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Strong Experience

I worked with College Essay Guy 3 years ago, when I was a senior rushing to complete my college applications after failing on my own as well as with another counselor (acquaintance). Although I would've liked if they offered to help with more schools (6-10 is not really enough these days), the brainstorming, the development of my narrative (happened very naturally through their exercises), the many meetings (often 2+ times a week) where we discussed feedback and ideas, and the edits were all thoughtful and had a purpose. I got into my top choice, while other people I recommended have also gotten into schools of their choice.

Date of experience : October 07, 2024

Best resource of college application

Their courses are amazing, they give you a step by step on how to brainstorm and write your essays. They free resource of previous college essays is a good source to learn what works and doesn't. They guide you from day 1 to acceptance and beyond, couldn't recommend them more.

Date of experience : June 11, 2024

Set yourself apart

Ethan and the team at College Essay Guy made all of the difference in my applications. I strongly believe that the quality and substance of my essays are what helped me gain admittance to both Yale and Brown. I learned more about writing in his courses than I did in all of my previous schooling and I couldn't recommend his work more highly.

Date of experience : May 21, 2024

If I had missed the guidance of College…

If I had missed the guidance of College Essay Guy during my college application process, I can't imagine the turbulence I would have gone through. Their resources completely changed my perspective on college applications. I learned it's not so much about me, but more about what the admissions officers want to know about me. This mindset shift made a huge difference. College Essay Guy, you are amazing! Keep helping students out there navigate this daunting process. I am infinitely grateful for your support. You were an oasis in the desert of my college application journey, which I tackled from the other side of the planet. I'm writing this today as a college graduate, thanks to you.

Date of experience : May 14, 2024

Incredibly supportive and experienced team

I am immensely thankful to CEG for stepping in when my son found himself in a last-minute bind, realizing he needed external assistance. He felt completely stuck. When a friend suggested contacting CEG, which I did, Ethan responded promptly. He patiently listened to our concerns and efficiently guided us through the process. From that point on, things progressed swiftly. Jennifer worked diligently and patiently with my son. The highlight for me, as a mother, was the review process, where other advisers contributed their insights and recommendations. I couldn't have asked for more. My only regret is that I wish we had reached out to them earlier in the process to fully benefit from their expertise.

Date of experience : October 31, 2023

CEG made the college essay writing…

CEG made the college essay writing process enjoyable and engaging. It was an opportunity to reflect on my values and my life and what I want admissions to know about me through my writing. I couldn’t recommend CEG more — not only will they lead you to formulate ideas for essays but they will also teach you things about yourself. Thank you so much, CEG!

Date of experience : September 01, 2023

CEG is priceless…

CEG kept my son accountable with tasks to complete each week. The whole process was streamlined and professional. Helena helped with any questions and coach Natalie (so positive and encouraging) kept him on track and feeling able and accomplished. Thanks so much for considering.

Date of experience : March 21, 2024

The CEG team helped my son reach his…

The CEG team helped my son reach his best performance without us managing the process, allowing him full ownership. He was admitted into the college of his choice. Money well spent!

Date of experience : November 10, 2023

Worth Every Penny But Intimidating

This course is amazing but very lengthy with a bunch of unnecessary information. Id prefer if you just went straight to the point and explained some parts of the essay on a dumber level. Other than that everything was perfect and this course will boost your acceptance chances through the roof!

Date of experience : March 24, 2020

Great Coaches

What stood out about the CEG college essay process the most was how they helped along every step of the way. My essay editor, Sarah Murphy, was amazing and was there to help me whenever I had any questions about anything related to the college process, no matter how simple or abstract the questions were. She made sure that I was comfortable with what I was writing, and her friendliness allowed me to be very open with her, up-leveling my essays. If you are looking for someone to look over your essays, I would definitely recommend College essay guy!

Date of experience : January 01, 2024

The resources are great and very…

The resources are great and very helpful as a student looking for where to begin. The online class was a bit crowded which made it difficult for me to get my essay reviewed and wasn’t always the most helpful. Overall I think it is a great service thought there were definitely parts I liked better then others

Date of experience : March 30, 2020

Best Experience Possible

We highly recommend College Essay Guy. Our son's counselor was able to get him to open up in a way he would not have with us, they helped keep him on a timeline and we were done before Thanksgiving and there were no parent-kid battles! The best part is that our son was accepted to his first choice school! The College Essay Guy team was fabulous.

Date of experience : November 15, 2023

Awesome Experience!!!

It made a HUGE difference to have an expert provide guidance, accountability, and support. Melissa was Maggie's essay coach and she was awesome! Very prepared and timely. It made the whole process a lot less stressful and less overwhelming.

Date of experience : October 12, 2023

Every session with our counselor and essay coach was a joy and inspiration

One the most helpful things about having my daughter work with the essay coach was being able to bounce ideas, brainstorm out loud, and also the incredible in-depth feedback Lola got on everything she wrote! Every session was a joy and inspiration and truly helped propelled Lola's writing to another level! Working with our college counselor was immensely helpful! She was so knowledgeable and answered so many questions with a huge smile! She was a vast ocean of resources and information that really helped us navigate some confusing aspects of the application process, timing, and the applications themselves.

Date of experience : November 22, 2023

I’ve loved every video, every tip and every bit of advice that Ethan has offered for writing college essays. I took the Essay Writing course for counselors last year and it has helped me tremendously to guide kids to write their deepest stories. The structure of the course has given me so much clarity on the process. I’ve enjoyed going over the brainstorming exercises with the kids and most importantly I’ve made heartfelt connections with every kid while working with through the process. Much gratitude to Ethan and the team of College Essay Guy. Thank you!

Date of experience : March 26, 2020

Great experience

College Essay Guy was super helpful in our application process. Not only the coaches have a lot of first hand experiences, it also helps me avoiding potential tensions with my son in the process lol. Sophia was our essay coach and she was bright and also super dedicated. She accommodated a super difficult schedule to help my son in his last push of finishing his essays. Can't ask for more. Separately, for the parallel "college list" coaching service, it is much more than what I expected. The coach not only helped building a college list, he actually provided very detailed instructions, with follow ups, to my son regarding all the steps he needs to take to complete the applications - activity lists, recommendation letters, etc. Overall, enjoyed working with CEG!

Date of experience : May 07, 2024

An investment in your profession and yourself

Ethan's classes aren't just for those new to college essays -- they're great for anyone who's looking to make an impact with students. His simple, easy-to-implement strategies help students find the nuggets of potential topics that might have otherwise been overlooked. And not only does Ethan offer education, he offers community. Through his online and in-person sessions, he's helped me develop relationships with colleagues that last long after the last session ends. If you're on the fence about making the investment in your profession and yourself, just do it. You won't regret it.

Consider if you need to pay or just use the free resources

This is a review of Ethan's Counselor Essay Course. I have used Ethan's free resources over the past 5 years as a high school counselor. These resources are amazing!!! When I transitioned to being an independent counselor, I decided to spring for the course for a fee as I had been impressed with his free materials and sought out more of his expertise; however, I didn't find there to be much in the way of additional strategies that I didn't already know from the free material. There were many more examples, and while I found these to be helpful, the strategies and frameworks are much more helpful. I know Ethan is about giving a lot away for free to make things equitable (and I support this), but if he's going to have some resources/classes for a fee, I expect to get more than examples of the strategies I was already employing with students.

I really enjoy all of College Essay Guy's resources! They are so many great tools to use with my students and I find myself referring back to them often! I am already registered for Part 2 of CEG's next course and I am excited to keep learning so I can better help and guide my students during college application process! All I can say is THANK YOU!!!

Empathetic and highly effective

The process is excellent and the team fantastic. Our son worked with Cat and her ability to connect deeply with him and to help him think through and articulate his passions were central to his journey. In a word - awesome.

Date of experience : July 31, 2023

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College Essay Workshop
Academic Writing Workshop
AP English FRQ BootCamp
1:1 College Essay Help
Online Instruction
Free Resources
14 Best College Essay Services for 2024 (40 Services Reviewed)

Research conducted by Emily Kierkegaard , PhD, and expert-reviewed by Kevin Wong, PrepMaven Co-founder

Not sure which college application essay coaching and editing service is the best? We compared the top 40 services, created in-depth reviews for 14 of them, and narrowed it down to the 4 best that will help guide you through the process of writing amazing college application essays.

What is the Best College Essay Service?

PrepMaven – best college application essay service overall
College Essay Mentor – best for individual consultants
The College Essay Guy – best for unlimited essay assistance
College Vine – best of the big platforms

The best of the rest:

Individual essay consultants:

College Essay Editor – small editing team
Allison Karpf – former English teacher helping students
Your College Vision – former journalist with more affordable rates
The College Guru – good on paper but unresponsive
Sofia Zapiola – budget-friendly application assistance

Mid-size teams:

Lotus Learning – focus on health sciences

Large platforms:

Study Point – larger platform with mystery editors
Ivy Select – larger platform with mystery editors
Empowerly – larger platform with mystery editors
BeMo – expensive and aggressive with wrong expertise

Schedule a college essay consultation

Best College Application Essay Services in 2024

#1 – prepmaven.

Our Verdict — Best College Essay Assistance Overall Price: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package) PrepMaven’s one-on-one college essay assistance is the best option overall. Founded by brothers and Princeton grads Greg and Kevin, almost all of PrepMaven’s essay coaches have Ivy-League experience, primarily from Princeton and Harvard. All essay coaches also undergo a thorough training program in PrepMaven’s methods, developed by professional writers with deep understanding of the college admissions process, for helping students to discover the most compelling stories for their essays. Unlike other services, PrepMaven offers college essay assistance at several different price points. At the most accessible rate, students can work with current Ivy-League undergraduates who specialize in writing and have recently aced the college application process. At higher rates, students can work with coaches who are both Ivy-League grads and professional writers (screenwriters, journalists, editors) with many years of experience helping students to craft compelling essays. Interested students can even work directly with founders Greg and Kevin, who have over 15 years of experience helping students through the entire essay-writing process. PrepMaven’s services combine many of the best features of other good options into one, and it’s hard to beat their experience.

Any student wanting college essay help, at any point in the process, with a range of budgets.

At a glance:

Cost: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package)
Writing coach qualifications: Princeton graduates and professional writers (or current Princeton students); all trained

What we like:

Ivy League experience —most of their writing coaches are Princeton grads or current students, with some from Harvard and other Ivies
Different pricing options to meet different families’ circumstances
More flexible and greater capacity to take on new students compared to individual consultants

#2 – College Essay Mentor

Our Verdict — Best of the Individual Consultants Price: unknown but high Some college essay consulting services consist of just one expert. Of these individual essay consultants, Chris Hunt at College Essay Mentor is our favorite. He combines writing experience as a journalist for the Economist and the Wall Street Journal with personal experience as a graduate of Dartmouth. However, he only works with a small number of students each year, and students need to apply to work with him — he only accepts students with top grades and test scores who are already strong applicants for top schools. Chris offers the option for one-time written feedback, but this only gives big-picture generalizations. (And written-only feedback is always limited.) In order for help with the essay process, students need to purchase a complete essay package.

Students with top grades and test scores who want to work with a one-person business, who have a sizable budget, and who are ready to get started early.

Cost: $210 for a one-time written essay feedback (big picture only), then $110 per draft feedback; pricing for essay process packages unknown
Essay coach qualifications: professional journalist, Dartmouth grad
Professional writing experience as a journalist
Extensive experience working with college applicants
Partners with Debra Felix, former Director of Admissions at Columbia, for full application review

What we don’t like:

One-on-one work is limited to very high-achieving students, who need to apply with a resume : “I limit my one-on-one work to students who I believe will be strong applicants to elite universities. As a rule, this means having high grades in challenging classes, a test score of ACT 34+ or SAT 1500+, and substantial activities outside of the classroom.”
Works with a limited number of students (60 per year), so often no availability
All-or-nothing packages don’t allow students to work with Chris for just a few hours or for part of the essay-writing process
Secretive about pricing (he’ll only give pricing details once he’s reviewed the student’s resume and agreed to work with them), but we expect the minimum cost of working one-on-one to be several thousand dollars

#3 – The College Essay Guy

Our Verdict — Best for Unlimited Essay Assistance Price: $4900 for application to 3 schools, $8050 for application for 10 schools We’re fans of Ethan Sawyer, the original “college essay guy”— his book, College Essay Essentials , is a great guide to the essay-writing process. Ethan doesn’t work directly with many students these days, but he now has a team of consultants who help students follow his principles. Their assistance is really all-or-nothing — they prefer to work with students from the very beginning of the process, and their minimum package is $4900, which includes assistance with essays for three schools. If students are applying to ten schools (a more realistic number for students aiming at competitive colleges), the fee is a hefty $7400.

Students who want unlimited help through the entire process, who have a sizable budget.

Cost: $4900 (supplemental essays for 3 schools) – $7400 (supplemental essays for 10 schools)
Essay coach qualifications: mix of Ivy grads and former teachers, some writers/screenwriters; all trained
Great free resources about the essay-writing process
Their Matchlighters Scholars Program gives back to the community by providing admissions consulting for select qualifying students
All-or-nothing packages have a high minimum fee and don’t work for students who want just a few hours of feedback or help with just part of the process

#4 – College Vine

Our Verdict — Best of the Big Platforms Price: $140–180/hour There are plenty of large platforms with large stables of part-time tutors and coaches available to work with students. Of these big platforms, we think CollegeVine has the best offerings. Compared to other large companies, CollegeVine provides more information about their tutors, and students can pick individual tutors to work with from their roster. However, this model is really just a way of finding individual tutors to hire. Tutors don’t receive any training and don’t share a common approach, so it’s a mixed bag. Their rates are fairly high for part-time tutors who don’t have specific expertise and training in college essay consulting. Because CollegeVine is really just a marketplace where individual tutors can find students, the quality and price will vary widely.

Students who want to work with a big company, or those who want a quick session or two to go over their essays.

Cost: Typically $140–180/hour
Essay coach qualifications: no specific qualifications, but a few are Ivy League graduates
Possible to select individual editors to work with from their roster.
Easy to schedule ad-hoc sessions with a tutor through the website.
No training or common approach for tutors
Editors are part-time , with no option to work with full-time college admissions experts
Relatively expensive for this level of expertise

College Essay Editing Alternatives (that Didn’t Make the Cut)

Individual essay consultants, #5 – college essay editor.

Our Verdict — Small Editing Team Price: Roughly $5,950 for applications to 10 schools College Essay Editor comprises two graduates of Stanford. This means that they have personal experience applying to highly competitive schools. One member of the team also has a college counseling certification, which is a good background for college essays. Based on their website, they appear to focus on the editing and proofreading phase of the essay-writing process. This can be helpful to students, but we recommend working with a service who can help students to uncover their values and brainstorm really great material that allows them to really shine—and if this doesn’t happen at the beginning of the process, it’s much harder to add in later on.

Cost: $195/1000 words for proofreading, $495/1000 words for 3 rounds of editing and proofreading, or $595/1000 words for unlimited rounds of editing and proofreading; for the purposes of comparison, complete applications to 10 competitive colleges would be around 9,650 words, or $5950.
Writing coach qualifications: Stanford graduates, one of whom has college counseling certification
Editors are graduates of Stanford University , and one is a member of NACAC, the national association of college counselors
They focus on editing and proofreading only , not on the crucial earlier steps of brainstorming and strategy
Small team with very limited availability
All asynchronous editing so you won’t be able to cultivate a real relationship with your essay coach.

#6 – Allison Karpf

Our Verdict — Former English Teacher Helping Students Price: $385/hour or $3850 package for application to one school Another option for students looking to hire an individual consultant is Allison Karpf. Allison is a former high school English teacher and a graduate of UC Berkeley who also holds a Masters of Education from Stanford. Her rates are definitely on the higher side, especially for someone who doesn’t have a professional writing background, but she does have extensive experience working with students to craft their essays.

Cost: $385/hour or $3850 unlimited counseling (includes supplemental essays for one college)
Essay coach qualifications: former high school English teacher; Berkeley grad, Stanford MEd
Lots of experience helping students improve their college essays
Very quick to respond to client requests
No professional writing experience or Ivy-Plus undergraduate experience
High rates relative to other options
Limited availability , since she works alone

#7 – Your College Vision

Our Verdict: Former Journalist with More Affordable Rates Price: $180/hour, or packages starting from $3500 Laurie Lande is another individual consultant who helps students through the essay-writing process. She comes recommended by other consultants like Chris from College Essay Mentor . Laurie did not herself attend a highly competitive school, so she doesn’t have that personal experience of going through the selective admissions process, but she does have a professional writing background as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

Cost: $180/hour or packages starting at $3500
Essay coach qualifications: journalism background
Affordable pricing , relative to other options
Not a graduate of a highly selective school

#8 – The College Guru

Our Verdict — Good on Paper but Unresponsive Price: unknown Yet another individual essay consultant is Geanine Thompson from The College Guru. Geanine attended Dartmouth as an undergraduate and also holds an MBA from Duke. She also has a professional writing background as an assistant book editor at Berkley Publishing Group. Like Greg and Kevin at PrepMaven , she combines experience in the business world and at Wall Street firms with experience in education.

Cost: unknown
Essay coach qualifications: former assistant book editor; Dartmouth grad, Duke MBA
Dartmouth graduate and former book editor
Not responsive to emails and client requests

#9 – Sofia Zapiola

Our Verdict — A budget-friendly, personal essay editor. Price: $80/hour Yet another individual essay consultant is Sofia Zapiola, who offers a mix of essay editing and college application counseling services.

Cost: $80/hour
Essay coach qualifications: M.A. from Harvard; certificate in College Counseling from UC San Diego.
Individual approach, budget-friendly rates, commitment to working within families’ budgets.
Very few testimonials, so it’s difficult to evaluate how effective she is.

Mid-size Teams

#10 – lotus learning.

Our Verdict — Expensive for Tutor Background Price: $165/hour Founded by a Harvard grad who is a former teacher and veteran of the publishing industry, Lotus learning offers college essay help in the Boston area. They have a small team of tutors, mostly recent grads from good but not Ivy-Plus colleges, and mostly with focus in health sciences.

Cost: $165/hour (minimum 8 hours)
Essay coach qualifications: tutors are recent grads, but not Ivy-Plus schools
Reasonable pricing with flexible packages
Essay editors aren’t graduates of Ivy-Plus schools and don’t have professional writing experience

Large platforms

#11 – study point.

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: Rates Between $60 and $120/hr Study Point is a larger essay editing service. They claim to have several decades of experience helping students to craft their college essays, but they do not give information about who their essay coaches are and what qualifications they might have.

Cost: $60-120/hr, depending on tutor experience
Essay coach qualifications: unknown
Larger company with several decades of experience
Unclear who the essay coaches are
Lack of statistics about their results

#12 – Ivy Select

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: unknown Ivy Select makes a lot of big promises on their website about having the best college essay consultants in the business, but they offer no information on who these consultants are, or on their backgrounds. They also brag that each consultant “only” works 20 students in one application cycle, but in our experience, that’s quite high.

Long list of impressive (but anonymous) testimonials
Only work with “top students”
No information on their website about who the editors are
Each essay coach works with up to 20 students at one time

#13 – Empowerly

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: High, from $6000/year Empowerly has over 60 college counselors who each work with an average of 5 students per year, in order to have more time to devote to each student. Their counselors come from “different educational backgrounds,” and while they do not provide specific biographical details we can assume that most of their essay coaches did not attend highly selective schools.

Cost: typically from $6000/year
Essay coach qualifications: college counselors
Counselors work with just a few students per year
You have to upgrade to “Empowerly Elite” to guarantee a counselor with a more selective educational background
No professional writing experience

#14 – Prepory

Our Verdict — Expensive but with Good Expertise Price: $325/hr Prepory is a college application and career counseling service that offers a comprehensive program for college applications at any stage of the process (including as early as 9th grade). They make a lot of impressive claims about the expertise of their coaches, but it’s quite difficult to actual find much information about their essay coach qualifications.

Cost: $325/hr
They have a comprehensive college application program that begins as early as 9th grade.
Limited information about essay coaches
High prices

Top 40 College Essay Services Considered

College Essay Editor
The College Essay Guy
College Vine
College Essay Mentor
Study Point
Allison Karpf
The College Guru
Lotus Learning
Summit Prep
Sofia Zapiola
Ivy Global / New Summits
College Essay Solutions
Your College Vision
Essay Edge*
ServicEscape*
PapersForge*
QuickWriter*
JustEditMyEssay*
JustDoMyEsssay*
ExpertWriting*
SpeedyPaper*
GradeMiners*

* A number of services will edit essays directly for students, or even write portions of the essay for students. We do not condone this. Admissions officers can tell when essays have been written or edited by adults and this can have severe consequences. We have excluded these services from our reviews.

Why are college application essays important?

Can a great college essay alone get you into Harvard?

No. You’ll need your grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities (as well as letters of recommendation and interview) to be outstanding.

But can a mediocre essay be the reason you didn’t get into Harvard?

Yes. There are thousands of amazingly-qualified students who graduate from high school each year. Great grades and test scores might be a prerequisite for admission to a competitive college, but they alone aren’t enough.

College essays are a key component of a student’s application . When done well, they transform a collection of numbers—GPA, class rank, SAT or ACT scores , number of AP classes taken, AP scores—into a glimpse of a real, individual person.

Essays do many things. Good college essays can highlight extracurricular achievements which otherwise would be overlooked in a sterile list. Strong essays often indicate the student’s future plans —how they plan to leave a mark on their college campus and on the world. They can shine a light on unique challenges that a student may have had to face on their journey.

College admissions officers only have a few minutes to spend on each application. College essays need to be original, interesting, and memorable . They need to grab the attention of the admissions officer and persuade them that this is the student out of hundreds or thousands of other similarly-qualified applicants who should be admitted.

College admissions essays are usually unlike any other kind of writing that students have done before. They’re a combination of memoir and marketing pitch, and they need to be creative but also highly strategic. That’s a tough assignment!

What’s more, students are left to figure this assignment out on their own. A thoughtful and generous high school English teacher may provide guidance or offer to read essays and give feedback, but these teachers are responsible for many students, and they’re (usually) not experts in admissions strategies.

There’s another reason college essays are especially important from 2024 on. After the recent Supreme Court decision, the application essay has become one of the main ways that you can communicate how your racial identity has affected your life.

In fact, the New York Times published an article about how important it can be for students to discuss race in their college application essays!

Why work with a college essay service?

You may want to consider a college essay service if:

You have no idea where to start in order to write your college application essays
You feel overwhelmed by all of the different ideas you have and don’t know what would be the most strategic for college admissions—and what topics to definitely avoid for college essays
You don’t know how to craft a compelling stor y
You’re not sure how to edit and refine what you’ve written
You have a hard time keeping yourself on track and want an external structure to hold you accountable
You’re tired of conflict between students and parents about college essays
You’re aiming at a competitive college (not just the Ivy League!) and know that you need your essays to be outstanding
Your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars aren’t exceptional, so you need your essay to make your essay stand out from the pack
You’re unfamiliar with the US college admissions process (a common situation for international students and first-generation families in the US)

Any of these are strong reasons to consider working with a college essay service!

It’s also worth remembering that a lot of the free advice on college’s website isn’t always very clear. For example, NYU’s admissions Senior Assistant Director of Admissions says that “There is no right or wrong way to answer as long as your answer is genuine to you.”

While that’s true, that doesn’t offer much guidance on how to actually write the essay!

Though many college applicants might not mention it, more and more students are using professional college application consultants. Research at the University of Chicago has shown that over a quarter of high-achieving seniors employed private specialists to help with the college application process.

In fact, according to NPR , some companies are even offering college admissions counseling to their top employees as an incentive–that’s just how important professional help can be in the current landscape of college admissions.

It’s important to note that a good college essay service will not write your college application essays for you . This is unethical and illegal. That’s not just coming from us: take it from a school like Princeton, whose website insists on the importance of writing your own application essays.

A good college essay service will guide you through each step of the process , teaching you how to self-reflect and write well while sharing insider insight about admissions strategy .

What makes a good college essay service?

We strongly believe that students need to write their own college essays , and we do not condone plagiarism or “buying” a college essay.

However, writing college application essays requires a completely new set of skills that is rarely taught in high school!

Writing a personal essay is much more creative than simply writing a good paper for English class. It requires a compelling narrative and a great deal of writing craft . A good essay service will teach how to do this kind of writing.

There are many college essay services that will provide only written feedback to students, usually in the form of comments added to an essay draft. (Remember, it’s important that students write their own essays, so avoid any college essay service that will make edits directly to an essay document .)

Written comments can be an effective component of good essay coaching. However, writing college essays is a deeply personal process , and it’s incredibly difficult to guide a student through the process of self-reflection, brainstorming, and planning purely through written comments.

In addition, a great college essay coach will teach students how to do this entire process of brainstorming, planning, outlining, writing, and revising . It’s difficult to learn why an essay coach is advising certain changes through written comments alone.

For these reasons, look for a college essay service with live, one-on-one services , not just written feedback. These days, it’s easy to work with the best college essay consultants in the country over Zoom!

Students need to reflect on their goals, their passions, and what drives them to be the person they are. This requires a great deal of self-awareness and self-analysis . An experienced college essay coach can help draw these ideas out of students through tested introspection techniques and brainstorming exercises .

On top of all of that, students need to be cognizant of which traits and accomplishments will be most appealing to colleges , and which stories will be cliche and boring. Personal statements and supplementary essays need to fit together to tell a cohesive story, and they need to work together with the rest of the student’s application (extracurriculars, grades, and other accomplishments).

In other words, there’s a great deal of strategy here! An experienced college essay service can help students decide how to present themselves in the best possible light .

Furthermore, most students don’t know how to edit effectively . A really top-notch college essay service will also teach students how to edit their own writing —how to reorder sections for better flow, cut unnecessary words to meet a word count, eliminate passive verbs, and make their writing vivid and exciting. Our students are routinely amazed by how transformative this step can be, and how much they learn by doing it together with the essay coach.

Finally, the best college essay services can also help students to make a writing plan and keep them on track , so that parents don’t have to be involved directly.

Ready to work on your college essays? Schedule a free 15- to 30-minute consultation with Jessica or one of our founders.

Best overall: PrepMaven’s tutors offer the highest quality at the best price. With three tiers of tutors, they make it easy to work with an Ivy League undergraduate for as little as $79/hr. Or, families can work with education professionals or Ivy League graduates from $150/hr. PrepMaven’s track record means that you can be sure every hour is being spent productively, so that you can expect real results from the work.

Best for individual consultants: College Essay Mentor. In theory, College Essay Mentor would offer an unparalleled level of individual attention and guidance: his website boasts of some very impressive results. You might find it hard to actually schedule with him, however, since he’s very selective about his clients.

Best for unlimited essay assistance: The College Essay Guy might not offer that personalized attention you get from live, face to face essay coaching, but they do offer unlimited essay editing for up to 10 schools (if you’re comfortable paying a hefty package price).

Best of the big platforms: College Vine will always be a bit of a gamble. Because it’s a tutor marketplace, your results (and costs) will really depend on how lucky you get with your consultant. From our research, however, many of their essay coaches look to have solid track records.

Ready to work on college essays with one of our experienced writing coaches? Schedule a free test prep consultation with Jessica (Director of Tutoring) or one of our founders to see what would be the best fit for your family.

It’s always best to start early and not wait until the last minute to write your college essays! Remember that essays can be used to earn scholarships as well as college admission, so a few months of writing now can pay off with up to $300,000 in tuition saved later.

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How to get into Princeton 2024-2025

October 13, 2024

How do you become one of the few admitted students at Princeton University? In this post, we’ll give you actionable steps to set your application up for success at…

How to Write Vanderbilt’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

September 4, 2024

For this application cycle, Vanderbilt only has one supplemental essay prompt, which you’ll have to answer with a maximum of …

How to Write Villanova’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

For this application cycle, we’ve got good news. Although Villanova has 5 supplemental essay prompts, the word count is quite short. Plus, you’ll only have to choose…

How to Answer the Harvard Supplemental Essay Prompts_PrepMaven

How to Answer the Harvard Supplemental Essay Prompts (2024-2025)

September 3, 2024

What are the Harvard supplemental essay prompts for 2024-2025? And how should you respond to them successfully? We've got the answers.

How to Respond to the 6 Princeton Supplemental Essay Prompts

How to write the Princeton supplemental essays (2024-2025)

August 28, 2024

What are the 6 Princeton supplemental essay prompts? And how should you respond to each? We answer both questions in this detailed post.

How to Write Boston College’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

August 24, 2024

For this application cycle, we’ve got good news. Although Boston College has 4 supplemental essay prompts, you’ll only have to choose one. The word count for this essay…

How to Write the Dartmouth Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

August 20, 2024

For this application cycle, Dartmouth has a set of supplemental essay prompts that ask you to write on community, major, and...

How to Write Yale’s Supplemental Essays (With Real Examples) 2024-2025

This application cycle, Yale’s supplemental essay set is quite intense. To help you, we’ve got detailed guides for each one, plus real Yale sample essays from previous years for…

How to Write the University of Chicago Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

For this application cycle, University of Chicago once again has a set of unusual supplemental essay prompts. We take a look at each prompt, then analyze a real University of Chicago sample essay to…

Colleges that Require SAT/ACT Scores 2024/2025

August 7, 2024

While test-optional policies came into effect at many colleges during the pandemic, that’s now changing. Schools like Harvard, Brown, and Dartmouth …

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