The Digital SAT is coming. Get ready to ace it.

1-ON-1 GUIDANCE FOR WRITING WOW-WORTHY COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAYS

What makes you unique?

That’s the all-important question admissions officers will be seeking to answer as they review your application. Will you be seen as someone who will fade into the background, or as someone whose unique experiences and perspectives will enrich the life of the campus? Will your essay linger in the minds of admissions officers, or will it be quickly forgotten, lost among thousands of other essays by students with similar grades, extracurricular activities, and test scores?

Our 1-on-1 college essay coaching guides you through a proven, step-by-step framework for crafting compelling college application essays, from the first draft all the way to the final polish.

STUDENTS LEARN HOW TO:

Appeal to Their Target Audience

The first, and arguably most important, step in crafting a compelling essay isn’t to brainstorm or write a first draft—it’s to understand the people who will be reading and evaluating your essays. What topics and themes do they favor, and what subjects should you avoid?

Choose the Right Message

Finding a suitable topic isn’t about picking a message; it’s about picking the right message for the universities and programs you’re targeting. Admissions officers look for students whose academic backgrounds and aspirations are a good match for their school. We’ll make sure you choose a subject that not only showcases your talents but also resonates with the specific colleges and fields of study on your list.

Demonstrate Character

Six A.P. classes. A super-score of 1470. Three years of Model United Nations, varsity soccer, and band. But what does your application say about your core qualities? Your personal statement is your opportunity to prove that you are so much more than just grades and scores. We’ll teach you how to use your essay to demonstrate that you have important traits like compassion and resilience.

STUDENTS BENEFIT FROM:

Smiling woman student wearing glasses sitting at table in university cafe looking at laptop
  • Expert 1-on-1 writing and editing guidance from a highly experienced admissions advisor.
  • Unlimited time (no restrictions on the number of hours we spend helping you hone your personal statement).
  • Help with all stages of writing, from the brainstorming process to the finishing touches of the final draft.

“Thank you so much. I had no idea what to do for my Common App or supplements and kept writing drafts that I wasn’t happy with. You helped me understand what admissions officers look for when they read students’ personal statements and how I had a unique story to tell. I’m positive my essays helped me get into Brown, and I feel much more confident in my writing ability now than I did before. Thank you!”

Allison Winograd
Brookline High School
Brookline, MA

1-ON-1 COLLEGE ESSAY GUIDANCE OPTIONS

Personal Statement Guidance

$1,800 per essay

Supplemental Essay Guidance

$800 per essay

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Picture yourself an admissions officer at a prestigious university. It’s mid-February, and for the last six weeks you have been utterly entombed with work. Each day, with the help of a venti Caffe Americano, you review upwards of 200 students, all of whom—let’s be honest—blend into one another with stellar grades, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and test scores. You would never admit this fact to anyone, but if you see yet another straight-A student with a 34 on the ACT, two years of varsity swimming, and a history of volunteering at Fading Horizons nursing home, you may just lose it. The work you do is important, and you take your responsibility as a shaper of the future of the college seriously, but come on! How many times do you have to read an essay in which a student simply recites his or her achievements in a blatant attempt to come across as intelligent and well-rounded?

Increasingly, admissions officers cite the essay as the number one way that students can distinguish themselves from other applicants. Here’s a quote from Martha C. Merrill, a Harvard graduate and former Dean of Admissions: “The truth is that while no essay will make an unqualified student acceptable, a good essay can help a qualified applicant stand out from the competition. A good essay just might be what turns a ‘maybe’ into a ‘yes.’”

High school English teachers impart many important skills, from methods for analyzing works of literature to techniques for writing a cohesive five-paragraph essay. However, crafting a distinctive personal statement is very different from writing a five-paragraph essay for school. Composing a memorable college application essay combines elements of persuasive, creative, and autobiographical writing since students are, in effect, telling a story about themselves to persuade the admissions committee to admit them to the university. We teach students how to discover the story that will most resonate with application readers, and then we lead them through a proven, step-by-step framework for writing a personal statement that will give them a true competitive edge.

No, absolutely not. We don’t do students work for them. It’s vital that students compose their own essays and that their personal statements come across as authentic. We motivate students, inspire them, and help them discover what makes them unique, and then we guide them through every step of the writing process, offering specific feedback and suggestions.

We teach all students the same writing techniques—techniques like building tension, using vivid language, and connecting with readers on an emotional level. However, the personal statements that students produce are by no means interchangeable. Quite the opposite. They’re as unique and different from one another as the students themselves.
All of our advisors have sterling academic credentials and a deep reservoir of experience mentoring students through the college admissions process. But more importantly, all are dedicated educators whose enthusiasm and commitment to students is evident from the very first session.

THE HIGHEST-RATED

We’re proud to have the highest rating of every test prep and admissions firm on TrustPilot. Here are recent reviews from students, parents, and schools.

Apr 10 - May 29 Schedule

Class 1: WED, APR 10, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 2: WED, APR 17, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 3: WED, APR 24, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 4:  WED, MAY 1, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 5: WED, MAY 8, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 6:  WED, MAY 15, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 7:  WED, MAY 22, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Class 8: WED, MAY 29, 2024, 07:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST

Aug 27 - Oct 4 Schedule

Class 1: SUN, AUG 27, 2023, 12:30 PM – 02:30 PM EDT

Class 2: WED, AUG 30, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 3: WED, SEPT 6, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 4: SUN, SEPT 10, 2023, 12:30 PM – 02:30 PM EDT

Class 5: WED, SEPT 13, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 6: SUN, SEPT 17, 2023, 12:30 PM – 02:30 PM EDT

Class 7: WED, SEPT 20, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 8: SUN, SEPT 24, 2023, 12:30 PM – 02:30 PM EDT

Class 9: WED, SEPT 27, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 10: WED, OCT 4, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Jul 17 - Aug 16 Schedule

Class 1: MON, JUL 17, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 2: WED, JUL 19, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 3: MON, JUL 24, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 4: WED, JUL 26, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 5: MON, JUL 31, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 6: WED, AUG 2, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 7: MON, AUG 7, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 8: WED, AUG 9, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 9: MON, AUG 14, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

Class 10: WED AUG 16, 2023, 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM EDT

100 THINGS MOST TEENAGERS WOULD RATHER DO THAN PREP FOR THE SAT OR ACT

1. Visit the orthodontist. 2. Watch PBS. 3. Go an entire week without rolling their eyes at their parents. 4. Watch C-SPAN. 5. Retake their AP Chem final. 6. Intern at a local CPA’s office. 7. Turn off their cell phone. 8. Mop the kitchen. 9. Clean their bathroom. 10. Renounce social media. 11. Write a 10-page history paper. 12. Get a bunch of allergy shots. 13. Wait in line at the post office. 14. Watch the Weather Channel. 15. Be abducted by aliens. 16. Attend a clarinet recital. 17. Tour a Soviet-era nuclear plant. 18. Eat a healthy and nutritious dinner. 19. Do calisthenics. 20. Bake snickerdoodle cookies for that guy who’s always loitering by his van. 21. Watch a black-and-white foreign film without subtitles. 22. Clean out the rain gutters. 23. Pretend they’re 42 and recently divorced. 24. Listen to NPR’s Weekend Edition. 25. Read a newspaper. 26. Visit the DMV. 27. Eat crispy fried tarantulas (considered a delicacy in Cambodia). 28. Serve as a “breath odor evaluator” for a toothpaste company. (Yes, this job actually exists.) 29. Go on a double date with their parents. 30. Undergo dental surgery. 31. Babysit their annoying stepbrother. 32. Empty Mr. Whisker’s litter box. 33. Take out the trash. 34. Clean the rain gutters. 35. Tell their parents they’d like to sit down to discuss the Birds n’ the Bees. 36. Stare at a blank television screen for several hours. 37. Be fitted for orthodontic headgear. 38. Organize their closet. 39. Vacuum their entire house. 40. Eat that substance their school cafeteria claims is Sloppy Joe. 41. Kiss Tucker Carlson. 42. Make origami turtles for the residents of a local nursing home. 43. Do a few hundred burpees. 44. Try Uncle Morris’s beef stew. 45. Watch Hillbilly Handfishin’ on Animal Planet. 46. Eat “bird’s nest” soup, which sounds kind of scrumptious unless you know the broth is made from bird SALIVA. 47. Set up an Facebook account for Grandma. 48. Start a backyard garden. 49. Dust home furnishings. 50. Do an exercise known as the “Bulgarian Split Squat.” 51. Help Dad trim his back hair. 52. Hunt for spare change between the sofa cushions. 53. Hunt for leftover Cheez-Its between the sofa cushions. 54. Mow the lawn. 55. Learn how to knit. 56. Research Wikipedia’s entry on the history of Q- tips. 57. Count how many times they can blink in one hour. 58. Compose a haiku. 59. Do one of the American Dental Association’s oral disease-themed jigsaw puzzles. 60. Watch televised bowling. 61. Give Grandpa a foot massage. 62. Give Grandma a foot massage. 63. Play tea party with their six-year-old stepsister. 64. Read The Red Badge of Courage. 65. Browse Burlington Coat Factory’s fall collection. 66. Floss. 67. Listen to The Scarlett Letter on audiobook. 68. Watch televised bowling. 69. Lie really, really still and pretend they’re deceased. 70. Join their twelve-year-old sister and all of her friends for a dance party!!! 71. Wash their parents’ minivan. 72. Journal about their feelings. 72. Give themselves a haircut. 73. Make homemade kombucha. 74. Learn to crochet. 75. Get a head start on their LinkedIn profile. 76. Watch a black- and-white movie marathon. 77. Visit the library. 78. Run a relay race. 79. Eat slimy san-nakji, which is considered a delicacy in Korea. 80. Eat khash, a traditional dish in Southeastern Europe that is so disgusting you’re just going to have to Google it to find out what it’s made of. 81. Eat the Swedish delicacy blodpättar, which kind of sounds like what it is. 81. Eat bat soup, a traditional dish in Micronesia. 82. Eat harkarl, rotten shark meat that is considered a delicacy in Iceland. 83. Eat the Scottish dish known as haggis. 84. Eat escamol, a Mexican dish that kind of looks like it’s made of rice but definitely isn’t. 85. Eat “Rocky Mountain Oysters,” which, despite the name, may not be from the Rocky Mountains and definitely are not oysters. 86. Wrestle an alligator. 87. Be a “professional apologizer,” a person whose actual full-time job is to apologize on behalf of other people. 88. Be an ostrich babysitter, which is apparently something people do in South Africa. 89. Ponder what life would have been like if they had been born in Kazakhstan. 90. Take a transatlantic flight on Biman Bangladesh Airlines, widely considered the worst airline in the entire world. 91. Eat fugu, a potentially lethal blowfish. 92. Do a form of running exercise known as “laps of misery.” 93. Walk the neighbor’s dog. 94. Clean their room. 95. Frolic naked through the mall. 96. Do a handstand on two fingers. 97. Do one-armed chin-ups. 98. Do a form of exercise known as a “flying human flag abdominal crunch.” 99. Watch the 2011 movie Tree of Life. (Trust us, it’s booooring.) 100. Use sock puppets to practice their future networking skills.