College Essay Coaching
The college essay, taught by someone who read thousands of them.
I spent thirty years teaching students to write, and I know what makes an admissions reader stop skimming. I help your student find a true story and tell it in their own voice.
Most students reach for what sounds impressive. We dig for what is actually theirs.
Who this is for
Juniors and seniors writing the Common App personal statement or supplemental essays. Students who have a deadline and a blank page, or a draft that reads like everyone else's.
How we work
- Find the real story. We do not start with a topic. We start with the specific moments and details no one else could write.
- Pick the structure. A single story told in scene, or several connected moments around one thread, chosen to fit what your student has to say.
- Write in their voice. The whole game is sounding like a real seventeen-year-old, not an essay. I protect that on every line.
- Cut the cliche. The winning game, the service trip, the lesson about hard work. Readers have seen each one ten thousand times.
- Revise to specific. Vague is forgettable. We trade every abstraction for a concrete detail and land the reflection that shows who your student is becoming.
Why it matters now
The essay carries more weight than it used to, and with admissions offices screening for AI-written work, an authentic voice is the hardest thing to fake and the clearest signal of a real student. Voice is exactly what I teach.
Book a session
Booked through Wyzant.
Free guide (coming soon): the five college essay topics that get rejected, and what to write instead.