College essays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, but he is asking for some classes as he says not able to self drive

Look for online classes for homeschoolers targeting college essays. Homeschooling parents write a lot of reviews. I found some a couple years ago that sounded good for about $300. These had live classroom sessions online and instructor personal feedback on essays. They were not essay coaching or review per se. They were classes on writing essays. I did not go forward since my kid did not want to take the class that I found. Here is an example of something similar.

https://aphomeschoolers.com/course/appessay1/

My kid took that class summer before senior year. The best thing I can say is my other kid did not take it. Essays were terrible and all were trashed. Teacher shared essay teacher used to get into college and it wasn’t good. Not that I expect things to be the same years ago as they are now, but I would think that a teacher would not share an essay with a class on College Essays unless it was a great example for the kids to read based on the current admissions environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in junior year, doing okay in school with some high B’s and mostly A’s on rigorous courses. DC’s essay writing skill is so bad and is asking for some help to learn to write better before college apps. Any recommendations to help him improve?

No one is a good writer. But the ones who's essay stand out are great editors. It takes time. Don't give up, teen.

[Anonymous]

Do you think he can do a weekly free write? So he can get more comfortable with writing? Just give him a topic and set a timer. Don’t judge his writing. Give him part of a sentence as the start of the essay. Like “something about me that most people don’t know…” or “A problem I want to solve is….” To kind of help him get into that mode where he thinks about college essays without giving him a prompt. HTH

[Anonymous]

I feel like getting this far into thread with no mention of College essay guy is some sort of record.

College Essay Guy is great for pre-writing exercises and general orientation.

For reading: Absolutely anything DC enjoys enough to read!

[Anonymous]

Another vote for College Essay Guy. Sign up for the 4-week online personal essay bootcamp. We did that for dd at the end of junior year. Ethan taught it, and he was fabulous.

Dd is now a sophomore at an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

A couple of books that I love for this age group: Boy 21 by Matthew Quick and All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir.

OP, I would encourage him to talk to his friends and see if any of them are working with an essay coach. Or maybe someone has a parent who is an editor or an English teacher and would be willing to help him. Otherwise, I would encourage him to start early and not overthink things. The main Common App essay is only 650 words. That's not bad at all.

If he's applying to highly selective schools, he'll have extra essays, but many colleges just require the main Common App essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for College Essay Guy. Sign up for the 4-week online personal essay bootcamp. We did that for dd at the end of junior year. Ethan taught it, and he was fabulous.

Dd is now a sophomore at an Ivy.

But is that because of CEG? Essays matter very little in elite college admissions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like getting this far into thread with no mention of College essay guy is some sort of record.

College Essay Guy is great for pre-writing exercises and general orientation.

For reading: Absolutely anything DC enjoys enough to read!

I’m sure the college essay guy is great. But I pointed out in another thread that I didn’t find his 27 outstanding essays that outstanding. They mostly look just fine or good. Perhaps an “outstanding” essay is just one without obvious weaknesses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for College Essay Guy. Sign up for the 4-week online personal essay bootcamp. We did that for dd at the end of junior year. Ethan taught it, and he was fabulous.

Dd is now a sophomore at an Ivy.

But is that because of CEG? Essays matter very little in elite college admissions!

If the entire essay vibe is off then yes, it matters. Did you see that mock AO video posted in the other link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for College Essay Guy. Sign up for the 4-week online personal essay bootcamp. We did that for dd at the end of junior year. Ethan taught it, and he was fabulous.

Dd is now a sophomore at an Ivy.

But is that because of CEG? Essays matter very little in elite college admissions!

If the entire essay vibe is off then yes, it matters. Did you see that mock AO video posted in the other link?

They already formed an opinion about the boy and were trying to find fault. If the same essay was written by the girl, it wouldn’t have mattered. If it was the boy who got a 670 in the SAT R&W, they would have said he wouldn’t be able to handle things as a humanities major with that low score!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for College Essay Guy. Sign up for the 4-week online personal essay bootcamp. We did that for dd at the end of junior year. Ethan taught it, and he was fabulous.

Dd is now a sophomore at an Ivy.

But is that because of CEG? Essays matter very little in elite college admissions!

If the entire essay vibe is off then yes, it matters. Did you see that mock AO video posted in the other link?

They already formed an opinion about the boy and were trying to find fault. If the same essay was written by the girl, it wouldn’t have mattered. If it was the boy who got a 670 in the SAT R&W, they would have said he wouldn’t be able to handle things as a humanities major with that low score!

I don’t think so.
He was at a SLAC - which may value essays over scores.

[Anonymous]

Serious question here, why not prompt chatGPT to help write the essay? Is this not allowed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question here, why not prompt chatGPT to help write the essay? Is this not allowed?

ChatGPT is a useful tool–don't get me wrong–but it can't recreate the authentic voice of an applicant. It's great for brainstorming, rephrasing, and polishing grammar. But direct copy-pasting is a huge no-no and easily detectable by admissions committees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question here, why not prompt chatGPT to help write the essay? Is this not allowed?

Search thread: robotic essays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question here, why not prompt chatGPT to help write the essay? Is this not allowed?

Search thread: robotic essays

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1299444.page