Do you write the essay for me?
Nope. And honestly, you don’t want me to. Your best essay is going to come from you, and feature your story, your voice, and your insight.
Offering your unique perspective is what’s going to set your personal statement (i.e. primary essay) apart because it needs to go beyond just showing what happened to you and also show how that experience shaped who you are and who you will become on campus. I can’t tap into your brain like that (and neither can Chat GPT…yet).
What I can do is help you dig for a great topic and then craft a unique and ownable essay that will create some space between you and everyone else. But the actual writing and insight? That’s on you.
What if I have no idea what to write about?
Well, then you’d be just like 98.8% of all the other h.s. students out there, no shame in that. But let’s agree that you have no idea what to write about right now. That will change and then away you go. (And by away, I mean to college.)
How many drafts should I expect to write?
As many as it takes? I really can’t be more concrete than that because everyone is different. The truth is, you need excellent/outstanding/awesome essays to help distinguish you as an applicant in today’s crazy college application world, especially if you’re trying to get into highly selective schools. Some more truth is that you might have to keep rewriting when all you want to do is never write anything ever again. But your writing needs to shine, from your personal statement to your supplementals, and even all the places they give you characters to work with on your Common App. Every chance you have to write something is a chance to stand out, and if you don’t take advantage, just know that many of your fellow applicants will.
Do you offer packages?
I do not. The essay-writing process is a living, breathing, non-linear thing. You’re not writing about the Industrial Revolution - thank goodness. That’s what makes your personal statement challenging and fun. It could take 3 one-hour sessions and 4 failed potential topics to find your right story, or it could take 20 minutes. There’s no way to know.
For that reason, I charge by the hour. To me, it makes sense to take as much or as little time as necessary without worrying about whether you’re getting everything you paid for with my Ultra Deluxe-O Platinum Package.
What if I’m a parent reading this?
Then I say, welcome. I’m a parent myself. And having coached students for the past 6 years and having recently gone through this entire application process with my oldest daughter, I know how taxing it can be for the whole family, siblings included. For that reason, I’m a big believer in two-way communication and keeping parents in the loop. Not only will I update you throughout the entire process, but I might ask your student to go home and ask you for their top 10 qualities, or 3 times you were really proud of them. Nobody knows your child better than you do and that insight could prove to be invaluable to them and our objective.
What if I’m a parent reading this and asking myself, “Do we really need an essay coach?”
Fair question. My initial response is,“Yes.” But if you lock me in a dark room for a few minutes to really think about it, I guess I’d say “Absolutely.”
Seriously, not to get all philosophical on you, but Confucius said, “If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” I’d use that as your North Star for this entire application process.
There are high school college counselors and professional consultants who make their living getting students into college. They are experts. You would be making a strategically unwise decision if you didn’t utilize their knowledge and experience. Yes, the financial component involved with paying a consultant is definitely a factor and not every counselor or consultant is created equal, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not finding someone with more expertise to help guide you. That said, not every counselor or consultant can or even wants to get involved with essays, and that’s where I can help. If that fills a void for you and your family, even if you’re already working with a full-service consultant, fantastic.
As a parent who’s gone through the application process recently, I cannot overstate how happy my wife and I were when my daughter left our home to see her college counselor. It was like our wedding day all over again, only happier.
Having this “buffer,” whether it’s an essay coach, a trusted school counselor/teacher, or a paid consultant is critical to maintaining some semblance of structure and calm over the however many months this process takes you. Uncertainty about the future is inherently stressful, and in my experience, outsourcing some of that stress to a capable expert is 100% necessary.
Will you be able to sit down for a family dinner on a Wednesday night in September without stress-talking about applications, deadlines, personal statements, supplementals, recommendations, last-second visits, etc.? Or, if all that stuff does come up, can it be discussed reasonably before moving on? If so, you’re doing great. With the right outside support, I think doing great is far more attainable. So to answer the question, I really do think you need some kind of coach, whether it’s for the essays or otherwise.
But you don’t help with the other parts of the application process, right?
I help when I can, but I am not an end-to-end consultant. Compiling college lists, the best times to take the SAT/ACTs, course rigor, summer internships, etc. is not what I do. Writing is what I know and what I stick to.
However, the personal statement and supplemental essays don’t exist in a vacuum. They are one (key) component of an overall application narrative. The best applications tell a clear, consistent story about who you are, from your honors and activities to your grades. Your essay can do a lot of heavy lifting, but it works best when it fits into the larger story you’re telling a school. One of the absolute musts about your essay is that it should reveal something or a side of you that an admissions officer can’t find anywhere else. For that reason, it’s important for me to have a sense of what’s going on elsewhere around your application.
Can I come to you with something I’ve written already?
Absolutely. Whether you’re starting from scratch or on your sixth draft with two days to go before your submission deadline, I’ll meet you where you are and we’ll go from there.
How can I set up a free consultation?