College Essay Resources

Learn how to write a Letter of Continued Interest for a waitlist with proven tips, structure, and examples to improve your chances of admission.

Every year, thousands of students and parents ask themselves the same question:Do we need to hire someone to help with college admissions essays? For many, it’s uncharted territory. Students may not be sure what a college essay coach actually does. Parents, understandably, might be skeptical of a service that probably didn’t exist when they applied to college. But behind the question is something deeper: college admissions matter, and families want to get it right.

I need help honing my brand. How should I package myself? Now in my tenth year as a consultant for college admissions essays, I have seen a shift in the lexicon of applicants, who now want to market themselves with “value-added,” “leverage,” and other catch phrases borrowed from the business world. Similarly, parents are increasingly seeking to turn their daughter or son’s college application into a pitch deck for admissions officers at Princeton, Stanford, and other highly

To me, the secret about elite universities — or at least the fact that they prefer not to publicize overtly — is that the admissions game is far from fair, which most people would define as based on merit. The truth is that when it comes to admissions, the Ivies, Stanford, and other top schools have their own agendas. Which means that the actual number of spaces available for students without a “hook” is much smaller than one might think. One agenda is to favor legacies. Har

There is no shortage of evidence that large numbers of students from certain private and public high school end up at elite universities. As noted by others, many students from Boston Latin School go to Harvard and many from Princeton High School go to Princeton. When I got to Dartmouth, I flipped through the Freshman Book — a hardcopy precursor to Facebook — I noted an unusual number of students from both Andover and Exeter. To me, the question is whether there is causation

For anyone interested in attending Harvard — or any other elite university — the question of developing a so-called spike is a good one. The starting point should probably be understanding the context. Admissions offices at elite schools are inundated with applications from what I call “high numbers students,” by which I mean students with GPAs north of 4.0 and sky high test scores: 34+ ACT and 1500+ SAT. Even after adding a pile of AP classes to the mix, admissions officers

Dartmouth, like all elite colleges, has qualities which are favored in the admissions process. Of the 2,092 students who were offered admission to the most recent class, 10% were recruited athletes, 9% were legacies, and 15% were the first in their family to attend college. Another 11% came from from foreign countries. Being in one of these groups does not get you into Dartmouth. It does get you an edge. For everyone else, admission hinges on two factors. One is numbers. To