help with college essays near me

Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay

Tips for writing an effective college essay.

College admissions essays are an important part of your college application and gives you the chance to show colleges and universities your character and experiences. This guide will give you tips to write an effective college essay.

Want free help with your college essay?

UPchieve connects you with knowledgeable and friendly college advisors—online, 24/7, and completely free. Get 1:1 help brainstorming topics, outlining your essay, revising a draft, or editing grammar.

Writing a strong college admissions essay

Learn about the elements of a solid admissions essay.

Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes

Learn some of the most common mistakes made on college essays

Brainstorming tips for your college essay

Stuck on what to write your college essay about? Here are some exercises to help you get started.

How formal should the tone of your college essay be?

Learn how formal your college essay should be and get tips on how to bring out your natural voice.

Taking your college essay to the next level

Hear an admissions expert discuss the appropriate level of depth necessary in your college essay.

Student Stories

Student Story: Admissions essay about a formative experience

Get the perspective of a current college student on how he approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about personal identity

Get the perspective of a current college student on how she approached the admissions essay.

Student Story: Admissions essay about community impact

Student story: admissions essay about a past mistake, how to write a college application essay, tips for writing an effective application essay, sample college essay 1 with feedback, sample college essay 2 with feedback.

This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org.

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14 Best College Essay Services for 2024 (40 Services Reviewed)

Research conducted by Emily Kierkegaard , PhD, and expert-reviewed by Kevin Wong, PrepMaven Co-founder

Not sure which college application essay coaching and editing service is the best? We compared the top 40 services, created in-depth reviews for 14 of them, and narrowed it down to the 4 best that will help guide you through the process of writing amazing college application essays.

What is the Best College Essay Service?

PrepMaven – best college application essay service overall
College Essay Mentor – best for individual consultants
The College Essay Guy – best for unlimited essay assistance
College Vine – best of the big platforms

The best of the rest:

Individual essay consultants:

College Essay Editor – small editing team
Allison Karpf – former English teacher helping students
Your College Vision – former journalist with more affordable rates
The College Guru – good on paper but unresponsive
Sofia Zapiola – budget-friendly application assistance

Mid-size teams:

Lotus Learning – focus on health sciences

Large platforms:

Study Point – larger platform with mystery editors
Ivy Select – larger platform with mystery editors
Empowerly – larger platform with mystery editors
BeMo – expensive and aggressive with wrong expertise

Schedule a college essay consultation

Best College Application Essay Services in 2024

#1 – prepmaven.

Our Verdict — Best College Essay Assistance Overall Price: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package) PrepMaven’s one-on-one college essay assistance is the best option overall. Founded by brothers and Princeton grads Greg and Kevin, almost all of PrepMaven’s essay coaches have Ivy-League experience, primarily from Princeton and Harvard. All essay coaches also undergo a thorough training program in PrepMaven’s methods, developed by professional writers with deep understanding of the college admissions process, for helping students to discover the most compelling stories for their essays. Unlike other services, PrepMaven offers college essay assistance at several different price points. At the most accessible rate, students can work with current Ivy-League undergraduates who specialize in writing and have recently aced the college application process. At higher rates, students can work with coaches who are both Ivy-League grads and professional writers (screenwriters, journalists, editors) with many years of experience helping students to craft compelling essays. Interested students can even work directly with founders Greg and Kevin, who have over 15 years of experience helping students through the entire essay-writing process. PrepMaven’s services combine many of the best features of other good options into one, and it’s hard to beat their experience.

Any student wanting college essay help, at any point in the process, with a range of budgets.

At a glance:

Cost: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package)
Writing coach qualifications: Princeton graduates and professional writers (or current Princeton students); all trained

What we like:

Ivy League experience —most of their writing coaches are Princeton grads or current students, with some from Harvard and other Ivies
Different pricing options to meet different families’ circumstances
More flexible and greater capacity to take on new students compared to individual consultants

#2 – College Essay Mentor

Our Verdict — Best of the Individual Consultants Price: unknown but high Some college essay consulting services consist of just one expert. Of these individual essay consultants, Chris Hunt at College Essay Mentor is our favorite. He combines writing experience as a journalist for the Economist and the Wall Street Journal with personal experience as a graduate of Dartmouth. However, he only works with a small number of students each year, and students need to apply to work with him — he only accepts students with top grades and test scores who are already strong applicants for top schools. Chris offers the option for one-time written feedback, but this only gives big-picture generalizations. (And written-only feedback is always limited.) In order for help with the essay process, students need to purchase a complete essay package.

Students with top grades and test scores who want to work with a one-person business, who have a sizable budget, and who are ready to get started early.

Cost: $210 for a one-time written essay feedback (big picture only), then $110 per draft feedback; pricing for essay process packages unknown
Essay coach qualifications: professional journalist, Dartmouth grad
Professional writing experience as a journalist
Extensive experience working with college applicants
Partners with Debra Felix, former Director of Admissions at Columbia, for full application review

What we don’t like:

One-on-one work is limited to very high-achieving students, who need to apply with a resume : “I limit my one-on-one work to students who I believe will be strong applicants to elite universities. As a rule, this means having high grades in challenging classes, a test score of ACT 34+ or SAT 1500+, and substantial activities outside of the classroom.”
Works with a limited number of students (60 per year), so often no availability
All-or-nothing packages don’t allow students to work with Chris for just a few hours or for part of the essay-writing process
Secretive about pricing (he’ll only give pricing details once he’s reviewed the student’s resume and agreed to work with them), but we expect the minimum cost of working one-on-one to be several thousand dollars

#3 – The College Essay Guy

Our Verdict — Best for Unlimited Essay Assistance Price: $4900 for application to 3 schools, $8050 for application for 10 schools We’re fans of Ethan Sawyer, the original “college essay guy”— his book, College Essay Essentials , is a great guide to the essay-writing process. Ethan doesn’t work directly with many students these days, but he now has a team of consultants who help students follow his principles. Their assistance is really all-or-nothing — they prefer to work with students from the very beginning of the process, and their minimum package is $4900, which includes assistance with essays for three schools. If students are applying to ten schools (a more realistic number for students aiming at competitive colleges), the fee is a hefty $7400.

Students who want unlimited help through the entire process, who have a sizable budget.

Cost: $4900 (supplemental essays for 3 schools) – $7400 (supplemental essays for 10 schools)
Essay coach qualifications: mix of Ivy grads and former teachers, some writers/screenwriters; all trained
Great free resources about the essay-writing process
Their Matchlighters Scholars Program gives back to the community by providing admissions consulting for select qualifying students
All-or-nothing packages have a high minimum fee and don’t work for students who want just a few hours of feedback or help with just part of the process

#4 – College Vine

Our Verdict — Best of the Big Platforms Price: $140–180/hour There are plenty of large platforms with large stables of part-time tutors and coaches available to work with students. Of these big platforms, we think CollegeVine has the best offerings. Compared to other large companies, CollegeVine provides more information about their tutors, and students can pick individual tutors to work with from their roster. However, this model is really just a way of finding individual tutors to hire. Tutors don’t receive any training and don’t share a common approach, so it’s a mixed bag. Their rates are fairly high for part-time tutors who don’t have specific expertise and training in college essay consulting. Because CollegeVine is really just a marketplace where individual tutors can find students, the quality and price will vary widely.

Students who want to work with a big company, or those who want a quick session or two to go over their essays.

Cost: Typically $140–180/hour
Essay coach qualifications: no specific qualifications, but a few are Ivy League graduates
Possible to select individual editors to work with from their roster.
Easy to schedule ad-hoc sessions with a tutor through the website.
No training or common approach for tutors
Editors are part-time , with no option to work with full-time college admissions experts
Relatively expensive for this level of expertise

College Essay Editing Alternatives (that Didn’t Make the Cut)

Individual essay consultants, #5 – college essay editor.

Our Verdict — Small Editing Team Price: Roughly $5,950 for applications to 10 schools College Essay Editor comprises two graduates of Stanford. This means that they have personal experience applying to highly competitive schools. One member of the team also has a college counseling certification, which is a good background for college essays. Based on their website, they appear to focus on the editing and proofreading phase of the essay-writing process. This can be helpful to students, but we recommend working with a service who can help students to uncover their values and brainstorm really great material that allows them to really shine—and if this doesn’t happen at the beginning of the process, it’s much harder to add in later on.

Cost: $195/1000 words for proofreading, $495/1000 words for 3 rounds of editing and proofreading, or $595/1000 words for unlimited rounds of editing and proofreading; for the purposes of comparison, complete applications to 10 competitive colleges would be around 9,650 words, or $5950.
Writing coach qualifications: Stanford graduates, one of whom has college counseling certification
Editors are graduates of Stanford University , and one is a member of NACAC, the national association of college counselors
They focus on editing and proofreading only , not on the crucial earlier steps of brainstorming and strategy
Small team with very limited availability
All asynchronous editing so you won’t be able to cultivate a real relationship with your essay coach.

#6 – Allison Karpf

Our Verdict — Former English Teacher Helping Students Price: $385/hour or $3850 package for application to one school Another option for students looking to hire an individual consultant is Allison Karpf. Allison is a former high school English teacher and a graduate of UC Berkeley who also holds a Masters of Education from Stanford. Her rates are definitely on the higher side, especially for someone who doesn’t have a professional writing background, but she does have extensive experience working with students to craft their essays.

Cost: $385/hour or $3850 unlimited counseling (includes supplemental essays for one college)
Essay coach qualifications: former high school English teacher; Berkeley grad, Stanford MEd
Lots of experience helping students improve their college essays
Very quick to respond to client requests
No professional writing experience or Ivy-Plus undergraduate experience
High rates relative to other options
Limited availability , since she works alone

#7 – Your College Vision

Our Verdict: Former Journalist with More Affordable Rates Price: $180/hour, or packages starting from $3500 Laurie Lande is another individual consultant who helps students through the essay-writing process. She comes recommended by other consultants like Chris from College Essay Mentor . Laurie did not herself attend a highly competitive school, so she doesn’t have that personal experience of going through the selective admissions process, but she does have a professional writing background as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

Cost: $180/hour or packages starting at $3500
Essay coach qualifications: journalism background
Affordable pricing , relative to other options
Not a graduate of a highly selective school

#8 – The College Guru

Our Verdict — Good on Paper but Unresponsive Price: unknown Yet another individual essay consultant is Geanine Thompson from The College Guru. Geanine attended Dartmouth as an undergraduate and also holds an MBA from Duke. She also has a professional writing background as an assistant book editor at Berkley Publishing Group. Like Greg and Kevin at PrepMaven , she combines experience in the business world and at Wall Street firms with experience in education.

Cost: unknown
Essay coach qualifications: former assistant book editor; Dartmouth grad, Duke MBA
Dartmouth graduate and former book editor
Not responsive to emails and client requests

#9 – Sofia Zapiola

Our Verdict — A budget-friendly, personal essay editor. Price: $80/hour Yet another individual essay consultant is Sofia Zapiola, who offers a mix of essay editing and college application counseling services.

Cost: $80/hour
Essay coach qualifications: M.A. from Harvard; certificate in College Counseling from UC San Diego.
Individual approach, budget-friendly rates, commitment to working within families’ budgets.
Very few testimonials, so it’s difficult to evaluate how effective she is.

Mid-size Teams

#10 – lotus learning.

Our Verdict — Expensive for Tutor Background Price: $165/hour Founded by a Harvard grad who is a former teacher and veteran of the publishing industry, Lotus learning offers college essay help in the Boston area. They have a small team of tutors, mostly recent grads from good but not Ivy-Plus colleges, and mostly with focus in health sciences.

Cost: $165/hour (minimum 8 hours)
Essay coach qualifications: tutors are recent grads, but not Ivy-Plus schools
Reasonable pricing with flexible packages
Essay editors aren’t graduates of Ivy-Plus schools and don’t have professional writing experience

Large platforms

#11 – study point.

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: Rates Between $60 and $120/hr Study Point is a larger essay editing service. They claim to have several decades of experience helping students to craft their college essays, but they do not give information about who their essay coaches are and what qualifications they might have.

Cost: $60-120/hr, depending on tutor experience
Essay coach qualifications: unknown
Larger company with several decades of experience
Unclear who the essay coaches are
Lack of statistics about their results

#12 – Ivy Select

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: unknown Ivy Select makes a lot of big promises on their website about having the best college essay consultants in the business, but they offer no information on who these consultants are, or on their backgrounds. They also brag that each consultant “only” works 20 students in one application cycle, but in our experience, that’s quite high.

Long list of impressive (but anonymous) testimonials
Only work with “top students”
No information on their website about who the editors are
Each essay coach works with up to 20 students at one time

#13 – Empowerly

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: High, from $6000/year Empowerly has over 60 college counselors who each work with an average of 5 students per year, in order to have more time to devote to each student. Their counselors come from “different educational backgrounds,” and while they do not provide specific biographical details we can assume that most of their essay coaches did not attend highly selective schools.

Cost: typically from $6000/year
Essay coach qualifications: college counselors
Counselors work with just a few students per year
You have to upgrade to “Empowerly Elite” to guarantee a counselor with a more selective educational background
No professional writing experience

#14 – Prepory

Our Verdict — Expensive but with Good Expertise Price: $325/hr Prepory is a college application and career counseling service that offers a comprehensive program for college applications at any stage of the process (including as early as 9th grade). They make a lot of impressive claims about the expertise of their coaches, but it’s quite difficult to actual find much information about their essay coach qualifications.

Cost: $325/hr
They have a comprehensive college application program that begins as early as 9th grade.
Limited information about essay coaches
High prices

Top 40 College Essay Services Considered

College Essay Editor
The College Essay Guy
College Vine
College Essay Mentor
Study Point
Allison Karpf
The College Guru
Lotus Learning
Summit Prep
Sofia Zapiola
Ivy Global / New Summits
College Essay Solutions
Your College Vision
Essay Edge*
ServicEscape*
PapersForge*
QuickWriter*
JustEditMyEssay*
JustDoMyEsssay*
ExpertWriting*
SpeedyPaper*
GradeMiners*

* A number of services will edit essays directly for students, or even write portions of the essay for students. We do not condone this. Admissions officers can tell when essays have been written or edited by adults and this can have severe consequences. We have excluded these services from our reviews.

Why are college application essays important?

Can a great college essay alone get you into Harvard?

No. You’ll need your grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities (as well as letters of recommendation and interview) to be outstanding.

But can a mediocre essay be the reason you didn’t get into Harvard?

Yes. There are thousands of amazingly-qualified students who graduate from high school each year. Great grades and test scores might be a prerequisite for admission to a competitive college, but they alone aren’t enough.

College essays are a key component of a student’s application . When done well, they transform a collection of numbers—GPA, class rank, SAT or ACT scores , number of AP classes taken, AP scores—into a glimpse of a real, individual person.

Essays do many things. Good college essays can highlight extracurricular achievements which otherwise would be overlooked in a sterile list. Strong essays often indicate the student’s future plans —how they plan to leave a mark on their college campus and on the world. They can shine a light on unique challenges that a student may have had to face on their journey.

College admissions officers only have a few minutes to spend on each application. College essays need to be original, interesting, and memorable . They need to grab the attention of the admissions officer and persuade them that this is the student out of hundreds or thousands of other similarly-qualified applicants who should be admitted.

College admissions essays are usually unlike any other kind of writing that students have done before. They’re a combination of memoir and marketing pitch, and they need to be creative but also highly strategic. That’s a tough assignment!

What’s more, students are left to figure this assignment out on their own. A thoughtful and generous high school English teacher may provide guidance or offer to read essays and give feedback, but these teachers are responsible for many students, and they’re (usually) not experts in admissions strategies.

There’s another reason college essays are especially important from 2024 on. After the recent Supreme Court decision, the application essay has become one of the main ways that you can communicate how your racial identity has affected your life.

In fact, the New York Times published an article about how important it can be for students to discuss race in their college application essays!

Why work with a college essay service?

You may want to consider a college essay service if:

You have no idea where to start in order to write your college application essays
You feel overwhelmed by all of the different ideas you have and don’t know what would be the most strategic for college admissions—and what topics to definitely avoid for college essays
You don’t know how to craft a compelling stor y
You’re not sure how to edit and refine what you’ve written
You have a hard time keeping yourself on track and want an external structure to hold you accountable
You’re tired of conflict between students and parents about college essays
You’re aiming at a competitive college (not just the Ivy League!) and know that you need your essays to be outstanding
Your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars aren’t exceptional, so you need your essay to make your essay stand out from the pack
You’re unfamiliar with the US college admissions process (a common situation for international students and first-generation families in the US)

Any of these are strong reasons to consider working with a college essay service!

It’s also worth remembering that a lot of the free advice on college’s website isn’t always very clear. For example, NYU’s admissions Senior Assistant Director of Admissions says that “There is no right or wrong way to answer as long as your answer is genuine to you.”

While that’s true, that doesn’t offer much guidance on how to actually write the essay!

Though many college applicants might not mention it, more and more students are using professional college application consultants. Research at the University of Chicago has shown that over a quarter of high-achieving seniors employed private specialists to help with the college application process.

In fact, according to NPR , some companies are even offering college admissions counseling to their top employees as an incentive–that’s just how important professional help can be in the current landscape of college admissions.

It’s important to note that a good college essay service will not write your college application essays for you . This is unethical and illegal. That’s not just coming from us: take it from a school like Princeton, whose website insists on the importance of writing your own application essays.

A good college essay service will guide you through each step of the process , teaching you how to self-reflect and write well while sharing insider insight about admissions strategy .

What makes a good college essay service?

We strongly believe that students need to write their own college essays , and we do not condone plagiarism or “buying” a college essay.

However, writing college application essays requires a completely new set of skills that is rarely taught in high school!

Writing a personal essay is much more creative than simply writing a good paper for English class. It requires a compelling narrative and a great deal of writing craft . A good essay service will teach how to do this kind of writing.

There are many college essay services that will provide only written feedback to students, usually in the form of comments added to an essay draft. (Remember, it’s important that students write their own essays, so avoid any college essay service that will make edits directly to an essay document .)

Written comments can be an effective component of good essay coaching. However, writing college essays is a deeply personal process , and it’s incredibly difficult to guide a student through the process of self-reflection, brainstorming, and planning purely through written comments.

In addition, a great college essay coach will teach students how to do this entire process of brainstorming, planning, outlining, writing, and revising . It’s difficult to learn why an essay coach is advising certain changes through written comments alone.

For these reasons, look for a college essay service with live, one-on-one services , not just written feedback. These days, it’s easy to work with the best college essay consultants in the country over Zoom!

Students need to reflect on their goals, their passions, and what drives them to be the person they are. This requires a great deal of self-awareness and self-analysis . An experienced college essay coach can help draw these ideas out of students through tested introspection techniques and brainstorming exercises .

On top of all of that, students need to be cognizant of which traits and accomplishments will be most appealing to colleges , and which stories will be cliche and boring. Personal statements and supplementary essays need to fit together to tell a cohesive story, and they need to work together with the rest of the student’s application (extracurriculars, grades, and other accomplishments).

In other words, there’s a great deal of strategy here! An experienced college essay service can help students decide how to present themselves in the best possible light .

Furthermore, most students don’t know how to edit effectively . A really top-notch college essay service will also teach students how to edit their own writing —how to reorder sections for better flow, cut unnecessary words to meet a word count, eliminate passive verbs, and make their writing vivid and exciting. Our students are routinely amazed by how transformative this step can be, and how much they learn by doing it together with the essay coach.

Finally, the best college essay services can also help students to make a writing plan and keep them on track , so that parents don’t have to be involved directly.

Ready to work on your college essays? Schedule a free 15- to 30-minute consultation with Jessica or one of our founders.

Best overall: PrepMaven’s tutors offer the highest quality at the best price. With three tiers of tutors, they make it easy to work with an Ivy League undergraduate for as little as $79/hr. Or, families can work with education professionals or Ivy League graduates from $150/hr. PrepMaven’s track record means that you can be sure every hour is being spent productively, so that you can expect real results from the work.

Best for individual consultants: College Essay Mentor. In theory, College Essay Mentor would offer an unparalleled level of individual attention and guidance: his website boasts of some very impressive results. You might find it hard to actually schedule with him, however, since he’s very selective about his clients.

Best for unlimited essay assistance: The College Essay Guy might not offer that personalized attention you get from live, face to face essay coaching, but they do offer unlimited essay editing for up to 10 schools (if you’re comfortable paying a hefty package price).

Best of the big platforms: College Vine will always be a bit of a gamble. Because it’s a tutor marketplace, your results (and costs) will really depend on how lucky you get with your consultant. From our research, however, many of their essay coaches look to have solid track records.

Ready to work on college essays with one of our experienced writing coaches? Schedule a free test prep consultation with Jessica (Director of Tutoring) or one of our founders to see what would be the best fit for your family.

It’s always best to start early and not wait until the last minute to write your college essays! Remember that essays can be used to earn scholarships as well as college admission, so a few months of writing now can pay off with up to $300,000 in tuition saved later.

We work with students at all stages of the writing process, from I-have-no-idea-what-to-write to final edits. To start working with an Ivy-League writing coach today, set up a quick free consultation with our team.

Schedule a free college essay consultation

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Writing Tips

Looking for College Essay Help? Here Are Your Options

8-minute read
8th August 2023

You have your first college essay to write, so what are your options for getting help? You knew where to get help back in high school, but college is a whole new hockey game. Should you pay someone to write your essay? Should you talk to your professor? Your roommate?

Fret not, because we will outline your options for getting help with your college essay .

In this post, you will learn:

● Where to go to get help with essay writing.

● Our take on essay writing services.

● Advice for using AI to help you with essays.

While college teaches you to be fully independent, that doesn’t mean you have to figure everything out for yourself. Even the most independent college student needs help sometimes, so you should never feel ashamed for needing help.

Writing an essay is no easy task. Knowing your options will get your essay off to a great start, (and you want to avoid the cardinal sin of college writing: academic plagiarism ).

Your Options for Help

1. consult your professor.

While meeting with your professor seems counterintuitive, they can offer the best advice for tackling an essay. After all, they will be assessing it. Many students avoid asking their professor for help, as they feel that the professor will view them as incompetent. Of course, this isn’t true. The professor will be glad you’re seeking their help; it shows you’re a serious student. The best time to catch your professor is after class, or during their office hours.

We recommend following this plan:

1. Make an appointment to see your professor during their office hours (this way, they will block time for you).

2. Come to the appointment with questions like “What ideas or themes should I specifically focus on in this essay?”

3. Thank them for their time.

Professors will offer suggestions and ideas but won’t revise your essay draft. That’s your job. Think of it this way: A professor will give you fuel to get the fire going; it will be up to you to keep it burning.

2. Consult Your Teaching Assistant

A teaching assistant, or TA as they are colloquially known, is another helpful option. They’re often current graduate students, so they can relate better to you than the professor. Remember that they’ve been down the road you’re traveling, so they’ll have plenty of essay-writing experience.

If you’re attending a small private university, you probably won’t have a TA for any of your classes. However, if your class does have one, we suggest consulting with them before speaking with the professor.

As a TA is also busy, we urge you to take the same approach as you would when meeting with a professor. You’ll get an optimized help session with them when you make an appointment.

3. Visit the Writing Center

You might have been introduced to the university’s writing center during orientation. Did you know that a writing center is an excellent option for essay help? Current students majoring in English and creative writing studies often work as writing center tutors. You can be assured that writing center tutors are passionate about writing. Before visiting the writing center, you’ll need to have some ideas about how to tackle the essay. Therefore, we recommend consulting your professor or TA first.

Students often have a misconception of what falls under the scope of a writing center . Some students leave a writing center session disappointed with the services they received. Therefore, we want to clarify what a writing center does and doesn’t do.

A writing center will:

● Work with you one-on-one, taking you through the assignment and the steps needed to complete it.

● Help strengthen your thesis statement.

● Provide feedback to clarify your ideas and express them more effectively.

● Aid in developing or improving self-editing strategies.

● Help you identify your writing strengths and weaknesses.

A writing center will not:

● Write the essay for you; that’s your job.

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● Tell you how to write the essay from the introduction to the conclusion.

● Fix grammar errors, typos, and word choice in an essay.

A writing center will inspire you to get cracking on the assignment; the rest will be up to you.

4. Consider a Podcast

Are you a Spotify addict? Do you often listen to podcasts? If so, why not listen to podcasts catered to students needing help with college essays? There are a variety of student-related podcasts to choose from. However, you’ll need to listen to a few to find one that strikes your fancy.

You can listen to them while you eat dinner in the cafeteria, work out at the gym, or commute to and from campus. However, we don’t suggest listening to podcasts during class lectures – you’ll miss out on key pointers for exams!

5. Find a Tutor

You can find a tutor through your university or engage another student. The former will usually be free. If you prefer the latter, you can usually find advertisements around campus. We suggest asking them a few questions before setting up a session.

Working with a tutor will take some time, as you must get to know each other first. An advantage of a private tutor is you can get one-on-one time; there might be other students in your tutoring session if it’s through the university. The advantage of university-organized tutoring is that their tutors have been interviewed and you can be assured that these tutors specialize in their subjects.

If you’re anxious to get going posthaste, a tutor may not be the best option for you.

Should I Use an Essay Writing Service?

Some students pay an essay writing service to write the essay for them. However, you should be aware of the pitfalls of using them.

Common pitfalls include:

● The writers may not be experts on your topic.

● You won’t have an opportunity to view the writers’ credentials.

● Someone else is writing the essay, leaving you wanted by the Plagiarism Police.

● You will not learn anything (the whole point of university is to learn).

Professors expect you to write an essay using your own words and ideas. Additionally, they can distinguish your writing from someone else’s. Furthermore, many universities subscribe to plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin .

The consequences of plagiarism can be quite severe, ranging from automatically failing the assignment to being expelled from the institution. Sometimes, you can receive a particular failing grade indicating you were caught plagiarizing. This grade cannot be erased from your student record.

While essay writing services are tempting, we believe they aren’t worth jeopardizing your student career.

Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essay?

Students are increasingly using AI to help them with their essays. Popular AI platforms such as ChatGPT can save you valuable time. However, the world of academia is catching on to AI-student interaction. Using ChatGPT to write an essay could land you in plagiarism trouble if you simply copy and paste the entire AI-produced text. Universities are currently finding ways to detect essays written by ChatGPT, so don’t think you can fool your professor.

We encourage you to use ChatGPT to help you with the topic rather than use it to write the entire essay. Like professors, your TA, and the writing center, AI can get the fire going . Here are a few ways in which ChatGPT can help:

● Provide anecdotes about the topic.

● Suggest interesting facts and issues about the subject.

● Suggest an outline for the essay.

You have more essay help options than you realize. Becoming a fully independent young adult doesn’t mean that you don’t need help sometimes – we all need help from time to time. We recommend consulting your professor, TA, and your school’s writing center. When seeking help, we advise you to understand what the essay asks of you. And above all, don’t expect someone else to write the essay for you.

We urge you to use AI to help with your essay’s topic rather than using it to write the essay from scratch. Misusing AI could result in plagiarism—the cardinal sin of academic writing!

After you’ve written your essay, we strongly recommend proofreading it. All your hard work can sometimes leave typos, extra spacing, and incorrect punctuation. You shouldn’t rely on your word processor’s spell-check tool to catch them all. Proofreading can be challenging, so we recommend asking our proofreading experts to review your writing . They can check that the paper is clear and concise. Additionally, they will ensure perfect grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Consider submitting a 500-word document for free!

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College Essay Help

Writing college essays is challenging., expert guidance can help..

KD College Prep’s team of experienced college counselors and essay editors helps students better understand what college admissions officers look for in an applicant. Students learn how to craft compelling personal statements and supplemental essays, which can help improve admissions odds.

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The APPLY NOW! Advantage Program provides 11th graders with in-depth, live-online courses that guide students and parents through the entire college application process.

The program includes access to 16 small-group classes. These sessions go over topics such as finalizing a college list, navigating financial aid and scholarship options, writing personal statements, and so much more.

APPLY NOW! Advantage students also receive access to two Pinnacle Sessions which provide families with personalized, one-on-one guidance from a member of the college counseling team.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Do college application essays still matter.

When reviewing college applications, admissions officers see a lot of statistics—test scores, GPA, class rank, etc. Admissions officers can infer a lot of things about you from these items, but these stats don’t effectively show who you are as a person. For this reason, essays are an important component of your application. Compelling essays showcase your writing skills, creativity, and reveal things about you that may show admissions staff that you’re a good fit for a specific college.

Who can help me with writing my essay?

A college essay tutor or editor can help students build a compelling essay that aligns with their college admissions goals. At KD, our college counseling team helps in a variety of ways: brainstorming topics, finding their voice, shaping a story, correcting grammar and spelling mistakes, rewriting for other colleges, and much more.

How many words does my essay need to be?

Word count for personal statements and supplemental essays can vary from college to college. However, several U.S. colleges will accept the Common App®, which recommends 400-600 words for the personal statement (sometimes called the general college application essay). Supplemental essays are typically shorter but can vary by college. When applying, follow directions as closely as possible for each application to maximize your admissions odds.

What format do college application essays use?

Your college application essays will not follow the same formal structure that is expected with high school research papers or persuasive essays. In other words, you won’t need to come up with a thesis and support it with evidence. Instead, personal statements typically tell a story in a creative way. Students don’t often encounter this type of creative writing with their high school assignments, which is why many students find it quite challenging.

KD’s college counseling team is well-versed in teaching students how to craft compelling college admissions essays, and we’ve helped hundreds of students use the essays to strengthen their applications.

What do I write in a personal statement?

A student’s personal statement should tell a story that only he or she can tell. In other words, it needs to reveal something unique about the student’s experience that connects to the chosen essay prompt. With that being said, it’s typically a challenge to do this in a unique way, and there are certain topics that students should avoid.

Read more about choosing a college essay topic , and if you need additional help, consider signing up for a college counseling program .

How do I make my essay stand out?

Our advice is don’t play it safe. Be real. Be yourself. Finding your own unique voice and using that to tell a story about yourself is typically the best move when it comes to writing a good personal statement. Of course, that is easier said than done. Working with a college essay tutor can help guide you in the right direction. Most admissions essays sound like thousands of other admissions essays, and our experienced college counseling team staff can tell you which topics are generic and which align best with your application.

For more advice, read about these steps for how to write a powerful college essay .

How much do college essay consultants charge?

The cost of working with a college essay consultant or editor varies depending on a student’s needs. Families can choose to pay by the hour for one-on-one help or purchase a program that guides students through the entire college application process. For a more accurate description of pricing, explore KD’s college counseling program options or sign up for a free consultation to discuss specific needs with a member of our college counseling team.

When should I start writing my college essays?

Many students start working on their application essays during summer or fall of senior year, but some students begin as early as spring semester of 11th grade. However, there are many factors that may prevent a student from starting at that time, such as extracurricular involvement, a challenging course load, admissions testing, etc. But remember, college applications are time-consuming, and it takes a lot of work to build one that stands out.

To find out when is the best time to start, families can schedule a free consultation to discuss individual admissions goals with our team.

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“ My feedback can only be positive, given how much you helped me get ahead with my application process. I really appreciated how much work both of you put into helping me write the best essay possible, especially reviewing my essays twice to polish them completely. In addition, I have noticed that writing my resume has released a lot of stress off my shoulder when it comes to making sure I have all the things necessary to apply to schools. ”

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“I shifted toward taking practice tests and going to workshops because I felt those were the best ways to apply the concepts (I was) learning in class. I started applying the tips and tricks that the teachers were showing me in class. In conjunction, those two things helped me raise my score a lot because I was not a math kid before KD or high school. The repetition and being able to practice in a non-stressful environment and simulating that testing experience is something that was very beneficial for me... “The college counseling team was super patient and honest about the work I was submitting. I know for a lot of kids, it’s hard to articulate who you are through 250-300 words. It was definitely... Read more...

“I shifted toward taking practice tests and going to workshops because I felt those were the best ways to apply the concepts (I was) learning in class. I started applying the tips and tricks that the teachers were showing me in... Read more...

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“The most beneficial guidance I received during my College Counseling experience was being taught that it's completely ok to not know what I want to do with the rest of my life at 17/18 years old. Steve told me that a good school will help me find my path. Also, Steve's knowledge about what colleges were wanting to see in potential admissions candidates was a huge help... “There was not one specific beneficial moment or turning point in my time working with Steve, there were many. He encouraged me during the entire application process and brought to my attention many colleges I wouldn't have considered or heard about without his help.”

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Knowledge Base
College essay

How to Write a College Essay | A Complete Guide & Examples

The college essay can make or break your application. It’s your chance to provide personal context, communicate your values and qualities, and set yourself apart from other students.

A standout essay has a few key ingredients:

A unique, personal topic
A compelling, well-structured narrative
A clear, creative writing style
Evidence of self-reflection and insight

To achieve this, it’s crucial to give yourself enough time for brainstorming, writing, revision, and feedback.

In this comprehensive guide, we walk you through every step in the process of writing a college admissions essay.

Why do you need a standout essay, start organizing early, choose a unique topic, outline your essay, start with a memorable introduction, write like an artist, craft a strong conclusion, revise and receive feedback, frequently asked questions.

While most of your application lists your academic achievements, your college admissions essay is your opportunity to share who you are and why you’d be a good addition to the university.

Your college admissions essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s total weight一and may account for even more with some colleges making the SAT and ACT tests optional. The college admissions essay may be the deciding factor in your application, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.

What do colleges look for in an essay?

Admissions officers want to understand your background, personality, and values to get a fuller picture of you beyond your test scores and grades. Here’s what colleges look for in an essay :

Demonstrated values and qualities
Vulnerability and authenticity
Self-reflection and insight
Creative, clear, and concise writing skills

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

It’s a good idea to start organizing your college application timeline in the summer of your junior year to make your application process easier. This will give you ample time for essay brainstorming, writing, revision, and feedback.

While timelines will vary for each student, aim to spend at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing your first draft and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Remember to leave enough time for breaks in between each writing and editing stage.

Create an essay tracker sheet

If you’re applying to multiple schools, you will have to juggle writing several essays for each one. We recommend using an essay tracker spreadsheet to help you visualize and organize the following:

Deadlines and number of essays needed
Prompt overlap, allowing you to write one essay for similar prompts

You can build your own essay tracker using our free Google Sheets template.

College essay tracker template

Ideally, you should start brainstorming college essay topics the summer before your senior year. Keep in mind that it’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic.

If you want to write about a common essay topic, such as a sports injury or volunteer work overseas, think carefully about how you can make it unique and personal. You’ll need to demonstrate deep insight and write your story in an original way to differentiate it from similar essays.

What makes a good topic?

Meaningful and personal to you
Uncommon or has an unusual angle
Reveals something different from the rest of your application

Brainstorming questions

You should do a comprehensive brainstorm before choosing your topic. Here are a few questions to get started:

What are your top five values? What lived experiences demonstrate these values?
What adjectives would your friends and family use to describe you?
What challenges or failures have you faced and overcome? What lessons did you learn from them?
What makes you different from your classmates?
What are some objects that represent your identity, your community, your relationships, your passions, or your goals?
Whom do you admire most? Why?
What three people have significantly impacted your life? How did they influence you?

How to identify your topic

Here are two strategies for identifying a topic that demonstrates your values:

Start with your qualities : First, identify positive qualities about yourself; then, brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities.
Start with a story : Brainstorm a list of memorable life moments; then, identify a value shown in each story.

After choosing your topic, organize your ideas in an essay outline , which will help keep you focused while writing. Unlike a five-paragraph academic essay, there’s no set structure for a college admissions essay. You can take a more creative approach, using storytelling techniques to shape your essay.

Two common approaches are to structure your essay as a series of vignettes or as a single narrative.

Vignettes structure

The vignette, or montage, structure weaves together several stories united by a common theme. Each story should demonstrate one of your values or qualities and conclude with an insight or future outlook.

This structure gives the admissions officer glimpses into your personality, background, and identity, and shows how your qualities appear in different areas of your life.

Topic: Museum with a “five senses” exhibit of my experiences

Introduction: Tour guide introduces my museum and my “Making Sense of My Heritage” exhibit
Story: Racial discrimination with my eyes
Lesson: Using my writing to document truth
Story: Broadway musical interests
Lesson: Finding my voice
Story: Smells from family dinner table
Lesson: Appreciating home and family
Story: Washing dishes
Lesson: Finding moments of peace in busy schedule
Story: Biking with Ava
Lesson: Finding pleasure in job well done
Conclusion: Tour guide concludes tour, invites guest to come back for “fall College Collection,” featuring my search for identity and learning.

Single story structure

The single story, or narrative, structure uses a chronological narrative to show a student’s character development over time. Some narrative essays detail moments in a relatively brief event, while others narrate a longer journey spanning months or years.

Single story essays are effective if you have overcome a significant challenge or want to demonstrate personal development.

Topic: Sports injury helps me learn to be a better student and person

Situation: Football injury
Challenge: Friends distant, teachers don’t know how to help, football is gone for me
Turning point: Starting to like learning in Ms. Brady’s history class; meeting Christina and her friends
My reactions: Reading poetry; finding shared interest in poetry with Christina; spending more time studying and with people different from me
Insight: They taught me compassion and opened my eyes to a different lifestyle; even though I still can’t play football, I’m starting a new game

Brainstorm creative insights or story arcs

Regardless of your essay’s structure, try to craft a surprising story arc or original insights, especially if you’re writing about a common topic.

Never exaggerate or fabricate facts about yourself to seem interesting. However, try finding connections in your life that deviate from cliché storylines and lessons.

Admissions officers read thousands of essays each year, and they typically spend only a few minutes reading each one. To get your message across, your introduction , or hook, needs to grab the reader’s attention and compel them to read more..

Avoid starting your introduction with a famous quote, cliché, or reference to the essay itself (“While I sat down to write this essay…”).

While you can sometimes use dialogue or a meaningful quotation from a close family member or friend, make sure it encapsulates your essay’s overall theme.

Find an original, creative way of starting your essay using the following two methods.

Option 1: Start with an intriguing hook

Begin your essay with an unexpected statement to pique the reader’s curiosity and compel them to carefully read your essay. A mysterious introduction disarms the reader’s expectations and introduces questions that can only be answered by reading more.

Option 2: Start with vivid imagery

Illustrate a clear, detailed image to immediately transport your reader into your memory. You can start in the middle of an important scene or describe an object that conveys your essay’s theme.

A college application essay allows you to be creative in your style and tone. As you draft your essay, try to use interesting language to enliven your story and stand out .

Show, don’t tell

“Tell” in writing means to simply state a fact: “I am a basketball player.” “ Show ” in writing means to use details, examples, and vivid imagery to help the reader easily visualize your memory: “My heart races as I set up to shoot一two seconds, one second一and score a three-pointer!”

First, reflect on every detail of a specific image or scene to recall the most memorable aspects.

What are the most prominent images?
Are there any particular sounds, smells, or tastes associated with this memory?
What emotion or physical feeling did you have at that time?

Be vulnerable to create an emotional response

You don’t have to share a huge secret or traumatic story, but you should dig deep to express your honest feelings, thoughts, and experiences to evoke an emotional response. Showing vulnerability demonstrates humility and maturity. However, don’t exaggerate to gain sympathy.

Use appropriate style and tone

Make sure your essay has the right style and tone by following these guidelines:

Use a conversational yet respectful tone: less formal than academic writing, but more formal than texting your friends.
Prioritize using “I” statements to highlight your perspective.
Write within your vocabulary range to maintain an authentic voice.
Write concisely, and use the active voice to keep a fast pace.
Follow grammar rules (unless you have valid stylistic reasons for breaking them).

You should end your college essay with a deep insight or creative ending to leave the reader with a strong final impression. Your college admissions essay should avoid the following:

Summarizing what you already wrote
Stating your hope of being accepted to the school
Mentioning character traits that should have been illustrated in the essay, such as “I’m a hard worker”

Here are two strategies to craft a strong conclusion.

Option 1: Full circle, sandwich structure

The full circle, or sandwich, structure concludes the essay with an image, idea, or story mentioned in the introduction. This strategy gives the reader a strong sense of closure.

In the example below, the essay concludes by returning to the “museum” metaphor that the writer opened with.

Option 2: Revealing your insight

You can use the conclusion to show the insight you gained as a result of the experiences you’ve described. Revealing your main message at the end creates suspense and keeps the takeaway at the forefront of your reader’s mind.

Revise your essay before submitting it to check its content, style, and grammar. Get feedback from no more than two or three people.

It’s normal to go through several rounds of revision, but take breaks between each editing stage.

Also check out our college essay examples to see what does and doesn’t work in an essay and the kinds of changes you can make to improve yours.

Respect the word count

Most schools specify a word count for each essay , and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit.

Remain under the specified word count limit to show you can write concisely and follow directions. However, don’t write too little, which may imply that you are unwilling or unable to write a thoughtful and developed essay.

Check your content, style, and grammar

First, check big-picture issues of message, flow, and clarity.
Then, check for style and tone issues.
Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Get feedback

Get feedback from 2–3 people who know you well, have good writing skills, and are familiar with college essays.

Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your content, language, and tone.
Friends and family can check for authenticity.
An essay coach or editor has specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and can give objective expert feedback.

The checklist below helps you make sure your essay ticks all the boxes.

College admissions essay checklist

I’ve organized my essay prompts and created an essay writing schedule.

I’ve done a comprehensive brainstorm for essay topics.

I’ve selected a topic that’s meaningful to me and reveals something different from the rest of my application.

I’ve created an outline to guide my structure.

I’ve crafted an introduction containing vivid imagery or an intriguing hook that grabs the reader’s attention.

I’ve written my essay in a way that shows instead of telling.

I’ve shown positive traits and values in my essay.

I’ve demonstrated self-reflection and insight in my essay.

I’ve used appropriate style and tone .

I’ve concluded with an insight or a creative ending.

I’ve revised my essay , checking my overall message, flow, clarity, and grammar.

I’ve respected the word count , remaining within 10% of the upper word limit.

Congratulations!

It looks like your essay ticks all the boxes. A second pair of eyes can help you take it to the next level – Scribbr's essay coaches can help.

Colleges want to be able to differentiate students who seem similar on paper. In the college application essay , they’re looking for a way to understand each applicant’s unique personality and experiences.

Your college essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s weight. It may be the deciding factor in whether you’re accepted, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurricular track records.

A standout college essay has several key ingredients:

A unique, personally meaningful topic
A memorable introduction with vivid imagery or an intriguing hook
Specific stories and language that show instead of telling
Vulnerability that’s authentic but not aimed at soliciting sympathy
Clear writing in an appropriate style and tone
A conclusion that offers deep insight or a creative ending

While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay , and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don’t forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and editing stage.

You should already begin thinking about your essay the summer before your senior year so that you have plenty of time to try out different topics and get feedback on what works.

Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit to write a developed and thoughtful essay.

You should aim to stay under the specified word count limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely. However, don’t write too little, as it may seem like you are unwilling or unable to write a detailed and insightful narrative about yourself.

If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words.

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College Essay Help

College essay help is a service with IvySelect that aids you in writing the best college application essay possible. Our college essay help specialists have world-class experience in the field of essay writing. Your college essays play an incredibly important role in the highly selective admissions process. Standardized test scores, your GPA and the rigor of your curriculum remain as pivotal pieces of your college application. But with so many students submitting test scores and grades at the highest level, how is a university able to decide to whom they should offer admission?

College Essay Writing Help From Unsurpassed College Essay Specialists

By employing a “holistic” approach to the process, admissions officers are able to separate students with very similar academic credentials. Their subjective analysis draws upon many pieces, e.g., your letters of recommendation, your activities and how they’re viewed in the context of “institutional priorities,” your “special status” as an athlete or legacy and so forth.

Your essays are very highly valued in this analysis. They provide (or should provide) insights into how you write, how you think and what you’re passionate about. Your personal statement, short answers and supplemental essays reveal your personality traits, how you visualize your academic path, and detail your life story.

Is it any wonder, then, that the vast majority of students find writing their college essays to be incredibly daunting? Due to a lack of information, anxiety and a dearth of fundamental knowledge, students often fail to write “winning” essays that can be the difference between whether or not they get in to various schools. That fate will not be yours when you work with IvySelect!

Our college admissions counselors possess an expert understanding of the essay writing process. We will guide you to write top-notch essays that stand out from your competition.

We’re sure you have many questions. How do you begin the writing process? What strategies distinguish exceptional personal statements from ordinary essays? Will I have to write many drafts? How can I make my essay stand out from other students? What methods do I use to reveal different aspects of myself in the many short answer questions and essays I’ll be writing?

Don’t Let Inadequate Resources Undermine Your Essays

The resources you might consider are simply inadequate. Your guidance and/or college counselors do not have the time to work with you on an individual basis through multiple drafts of your multiple essays. Alternatively, filled with hubris, some students believe that because they receive strong grades in English and read a book on “successful Ivy League essays,” that they are well equipped to write an outstanding personal statement.

Keep in mind that the college personal statement is a very different beast than the five-paragraph essays that make up your high school writing assignments. Admissions officers are evaluating your essays in an exceedingly different light than your English teacher. Therefore, the college essay help offered by your English teacher may totally miss the mark, as your teacher is without the requisite expertise needed.

Essay Coaching Companies Lack The Knowledge Of Our Professional College Counselors

Essay coaches share something in common with English teachers: they, too, are NOT professional college counselors. The writing background that essay coaches may have does not make them admissions experts!

IOur counselors participate in national college conferences alongside admissions officers, who share their insights about their schools and their different admissions processes. We fly all over the country to take part in professional development seminars where we receive current information on college admissions. Our consultants visit schools in the U.S. and internationally in order to help you build essays that are on-point for each university.

We are true college essay specialists, with a honed professional understanding that is way beyond essay coaching and writing services. Utilizing our experience, knowledge base and deep-level strategies, your writing will be top flight, unique and will stand head and shoulders above your competition.

We’ll Provide Insight Into How Admissions Officers Evaluate College Essays

When students lack professional college admissions guidance, they often will write essays that they think admissions officers want. They may envision a professorial old man sporting a bow tie and dowdy sports jacket as their gatekeeper. Though a few admissions officers may fit that profile, most AO’s do not belong to that demographic.

Attempting to craft an essay to impress your particular vision of an admissions officer is foolhardy. It may actually undermine your chances of getting into a particular school.

Our college counselors will help you avoid these types of pitfalls. Given our experience and knowledge, including the many conversations that we have with admissions officers, we are able to guide you in crafting authentic essays that are exceptional.

We Will Assist You In Discovering Your “Life Themes”

Students without the proper counseling often write essays that are bereft of passion and that fail to delineate who they are. Their writing, on most occasions, often does not identify their “life themes” that are part of different pieces of their applications, including resumes, letters of recommendation, the academic record as well as extracurricular activities.

Your Ivy league college counselor will help you tie together the various pieces of your application in both the academic and extracurricular contexts. Through our strategic vision, you will understand how your school-based and summer activities, as well as your personal and family experiences tie together to showcase your life themes. We’ll help you demonstrate your vision throughout your application and your essays, so that, in admissions speak, there will be the proper “resonance” across all of your college admissions documents.

Unsurpassed Professional Writing & Teaching Assistance

It’s not sufficient to know what to write. How you convey ideas is crucial. From experience, you understand that not all teachers, coaches and counselors have the same abilities. You simply learn more from certain individuals. Let’s face it – some people have superior talent in imparting what they know and in helping you elevate your writing.

Our Director has experience as an editor at a major New York publishing firm and is an award-winning writer. He possesses exceptional skills in helping students craft their essays. Should you work with him, you will receive guidance on your essays from an Ivy League graduate with a special talent and training to teach you how to write standout essays.

Regardless of which of our college counselors you work with, you’ll be in great hands. For example, our Senior College Admissions Consultant has a wealth of experience, having read literally thousands of essays in her role as a member of an admissions committee at one of the Ivies.

Our group of first-rate professionals will guide you in crafting personal statement that cut through the clutter in the very competitive admissions landscape at highly selective universities.

We Help You Conceptualize Standout Essays

Our college counselors will help you brainstorm concepts for your personal statements that you would most likely have not thought of on your own. Although we do not write essays for applicants, we guide you in crystallizing your ideas, direct you when your concepts flail and stop you from submitting essays that fail to answer the question or that do not make your best case for admission.

Is Hiring a College Essay Specialist Worth It? Ask Our Students and Their Parents.

College essay help testimonials, read more from our clients and what they have to say about our college essay advisement services., college essays: why are they important, the essay makes up 25% of your college application.

Essays are a key component in admissions evaluations to top-tier schools. Depending upon the university, they can represent 25% or more of your application. Writing and submitting great college essays can play an even greater role in your admissions chances to elite schools than the mere percentage they represent, however. As one of the few subjective pieces of your application, they can serve as true differentiators, helping you to maximize your competitive stature to high-end colleges.

Essays Help You Stand Out From the Competition

Top colleges are not only looking for students with exceptionally high grades and standardized test scores. In the world of highly selective schools, the vast majority of students will have the “numbers” that put them in the conversation for admission. Beyond the “hard factors” though, top-tier universities employ a holistic admissions policy that looks at the whole student. The colleges are seeking students who demonstrate academic passion, intellectual curiosity, a dedication to impactful extracurricular activities, resilience, character, kindness and a commitment to their community. Your college essays are one of the primary mechanisms for manifesting these traits that can serve as a great contrast to other students with superior numbers. Your Ivy league consultant can provide you with exceptional college essay help, so that you can stand out from the competition.

Essays Can Highlight Your Creativity

College essays do more than highlight your strengths and passions. They also demonstrate the way you express yourself. They provide insights into your personality and how you think. With our college essay help, we will make certain that your “voice” comes through. You are unique – and the story you have to tell is unique as well!

Essays Provide an Outlet to Tell Your Story

Admissions officers truly want to get to know you. It’s a hard task when they might have 10 minutes or less to review your entire admissions file. Your transcript, standardized test scores, resume and more all tell part of your story. Yet, it’s the “soft factors” or subjective pieces of your application like letters of recommendation and essays that can really make you come to life, off the page, in a three-dimensional way. Essays can elicit an emotional reaction in admissions officers reviewing your file. Your college essays can really showcase in a heartfelt way who you are, making admissions officers more inclined to advocate for you in committee if they feel a connection to you through your writing.

Essays Help Round Out Your Application

It’s one thing to simply check off a box in your application indicating what you want to study in college. Grades in AP, honors or IB Higher Level courses in high school in that discipline can also demonstrate your interest in and aptitude for a given area of study. However, it’s another thing to be able to articulate with passion and authenticity why it is that you want to pursue a major in a specific field. In your Common App essay, you can speak about a meaningful extracurricular activity that cemented your interest in pursuing study in a given area. In a “Why X College” essay, you can write about how your interest developed, the resources that the college has that will help you learn more about your intended major and why, because of that alignment, you’re a great fit for that school. Essays allow you to provide a different perspective to round out your application. The college essay help that our team provides can make a pivotal difference in your admissions outcomes.

Our Counselors Work With You For Months On Your Multiple Essays

Although the Common Application has one “main” essay prompt, students are often surprised to find that each school may require that they respond to multiple supplemental essays and short answers. Many selective schools and, of course, highly selective colleges, require you to write at least one and often two additional essays. These writings may range in length from 250 to 500 words or more. In some cases, you may find yourself responding to five to seven questions for a single university!

If you submit a polished “main” personal statement that an essay coach or your English teacher helped you with, but answer your supplemental essays and short answers with awkward writing, this will raise red flags to admissions officers. They will surmise that you had help with your main essay and that your poor writing in other essays reflects your true abilities. In such a case, you will surely lose credibility.

In order to write multiple essays that are of the same elevated, high quality as your main essay, you need to spend the time, do the hard work and receive informed guidance. Working with your college counselor in hands-on, individualized weekly meetings that take place over a period of months, your essays will truly standout and help make your best case for admission to top colleges.

The IvySelect Essay Strategy

Preliminaries.

Analyze your academic and extracurricular profile & interests
Learn about the student and family
Conceptualize and develop an essay strategy
“Life themes” exploration
Discuss possible essay concepts
Delineate what admissions officers look for in your essays

Essay Brainstorming & Conceptualization

Review various approaches to develop outstanding essay themes
The use of the “Snow Plow” to generate ideas
Writing About “Your Passions” Method
The “What do I believe?” Question
The “Values” Approach
Use of adjectives as a starting point
Discussion of Experiences: interests, activities, family, job, philosophy
Conceptualization through Formation of the Essay Idea

The Synthesis Stage

Drawing together material through your experience
Relating your experience to strengthen your positioning strategy
Defining how the experience was significant and your “take away”
Ascertaining your theme — revealing a truth, manifesting uniqueness
Pre-writing concepts — consider what will make your writing sound authentic and what to include for specificity
Avoiding trite topics that admissions readers hate
Making sure that you answer the question
Conferencing on what should be included in a specific essay

The Drafting Stage

Guidance on structure
Editing Considerations — length, flow, clarity, content, objectives, structure
Making certain the essay follows the “Do’s & Don’ts” rules
Discussing when you need to “kill your darlings”
Making certain the essay resonates with emotion & passion
Story development
Making the “character” come to life
Emphasizing Authenticity
Grammar assistance
Months-long feedback on an ongoing basis given for personal statements and short answers
Elevation of essays by taking them through multiple drafts

The Polishing Stage

Polishing the Introduction to “draw the reader in”
Elevating your positioning strategy via the polish
Making certain your ideas are defined & polished
Polishing the flow of your personal statements
Maximizing the depth & focus of your essays through the polish
Making certain your essay feels “complete” by polishing your Conclusion
Proofread for final adjustments

Our essay strategy is applied to all your essays and short answers.

Speak to a College Essay Specialist Today

Our college essay specialists have vast experience in the world of essay advisement and they know what they’re doing. Michael Goran and our team possess the talent to help you write a five-star essay, so that you have the best chance at the college or university of your dreams.

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Latest Posts

How to Write Your College Essay: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

Getting ready to start your college essay? Your essay is very important to your application — especially if you’re applying to selective colleges.

Become a stronger writer by reviewing your peers’ essays and get your essay reviewed as well for free.

We have regular livestreams during which we walk you through how to write your college essay and review essays live.

College Essay Basics

Just getting started on college essays? This section will guide you through how you should think about your college essays before you start.

Why do essays matter in the college application process?
What is a college application theme and how do you come up with one?
How to format and structure your college essay

Before you move to the next section, make sure you understand:

How a college essay fits into your application

What a strong essay does for your chances

How to create an application theme

Learn the Types of College Essays

Next, let’s make sure you understand the different types of college essays. You’ll most likely be writing a Common App or Coalition App essay, and you can also be asked to write supplemental essays for each school. Each essay has a prompt asking a specific question. Each of these prompts falls into one of a few different types. Understanding the types will help you better answer the prompt and structure your essay.

How to Write a Personal Statement That Wows Colleges
Personal Statement Essay Examples
How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity Essay
Extracurricular Essay Examples
Tips for Writing a Diversity College Essay
Diversity Essay Examples
Tips for Writing a Standout Community Service Essay
How to Write the “Why This Major” Essay
How to Write a “Why This Major” Essay if You’re Undecided
How to write the “Why This College” Essay
How to Research a College to Write the “Why This College” Essay
Why This College Essay Examples
How to Write The Overcoming Challenges Essay
Overcoming Challenges Essay Examples

Identify how each prompt fits into an essay type

What each type of essay is really asking of you

How to write each essay effectively

The Common App essay

Almost every student will write a Common App essay, which is why it’s important you get this right.

How to Write the Common App Essay
Successful Common App Essay Examples
5 Awesome College Essay Topics + Sample Essays
11 Cliché College Essay Topics + How to Fix Them

How to choose which Common App prompts to answer

How to write a successful Common App essay

What to avoid to stand out to admissions officers

Supplemental Essay Guides

Many schools, especially competitive ones, will ask you to write one or more supplemental essays. This allows a school to learn more about you and how you might fit into their culture.

These essays are extremely important in standing out. We’ve written guides for all the top schools. Follow the link below to find your school and read last year’s essay guides to give you a sense of the essay prompts. We’ll update these in August when schools release their prompts.

See last year’s supplemental essay guides to get a sense of the prompts for your schools.

Essay brainstorming and composition

Now that you’re starting to write your essay, let’s dive into the writing process. Below you’ll find our top articles on the craft of writing an amazing college essay.

Where to Begin? 3 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises
Creating the First Draft of Your College Application Essay
How to Get the Perfect Hook for Your College Essay
What If I Don’t Have Anything Interesting To Write About In My College Essay?
8 Do’s and Don’t for Crafting Your College Essay
Stuck on Your College Essay? 8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block

Understand how to write a great hook for your essay

Complete the first drafts of your essay

Editing and polishing your essay

Have a first draft ready? See our top editing tips below. Also, you may want to submit your essay to our free Essay Peer Review to get quick feedback and join a community of other students working on their essays.

11 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your College Essay
Getting Help with Your College Essay
5 DIY Tips for Editing Your College Essay
How Long Should Your College Essay Be?
Essential Grammar Rules for Your College Apps
College Essay Checklist: Are You Ready to Submit?

Proofread and edited your essay.

Had someone else look through your essay — we recommend submitting it for a peer review.

Make sure your essay meets all requirements — consider signing up for a free account to view our per-prompt checklists to help you understand when you’re really ready to submit.

Advanced College Essay Techniques

Let’s take it one step further and see how we can make your college essay really stand out! We recommend reading through these posts when you have a draft to work with.

10 Guidelines for Highly Readable College Essays
How to Use Literary Devices to Enhance Your Essay
How to Develop a Personalized Metaphor for Your College Applications

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A letter from our ceo.

Dear Parent - One of the realities that confronts many high school seniors during the college application process is the data-centric nature of college admissions. College applications involve standardized forms, obligatory exam scores, and formulaic transcripts; I remember applying to college and feeling schools were more interested in my statistics and quantitative measurements than in me as a person. This over-reliance on data is what makes the college application essay such a crucial component of the college application. When your child is competing for a spot at his or her first choice school against dozens of other students with nearly identical GPA’s, test scores, and extra-curricular backgrounds, the application essay becomes your child’s one opportunity to showcase himself or herself as something more than a data point. Your child’s essay is the only opportunity an admissions officer has to get to know the creative and quirky, considerate and thoughtful, or inquisitive and courageous child that you know and love. Most students will never face a more difficult writing assignment than the college essay. Figuring out how to write a strong essay that showcases all of your unique strengths is tough enough, but doing so within the constraints of a few hundred words can feel near impossible. It's a challenge that vexes even great writers, and when the stakes feel so high it's no wonder the college essay process can be so overwhelming. Our college essay coaching is designed to help students craft a compelling essay or personal statement. Working with one of our exceptional writing instructors, your child will start by brainstorming potential topics. From there the process works through cycles of drafts and revisions until everyone is satisfied with the final piece. The goal is to help your child demonstrate why he or she will make a meaningful and unique addition to the campus community and learning environment, and to keep the process of achieving that goal organized and on track. Our writing instructors are extremely talented, and will coach and encourage your child to a finished product that you can be proud of. If you’d like to learn more about how our college essay coaching works and what it entails, I encourage you to scroll down and continue reading about this tremendous resource for college-bound students. Sincerely,

Richard J. Enos

CEO & Co-Founder

We’ve helped over 30,000 students since the 1990’s

Over 60% of our programs are with returning families

Our customer satisfaction scores are up there with Apple, USAA, and Amazon

One-to-one, private college essay support.

Writing a strong college essay is an intensive effort, and there is no better support resource than a private essay coach. With a private coach your child will have the undivided attention of an expert writing instructor, and will be able to move through the process at a pace that fits his or her needs.

This isn't a theoretical program. It is 100% focused on helping your child move from a blank page to a polished final essay that he or she can submit to colleges. Together with the college essay coach your child will work through the brainstorming, drafting, re-drafting, and final editing process.

Your Success

While nobody can guarantee your child acceptance to a particular school, our essay coaching program can help ensure that your child's application stands out. The goal is to increase your child's chances of admission by clearly communicating the unique and important contributions he or she will make to the campus community.

An Expert Team of Carefully Selected Essay Coaches

Writing Experts

Our experienced essay tutors have degrees (and often advanced degrees) from some of the country’s best colleges and universities.

Extensive Teaching/ Tutoring Experience

They’re experienced, passionate teachers, and they know how to draw out the best in your child.

Thoughtful, Flexible Teaching Styles

Being smart isn't enough—our tutors are able to listen well and communicate clearly, and they adapt their approach to fit your child.

You (and your family) are busy

To be effective, an educational program has to work with your family's schedule. We make life simpler by bringing the tutoring to you and making scheduling easy:

In home Convenience

To provide you access to our elite instructional team, and make tutoring logistics easier, all of our essay coaching takes place in our custom online learning environment. This innovative tool enables your child and his or her coach to brainstorm, edit, and work on drafts together, just as they would on at your kitchen table. Online tutoring replicates the in-person tutoring dynamic, and it’s remarkably effective.

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Our one-to-one format and innovative approach make scheduling sessions with your essay coach easy. Generally, sessions occur about once a week over four weeks, but session timing and frequency can be adjusted to accommodate your child's schedule and his or her upcoming college application deadlines. We know you're busy, so we work hard to make things easy.

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The Write Stuff: 4 College Admissions Essay Editing Services Reviewed

Looking for good news about the college admissions process these days? You won't find much of it. Not only has the cost of attending college doubled on average since the 1980s, but also it's gotten considerably harder to get in. The majority of colleges in America have witnessed a plummeting acceptance rate as the number of student applications has exploded. Fifty years ago you had a 20 percent shot at getting into Harvard (all things equal, of course). Now the Crimson's acceptance rate is about 5 percent. In the last 10 years alone, the acceptance rate at many major universities has been cut in half . It's almost enough to make a kid consider trying out for the rowing team .

As if applicants didn't have enough to stress about, colleges have been making it more onerous to apply—requiring additional interviews, recommendations, and SAT Subject Tests. But the most burdensome of them all is an old standby: the application essay.

Essay requirements vary widely from school to school. The 150-plus members of the Coalition for College (which includes Harvard and Vanderbilt) requires a single 500-word essay selected from prompts such as "Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution." Those with eyes on the University of California system must write a whopping four essays, with prompts such as "Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced."

Students can reuse essays with other colleges if the prompts are similar enough—or if the schools happen to be members of the same application partnership—but you'd be surprised how seldom this occurs. My daughter found that out the hard way, when she learned that she'd have to write 12 separate essays to cover just five schools.

What's a kid to do who doesn't have parents who both work full-time as writers and editors? Just run their essay through Microsoft grammar check and hope for the best? Good luck. The acceptance rate at the University of Chicago has dropped 81 percent in the last 12 years. It doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to know that if you don't put your best foot forward, you may as well not even bother.

All of this led me to the curious world of online editing services. While you can hire a consultant to help guide your child through this overwhelming maze, these consultants are expensive and much of their work involves managing the complex application process, figuring out which colleges are a good fit, and brainstorming essay topics. If you just need help whipping an already written essay into better shape, an online editor might be a better (and much cheaper) fit.

To be sure, some of these services are exorbitantly expensive. Services like EssayEdge and TopAdmit can run you close to $200 for editing a single essay of fewer than 400 words. I've seen prices as high as $379 after various upsells. Word for word, that's more than what my editor at WIRED makes. (Hi, Mike!)

The good news is there are plenty of more affordable options available. I tested four of them, all reasonably priced and seemingly legitimate. Most of these services charge based on a combination of the word count of the original essay and the turnaround time required. I used the same raw essay from my daughter as a test piece for each of the four services, and requested the slowest turnaround time each of them offered to minimize the cost. I submitted her 383-word raw essay at the same time to each of the services, on a Wednesday afternoon. I gave all the services minimal guidance with my submission, noting only (when prompted) that this was a college application essay. All four of the services allow you to upload a Microsoft Word document and receive a red-lined and comment-filled Word document in return.

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When I received the revised essays, I reviewed them along with my wife (also a professional writer) and my daughter, the author. The reviews were done blind, without indicating the source of any of the edits, and we all rated each essay on a 1 to 10 scale. I also threw in a copy that I roughly edited. For the sake of comparison, the raw essay scored an average of 4.8, while my edit garnered a 6.9.

Here's what the various services cost, and how well they performed.

Note: When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read more about how this works.

Total price: $13.91, 48-hour turnaround promised. Edit received within 24 hours.

Scribendi offers seven different turnaround time tiers, but its 72-hour and one-week turnarounds were the same price as the 48-hour turnaround. A four-hour turnaround was quoted at $28.53. Scribendi returned both a changes-tracked version of the document and a "clean" version with all edits accepted. Scribendi's edit was not just the fastest, it was incredibly thorough—almost nitpicky—with 16 comments or prompts to the writer suggesting avenues for additional content or revisions that were beyond the scope of a simple edit. Oddly, the final edit didn't resonate with readers, who largely felt it was somewhat awkward and clunky in its overall flow. That said, the editor's notes and the service's overall speed were a big plusses.

Readers' rating: 5.0

Total price: $13.90, three-day turnaround promised. Edit received after two days.

Elite Editing has an Advanced Editing service for $40, but the $13.90 plan I chose offers only "basic editing," which doesn't include "suggested rewrites to eliminate awkward phrasing, repetition, passive voice, etc." and "taking into account your original assignment." Three days is the standard turnaround; one-day turnaround for the Basic Editing plan would have cost $19.90. The site crashed when I checked out, but my payment and submission both went through successfully. As promised, Elite's edit was indeed basic. Its editor made the fewest changes of any of the services and left only three comments, one of which was about whether the use of indentations and double-spacing was appropriate. While Elite's edits were correct, they weren't terribly deep—although that was enough to propel it to a second-place finish from the readers.

Readers' rating: 5.7

Total price: $15.32, five-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days.

Wordvice has eight different pricing tiers, with rates as low as 4 cents per word for a seven-day turnaround, though that tier was limited to materials longer than 3,000 words. The five-day turnaround tier was only marginally more expensive. When I received Wordvice's edited document, I was offered an upsell for a "second look" (basically another edit) for 30 percent off. Wordvice's embedded commentary was nearly as thorough as Scribendi's, though Wordvice was less obsessive over grammar and more focused on overall clarity. Turns out that was the right move: Wordvice's edit was the overall favorite of the quartet, and the finished draft reads cleanly and clearly.

Readers' rating: 6.3

Total price: $31.33, seven-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days.

Scribbr initially quoted a price of $25.36, but I shelled out an extra $6 for both the "structure check" and "clarity check" options, despite not really understanding what those were. Prices include a 2 percent surcharge for using a credit card. For those in a hurry, 24-hour turnaround doubles the price. Scribbr seems more focused on editing academic coursework essays than admissions essays, with a relatively formal structure applied to its edits (removing contractions completely, for example). Editor's commentary was sparse, though on target. This draft was the most divisive of the services, earning high marks from my wife but very low marks from my daughter, who thought it stripped the writing of her voice.

Readers' rating: 5.3

Any good college essay has to end with a conclusion, so here are a few takeaways. First, all of the services sent back essays that were, on average, felt to be an improvement over the original draft, with all of them catching numerous spelling and grammatical errors—so students with no professional editing help may do well to consider them, especially given how affordable these services are. That said, also remember that when you engage with an editing service, you're really engaging with a single (anonymous) editor who you won't ever meet or be able to interact with. That editor won't have any level of understanding of the writer's personality beyond what's on the page, and quality will necessarily vary from one editor to another, even within a given editing service.

Further still, remember that editing quality is always going to be subjective, just like any piece of writing. Except for this story, of course. It's amazing.

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Essay review

Work with an independent reviewer to improve your college essays. Essay experts go beyond editing for grammar and language. They know what colleges are really looking for, and can help your teen write essays that actually resonate with admissions officers. They can help you develop the right topics, avoid clichés, and showcase yourself with the right narrative.

Reviewer: Great use of details—it shows that you’re interested in THIS program! Consider another transition to your conclusion here; be more clear!

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 11 places to find great college essay examples.

College Essays

Sure, you might know the theory behind what a college essay is supposed to sound and look like . But just like reading a description of the Golden Gate Bridge pales in comparison to seeing it in person, there’s no replacement for seeing actual college essays written by students just like you. Well, almost like you – they’ve since gotten into college.

But where do you find good sources for reading sample college essays? How can you make sure that these resources will actually strengthen and improve your writing? And what is the best way to use the college essay examples that you do find? In this article, I’ll go over the best books and websites for finding essays, I’ll point out a few to avoid, and I’ll explain how to make the most out of other people’s essays while avoiding common pitfalls.

Why Look At College Essay Examples?

There are some very good reasons for wanting to check out how other people have handled the college admissions essay.

First, because you'll be able to get a better sense of what colleges are looking for, you will necessarily broaden your own topic brainstorming past your first, easiest, and most c lichéd i deas . It's one thing to hear that a completely mundane topic is way better than one focusing on your greatest sports moment. But once you see other students writing about a family meal, or an obsession with a particular board game, or a love of cultivating cacti, you'll be convinced to find your essay in the small moments of your life.

Second, you'll see how your life and writing compares to that of your peers . The great diversity of voices, topics, tones, points of view will show you just how many things you could possibly write about, and how to keep the essay connected to your personality and your voice.

Finally, if you really do have a good story to tell about something that gets written about a lot, like divorce, pet death, a community service trip, or winning the big game, you can get ideas for how to approach a potentially lackluster essay topic in a novel and striking way .

What Makes A Good Sample College Essay Resource?

First, the basics. A source is only as good as its content, so make sure you're reading college essays that worked, from people who actually got into the schools they applied to . Also, it's best to focus on new essays (not older than 10-15 years), so you are reading what has worked in the most recent past, rather than seeing outdated ideas and historical perspectives.

Next, what you really want is diversity in voice and perspective . Make sure the essays featured come from many different kinds of students: either from applicants to both top and lower-tier schools; or from students with different ethnic, economic, and racial backgrounds; or from writers using both formal and more experimental essay techniques.

Finally, the best sources of admission essays will feature explanatory material . This will give each essay some kind of context: commentary on what makes the essay good, explanations of the drafting process, or, at least, biographical information about students. Without commentary or context, it’s hard to know what you’re supposed to learn from the essays you read.

Where to Find Great College Essay Examples

Here are my recommendations for excellent resources, as well as some warnings about resources that I think you should avoid.

College Essays Collected in Books

I've taken a look at many of the books that collect college essays, so here are my recommendations. I've divided them into three categories:

Excellent – meaning having really diverse essays or very helpful commentary on each essay, or both
Worthwhile – meaning either a helpful collection of essays without a lot of context or commentary, or some great advice but a narrow selection of essays geared toward one particular type of school
Don't Bother – not useful either as a source of college essays or as a source of essay-writing advice and explanations

Also, please note that although I’ve listed the Amazon prices for all the books, you should definitely check your school and public library for copies before buying them. And even if your library doesn't have a copy, ask them to request one either from another library in the same system or even from the Library of Congress through interlibrary loan .

Excellent Books

Heavenly Essays: 50 Narrative College Application Essays That Worked

Written by Janine W. Robinson, who blogs about college essays at EssayHell , this book features great sample essays. But it's Robinson's precise and clear explanations of how to use a narrative style in your essay to tell a story about your life that make the book really outstanding. Through long and detailed commentary on each essay, Robinson shows why narrative is exactly the kind of structure that works best for personal essays. You can check out sample sections from the book on her blog. The book retails for $10 new on Amazon.

On Writing the College Application Essay, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice

Harry Bauld used to be an admissions officer at Brown, so he certainly knows what he is talking about when he writes about how and why to avoid clichés and explains how to find and keep your specific voice . Bauld demonstrates his points with sample essays, showing how they go from first to final draft. The book is easy to read, uses humor to make points, and his advice will carry over into your college writing as well. It is $12.50 new on Amazon, but there are much cheaper used copies available there as well.

The Berkeley Book of College Essays: Personal Statements for California Universities and Other Select Schools

This compilation features college admissions essays written by seniors from Berkeley High School (which is not affiliated with UC Berkeley). Because the city of Berkeley is economically, racially, and ethnically very diverse, these essays are about many different interests, perspectives, and experiences, and are written in many different styles and tones . Although there is no commentary for the essays, this collection is a great way to get a sense of the broad array of essay possibilities.

Also, because many of the students from Berkeley High apply to UC schools, this collection separates out UC application essay packages. (If you are interested in UC, also check out our own guide to writing excellent UC essays !) This book is currently $15 on Amazon.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice

Edited by the staff of the Harvard Crimson, this is a great collection of essays from a not particularly diverse group of students. It is very useful to see how the very top students approach the college essay, as long as their best effort neither intimidates nor stymies you. The contextual material is excellent, with helpful explanations of what makes each essay work well. This book retails for $12 new on Amazon, with much cheaper used copies also available.

Worthwhile Books

College Essays That Made a Difference, 6th Edition

This Princeton Review guide is mostly distinguished by its introductory material, which has detailed interviews with many different colleges at many different tiers about what role essays play in college applications, what kind of mistakes are okay, and what to write and not to write about. The sample essays themselves come without commentary, but each features a very short bio of the student, including test scores, GPA, a list of colleges where the person applied, and a list of colleges where the person got in. Right now, it's $11.50 new on Amazon, but there are cheaper used copies as well.

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

This collection of of college essays that worked, edited by Gen and Kelly Tanabe, has somewhat spare, but insightful, commentary explaining what each essay does well and what it could have done better . It also includes an interview with an admissions officer explaining how essays are used in admissions decisions and some comments from students about the writing process. The link above is to a downloadable PDF file.

50 Successful Stanford Application Essays: Get into Stanford and Other Top Colleges

If you like the Tanabes' approach (they are the authors of the previous book), then you will find this one useful as well. The narrow diversity of essay content and the style of commentary (thoughtful, but not particularly detailed or expansive) is very similar. It's priced at $13.25 new on Amazon with some used options as well.

Fiske Real College Essays That Work

The "Fiske" of the title is Edward Fiske, who used to be the Education editor of the NY Times, and who therefore has some experience with what colleges want from their applicants. The book itself features an introduction with some helpful essay-writing tips, a diverse selection of essays built around narrative, but unfortunately has very little commentary to go with each essay . It retails for $12.50 new on Amazon, with cheaper used options available.

2015 Elite College Application Essays

Although there's almost no commentary or discussion of what makes these essays work, this book is a reasonably good collection of essays from students who are now enrolled at Ivy and other top-tier schools. What's particularly appealing about this college essay compilation is how very new these essays are: all are from students who became freshmen in 2015 . The book is $14 new on Amazon.

Don't Bother

100 Successful College Application Essays

I'd recommend not spending your time on any of the editions of this collection. The essays are decades old in some cases, the topics are clichéd and boring, and there is little to no commentary to make any of them useful.

College Essays Published Online

I'll split my recommendations here into "worthwhile" and "don't bother" categories. There aren't any truly great collections of sample college essays online.

Individual College Websites . There are many essays published online by the various colleges where these students now go. This means these essays are guaranteed to be real, authentic, and to have worked on someone's application . Some of the essays even come with brief commentary by admissions officers about what makes them great. (The link will take you to our list of over 130 essays from more than 15 different colleges.)

Teen Ink Magazine . Teen Ink publishes all sorts of writing by teens, including college admission essays, which are split off into their own section on the site. The essays necessary feature a wide range of experiences and perspectives, so this is a great place to get a broad sense of what other students are writing about. The essays don't have any context except comment sections that run the gamut from generic “this is good” comments to some insight. Readers also get a chance to vote on which essays are featured as #1, #2, etc., which may be misleading because readers of Teen Ink aren't admissions officers.

Don't Bother

Watch out for paid websites like AdmitSee, CollegeMapper, and Acceptional, which claim to give you access to college essays for a monthly or fixed fee. Because of the paywall, there's no way to verify the quality of the essays these sites have. Also, there are enough books that you could borrow from your library that you don’t need to pay monthly fees to these places. Finally, I would particularly stay away from AdmidSee, which uses Amazon reviews for other essay resources as a marketing platform.

The Best Ways To Use College Admission Essay Samples

So now that you've rounded up a bunch of sample college essays, what should you do with them? Here are some tips for your next steps.

When Should You Read Essay Examples?

I'd advise waiting until after you've done some brainstorming of your own before you start immersing yourself in other people's work and ideas. (If you're not sure how to brainstorm, check out our guide to coming up with great college essay topics .)

This way, you can use other people’s essays to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic. For example, looking at how other people tackled their life experience can show you:

how to focus on a different detail in your own story
how to change the insight you want to draw from your story
how to think about different ways to start and end your narrative

What Can Good College Essays Teach You?

There are both broad and specific learning opportunities to be found in reading other people's work.

Broadly speaking, seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your own creative process. Likewise, reading a diversity of thoughts and voices will show you that even the most normal and boring seeming experiences be made into riveting essays.

More specifically, if you find essays from applicants to your target school, you can get some sense of the level of sophistication they expect to see from your writing.

Finally, good context and commentary on the essays can show you how they are put together and what makes them work. You can then put this advice to use when rewriting your essay later.

Pitfalls To Avoid

Of course, being surrounded by other people's work, especially when some of that work is much better than what you think you can manage, has its share of temptations. So what do you need to guard against when looking at sample essays?

Plagiarism. This one is basic and obvious. Do not copy these sample essays! Admissions officers have seen them all, read them all, memorized them all – you will not get away with it.

Copying and mimicry. Think of this as a softer kind of plagiarism. Even if you really like someone else’s style, don’t borrow it. Even if someone’s life sounds more exciting than yours, don’t steal a piece of it for your own essay. Why? Because if you don’t sound like yourself, it will be visible to an experienced reader (and guess what, admissions officers are very experienced readers). Also, if you’re writing about experiences that aren't yours, your unfamiliarity will show through the lack of believable details.

Resources for Essay Writing Advice

In researching this article, I came across books and websites that don't necessarily feature a lot of sample essays, but that give really excellent advice on writing your own college essay. I strongly recommend you spend some time checking them out.

Essay Hell blog . This great resource is written by Janine Anderson Robinson, an English teacher and a journalist, whose book Heavenly Essays I recommended above. The blog posts feature lots and lots of well-explained, detailed, easy to understand advice about how to write your essay, and are broken down into easy to understand, bite-sized nuggets of usefulness.

Slate 's Getting In podcast . The entire series is an interesting look at the college application process, with useful tips and explanations about all aspects what seniors are going through. Check out Episode 2: The Essay , in which a student gets feedback in real time on their essay from a former Princeton director of admissions and a panel of experts talk about essay dos and don’ts. The episode is 26 minutes long.

The College Essay Trap: Rescue Your College Application Essay From the "Maybe" Pile

This is incredibly concise and excellent explanation of what not to do and what to avoid when writing your personal statement. It's short, sweet, to the point, and is praised to the skies by legendary Princeton admissions dean Fred Hargadon. Currently $12 new on Amazon.

The Bottom Line

Look at college essay examples to broaden your own topic brainstorming and get ideas for fixing lackluster topics.
Look for resources with diverse and recent essays, from many different kinds of students and with explanatory material that explains what makes each essay good.
Look at essay samples after you’ve generated some of your own ideas to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic.
Seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your creative process.
Avoid both actual plagiarism and “borrowing”: don’t use someone else’s style, voice, or life experiences as your own.

What’s Next?

If you’re starting to work on college essays, check out our article laying out every single kind of essay prompt out there and a step by step guide to writing a great college essay .

Are you working on the Common App essay? Read our breakdown of the Common App prompts and our guide to picking the best prompt for you.

Or maybe you're interested in the University of California? Check out our complete guide to the UC personal statements .

Working on other pieces of your college applications? We’ve got guides to choosing the right college for you , writing about extracurriculars , and requesting teacher recommendations .

Thinking about taking the SAT one last time, or prepping for your first run at it? Read our ultimate guide to studying for the SAT and make sure you're as prepared as possible.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Four of a Kind: The Only 4 Professional Academic Writing Services You’ll Need in College

Can a student solve all the studying challenges a college or university throws at them without any help? Of course. Can all students do that? Of course not; that’s why some of them don’t meet deadlines, get poor grades, or even end up dropping out of school. If you’ve experienced something of the above or feel that you’re at risk, you can definitely take advantage of specialized academic paper writing services. For a reasonable price, these websites will write an original essay according to your topic and individual requirements or solve STEM assignments within the time frame you set. For every custom writing company out there, it’s a highly lucrative business. For the majority of educators, it’s cheating. For many students, it’s often salvation and the most efficient way to get something done if there’s no way it can be done single-handedly.

Here are the four best websites to hire professional academic writers and STEM experts and resolve virtually any writing and calculation challenges during your time in college or university.

PaperHelp.org – A Long-Established Company To Hire a Skilled Academic Paper Writer for Customized Service

PaperHelp.org is a time-honored player in the custom writing industry and a frequent participant in the best academic writing services lists and ratings. Here’s why this happens and which features PaperHelp users mark out most of all.

First off, the PaperHelp website has been taking orders for academic writing since 2008, which makes it one of the oldest companies in the market. They started as a small team of former and current students who have been crafting original essays for fellow college students. Over time, the organization grew up into a full-fledged writing service where students can order any type of academic paper, STEM and programming assignments, Q&A services, different admissions papers and various special projects (e.g., online lectures to summary, speeches, business plans, exam notes, capstone projects, etc.). You can also choose the level (high school, undergraduate, bachelor, professional) and academic writer category (basic, advanced, TOP) to get the best result. Such flexibility is often mentioned in customer reviews on independent feedback platforms as one of PaperHelp’s biggest advantages. Yet, most often, users point out a highly personalized approach by the service’s customer managers, writers and support agents. In practice, it shows in assigning personal managers to orders, acquiring clients’ individual instructions, providing the opportunity to contact the assigned expert directly, quality assurance, free revisions and 24/7 live support.

In addition to these major features, PaperHelp has many other useful components, describing which would take too much space here. The main thing is that in the end, all these things make PaperHelp a great choice to ask “ Write my paper “ and one of a few writing services you might need in college, whether you’re in humanities or exact sciences and need anything in between a simple essay and full-scale degree paper.

Notable fact: According to PaperHelp’s own 2019-2021 statistics, students most frequently order essays (over 51%) of an undergraduate level (60%) with a deadline from 3 hours to 3 days (almost 60%).

WowEssays.com – Professional Academic Writing Service With Plenty of Useful Supplements

Another one-stop-shop writing service students can use to deal with the many issues they might experience while studying carries the telling name WowEssays. One might say it’s a bit pretentious, if not pompous — so, let’s see if it is justified.

To begin with, WowEssays.com is a comprehensive custom essay service with rich expertise and a broad range of products. Writing from scratch according to your specific instructions, problem solving, editing and improving your paper – you can get all of this done by writers with relevant academic backgrounds and experiences. Combined with a flexible pricing system, various deadlines, and over three dozen paper types available for download, it makes WowEssays one of the top-choice academic writers sites to go to in case you are ready to pay several dollars for an expertly completed assignment.

Along with the stuff that you can purchase, you can also benefit big time from things that WowEssays provides absolutely for free. For example, one of the largest free sample databases that includes close to 100,000 entries. Or a directory of over 30 free writing assistance tools, for instance, generators of different parts of essays (title, thesis, introduction, summary, etc.), checkers (grammar, readability, plagiarism), converters, calculators, and other utilities.

Notable fact: WowEssays has a sister website called WowAssignment.com that focuses on the STEM area in general and programming assignments in particular. So, if you need coding or computer science help – that’s the website you should visit in the first place.

EssayPro.com – Perhaps, the Largest Academic Ghostwriting Service Out There

One can hardly find a student who has ever considered ordering a custom paper online and hasn’t heard about EssayPro. This is by no means a surprise as EssayPro is arguably the largest custom writing website on the Web with a 20-year history of operation. All imaginable kinds of papers, STEM assignments, questions and problems, editing and rewriting – their experts can do all of that.

A prominent feature that distinguishes EssayPro from the vast majority of competitors is that it uses a bidding system, letting users single-handedly select a freelance academic ghost writer out of those who applied to fulfill the order. Typically, other companies have customer managers match order requirements with writers’ skills to find the best-suited expert. On the one hand, a bidding system is a good way to find the cheapest option. On the other hand, it lays all the responsibility for the end result on the user. This might be some kind of a fuse to protect the company and its clients from possible legal actions by the government and educators.

Anyway, it’s not uncommon to see that customer feedback and an expert EssayPro review call the company arguably the best academic writing service and praise the low prices. If you are sure about your ability to choose the best writer, the combination above can be extremely beneficial to your performance.

Notable fact: EssayPro has five academic levels, which is different from the traditional four-level approach – school, college, university, master’s, and doctorate.

EduBirdie.com – High-Quality Academic Essay Writing Services From a Company with a Controversial Reputation

The fourth service on this list is EduBirdie – a company well-known for two things: decent-quality papers and a scandal over paying famous YouTubers for advertising. The latter was a big thing in 2018 when the platform was forced to remove hundreds of videos with influencers promoting a discount code for EduBirdie’s services. Yet, as 19th-century showman Phineas T. Barnum once said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Especially if you really make a good-quality product, in this particular case – academic writing help services.

Curiously, EduBirdie employs the bidding system and, just like EssayPro, lets customers select academic essay writers by themselves. This means it has the same advantages and risks as mentioned above, as shown in this EduBirdie review . Alternatively, they are ready to choose “the best writer for you” for a nominal $9.99 fee. These little marketing tricks, however, don’t deny the fact that they can deliver a neat academic paper of any kind and EduBirdie’s ability to get you through rough times in college.

Notable fact: EduBirdie doesn’t support a division into academic levels while the ordering procedure. On the one hand, users are held responsible for selecting an expert; on the other hand, it gives you unprecedented freedom of choice.

What a Reliable Company Should Have as to Academic Writing Services Reviews

This article has presented quite possibly the four best websites to hire professional academic writers online. However, you must understand that this list is a result of thorough research, careful analysis, and yet subjective conclusions. You can trust someone else’s expertise or decide to look for a company of your own choice. In case of the latter, take into account these crucial features of a reliable academic essay writing service:

Have a good online reputation that you can check on independent customer feedback platforms, online communities, and forums. Preferably, this should go along with a long history of operation.
Ability to provide an individual approach thanks to a set of measures that include following clients’ specific writing instructions, direct communication with an expert, revisions to improve your piece, and 24/7 support.
Delivery of content originality report – for free or at an additional payment.
Set of rock-solid guarantees, including but not limited to customer confidentiality, payment safety (compliance with PCI DSS), user data no-sharing policy, timely delivery, etc.
Simple and straightforward money-back policy.
Round-the-clock live customer support easily accessible via multiple channels.

It’s necessary to stress that custom writing services don’t typically do live tests and online assignments instead of students. If some website offers such a service, you must be cautious — most probably, it’s a scam.

To sum it up, you should understand that addressing any writing help service cannot replace studying itself. However, it’s a good safety precaution in case there’s no way you can accomplish this or that task or assignment for some reason. And if you find yourself in such a situation, it’ll be up to you to decide whether to try to deal with it single-handedly or turn to an online writing service. Should you choose the latter, you can try to find an appropriate company by yourself or address one of the four listed above. In any case, we truly hope this post will help you get through college – with or without external help.

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Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay
Sample College Essay 2 with Feedback. This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org. College essays are an important part of your college application and give you the chance to show colleges and universities your personality. This guide will give you tips on how to write an effective college essay.
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Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College) Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head.
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Your Options for Help. 1. Consult Your Professor. While meeting with your professor seems counterintuitive, they can offer the best advice for tackling an essay. After all, they will be assessing it. Many students avoid asking their professor for help, as they feel that the professor will view them as incompetent.
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Making an all-state team → outstanding achievement. Making an all-state team → counting the cost of saying "no" to other interests. Making a friend out of an enemy → finding common ground, forgiveness. Making a friend out of an enemy → confront toxic thinking and behavior in yourself.
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Next, let's make sure you understand the different types of college essays. You'll most likely be writing a Common App or Coalition App essay, and you can also be asked to write supplemental essays for each school. Each essay has a prompt asking a specific question. Each of these prompts falls into one of a few different types.
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The 150-plus members of the Coalition for College (which includes Harvard and Vanderbilt) requires a single 500-word essay selected from prompts such as "Describe a time when you made a meaningful ...
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11 Places to Find Great College Essay Examples
Check out Episode 2: The Essay, in which a student gets feedback in real time on their essay from a former Princeton director of admissions and a panel of experts talk about essay dos and don'ts. The episode is 26 minutes long. The College Essay Trap: Rescue Your College Application Essay From the "Maybe" Pile.
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EduBirdie.com - High-Quality Academic Essay Writing Services From a Company with a Controversial Reputation. The fourth service on this list is EduBirdie - a company well-known for two things: decent-quality papers and a scandal over paying famous YouTubers for advertising.
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