College Essay Coaching (Copy)

College Application Essay Coaching

Perfect your college application essays with the help of Mindfish’s experienced writing coaches.

For many students, the personal statement can be one of the hardest parts of the entire admissions process. This assignment challenges them to vividly convey big ideas like who they are and what they value within a very small word count. Adding to the difficulty, the audience they are trying to captivate is comprised of overworked admissions officers who are already reading hundreds and thousands of other application essays. The obstacles to a successful admissions essay are significant, but the rewards can be too. A strong essay can be the “tipping factor” that helps push a student’s application into the admitted pile. Transcripts, grades, and standardized test scores are important, but a great essay can communicate the student’s unique point-of-view in a way the quantitative data cannot.If you’re looking to help your story stand out from the crowd, we can help. Our essay coaches can offer guidance and feedback at any stage of the process, from the very first brainstorming session to the last polish of the final draft. We can help students:

• Identify a unique, compelling topic to write about
• Sharpen and focus the essay’s central theme or idea
• Create an effective organization and structure
• Get more in-touch with their authentic voice and writing style
• Incorporate striking descriptive or narrative elements
• Avoid common essay flaws, clichés and traps

What is Mindfish’s essay coaching process like?

Supportive, highly individualized, and efficient. If students already have a draft, we can start by reviewing their draft. If they need help generating topic ideas, we can start there instead. From deciding on the central idea or theme, we work through multiple drafts from the big picture to the finer details, considering narrative, organization, voice, detail, syntax, diction, and more. The end product is a fully-developed, one-of-a-kind essay that tells the student’s story with skill and authenticity.  It’s vital that students have authorship and ownership over their own writing, so we do not ever write essays for students. Instead, a writing coach works as a mix of a tutor and an editor, reflecting what he or she reads in the student’s work, asking questions, offering guidance, and helping students approach their writing from new perspectives.

Personal Statement + 2 Supplemental Essays package

Our “Common App / Coalition App Personal Statement + 2 Supplementals” package will help students complete polished, impactful essays for these 3 assignments. Most of our students will accomplish this with the support of 8 or fewer hours of 1-on-1 essay coaching. If your student ends up needing significantly more 1-on-1 time with the essay coach, we can then discuss what would be beneficial in terms of additional coaching hours.The Common App is a widely-accepted platform for college admissions that streamlines the application process for students. Over 750 colleges and universities currently accept applications submitted via the Common App. The Common App requires students to submit a personal statement essay as part of their application. Students can select one of seven prompts and may write an essay of up to 650 words. Students will often also complete supplemental essays required by specific institutions.The Coalition App is another free college application platform available to students. However, the Coalition App requires that participating schools provide significant financial support to low-income students or students from underrepresented populations. The Coalition App asks students to submit a personal statement essay responding to one of five prompts (with a 550-word limit). Some colleges and universities accept both the Coalition App and the Common App, while some schools accept only one of these platforms. Some institutions (including the University of California system) do not accept either.

All Essays for Up to 5 Schools” package

Our “All Essays for Up to 5 Schools” package will help students complete polished, impactful responses for all essays required by up to 5 colleges. Most of our students will accomplish this with the support of 20 or fewer hours of 1-on-1 essay coaching. If your student ends up needing significantly more 1-on-1 time with the essay coach, we can then discuss what would be beneficial in terms of additional coaching hours.

Interested? Have further questions?

Please contact us by email at admin@mindfish.com or by phone at 720-204-1041 to learn more.