Writopia vs College Essay Guy
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Anonymous
Link? |
Anonymous
Literally search writopia college essay on Amazon. It’s not hard. |
Anonymous
Google not Amazon right? |
Anonymous
Amazon for the book. Google for the schedule. Didn’t realize I had to spell out every option. |
Anonymous
Ok, here I am again. Sorry it took me a couple of days. Here you go, this is for all of you: I’ve worked in a similar space (editing personal statements for IMGs seeking residency in the US) and I am happy to adapt my process a bit and share it here, which you can then use with your own DC (or ask another trusted adult to engage in with your DC if they won’t want to work with a parent, lol). But first, let me say this: How many of you have a DC that is truly extraordinary? A DC who has something of real value that they can write about to convey who they really are? I can tell you exactly how many of you have such a DC— all of you. I have not yet met an applicant who is not an amazing person with multiple fascinating stories that they could tell. So. How on earth do you get a high schooler to actually tell one of those stories? In essay format? This is what I would do: 1) Before meeting with the kid I would ask them to draft responses to all of the common app prompts. Not full essays! That is not what you want them to do at all. This is a zero stress, low effort thing — a brief paragraph in response to each prompt, spending zero energy or effort on grammar, worrying zero about how it looks or reads. I would say “Just jot down a bit in a doc about what the prompt jogs from your mind.” A very low stress exercise. They are just jotting down notes, that is it. I might say this as well “Don’t question what comes up for you. Go ahead and jot it down. Often people read a prompt and think their experience is too small of a thing for the essay, or not important enough, or other students have more dramatic stories to tell, or whatever — but none of that matters! Nothing that comes up is too small. Jot down everything that comes to mind and don’t judge it. And If multiple things come to mind, write them all down — you can even respond to a prompt with a bullet point list of different things if you want to.” 2) Then I’d ask them to — on a different day than they do the prompts, unless they feel particularly motivated on that day or something — write a very rough draft of an essay based one of the ideas they came up with in response to the prompts. But this is again a very low stakes exercise. They should not think of this as “the essay” they will be using for apps. It’s not even really an essay writing exercise so much as a continuation of the brainstorming they did with writing a quick reaction to each prompt. I would even suggest that they not spend more than an hour on it. Just get down the gist of it. And (this is important) don’t feel invested in this one— it’s highly likely they will end up using one of the other prompts for the final essay. This is still just brainstorming. Do not worry about grammar, spelling, or anything like that here — we worry about those things later. 3) Then I would review their draft essay, their responses to prompts, and a resume and/or list of their activities and interests. 4) Now I would have a Zoom call with them. I would explain that “Today we are going to chat about you, and figure out how to tell all of these colleges who you are. Based on what you gave me, I already see so many options — things that you could write about that would show them how you shine. But as we chat, we will probably come up with even more.” (I have zero doubt that this would be true about every one of your DCs — again, I’ve only met amazing folks, and I don’t think that is going to change any time soon). Then I talk to them about everything they wrote down —if they responded to all or most of the prompts I have at least a sentence or two about an obstacle they faced, about an activity they enjoy, something that made them happy in a surprising way, about an idea they held that was challenged in some way, etc, etc. And we talk. We get into all of it. And my role here is to draw out the details of these experiences and to be their greatest cheerleader. I do not criticize anything. If there is something I feel they shouldn’t be writing about in an app essay for whatever reason, I just cheer louder for other things. I am there to appreciate everything that is wonderful about them, and help them to convey that wonderfulness to an admissions committee. No constructive criticism here at all. None!!! After talking about the essay they wrote and why they chose to expand on that particular prompt, and talking in depth about the stories that came up in response to the prompts, I’ll chat with them about their “resume” or experience not reflected in the stuff they wrote. The list of life lessons learned playing team sports for example is very long — and some of the deeper ones are not necessarily obvious (ie the development of leadership skills arising out of becoming the water carrier for a football team after breaking an arm, an interest in ecology that develops after overhearing another kid’s parent making a misinformed comment about the artificial turf they are playing on, or whatever — the possibilities are endless, really). And any activity they have done deserves some attention and conversation. A friend told me how concerned she was that her kid didn’t have any activities and that as a result they wouldn’t have as great of an essay as a kid who was captain of varsity soccer, or a champion debater, or first violin, or whatever. She said “All he ever did was acolyte at church, and he certainly can’t write about that, because he hates having to do it.” That kid was acolyte at their church most Sundays because none of the other kids who were going to do it were reliable, and most who had committed faded away within a few months. He felt he wasn’t religious at all, but he could see how important it was to so many people at the church, especially the older ones, to have the community, and he was going to stick to his duties in order to help provide that, even though he hated getting up in time to be at the church early, resented how the other kids were no longer helping, and he felt it was ‘boring.” Y’all are DCUM, so I’m guessing you are smart enough to see what an incredible essay there is there, just waiting to be written. So … lots of chatting about all of the things. We end up chatting about many challenges/obstacles/lessons/interests in addition to the ones that they initially jotted down in response to the prompts. 5) Then at the end of the Zoom call I ask them to choose three to five things from everything we have talked about that they might want to use as the topic of the essay. I tell them that as they are writing them down, I’m going to write down my favorites too. Then we compare. I have them add mine to their list. Then I tell them to think about it for a few days. Maybe a week or so, not longer (you do need to keep momentum with kids when there is a project they don’t want to do, lol). Then — they need to pick one. If that is impossible, pick 2. 6) Zoom call 2. The goal of this call is to finalize the topic, and get a very rough draft down. I’d have them share screen and throw a Google doc up and we start drafting. Ok, what is our topic. Ok, let’s list out the parts of this that are the most important. What story-within-a-story belongs there (for example if I write about volunteering in a nursing home do I want to tell the story of the afternoon I sat with Helen after her roommate died or do I want to tell the story about the time we got into a jello fight in the dining hall and were in so much trouble but it was pretty much the best fun anyone in that room ever had?) Great, let’s have you go ahead and type out a draft of a paragraph where we tell that story. And we chat and get it all out on paper — with them drafting it, not me (for my IMGs, I’m drafting, not them, but that would not be appropriate here for obvious reasons). We do chat a lot about structure, and what is/isn’t working on the page. So… we get a rough draft down, with the understanding that this is a rough draft, and nothing polished is expected. 7) Now the ball is in their court. They have the idea down. They probably have a general idea of structure. But they’ll need to perfect it on their own. Then when they feel it’s done (or they get stuck — that happens) they send it to me. 8) Editing. I’d give feedback on the essay that would be basically what an English teacher would give (if they had enough hours in the day, perhaps, lol). This could easily just be done with a markup in Google docs, but my favorite part of working with people is giving them the support they need to feel confident and to see how wonderful they are. So I’d do another Zoom call to go over my comments and praise them for their work. Voila. Essay done. Or at least started, lol. Sorry for any typos, etc. This has taken me forever to type out and I’m tired, lol. |
Anonymous
| PP who wrote out all the DIY essay advice: you are a good and kind person! |
Anonymous
| Thank you 21:53! Super helpful ideas. |
Anonymous
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Amazing. Wow.
How can you hire you for this detailed essay work ?? Are you on Wyzant? |
Anonymous
Hi! No, I’m not. Might consider doing that in the future though. |
Anonymous
What’s the best way to reach you for essay advice? |
Anonymous
| You are amazing. That was so extremely beneficial. Please let us know if your do go on Wyzant. |
Anonymous
| I would just use AI. |
Anonymous
I'm afraid I'm just not doing that work at the moment. Happy to answer any quick questions here. |