Professional College Application Essay Coaching

Writing a college essay is often the most daunting piece of the college admissions puzzle. There is a great deal of anxiety, misinformation and lack of knowledge surrounding how to write "winning" essays that may make the difference between success and failure in getting admitted to the university of your choice. Whether you are seeking essay help for Ivy League schools or for other top 100 colleges, our expert guidance gives you an edge over your competition.

You undoubtedly have endless questions: How do I begin the writing process? What ideas separate ordinary essays from superior personal statements? How do I differentiate myself from other applicants? How many drafts do I have to write? How do I reveal different aspects of "who I am" in the multiple essays and "short answer" questions that I will need to write for top colleges?

Our comprehensive admissions and essay packages provide everything you need.

School-based counselors do not have the time to sit with you and work and rework essays until they are polished. Students generally think that, because they do well in English classes and read a book filled with successful Ivy League essays, they can write great personal statements without help.

The college essay is a completely different animal than the five-paragraph essays you've been writing in high school. Admissions officers are looking for very different things than your English teacher. Often, too, English teachers' input on college essays is misdirected, as they are not experts on the college admissions process.

Unlike essay coaching services, we are professional college admissions counselors.

English teachers are not the only individuals who lack expertise in the college admissions process. Essay writing and coaching services are filled with people who may or may not be good writers and good teachers of writing, but one thing is clear: they are NOT professional college admissions counselors.

We attend college conferences alongside admissions officers, speaking with them about their colleges and the unique admissions processes at their schools. We attend professional development seminars that help bring you the most up-to-date information on colleges and admissions. We visit college campuses to assist you in shaping essays that are relevant to each school.

As college essay specialists, our professional perspective on the process offers you advantages that are light years removed from essay writing and coaching services. Utilizing our knowledge base and strategic guidance, your personal statements will stand out from the crowd.

We understand how admissions officers will evaluate your essays.

Students who do not have the benefit of working with a professional college admissions consultancy like IvySelect often write what they think admissions officers want to hear. Applicants often conjure up images of a grey-haired man in a tweed jacket and bow tie. Although a few admissions officers may fit that profile, the overwhelming majority does not belong to that demographic.

You should not write what you think would most impress these hypothetical admissions gatekeepers. Rather, an authentic vision of who you are should emerge from your personal statements.

What admissions staffers are looking for in your essays and how they will be evaluated will undoubtedly surprise you. Through our experience, background and multiple conversations with admissions officers, we offer unparalleled direction in having you write authentic essays that will achieve the desired and necessary impact.

We help identify "life themes" that resonate from your essays, across your application.

Students, without the proper guidance, often choose to write essays that lack passion and don't reveal who they are. Or, their personal statements are inconsistent with, or do not support "life themes" that emerge from various aspects of their applications, including their academic profile, resumes and letters of recommendation.

We help you understand how to tie together your extracurricular activities, summer activities, work, and personal and family life throughout the application, and particularly in your essays. We will make sure, in admissions speak, that there is the proper "resonance" across your application. That is, who you are will be consistently manifested in the various pieces of your college admissions documents.

We offer professional writing and teaching assistance of the highest order.

Beyond knowing what to write, is how to write. You know from experience that not all teachers, coaches and counselors are of the same ability level. You learn more from some individuals than others. Some people are, quite frankly, more talented in sharing what they know and in directing you to achieve your best.

Our Director's background as an award-winning writer and editor at a major New York publishing house provides unmatched assistance as you tackle your personal statements. You will receive help on your essays by an Ivy League graduate who possesses the top-notch ability and training to teach you how to write "your best."

We help guide you to write high-impact essays.

While IvySelect does not write essays for students, we help students brainstorm essay ideas that they probably would not have thought of themselves, assist students in crystallizing their ideas, guide students when their ideas veer off in the wrong direction, and refuse to let students submit essays that don't answer the question or that don't provide the strongest case.

We work with you, over a period of months, on multiple essays and "short answers."

Students are often surprised to find that there is not one "master" essay that will work for all applications. You may be able to use an essay on the Common Application and recycle it for another school. However, many colleges have at least two essays. Then there are the prevalent 250-word "short answer" questions that populate applications. Finally, there are often supplemental essays that are specific to that college.

Having a polished "main" essay that, say, your English teacher or an essay service helped you with and then having very awkwardly-phrased supplemental essays and short answers is a sure sign to admissions officers that you have had assistance with your primary personal statement. You lose impact and credibility.

Writing multiple essays that are all of the same first-tier quality requires patience, direction and hard work. Through weekly meetings held over a period of months, IvySelect will make certain that your personal statements, essays and "short answers" are all in your voice, reveal different crucial aspects of who you are and are of the highest quality.

OUR STRATEGIC ESSAY PROCESS:

• Initial Meeting:
  • Review your academic background, activities and interests
  • Focus on getting to know you and your family
  • Lay out a strategic plan to address your personal statements
  • Uncover your "life themes"
  • Discuss how your essays will be evaluated by admissions officers
  • Discuss preliminary essay ideas
  
  
• Essay Brainstorming Stage:
  • Present successful techniques to discover winning essay ideas
  • The "Snow Plow" Method explained
  • Use of "What do I believe?"
  • The "Value" Method
  • The Adjective Approach
  • Open-Ended Questions: activities, work, personal life, interests, philosophical
  
  
• The Synthesis Stage:
  • "The Experience" — outlining, conveying material which supports your positioning strategy
  • Significance of the Experience — key moments, the "take away"
  • Developing your Theme — revealing a truth, demonstration of uniqueness
  • Pre-writing considerations — specificity, authenticity and much more
  • Avoiding trite topics that admissions officers hate
  • Understanding the specific question you're answering
  • Explanation of what needs to be included to answer a specific essay
  
  
• The Drafting Stage:
  • Guidance on structure
  • How To Edit — objectives, content, organizations, length, flow, clarity
  • Critical "Do's & Don'ts" revealed
  • "Killing your darlings"
  • Emotional content & passion
  • Story direction
  • Character development
  • The "Authenticity Test"
  • Grammar assistance
  • Ongoing critiques and recommendations for essays and short answers
  • Multiple drafts to achieve maximum impact
  
  
• The Polishing Stage:
  • Refining the "Killer" Introduction
  • Polishing to support your positioning strategy
  • Polishing ideas
  • Polishing the flow
  • Polishing to achieve maximum focus & depth
  • Polishing of the Conclusion to achieve the feeling of completion
  • Proofreading

  We employ our strategic essay process over your multiple essays and short answers.

  We offer our essay services in both comprehensive admissions & essay only packages.