Essay Writing Coach

[Anonymous]

Thank you Shane !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am only looking for a coach, but one thing I am sure of: an English teacher is not enough! It has to be someone who knows what colleges are looking for. It’s a genre in and of itself.
I am going through the YouTube videos of someone called The College Essay Guy. I have no idea if he takes clients but he has some good ideas.

This whole discussion is sad to me. It sounds like gaming the system.

Your kid's essay is supposed to be about: your kid. Not "what colleges are looking for." It is also supposed to demonstrate his or her creativity and writing ability.

If only wealthy people embraced a fair playing field and ethics. But no, they spend their days whining about being "unhooked" or Asian. About donut holes and their private schools not allowing their kids to take AP's.

Ycch.

Someone sounds jealous. Hmmmm

[Anonymous]

I am going to pay somewhere between $50K and $90K a year for college for my child.
I am not going to leave the application up to my 17 YO (with ADHD) without support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am going to pay somewhere between $50K and $90K a year for college for my child.
I am not going to leave the application up to my 17 YO (with ADHD) without support.

Ha. Exactly. Same here!

[Anonymous]

I am paying one of the expensive college counseling companies to help my kid with essays. I definitely don't want them to write them, but based on my kid's experiences, interests, academics and EC's I expect them to make suggestions and for my kid to either reject or go with those suggestions. Then I expect the counselor to suggest tweaks or edits to improve the essays. I am 100% doing this in the knowledge it's necessary and my kid is more likely to pay attention to a paid professional than to me on it.

[Anonymous]

I haven't worked as an editor for college essays but I have worked as an editor with international medicine grads who need to write a personal statement to apply for residency. I looked at Shane's page and it sounds as though his process is very much like mine was. I had my clients fill out a questionnaire and give me a draft essay. Then I got on a Zoom with them and used the questions they had answered and their draft as a jumping off point to explore their story. From there we would decide what they wanted to focus on in the essay (this was often, although not always, a big deviation from the draft essay they had already done). Then a new draft would be written, and we'd go from there with edits, first making sure everything we needed to convey was there, and then second making sure the essay itself was well structured, grammar was correct, etc.

But I think like 75% of my job was connecting and building confidence. If the student is confident, and they feel they have good support, they tend to do quite well.

And of course for many clients the big thing that hiring an editor does is forces the student to work on the darn thing when they'd rather be doing anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am only looking for a coach, but one thing I am sure of: an English teacher is not enough! It has to be someone who knows what colleges are looking for. It’s a genre in and of itself.
I am going through the YouTube videos of someone called The College Essay Guy. I have no idea if he takes clients but he has some good ideas.

This whole discussion is sad to me. It sounds like gaming the system.

Your kid's essay is supposed to be about: your kid. Not "what colleges are looking for." It is also supposed to demonstrate his or her creativity and writing ability.

If only wealthy people embraced a fair playing field and ethics. But no, they spend their days whining about being "unhooked" or Asian. About donut holes and their private schools not allowing their kids to take AP's.

Ycch.

You sound like an idealist who is completely out of touch with reality. Are you a retired teacher, by any chance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please share if your child worked with an Essay writing coach.

Yes. We saw a flyer at the library for editing services. It was a retired English teacher ... nice side gig! My child had done a draft in English class, so the coach just worked on the draft. She made modest edits and gave my child the confidence that it was a good essay, ready to send in. They had a really low fee. I think they charge more if you need help with supplemental essays, or help from the beginning of the process.

Please share the name and contact of the teacher,

Everyone has " a person " but never share information

We used Richard Montauk for essay coaching and application review. He’s by the hour.

Can you share his rate range? Thanks!

It’s a lot and he’ll send you a bill for a consult - beware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am only looking for a coach, but one thing I am sure of: an English teacher is not enough! It has to be someone who knows what colleges are looking for. It’s a genre in and of itself.
I am going through the YouTube videos of someone called The College Essay Guy. I have no idea if he takes clients but he has some good ideas.

This whole discussion is sad to me. It sounds like gaming the system.

Your kid's essay is supposed to be about: your kid. Not "what colleges are looking for." It is also supposed to demonstrate his or her creativity and writing ability.

If only wealthy people embraced a fair playing field and ethics. But no, they spend their days whining about being "unhooked" or Asian. About donut holes and their private schools not allowing their kids to take AP's.

Ycch.

You sound like an idealist who is completely out of touch with reality. Are you a retired teacher, by any chance?

I’m with the PP on this one. We considered hiring a college counselor to help with all of this, because, of course, this is a crucial moment in our child’s life, blah blah blah.

While we want DC to have every advantage, we also think he is enough as he is. He didn’t want outside help and we are cool with that. He’ll be fine.

[Anonymous]

We found someone who charges $395 a session for the common app essay but they (consultant and student) get it done during the sessions and it wound up being a total of $1100. Honestly worth it to not have to nag my kid to work on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please share if your child worked with an Essay writing coach.

Yes. We saw a flyer at the library for editing services. It was a retired English teacher ... nice side gig! My child had done a draft in English class, so the coach just worked on the draft. She made modest edits and gave my child the confidence that it was a good essay, ready to send in. They had a really low fee. I think they charge more if you need help with supplemental essays, or help from the beginning of the process.

Please share the name and contact of the teacher,

Everyone has " a person " but never share information

We used Richard Montauk for essay coaching and application review. He’s by the hour.

Can you share his rate range? Thanks!

It’s a lot and he’ll send you a bill for a consult - beware.

Someone already shared his rate on this thread: $300 / hour. But it's not just per hour spent talking to you/ advising, it's also the "hours" he spends reading through the materials you send him, etc which in my opinion really increases the cost exponentially.

[Anonymous]

No one else has said it but I will - we are planning on ChatGPT to generate ideas and help edit. You know a lot of people are doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am going to pay somewhere between $50K and $90K a year for college for my child.
I am not going to leave the application up to my 17 YO (with ADHD) without support.

If your 17 YO can't write an essay then he can't make full use of an expensive education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one else has said it but I will - we are planning on ChatGPT to generate ideas and help edit. You know a lot of people are doing this.

If he cheats to get into the school, he'll need to cheat to stay in school, lie on his resume... Sadly pretty typical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please share if your child worked with an Essay writing coach.

Yes. We saw a flyer at the library for editing services. It was a retired English teacher ... nice side gig! My child had done a draft in English class, so the coach just worked on the draft. She made modest edits and gave my child the confidence that it was a good essay, ready to send in. They had a really low fee. I think they charge more if you need help with supplemental essays, or help from the beginning of the process.

Please share the name and contact of the teacher,

Everyone has " a person " but never share information

We used Richard Montauk for essay coaching and application review. He’s by the hour.

Can you share his rate range? Thanks!

It’s a lot and he’ll send you a bill for a consult - beware.

Someone already shared his rate on this thread: $300 / hour. But it's not just per hour spent talking to you/ advising, it's also the "hours" he spends reading through the materials you send him, etc which in my opinion really increases the cost exponentially.

Those prices are robbery. The admissions officials see a highly polished essay and they know that it was bought and paid for. It detracts from the application. The essay should look like it was written by a 17 year old. Just have them use regular spell check and grammar check.