Diagnostics, tune-ups, and overhauls for college application essays and grad school personal statements
Pick a key moment early in your interest Keep it simple, but demonstrate your interest with details. "When I was 10, my dad took me to watch a launch at Cape Canaveral. Until then, my only interest was in MCU movies and basketball, but when I watched the Space Shuttle soaring into the twilight skies… Continue reading How to Write a Narrative Around the ‘Why Major’ Application Essay
This is what youth must figure out:Girls, love, and living.The having, the not having,The spending and giving,And the melancholy time of not knowing. This is what age must learn about:The ABC of dying.The going, yet not going,The loving and leaving,And the unbearable knowing and knowing. E.B. White I remember what it was like to be… Continue reading This Is What Age Must Learn About (Personal Essay)
A lot of college applicants place particular value on opinions from college students and graduates who have been admitted to T20 schools: after all, the thinking goes, they must’ve done something right to get in. Unsurprisingly, some T20 college students and recent graduates exploit this notion. A college student or graduate’s success in getting into… Continue reading College Admissions Consulting Hell: Separating the Mostly-Harmless from the Totally Unqualified
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com Every college admissions consultant – professional and otherwise – seems to have a process for getting through college application essays. These processes typically contain a combination of well-worn advice and various steps that include brainstorming (and writing lists or random ideas), writing a shitty draft (I’m not sure if… Continue reading The Secret To Writing Any Essay
I am now offering reviews of the Common Application Personal Statement for students who would like actionable, detailed feedback on their CAPS. My reviews cover syntax, thematic and narrative consistency/cohesion, grammar, spelling, academic sophistication, redundancy analysis, word choice and whatever else I see fit. In addition to in-text/sidebar comments, I will also provide separate editorial… Continue reading New Service: $300 Common App Personal Statement Review
Effective immediately, I will no longer be doing free consultations. I planned to eventually phase this out, but after a few incidents with clients who requested my services, spent time with me on a free call, agreed to work with me, and then ghosted me, I have decided to implement pricing on any consultation that… Continue reading Consulting and Price Changes
A curated collection of my answers to questions from college applicants on the A2C Discord server. Edited for quality and clarity.
If you've followed me on the r/ApplyingToCollege subreddit or its Discord server, then you're probably familiar with my lengthy rants advising college applicants to avoid prompt 7 when they write their Common Application Personal Statement (CAPS). Despite my exhortations and pleas, I still receive messages containing either essays or abstract ideas intended for this prompt.… Continue reading The Problem With The Common Application’s 7th Prompt
There are a few harsh truths that no one wants to face about college application essays, writing in general, and the state of this aspect of the humanities in K-12 education as it relates to higher education. Since no one seems to be addressing them, I'm going to say the quiet part out loud, but I'm going to try not to re-litigate the case for literature, philosophy, and the humanities as they relate to culture.
Thinking about using the Common Application Personal Statement’s (CAPS) “personal growth” prompt for your college application? Good. It’s a strong prompt and one of the best ways to demonstrate your maturity, growth, and perspective. One of the problems that students encounter in this essay – and in most personal essays – is not knowing how… Continue reading How To Write The Personal Growth Essay (Common App Prompt 5)