College Application Strategy Sessions
Our strategy sessions will be critical to your college essay writing. During our 45-60 minute phone calls, I will draw out your most compelling ideas and distill them to their essence. Together we will explore your unique experiences and most valuable attributes. While we discuss what makes you you, I will take detailed notes on a shared document so you can watch your thoughts take shape on the page. I will help you discover themes, pull through threads, and draw connections between elements.
During these essential phone calls, I will ask probing questions and propose storylines, so after each strategy session, you will be ready to write. You will feel prepared to sit down at your computer and build original essays that reveal your authentic self and demonstrate why you will be an asset to your selected schools.
Strategy sessions also include guidance on how to best order and articulate your activities. The Common App allows for 10 activities with descriptions of up to 150 characters, whereas the Coalition App permits only eight activities but provides space for 255-character descriptions. And the University of California App allows for 20 activities with 350-character descriptions. The activities parameters are difficult to keep straight!
Creating smart, engaging, and readable activities descriptions requires brainstorming, planning, and pruning. My experience as a resume editor will be valuable to you as you develop your comprehensive activities list. We will discuss which activities are most important to you as well as how to highlight what you gained from your participation and what you contributed to each organization. I will show you how to use action words to enliven your prose and how to condense your descriptions to meet character counts. After our calls, you will feel confident ordering your activities and prepared to write specific, succinct, and memorable descriptions.
With help from family members, school counselors, teachers, and coaches, you will build a college list with reaches, targets, and likelies. You will do your research, visit school websites, attend virtual sessions, and tour campuses when possible. Most likely you will come to our strategy sessions with direction. Still, you will need a wise and experienced sounding board, which I will provide. I will also help you refine your college list and discuss majors that might be a great fit.
Throughout the college search process, priorities shift and plans crystallize. As you explore academic programs and consider your right-fit schools, you will benefit from my broad and deep experiences in education. In addition to working in schools for 30 years, I have been to all fifty states and have visited more than 40 countries. I have taught in three colleges and toured campuses near and far. I will offer a fresh perspective and will see your college search with objectivity and insight. You will become the expert of your college search, but I will coach you as your plan takes shape.
Perhaps most important, through our strategy sessions, my personalized approach to your college application process will rid you of writer’s block and keep you on track. You will learn how to highlight your strengths and write inspiring prose that propels a reader to the last word. My college essay help will provide you with clarity, direction, and motivation. Best of all we will have fun talking about where you are headed and how you will get there!