It’s about to be summer. Meaning, it’s time for college essay Bootcamp! Students who are looking into top schools tend to be busy during the school year. Between AP classes, leadership positions in extracurriculars, sports seasons, and everything else students tend to do, it can be hard taking on college admissions essays.
Great college essays take time. That’s why we advise our students to make great use of their summers. Students come to us at all points of their process. Some need help researching schools. Others need help building their resume. But every student we work with needs help with their writing.
Having a great college essay is essential when applying to top schools. That’s where our Bootcamp comes in.
At this point, you might be asking yourself what is a Virtual Essay Bootcamp? It’s pretty simple. Students come to us every summer to make sure they have a stellar college admissions essay. And we take them through a few essential steps.
Connect them with a trained counselor virtually.
Part of the great part of being virtual is it doesn’t matter if you live in Oslo or Oklahoma. We have highly trained counselors who will set up a meeting schedule to start the process. The counselor’s job is to get to know each of their students and their specific needs. Summer can be hard with trips and internships, so our counselors work out a bespoke schedule to make sure each student hits their deadlines. Our counselors have had to work around students’ trips to Hawaii, Summer programs, and research lab jobs. Being virtual and flexible means we can do it all. No excuses!
Brainstorming
We love to get to know every student and start laying the groundwork for their essays by brainstorming. Great college essays aren’t don’t usually come from the first idea. We want our students to really think about what they want to tell colleges. We start by trying to pinpoint the important traits of each student. Are they compassionate? Are they dedicated? Outgoing? What makes them truly unique? Great essays capture this. It can be a difficult process, but we believe it is essential to write the kind of essay that impresses admissions offices.
Creative writing
No, we can’t write a student's essay for them. But we can help them craft an interesting narrative. Most students come to us with very little creative writing experience. The best essays not only tell compelling stories but play with form and function. This can be a big ask for students who usually are confined to 5 paragraph essays on The Grapes of Wrath. That is why our counselors are trained to push their students to see the college essay creatively and help them through the drafting process.
We love drafts
Whether you are with us for 2 months or 6 months, we don’t skimp on the drafting. Truly great college essays have to go through rewrites. We make sure drafts are reviewed and commented on by not only the student’s counselor but also our founder. Other companies sometimes just edit by adding commas here or there, but we think that isn’t enough to support students. We think drafting and rewriting is an important step in writing a good essay.
We stay on top of important dates
Not every 17-year-old keeps a perfect schedule in the summer. The summer before senior year goes by incredibly fast and part of what we do is make sure students don’t miss important dates or fall behind schedule. Keeping students on track is important. We tailor a plan to each student and make sure they stick to it.
College essay writing isn’t an easy process. Every year we get people who come to us late in the season thinking they could do it on their own and realize they couldn’t. There is truly no shame in that, but when students can use a full summer to get them on track it truly makes our hearts sing. Our Bootcamp works and gets students on the best path for success. It’s something we are pretty proud of if you couldn’t tell.
Need help starting on your essay this summer? Join us!