I’ve seen lots of posts about essay consultants, but since I’m a new member, I can’t PM anyone. I’m looking for an essay-only consultant who could work with my child on developing potential topics, etc. I don’t think we need help with anything else, but most of the local consultants want us to sign up for the entire program. Thanks!
While there are many helpful people here on CC, there are surely some that might use your child’s essays for nefarious reasons. A few words of advice:
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Never post any original writing online.
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If you are going to share anything with anyone here on CC, it should ONLY be with one of the “trusted essay readers” – seasoned adults with at least several hundred posts to their names – whose advice and writing style in their many posts and threads resonate with you.
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There is a lot of information available for free on the internet to help you get started. I especially like Johns Hopkins’ sample “essays that worked” and some of the brainstorming ideas offered at no charge from theessayguy – an essay consultancy that is run out of Los Angeles.
I also PMed you.
Thank you, very good advice. Just as I don’t give free legal advice, I wouldn’t expect free essay advice!
I could not agree more.
That said, just as there is no shortage of great – and free – information about legal matters available on the internet, there’s also a lot of garbage out there. The trick is to get good recommendations for experienced and honest professionals, to do one’s due diligence in separating the wheat from the chaff information-wise, to recognize good and bad advice when you hear it, and to find someone that you can work with and whom you trust,
With essay consultants and college admissions advisors, as with lawyers, becoming well versed with some of the issues that pertain to one’s particular situation can help make one a better informed client and be able to cut to the chase (to use an old film metaphor), and to get better and more directed professional advice snd assistance when and for what you need it.
Google “Hacking the College Essay 2017” and read it.
Write the Essay No One Else Could Write
“It boils down to this: the essay that gets you in is the essay that no other applicant could write.
Is this a trick? The rest of this guide gives you the best strategies to accomplish this single
most important thing: write the essay no one else could write.
If someone reading your essay gets the feeling some other applicant could have written it,
then you’re in trouble.
Why is this so important? Because most essays sound like they could have been written by
anyone. Remember that most essays fail to do what they should: replace numbers (SAT/GPA) with the real you.
Put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer. She’s got limited time and a stack of
applications. Each application is mostly numbers and other stuff that looks the same. Then she picks
up your essay. Sixty seconds later, what is her impression of you? Will she know something specifically
about you? Or will you still be indistinguishable from the hundreds of other applicants she has been
reading about?”
Writing on a common topic is nowhere near as risky as making common errors.
There’s more writing in the app than just the CA Personal Statement. Watch out for a pro-polished PS that isn’t balanced by the rest of the app.
If you have a good idea what your targets look for, you’re ahead. You do that research. If you think you want College X, you should be doing this digging.
Definitely agree bopper. I would love to read/advise my DD on her essay when the time comes. Unfortunately, I think she will bristle at that, and it would be better to hire a neutral third party. I’ve done tons of research already about what colleges look for, but the difficulty will be educating my daughter, who’s not confident in her writing, about what the essay could look like. Maybe things will change in a year, and she will be more open to my input, but I like to be prepared.