Recently, I had a conversation with a counselor who wondered how he might help students select the right structure for their college essays. The counselor asked me which of these approaches I prefer for college essay coaching: Selecting multiple scenes to illustrate your most important values. Starting the essay with a hook. Outlining the beginning, Read More

You might already know that college essay schedules are one of my favorite topics.  Boring, right?  Nope. Not at all.  I’m not just talking about deadlines and due dates. I’m talking strategy. And if you know anything about me, you know I love strategy. When’s the last time you mapped out your college essay process and determined Read More

Have you ever had a student turn in an essay draft with a few words that seem way too big? Are the words different from the words they’ve used in meetings, in writing exercises, or on a quick chat on the phone? I think we all know the culprit: the thesaurus! Time and again, we Read More

About a month before the first big college application deadline, I spent a good deal of time on the phone, sending emails and responding to parent requests to review drafts of college essays students had already written. They wanted someone to look the essays over, edit them, send the students on their merry way. That’s pretty typical Read More

Are you a West Coast counselor who knows the University of California Personal Insight Questions inside and out? Or a Midwesterner with a handful of students applying to the UCs each season? Or somewhere in between? Regardless of how many of your students dream of California, you are probably familiar with the UCs’ insistence that PIQs are nothing Read More

By now, many of your students have probably written multiple drafts of at least one application essay. But how do you get to the finish line with minimal stress? Step away from that proverbial red pen.   At Wow, we don’t edit. Rather, we review. We respond to first drafts with detailed questions, not marked-up Read More

We’ve given you a lot of resources tips about writing personal statements over the years. Before the school year ends, we’d like to leave you with some sound advice to help you guide your students on the one supplement that poses challenges for all sorts of students. I am talking about the Why College X, Read More

Everyone talks about how hard it is to write once you are in College. The first paper you are assigned can feel daunting with the array of different advice from different sources you will receive. How can you know whose advice to trust? Is it much more difficult to write an essay? The reality is Read More

-In and out in an hour? Or do you spend weeks mining for jewels among your students’ experiences?   Do you think brainstorming ideas is all about finding a unique story? Or are you trying to help students identify an effective topic? We’re in the quick and effective camp.   Why? Because drawn-out, elaborate brainstorming Read More

Last year, a counselor from Atlanta asked me what advice to give a student who wanted to use his personal statement to show colleges that he “gives 110% to everything he does.”  She knew it was a cliché. But is that bad? Nope. Not really. I told her it was okay and explained why. Phrases Read More