Expert College Essay Coach for Ivy League and Top University Applicants
I’m a college essay consultant whose professional background includes working as a journalist for The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, as well as the publication of two books. For more than ten years, I’ve helped high-achieving students translate strong academics and meaningful experiences into effective college admissions essays. My approach isn’t about endless drafts, formulas and tips, or ghostwriting. It’s about purpose, structure, and judgment.
I work with self-directed students applying to highly selective colleges who already have strong grades, rigorous coursework, and substantive activities. My role is to guide decisions, sharpen perspective, and help students write essays that present a coherent, engaging self-portrait that engages and impresses admissions officers.
Most students don’t struggle with college essays because they lack ideas or writing ability. They struggle because they don’t understand the purpose of the essays or how admissions officers actually read them.
Consistent Admissions Results with High-Achieving Students
Students, parents, and I share the same goal: applications that are competitive at elite universities. My role isn’t to promise outcomes. It’s to understand how admissions readers evaluate essays and to provide guidance that helps them understand who a student is and how that student thinks.
When motivated students pair strong academic profiles with the right admissions essays, their applications get serious consideration. Over the years, my students have earned thousands of admissions to the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, and other highly selective colleges, even in years with record-low acceptance rates.
Most of the credit for those admissions results belongs to the students themselves. My contribution is helping ensure that their essays enhance already strong applications.
Total acceptances for College Essay Mentor students
2020-2025
Stanford (50)
Harvard (33)
Yale (32)
Princeton (25)
MIT (22)
Why College Essays Matter for Ivy Plus Applications
Essays Reveal Intellectual Vitality
At highly selective colleges, most applicants already have strong grades, demanding coursework, and high test scores. College essays are where admissions officers stop evaluating credentials and start considering intellectual vitality, judgment, and maturity. They’re reading to understand how a student thinks, how they make sense of experience, and what they value.
Essays Differentiate Among Strong Applicants
Competitive schools use essays as a sorting mechanism. When applicants look equally strong on paper, essays help distinguish students who are objectively impressive from students who feel compelling as future members of a campus community. Weak essays rarely disqualify a strong applicant outright, but generic essays can prevent qualified students from standing out.
Essays Demonstrate Judgment and Maturity
Serious college essay work isn’t about manufacturing drama or polishing sentences. It’s about making smart decisions about which experiences to share, how to frame honest insights, and how to write with clarity and restraint. The goal isn’t to impress an admissions officer. It’s to be understood and remembered.
How the College Essay Coaching Process Works
My work as a tutor for college admissions essays follows a consistent pattern that produces effective essays without over-coaching, distorting a student’s voice, or ghostwriting.
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College Essay Strategy
First, we clarify what the application needs to communicate and which messages are worth developing. My role is to ask focused questions, probe for fresh insights, and help students see their own experiences through the eyes of an admissions reader.
Structured Essay Development
Next comes an essential step: structure. We build detailed outlines before anyone writes a draft. No generic tips. No freewriting. We get specific, paragraph by paragraph. We define the job of each paragraph, note the details to include, and create a roadmap the student can follow.
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Authentic Personal Statement Writing
Then the student writes. Drafting essays is the student’s responsibility; the voice has to be real. Drafts can be long. They can be rough. As long as the work is done, we can move from rough to smooth to strong.
Targeted Essay Feedback & Revision
Finally, I give direct, iterative feedback on what’s working, what’s unclear, and what needs to change. We revise with purpose—tightening structure, sharpening meaning, and improving clarity—until the essay communicates clearly and sounds unmistakably like a thoughtful teenager.
Personalized, One-on-One College Essay Help
I offer one-on-one essay packages designed for students with different needs and timelines. While the scope of each package varies, the approach is consistent: clear thinking, strong structure, and essays that sound like the student.
Core Essay Package
Designed for students who want focused guidance on the Common Application personal essay and the supplemental essays for their top four college applications. I work one-on-one with each student to shape a coherent narrative, identify meaningful ideas and insights, and build clear outlines before drafting begins. Dedicated teaching assistants provide additional live support to help students make steady progress.
MOST POPULAR
Complete Essay Package
Designed for students who want sustained, start-to-finish collaboration on their college essays. I work one-on-one with students across the full application process, from shaping the personal statement to developing and refining supplemental essays for six college applications. This package is well suited to applicants who value consistent guidance as ideas develop, drafts mature, and the overall application comes together.
Preferred Essay Package
Designed for highly competitive applicants who want the highest level of engagement throughout the essay writing process. I work closely with students across all stages of development, with the time and flexibility to explore ideas fully and refine narrative choices as essays for eight college applications take shape. This option is best for students who want an experienced mentor closely involved as each application is developed thoughtfully and deliberately.
College Essay Workshops
Core Qualities of College Essays is a live, paid webinar for students navigating the personal essay for applications to any college.
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The online workshop is designed for students who want to understand what strong college essays actually do and why they work. Rather than offering familiar formulas or generic tips, it focuses on developing a deep understanding of the underlying ingredients of effective personal statements. We examine how admissions officers make decisions and how message, experience, structure, and clarity work together in successful essays.
The college essay webinar explores topics such as:
Developing a meaningful message rather than a standard “personal story”
Choosing experiences that show values in action
Revealing character through reflection rather than description
Creating sound structure through clear outlines
Writing engaging openings and satisfying endings
Prioritizing clarity over stylistic flourishes
The workshops provide frameworks, examples, and tools, but not collaboration or execution. Students leave with a clear process for approaching their personal statement independently and a lens for evaluating their work.
Additional College Admissions Services
Although college essays are my primary focus, my one-on-one packages include a range of college counseling services, including:
college list guidance
application strategy advising
letter of continued interest support
interview preparation tips
personal support during a process
