- College Application Essays 101
- How We Help You Write a Strong Essay
- How soon can I /should I start?
- How can I start for free and ask more questions?
- What is your process / how do you work?
- How do you help students conquer writer’s block?
- How do you help students edit?
- What is the spacing for the meetings and how flexible are you in timing them?
- Where will the meetings take place?
- Will you work on supplemental essays?
- The Essay Coaching Difference
College Application Essays 101
What is the purpose of a college application essay?
College admissions officers read your essay to learn about your strengths and attitudes in your own unique voice. You’re more than your name, activities, AP classes and numbers—a 3.9 GPA, a 22 ACT, a 1250 SAT score. Keep in mind that colleges are looking for the more impressive student. They read what you say in your essay and they read between the lines. They choose the student they understand, respect and like, the one who shows more maturity, self-insight, initiative, intellectual curiosity, passion, creativity, focus, and/or drive. They choose the student who they believe will fit into their college, contribute,be successful, and graduate. So the goal is to portray yourself in your essay in a positive, authentic, and memorable way.
How many essays will I need to write?
Most colleges require one or more personal essays as part of their application. Students are puzzled about this for a number of reasons.
They are not sure of the purpose of the essay, they don’t know what topic is best for them, and they often don’t know a process or structure for writing a winning essay.
Because students may feel puzzled and overwhelmed, they may procrastinate and worry about this part of their application. Debbie Merion created Essay Coaching in 2005 to help solve this problem.
In summary, students write two types of essays.
- Common Application: Nearly all students need to write a personal statement for the common application. This is a 650 word true story that tells the reader what you care about, and what you’ve done about it. Currently the common application is accepted at these 1077 colleges and universities. A few schools do not accept the common application, but still require essays. These include the University of California system, which uses the UC Application, and MIT, which uses its own platform called MyMIT. Georgetown University also uses its own application.
- Supplemental essays: In addition to the common application, many students need to write one or more college-specific supplemental essays. This list shows colleges that require supplemental essays. That list also shows the supplemental essay prompts for each school. Students seem to be applying to 5-12 colleges in recent years. Although many colleges have supplemental essays, the good news is that there often is an overlap in the supplemental essay prompts. Many schools do not require supplemental essays. Here is a subset of those schools.
There are also schools that don’t require any essays to apply.
Optional essays are scholarship essays. Some examples are the USDA 1980 National Scholars Program, and the National Merit Scholarship Program. FastWeb is a good source of scholarship information. Essay Coaching will also assist you in writing this type of essay.
How We Help You Write a Strong Essay
How soon can I /should I start?
We recommend students start college application essays before their senior year starts.
Some begin the process in April or May of their junior year. Others begin during their summer between their junior and senior year.
September is when Essay Coaching is the busiest and also when students are the busiest.
To help you get started before students and Essay Coaching get busy, we offer our largest discounted early-bird pricing before July 1, and also offer discounted pricing from July 2 to September 1. The earlier you start, the lower the price is, and the less stress you have, because your deadlines are furthest away. You also have more options for appointment times.
We also offer classes for students who are interested in understanding the college application essay process during or prior to their junior year.
In addition, if you are interested in reading more about college application essays and the college application process, pick up a copy of Solving the College Admissions Puzzle: A Guide for Students and Families About College Selection, Essay Writing, and High-Stakes Testing, authored by Essay Coaching’s Debbie Merion and two other college application experts.
How can I start for free and ask more questions?
Essay Coaching offers a 20 minute free consultation booked through our website here or a note to us. During this call, we will help you understand the Essay Coaching process, answer all of your questions, and learn more about a student’s interests and a family’s interests in our services.
What is your process / how do you work?
We offer essay writing assistance for students to learn how to write their story in a positive and compelling way. We help students come up with the topic, help them write it, help them keep the essay in their own compelling voice, and help them learn how to edit. We primarily accomplish this through a package of 5-8 meetings. We also offer two other options for students who already have essay drafts: a 3-meeting package or a single online hour of detailed essay feedback. Each meeting is usually by zoom and is 50 minutes long. Parents are welcome.
Our process is very personal, a fitting process considering that college application essays are part of the genre of personal essays. People come to us through word of mouth, they google us, some have taken our online classes listed in our blog. We start with a 20 minute free consultation (booked through our website here or an email to us) to determine a family’s needs for assistance. Then, based on that call and follow-up emails, we get you started.
That means you receive a 14-page handout with 6 sample essays that we will discuss at our first meeting, and an Idea Generator questionnaire to help get you thinking about your own story before we meet. Families usually pay through our website with a credit card.
When we meet, we listen and ask questions. We discuss the Idea Generator questionnaire and note which lines impressed and interested us. We learn about your influences and goals. We ask ourselves: What might work well for you? What hasn’t been done before? What impresses us about you as a person and a student?
Our suggestions for topics are based upon our experiences as journalists, parents, outside observers, award-winning creative writers, and coaches who have overseen the creation of thousands of unique, strong essays.
Our proven, unique non-judgemental writing techniques encourage students to write while teaching them how to strengthen their own writing. That helps students enjoy the process more, and helps reduce stress.
Usually at the end of the first session, the student has one or more essay ideas for a common app topic. At the end of each session, we outline goals for the next session and confirm the calendar date of our next meeting.
Meetings usually occur about once a week. During the meeting, we share a google doc with the essay to discuss and edit.
During the second session, the student will bring essay drafts, ideas, or may write during the session. Usually we will simultaneously view their draft on a google doc. We discuss how to expand ideas into an essay, and may outline the essay.
We also play a game to evaluate the writing as a college admissions officer would. This unique, original game helps students clarify where and how to make edits to tell their own interesting story effectively. The subsequent sessions are spent editing the essay together, working towards a polished essay, and starting to brainstorm and draft additional supplemental essays.
As a result of this process, students create strong essays. They also learn to: understand their strengths more effectively, communicate their strengths without bragging, and write in a more clear, succinct and compelling manner.
Read more about the Essay Coaching process here. This 2024 Success Package description describes the Essay Coaching process in more detail.
How do you help students come up with their best topic?
Before we meet, students complete an Idea Generator questionnaire to help them think about their own story.
When we meet, we listen and ask questions. We discuss the Idea Generator questionnaire and note which lines impressed and interested us. We learn about your influences and goals. We ask ourselves: What might work well for you? What hasn’t been done before? What impresses us about this student? What might be a strong anecdote/scene that reveals the best characteristics of the student?
Our suggestions for topics are based upon our experiences as journalists, parents, outside observers, award-winning creative writers, and coaches who have overseen the creation of thousands of unique, strong essays.
Usually at the end of the first session, the student has one or more essay ideas. We discuss topic ideas together with the student. We ask, “Does this seem like something you’d be interested in writing about?” If we have come up with more than one possible topic, we suggest the one that seems most unique, visual, impressive, interesting, and of interest to the student to write about.
How do you help students conquer writer’s block?
We use a variety of writing techniques inspired by our MFA background, our teaching background, our own writing, our editors, and writing mentors, including Natalie Goldberg (author of Writing Down the Bones) Students write lists. Students use fast writing described here. Sometimes students write during the meeting.The resulting writing is usually fresh and alive.
How do you help students edit?
During the meeting, we both look at a shared google doc with your essay draft, to discuss and edit it. Writing and editing are the yin and yang of producing an essay. First you write a list, do some fast writing, then fill in blanks in your story to create a longer draft, then you cut words, juggle sentences, clarify your point and your story, and sharpen word choices.
The editing process often involves us asking clarifying questions to add compelling details, and then helping students write those in a way that is memorable using names, dates, numbers, sensory details, thoughts, and emotions. When students answer the clarifying questions, we note the aspects of the answer that are most interesting, impressive, and deepen their story. We encourage students to write down what they said, and even repeat their own words back to them if they don’t recall exactly. This helps bring a student’s voice into their essay.
We also play a game to evaluate the writing as a college admissions officer would. This unique, original game helps students clarify where and how to make edits.
What is the spacing for the meetings and how flexible are you in timing them?
Meetings usually occur about once a week. However, many of our meetings occur during the summer, so we have to take into account summer camp and student travel. Therefore, we are flexible with meeting schedules. We make them work for you.
Where will the meetings take place?
In general, our meetings take place on zoom. However, if we find ourselves in the same city, we may suggest an in-person meeting location.
Will you work on supplemental essays?
Most students that we assist in 1-on1 meetings are interested in receiving help on both the common app essay and supplemental essays. We always start with a common app essay in a five session package. We usually start to discuss supplemental essays during the third or fourth meeting. We may brainstorm supplemental essays at that time —how to research to write the best supplemental essay, and begin to discuss content and outline those essays. The eight-session package is designed to more thoroughly work on supplemental essays.
The Essay Coaching Difference
How are you different from artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT?
Learn more about ChatGPT and Essay Coaching differences.
How is Essay Coaching different from others?
In a nutshell: Longevity, consistency, education and creativity.
Our motto is “We educate and motivate, you create.”
Longevity: Essay Coaching, founded in 2005, is the longest-lasting essay assistance company in business today.We thank our supportive clients for that honor. Since 2005, we have assisted 750 families in one-on-one meetings, and taught an additional 1900 families in classes and workshops. Over 100 of our students have attended the University of Michigan. Other students have attended a variety of colleges around the country including Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, NYU, Wellesley, and the University of Southern California.
Consistency: Our techniques have remained consistent for 20 years. We help students and parents stress less because:
- We simplify an overwhelming process by dividing the writing process into simple, manageable steps.
- We use non-judgemental writing techniques.
- We believe in gentle, kind feedback.
- We welcome parents and families to participate.
- We build on teachers’ and counselors’ hard work.
With two essay coaches, we are able to remain consistent in our teaching and coaching methods.
Our non-judgemental writing techniques are derived from Debbie’s years as an assistant for and student of Natalie Goldberg. Natalie is author of Writing Down the Bones, “an influential work on the craft of writing,” which “started a revolution in the way we practice writing in this country.”
Natalie says, “As a writer, Debbie has a clear, strong, and authentic voice.” That is exactly the voice that is needed for a successful application essay, because it draws in the busy readers of application essays. Debbie teaches her students how to write their essays with a clear, strong and authentic voice.
Education: Both essay coaches, Debbie Merion and Sarah J. Robbins, are expert, award winning writers with a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in writing. Both also have a background in teaching. Debbie Merion, founder of Essay Coaching, was trained by the University of Michigan to understand how a Big 10 college admits students. She wrote about this in “PaperCut: The U-M Picks Its Freshman Class.” Debbie also authored Solving the College Admissions Puzzle: A Guide for Students and Families About College Selection, Essay Writing, and High-Stakes Testing, with two other college application experts.
Creativity: Debbie and Sarah are also curious journalists, with the creativity needed to help every student write a unique, strong essay in their own voice.
Learn more about the Essay Coaching difference in this slide deck.