College Essays with Barak Rosenbloom

By September, seniors are dealing with the stresses of school, choosing colleges, filling out applications, and living the life of a teenager. Tossed into this is the most time-consuming and, for many colleges, the most critical part of the application: the essays.

College essays stress out high school students.

Stressed-out (or checked-out) students can lead to stressed and frustrated parents.

There’s a way to make the essay process much less painful, and even turn it into an enjoyable learning and growth experience.

Starting as early as January, I take second-semester juniors through a foundation-building program that will make it much easier for them to write essays later in the year.

By spreading the process over many months, juniors have time to think through topics, deal with writing issues, learn new writing and communicating skills, and make the writing process more enjoyable.

In four to six sessions spread over the semester, juniors will:

• Discover their unique signature strengths, through an assessment tool and conversations with me.
• Identify and address any writing issues (unfortunately, these are common)
• Create a list of activities and accomplishments, a “brag sheet”
• Create a list of “great stories” that can become essays
• Learn and practice the style of writing that makes an effective essay (and is almost never taught in English classes)
• Recognize their own voice and learn how to put it on the page

There will be short assignments between each session.

Summer is time to look at colleges, work, play and more. But it’s also a time to let the ideas we explored during the school year percolate. Students will see their strengths and values come to life in their summer activities. And they’ll see opportunities for great essays. We’ll touch base a few times during the summer, but this is mainly a period for reflection and some low-key writing practice.

In the late summer or fall, when the application forms are published, we’ll go to work at writing, editing and revising one long essay and up to 500 words of supplemental or short essays. I spend the time needed to do what it takes to help students write essays they are proud of, and that will help get them in to the college of their choice.

Please contact me for more information or for a complimentary fifteen-minute parent or parent/student consultation.

I accept credit cards through PayPal and offer several payment options.

The introductory rates are available to four juniors only.