<p>After receiving numerous inquiries in the main CC readers thread, I decided to make this a public post to make a comprehensive, easy guide. Disclaimer: I do not reveal my credentials in the general public to protect my profession and personal background.</p>
<p>People in this forum search for people to help them improve their essays. A fresh pair of eyes always helps for absolute, mechanical elements such as grammar. However, proper punctuations and sentence structure is just a ticket to qualify. Its the bare minimum to prevent auto-rejection (looking like the person who rushed an essay 2 hours before deadline).</p>
<p>So to kick it up a notch, people request subjective feedback. This is also easier to give from the perspective of the critiquer, since it simply asks for opinion (aka BS). The VAST majority of people helping you do not understand these parameters that FUNDAMENTALLY change the way admission officers read essays.</p>
<p>An admission officer can read over 40 essays a day from 15+ applicants. Every day. For months. This is presuming that the university has a well run system and doesnt have a flood of applicants to bring an overcapacity to individuals (aka, 40 is the official line for PR; the actual line is realistically much larger. Remember, admission officers procrastinate also).</p>
<p>What does this mean? All your fancy little literary devices and cute themes that might impress a peer or teacher will NOT impress an admission officer most likely. Theyve seen it before. Multiple times. And too many times, people rely on authority figures to help them with their essays when in actuality they are not qualified. Let me over 3 common misconstrued expert groups.</p>
<p>1) Teachers. I dont care that your teacher claims to be a demi-god in writing. Getting a degree in education and running a formalized curriculum structured around the AP/IB testing system is fundamentally different from college admissions. Its not a number scale. Its not a grade scale. Its a binary yes/no resolution with factors like how does this person fit relative to the other people we admit in our class? (Yes Im aware some schools like Duke have a number system; Im talking in generalities here)</p>
<p>2) Your friend who got into Harvard/Stanford/Princeton. They have not seen 3000 essays over a career, so regardless of writing ability, your friend is not looking from the same perspective of an admission officer. But ANY help is better than NO help right?!?!!? True. But is your Harvard friend the type of help YOU WANT??? Or rather would you prefer that nerdy Harry Potter fanfic obsessed friend that plows through creative readings meant to specifically APPEAL to and EVOKE instantaneous connection? You need the right set of eyes to look at your essays. </p>
<p>3) Your friend who won a writing contest (or that may be you). Guess what, no matter how good of a writer you are that doesnt make you likeable. It is one tool in a total arsenal. Now, these people arent bad people to ask for essay help. However, theyre not demi-gods that preach gospel.</p>
<p>In conclusion, there are many valuable people who can help you with your essay. However, I suggest targetting different groups of people for specfic aspects only (teachers-grammar, award winners-rhetoric, creative friends-content). I hope this helps you seek the proper advice! More to come, if its requested </p>
<p>NOTE: If you would like me to correct your essay, PM me. No guarantees. You must demonstrate a willingness to keep in touch beyond the bounds of the essay correction (FB/Linkedin friends). I do this strictly for networking, not for altruism. My time is valuable, and I don't waste it on people that do not repay favors.</p>