After four hard years of high school. there’s one last hurdle to pass: the dreaded college essay. However, when students try to rush through it, they do a disservice to themselves. At Ivy Admissions, we view your essays as another opportunity to shore up your shortcomings or highlight parts of your application which may otherwise be glossed over. A core component of Ivy Admissions’ philosophy towards college preparation is that a student’s application should present a unified story about where you’ve been and where you want to go. Furthermore, you can show how this story fits into a particular school’s vision, improving your chances of getting accepted.
To begin writing your college essay, you should reflect on what experiences have been particularly formative. This doesn’t have to be an service trip to build houses in Chile; it could be as simple as working at your aunt’s cupcake shop. It’s more important to be authentic and have your writerly voice shine through. After thoroughly outlining and writing your first draft, our counselors will work with you to ensure that your essay portrays you in the best light. Typically, this will entail revising an individual essay six to seven times. These revision suggestions will take many forms ranging from mechanical improvements to innovative structural ones that let your essay stand out. Rather than just dump reams of criticism and let you take if from there, we create a manageable timeline for each revision. This is so you don’t fall behind and can continue tweaking your essay piecemeal. The end product will be your application’s keystone; a personal essay that is wholly yours and shows colleges why they should choose you.
Our strategy for the each supplement is similar to our plan for primary ones. We focus on developing a coherent voice and narrative. If you’re applying to more than six or seven schools, you might have to answer as many as forty questions. That’s a daunting task no matter how prepared you are, so we try to streamline the process. Rather than going back to the drawing board for each essay question, we try to find a set of experiences which you can draw upon for each question. This lets you use your time efficiently. Instead of spreading out your intellectual labor between many different questions, you can focus on writing a smaller number of pieces and adjust them as need be.
Our intensive writing and revision process will equip you with skills that are crucial in college. First semester freshmen are rarely ready to write their ten page term paper. They struggle to manage their time, organize their initial thoughts on a subject and then revise their first draft to a second or third iteration. Graduates of Ivy Admissions will go to college already able to perform at the level of their peers. Unlike other college consulting services, Ivy Admissions has a vision for our students beyond the admissions process. We don’t just want you to get into your dream school, we want you to excel once you’re there!
