One-on-one Essay Intensive college essay help is shaped around your desire for growth as an applicant, writer and reinvigorated, less-stressed human. Each personalized Essay Intensive guidance session looks different, ranging as widely and as creatively as your needs.
Our intensives are a real response to this problem: Your college essay writing process should not be stressful, dull, or isolating. Writing with us, you’ll achieve the triple threat of teenage life: be with friends, feel more alive, and gain some skills you can actually use again and again and again.
If you are being genuine you will automatically stand out because there is only one of you in the pool. We are looking for what makes you special and if you write an authentic and thoughtful essay about yourself, we will uncover just that.
-- Brown University, Prospects & Providence
Free-writing for your best essay ideas
For years I have relied on free-writing exercises to show my students their own light. Free-writing opens the writer to all the buzzing life they carry inside themselves in the form of memories, wishes, dreams, regrets, insights– and stories, stories, stories. And for your college essay you need stories.
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Caught Between Identities
I believe our teens need to see their teachers (and, frankly, as many adults in their world as possible) stand up against erasure and misbegotten hatred of individuals and groups. Our teens need to know, if it was them at risk, that their identity, their selves, would be protected, too. Celebrated, especially.
That’s what art, and in particular the art of the personal essay, is for: to look into identity closely, to transmute pain, to understand how a person comes to be themselves, what has shaped them. To share that through style and craft. To open yourself up to others.
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What to do if you hate your college essay
“The realization might start to gnaw at you while you rewrite a draft, or slam into you while you are walking to class: I HATE my college essay! Now what?
As your elementary school teacher might have cautioned, hate is a strong emotion. It is no fun to feel like you hate your college essay at any point, especially as nerve-wracking deadlines loom. And, the point of the essay is to make the college admissions committee fall in love with you and your incredible personality and distinctive writing style. Your stomach drops and you lose all hope of a bright future….
Despair not. Although it is not advisable to make any final decisions about your writing based on this feeling, you can look into your hatred to show you something true.
Read MoreMy time with Sara was amazing and and beneficial to my writing skills. She challenged me to add more juice and style to my writing. Each detail I put in my personal statement I was asked questions about. It was as if she was guiding me in peeling an onion to its center. Each evening she would sit with me listening as I expressed my thoughts to her. She became my pencil that helped converts my thoughts into words on paper. Each email sent was words of encouragement and cheer that uplifted my spirit. This motivated me to continue writing every time I got writer’s block. I found a reason to be happy about my writing instead of being ashamed of it. I appreciate the time and dedication Sara spent working on my essay with me because it helped me get admission to the schools I was interested in attending. I was able to find my voice, use my words, and tell my story because of Sara’s assistance.
--Joel, Cornel University, Class of 2019
When I started the college process the one thing that I was really sure of was that I never wanted to try to fit who I was into who I thought colleges wanted me to be. When it came to my personal statement, I was adamant about not forcing the events that have shaped my high school experience to seem presentable and neat. Because they had not been and I felt like I owed everyone involved with the college process as close to a true representation of myself as I could manage. Sara not only aided my and guided me through this process, but she encouraged my writing to be raw and lyrical in the ways I thought it should be. Writing with Sara not only helped with my college process, but also with my writing and thinking processes.
--Antonia, Scripps College, Class of 2021
Sara was a true delight to work with! She guided us and our daughter in the essay preparation process, and helped us manage deadlines, always allowing our daughter to be in full command. Sara brought out the best in our daughter's essays, while fully respecting her voice and her style. Thank you Sara! You are very talented! We are always happy and delighted to serve as a reference.
--Grateful Family in Scarsdale, NY, Parents of T, Class of 2019
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