Hiring a college app essay coach?

[Charity]

My son is trying to write his college app essay. I told him it is supposed to show his personality and character, something the reader can know him a little more than what his transcript shows. He shared with me he was struggling with making it personal. I have some ideas but he is unwilling to use them. So I am thinking of hiring a college app essay coach for him. Has any of you done this? How much should I pay for an hour? I am thinking about 3 hour-long sessions. Please share if you know. Thanks!

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, Charity said:

My son is trying to write his college app essay. I told him it is supposed to show his personality and character, something the reader can know him a little more than what his transcript shows. He shared with me he was struggling with making it personal. I have some ideas but he is unwilling to use them. So I am thinking of hiring a college app essay coach for him. Has any of you done this? How much should I pay for an hour? I am thinking about 3 hour-long sessions. Please share if you know. Thanks!

I found someone on outschool with good reviews/qualifications for my last college applicant. He's a good writer but VERY prone to writer's block and needed someone who wasn't me to just sort of nudge him into getting something down on paper, I think. He did one pre-writing session with her and then another one after he had a rough draft. For my next kid I'll probably look into an actual online class the summer before senior year, but it was too late by the time I realized outside help would be a good thing last go round. Anyway, he ended up with a good solid essay and I didn't have to harass him about it, so it worked out well. 

[saw]

On 8/9/2022 at 8:28 AM, Charity said:

My son is trying to write his college app essay. I told him it is supposed to show his personality and character, something the reader can know him a little more than what his transcript shows. He shared with me he was struggling with making it personal. I have some ideas but he is unwilling to use them. So I am thinking of hiring a college app essay coach for him. Has any of you done this? How much should I pay for an hour? I am thinking about 3 hour-long sessions. Please share if you know. Thanks!

I hired someone to help my DDs as we were not US-based and very little about the process made sense. It was helpful in having someone with expert knowledge advise them on the how of the essay and provide an unbiased review. After that I became interested in learning more so took classes on the process and was able to help my son myself. I now volunteer to help students with their essays and help family members too.

I think an outside person can help by removing some of the emotion from the process. A high schooler may well respond better to an outside coach than a parent, and a parent may have their own vision of what the student's essay should show (that may or may not mesh with the student's view). My brother, for example, wanted my niece to write about a particular subject for a supplementary essay that just advertised their privilege, and I was able to talk her out of it. 

The College Essay Guy (Ethan Sawyer) has some really good tools on his website (I think for free) that will help your son generate ideas and map out the essay. If you go with a coach, make sure it's someone who is good and will work with your son to express himself and not impose their own ideas. There are some excellent coaches out there but not all are good.

[Malam]

There are also book on college essays out there.

[Arcadia]

@Ann.without.an.e daughter is an essay couch. College Essay Guy has some tips for various private colleges supplementary essays. My DS17 finds it useful as a starting point because he is writing phobic and perfectionist so he finds it hard to start. Unfortunately he does a lot better with in person for writing so I can’t make use of Ann’s daughter’s services. When DS17 asked for ideas, he rejected mine and DS16’s suggestions outright but he did think about them after. It is like stereotypical teen pride thinking that what we suggested is out of topic. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

DD was a writing consultant at Duke and a double major in English and bio. She loves working with students to help them find and express their own voice and story. She was working for a company but they had some crazy management and she just resigned. Her original desire was to consult on her own and she’s back to that desire. She may be willing to work with some Hive students to get her start in this. Just message me if you’re interested and I’ll talk to her.

ETA she has helped everything from college freshman to PhD students. In fact, her schedule stayed full of PhD students (when she was an undergrad). But she has helped with college app essays as well. Her app essay was so beautiful and unique that it really caught the eye of so many admissions departments. She ended up with a full ride to Duke and Furman and scholarships to every school she applied to, often with admissions counselors noting her essay when they met her at scholarship events. It was really sweet. She won’t write for people (it needs to be their work) but she is gifted at brainstorming and editing with students. 
She was admitted directly into a PhD program to be a writing and rhetoric professor right out of undergrad but she turned it down in order to start a family. It was a hard decision. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[Farrar]

For folks reading this in the future, one of the more cost effective ways to get this sort of help for your kid is a summer essay workshop. I run one at Aim Academy. Holly Ramsey's one at Bravewriter is probably great. And the ones that PA Homeschoolers runs are also ones I've heard good things about. Lots of options.

[ByGrace3]

Any idea what these tutors charge per hour? I'm wondering if a few sessions might be super helpful for my senior...