using humor, creativity, imagery, metaphors, dialogue to capture your essence.
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While it is perfectly acceptable for students to come in with some ideas on what they could be writing about, we actually prefer that they have not started in advance. This encourages students to consider new ideas rather than fixate on what they have previously written. With freedom of thought, the writing progresses, and the essay’s direction evolves too.
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No, the right prompt is something that we’ll figure out organically as the writing develops. This allows the prompt to best represent the essay’s topic.
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Depending on where you are applying and how important the essays are going to be, you should set aside a lot of writing time. Writing one main essay can take up as much as 10 hours over a period of several days. This allows for reflecting and brainstorming before putting words in a draft. However, not all essays take that long, and as part of initial brainstorming, you may create additional content supplemental essays required by individual schools. You will want to plan enough time for each required writing to unfold.
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Some kids feel free to share their essays as they are writing, while others feel their topics are too private or personal to share with anyone except their essay coaches. If your student is enrolled in our essay process, we will let you know if there is any concern regarding the quality of the essay. Allowing each student’s own expression of ideas to come through in the essay is best, though students and coaches can reach out to you for support as needed.
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Essays are about bringing out an aspect of yourself that adds personality and brings purpose to your college application. A good essay coach will coax you to look deeper into your experiences and the value systems that make you special. We all have life experiences that are uniquely ours, no matter how commonplace we feel our lives might be. A good writing coach may make you laugh at the past or cry with you over your heartaches on the way to a powerful essay.
A machine could help refine the language of a draft. but will never be able to bring out the emotions that define your learning and growth.
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For our essay boot camps, we find that the virtual format is more effective than in-person. It allows us to strategize at a group level, while focusing on each student. Students working with us upload their essays onto Google Drive to share with instructors, which makes editing, commenting, and reviewing easier. In addition, virtual sessions allow us to float seamlessly back and forth between group discussions and one-to-one feedback using breakout rooms.
In person essay sessions can get very noisy and chaotic.
Your starting point…
Self-reflection is a daunting task for anyone, let alone with a deadline and word limit. An essay coach provides the space for conversation for content but then guides the development and mechanics of your writing. As always, we strive to meet students where they are in the process and lend support to build confidence. Rough drafts are welcomed but not necessary.
Private or Essay Workshop?
As college essay guides, our role is NOT to write essays on student's behalf but rather to ask the tough questions, dig deeper, identify connections to bring out their narratives. We strive to endow them with the ability to go beyond telling a generic story about their experiences and instead show their passions and share their dreams.
Students have the option to work with us 1:1 or join one of our essay workshops.
Essay workshops are best suited for students who will engage in a small group setting and are willing to share their ideas with others and listen to their peers' suggestions.