I just read this novel called "Early Decision," a satire about a woman who coaches children of the well-to-do with their college essays. A bit much, but an interesting view of the process. It's by Lacy Crawford.

NP here. Based on my DC's experience this past fall, I would say there are different approaches. Our DC tried a draft of a common app essay that sounded unique in theory, but fell flat -- and everyone (including DC) saw that. Dc then switched and wrote about an unusual experience between junior/senior year (summer). It came out great -- not because of the uniqueness of the setting (although it was interesting) - but because of the common, down to earth observations DC made about himself and others who shared this experience, how it effected them all, and it personally transformed our DC. A great college essay as far as I can tell reveals a good deal about the student - it shows it more than it tells it -- and, of course, it should be well written. DC's supplemental essays were about a very normal topic everyone can relate too. But again, it was written in a way to reveal who he is as a person, a student, a friend, etc. Let a school counselor or a favorite teacher read a draft, let a parent read it too if the student is willing, and just give broad general feedback as to how you think a college admissions officer would react to it (or catch an obvious typo), You don't need a coach -- just be sure your child knows to be authentic, honest, thoughtful and proof read carefully. I think it helps if the essay fits in well with the rest of the application and doesn't seem out of the blue.

You're thinking about it all wrong. Its the "boring" essays about every day things that give insight into an applicant that are more successful. Over and over again I've seen students who consider themselves strong writers who write overwrought essays in which they think they have to come up with something dramatic write really awful essays and I know of one applicant who probably didn't get into a dream school because of it. My DS is a great writer but started to fall into this trap. Fortunately his college advisor reviewed the essay. he struggled but ended up writing about something very simple but in a beautifully written way and got into the college of his choice.

I don't think there's any harm in having someone who knows what they are doing review the essay but you do have to be careful about the whole packaging thing and whether these folks will lead your DC in the wrong direction.

We used one. My kid wrote his own essay. The counselor reviewed it and made some good points and talked to DS what he needed to add/delete to make it stand out. It was still my kid, and it definitely sounded like he wrote it unlike if I had tried to edit it for him.

I have seen those essays as well. They are amazing, but I agree that it seems wrong to go to someone to help write the essay. All of those essays have the same writing style. Editing is fine, but I wonder how much of those essays are the kids' own words. There are books at Barnes and Noble dedicated to writing good college essays.

I have received some advertisements about a service that helps kids with their college essays. This included some examples that were nicely written (along with the admissions results, which were impressive). My kid is a good writer (according to his teachers), but he has led a very uneventful suburban upper-middle class life. Based on the prompts I have seen, I know he will struggle to come up with something interesting to write about. I am sure he could benefit from having someone who knows the ropes help him with topic selection, tone, etc. But the process costs thousands of dollars, and it just seems wrong to go that route when the work is supposed to be the student's own. Are lots of people doing this these days? I'd like to think admissions officers can smell the coached essay a mile away, but it appears that this coach's clients are getting into great schools.

As an alternative, does anybody have books to recommend that kids can read to get ideas for what to write about and how to craft the essay?

Thanks.