After much thought, I decided to look for a college counselor to help D with scholarships and summer programs essays - she is a strong writer, but not when it comes to personal narratives - she clams up, hides behind big words, and takes any criticism (at least from me) very personally.
So I set out on a search for a counselor in our area who could actually work with my daughter alongside and not simply edit her essays after she’s done with them. I found someone on yelp with a few stellar reviews and we went to meet her last week. I liked her approach as she described it - she interviews a kid extensively, trying to get him/her to open up and find a life experience/episode that showcase’s something about this kid in a unique and meaningful way; next they sit down at the table together and the kid writes the essay, and the counselor makes suggestions along the way. Can someone say if it’s a good method? It never worked for me since I thought every time I tried to “help along”, I ended up stifling her voice and sometimes even putting words into her mouth, no matter how much I tried to restrain myself.
Things that not exactly turned me off, but got me worried a little - counselor didn’t know what NLSI-Y and TASP programs are, which I found strange - I thought these programs were quite popular among humanities majors. And after hearing my daughter’s stats, she jumped right into college planning (D is a sophomore), saying we’d need to plan for 8-15 colleges (I think she immediately assumed D would be looking at super-reaches). When I voiced my concern that applying to too many colleges could actually decrease the odds as essay quality might go down with the sheer number of supplementals, she dismissed my concern, saying a lot of the essays can be re-used. I am ok with recycling essays for scholarships, I’ve done it myself back in HS, but I am not sure it’s the best idea for college supplements.
Since I am not an expert, wanted to get everyone’s advice, especially experienced counselors and those who hired counselors for their kids. Thanks!
I have no experience or feedback on the counselor but what English class is your daughter going to take next year? I ask because my daughter’s AP Language and Comp class worked a ton on the common app essay in class for well over a month.
@momofsenior1, she’ll take AS (Advanced English) as a junior, her only alternative could have been regular English. Two AP options for English would only be available during senior year, and I am not sure how good those are.
My kids both asked their favorite English teacher to proofread their essays. They were both pretty satisfied that they were telling the story they wanted to tell and asked for the teaches to check for any grammar, logic type of issues.
All seniors at our high school spend about the first month working on an essay usually for the common app. Guidance talks to them as well as the English teacher and they get a lot of help along the way if needed plus ELA teachers to edit drafts. My daughter who did dual enrollment English asked her college writing professor to proofread and the professor very willingly helped her though any ELA teacher at the high school would have helped too. I thought September of senior year was an ideal time to work on an essay.
My daughter had some rolling admissions schools on her list so had everything done prior to the start of senior year. She also spent 2-3 months working on the main essay prompt.
Agree with @thumper1 about the timing – my kids worked on their essay over the summer and went over it with the English teacher in Sept. Our HS doesn’t even have the final transcripts ready to be sent out until early October. However, our HS does not have the kids work on their essay in English class so I would not count on that happening.
In our high school the AP Euro teacher was considered a better writing teacher than any of the English teachers. My younger son had him read over his essays. It’s a tiny population that is going to be applying to programs like TASP (and I didn’t know what the other acronyms were), so I wouldn’t necessarily hold it against this person that she didn’t know the programs. Neither of my kids wrote one word of a college essay before September, though their nagging parents may have talked about essay topics over the dinner table in August.
I can comment on a few of your questions/concerns.
Yes, some essays can definitely be reworked to use at multiple schools; it really depends on the school and the prompts. My students often rework essays to use with different schools. This does allow them to apply to more schools (if they want) with less stress.
I wouldn't hold it against the consultant if she'd not heard of TASP and NLSI-Y. Yes, I've heard of those, but I'm sure there are summer programs I've never heard of; it doesn't follow that I couldn't help a student apply to a program that I'm not familiar with, but I would need to "do my homework". Consultants don't know everything (well, maybe some make that claim, but I don't).
Interviewing, asking good questions, and helping a student open up about herself seems to be a common practice. I do it a bit differently.
Having a student write an essay right away while the counselor gives feedback is in interesting idea. I don't do it that way, but I think counselors/consultants each have their own method for gauging essay writing skills.
A counselor should listen to your concerns about the college list. I also don't think it's necessary to build a college list in sophomore year. Many students have no idea about colleges as sophomores (but many do). Visiting colleges (if finances allow it) is a great idea as is having conversations about college, looking at websites, talking to graduates of various colleges, visiting schools nearby, etc.
As others have said, your DD's junior and senior year English teachers might work on college essays or at least the personal essay.
Many who work with students find it helpful to begin earlier with students so we have longer to develop a relationship, but some students go to a counselor in a panic in October (or December!) of senior year, and that can work if a student is serious about receiving help/support/guidance.
I’ve worked with a number of kids over the years on their essays. The idea of sitting side-by-side while the kid writes as an essay strikes me as weird. Yes, brainstorming ideas is important. The topic often comes out of these brainstorms, and it is rarely what you might initially think it will be. But once you’ve got the germ of an idea, the kid has to write the essay … and rewrite the essay … and rewrite the essay … Sending detailed comments & suggestions via email works. It’s nice for the kid to be able to digest these in private and decide what he/she thinks. Ultimately, it’s the kid’s essay and he/she needs to decide what to leave in / what to take out. I’ve also found that when a student has a solid draft showing it to 3 - 4 folks whose opinion you respect - but who don’t really know the student - is a good way of getting a pulse on the essay. Usually, folks like - and don’t like - the same sections or passages. Just my two cents.
FWI, I did sit in the room while my older son wrote. He was infinitely distractible. At some point he started doing this silly thing where he was writing a program that collected phrases from sample essays on line and combining them into an essay. The result was funny we both ended up laughing and then realizing that maybe he could start an essay with that. But mostly I didn’t say anything - I just sat on his bed with a book.
My younger son did not want me anywhere in the vicinity while he was writing. He would emerge from his room with stuff way better than I had ever dreamed he was capable of.
I found this a great, easy read. I don’t know if I can link, so …
Google “hack the college essay” by John Dewis. It’s a free e-book that was really helpful to understanding how to write this kind of story. I am a professional writer (mostly columns these days, ironically) and it was helpful to me when my daughter asked me to edit her essays.
She wrote her essays the summer before senior year.She’d pick one day a week that would be “essay day” and she would work for an hour or so. By the end of the summer they were polished and ready to go - she already knew the essays she needed to write, plus the Common App announces essay prompts early (2018-19 is already out).
The best thing about summer writing is she had time to let it sit, and then come back to it with fresh eyes. The most important part of writing, if you ask me.
Her English teacher offered to read them, but she declined since she had me.
Both of my kids wrote their essays over the summer. Older D had her English teacher proofread.
D ( current college student) had 19 essays to write, plus the common app. She is not the easiest kid ( I say that lovingly) and refused to allow anybody to read her essays. She said that any school that accepts her needs to do it based on her writing …without any comments from anybody. She finally agreed to allow me to proofread her essays to check for spelling and grammar… and only spelling and grammar. Her English class also worked on the common app essay, but by that point hers had already been written and she also had no interest in anybody seeing it. The class was instructed to proofread the essays of other students…she was not sharing her essay. She got around that by using an essay that was already written for another school …that was not on the common app… and by that point she had already decided that she did not intend to go to. I was not a fan of students proofreading their peers essays.
My kids got no help at school: I am so surprised at the ways in which school faculty get involved with essays that should be entirely written by the student. With my kids, I provided photo albums as inspiration (they kind of looked over their lives that way) and general comments on topic.
They wrote them in December. Low stress, great results in terms of admission. There is no one way to do this. And every kid is different, every relationship between kid and parent is different.
Because there is so much coaching I have read that colleges treat essays with some skepticism, and that they don’t always count as much as they once did.
I was trained in non- directive tutoring. Often I help kids on CC via PM, mainly those whose parents can’t help. It is tricky to help a young person write without influencing them or affecting their work in a way that is not ethical.
Let’s just say that I advise likability and a conversational, story-telling tone versus big words and dreams of curing cancer.
Our school helps a ton with the common app essay. Multiple rounds of peer editing, plus the AP language teacher and college counselor do final read throughs. I read my daughter’s common app essay and other than grammatical changes, it was 100% her voice, and the edited product was near identical to her first draft. I think the school just wanted to be sure that kids weren’t totally missing the boat with their topic.
My daughter also had 19 essays total. She had us read them all for errors but we didn’t do much commenting in terms of content and direction. When she talks to friends who are finishing up junior year, she tells them the best advice she got was to start writing early.
Thanks for everyone’s replies. Yes, I read the book on essay writing (thought it was great), made my daughter read it, but it didn’t help. As suggested above, all kids are different. D needs no help managing her schoolwork, prepping for tests, etc., etc. I know most other kids are doing just fine writing personal essays on their own, just like there must be kids who struggle in the areas where D succeeds with ease. So huge thanks to @sbjdorlo for answering my questions, I feel much better, though still would love to hear other opinions. Thanks!
My kids wrote first drafts of their essays without much prior discussion with their parents or anyone else. This was their choice, a declaration of independence. I knew the prompts, but that’s it. No outlines to review in advance. I edited the draft essays for grammar and clarity – light editing. I wanted to preserve their style and their voice. I served as their “college counselor.”
The writing wasn’t an involved negotiation or very time consuming. The process was: a) I nag them to start working on the essay, b) they write a complete draft, c) I read the draft and recommend improvements, d) they review my stylistic edits and produce a second draft. Pretty much done. My DD did something smart. She was applying to art school and her essay explained why she liked people to see and critique her art. The essay sounded persuasive. She wanted to do art that would affect people in certain ways. Her college major turned out to be product design.
My son had more developed expository writing skills. He’d done a lot of writing for the school newspaper. He decided to explain why and how a kid who grew up in the upper Midwest could have an interest in the Three Gorges Dam in China. This grew out of his involvement in policy debate. The dam was an object in the “case” his team was making. His essay was a way to remind the readers that he was a debater, that debate isn’t just about rhetoric; it deals with substantive policy issues and requires very broad reading. In sum, the essay was actually about him, not the dam. Very little editing was needed.
The essay-writing process was consistent with the kids’ decisions not to spend months and months trying to figure out where to apply to college. Neither of them read any college guides. My son made no college visits prior to applying, except for a couple he visited as a debater. My daughter made a 10-day sweeping car trip from the upper Midwest to Maine (via Oberlin, PIttsburgh, NYC, Ithaca, Providence, and Boston). But she had to do months of preparation for art school applications: a portfolio. The portfolio was more important than any essay she had to submit.
“she dismissed my concern, saying a lot of the essays can be re-used.”
I’m with the counselor. In fact, I think it’s malpractice to advise a kid to re-invent the wheel for each school. Your reasons for applying to East Whoville College and West Whoville College are probably pretty similar.
