Why we tell you to keep developing your essay ...even after admissions When Reggie handed me his college essay free-write in the middle of my Essay Intensive writing workshop at JPMorgan's The Fellowship Initiative, I just about fell out of my chair. "I haven't really written about this before," he said offhandedly. "What do you think? Could you tell me if it's good?" Students contextualize their writing this way to me all the time-- regarding everything from compulsory chicken scratch, to sob stories about a low grade on a math test, to Oedipal tales, to wrenching sagas of family illness. But this essay was different. Within a few sentences, a loved one was cruelly dead-- and his real loss was not even months old. Continue Reading …