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COLLEGE ESSAYS

College Essays are key to a strong college application. They can make or break a student’s prospects for success. We can assist with all aspects of the writing process. We help can help our students write the perfect college essay by helping with:

  • Brainstorming
  • Organizing ideas
  • Polishing grammar
  • Editing final drafts

We know the elements that catch the eyes of college admissions officers and what topics and attitudes leave a neutral, even cold impression. For more than 30 years, we have helped thousands of seniors write winning college application essays.

How to write a Compelling essay?

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A stand-out essay is often about a small thing, a seemingly ordinary incident or experience that captures a moment in time. For the most part, the surface topic merely provides an occasion for personal reflection, allowing students the opportunity to talk about themselves.

Most students have a wealth of untapped ideas or experiences, one or two of which can be crafted into an outstanding essay. We help students recognize their best ideas, which they might deem unworthy, and we take it from there.

We pay attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation. They matter. Essays must be mechanically sound, avoiding sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and common verb and pronoun errors, among others. Higher level writing includes more sophisticated punctuation such as colons and semi-colons as well as a facility with complex sentences along with a comfortable writing style.

The delivery is more important than the topic. There are bad topics which you should carefully tread or avoid altogether. Here are some topics to avoid:

  • Parent-bashing
  • A hero in your life (this essay is about you)
  • Humor (it’s very difficult to be funny in print)
  • Death of a pet
  • Religious or philosophical epiphanies
  • Cynicism
  • Simple solutions to world problems

What else do you need to know?

  • Start early
  • Show, don’t tell, because everybody loves a story
  • Be genuine
  • Proofread
  • If you’re bored with your first sentence, the reader will be, too
  • Be unconventional but not weird
  • Make sure if you’re including the name of the college in your essay, that you name the right school. The University of Michigan doesn’t want to know that you’ve always wanted to attend The University of Florida.