Nothing ruins a university application quicker than submitting a less-than-perfect personal statement or essay. Take your personal statements and essays to the next level as soon as essay prompts are released this summer. Then, get help with everything from brainstorming possible personal statement and essay topics to proofreading and editing drafts. With help from CollegeMeister, learn how to bring life to your writing samples, speak in your own unique voice, and strike the right balance between “show” and “tell.”
The story of Gabby is a perfect example of how we help students every day draft engaging essays and powerful personal statements that give students the best shot of getting in!
Gabby came to us during the summer before her senior year in high school. Gabby had a well thought out college list, a superb extracurricular background, and a near-perfect academic record. What she did not have was faith in her ability to write college essays that would get her into the colleges on her list. Gabby had little idea how to bring life to her many required application essays, but she knew that CollegeMeister would give her the tools she needed to produce the eloquent essays colleges would expect from somebody with such a strong academic and extracurricular record. She also knew we could support her remotely, which was important, as she spends her summers on the Greek island of Santorini.
Our Solution
Writing excellent essays is predicated on building from a strong foundation that frees up a student to write in his or her own unique voice and strike the right balance between show and tell. We regularly work with students on an hourly basis to help them write extraordinary college essays that will set them apart from their competition. This is exactly what was recommended in Gabby’s case. Yet, while developing a comprehensive strategy for Gabby to complete strong and differentiated college applications essays, our consultant reviewed the extracurricular list Gabby had emailed us and when he did he and noticed that this list was far too vague and modestly written to get Gabby into her reach schools. Via both email and Skype, our consultant encouraged Gabby to completely re-work her extracurricular list and transition it into a full-fledged, detail-oriented résumé. This important task gave her the best shot of admission to all colleges on her list and served as a foundation step in organizing Gabby’s conception of herself, which was critical to her ability to expound on her personality and preferences throughout the many supplemental application essays she needed to complete to wrap up her apps.
The Results
After working with CollegeMeister for a number of hours starting in the July before her senior year, Gabby completed her one Common Application essay, eight supplemental essays, three short answer responses, and an in-depth extracurricular résumé – all by the end of her second week of senior year! This gave her extra time to prep for her final standardized tests and visit a few more colleges before submitting completed applications – all by late October. By the April of senior year, all seven colleges to which Gabby applied had sent her acceptance letters. One college even mentioned her outstanding essay in Gabby’s acceptance letter, explaining that it helped convince the admissions committee to grant her a $20,000 per year honors scholarship.
The above case study is a summation of a real CollegeMeister client engagement; however, names have been changed to maintain our client’s privacy.
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