This service is for students who are already in college/university and are applying to a competitive major. If you would like essay coaching and are in high school applying for undergraduate admissions, go here.
Why Hire A Writing Coach
Who knew that after you did all the work to gain admission into a university as a first-year student, you’d be applying to a competitive program for your major less than two years later?
Ah, liberal arts.
You may be experiencing a bit of deja vu as you start filling out the application to the college or school where you hope to pursue your major course of study. It might feel a little similar to applying for undergraduate admission. And then you get to the essays.
Where your college application essays were generally about letting the admissions team know who you are and what you hope to do, competitive program application essays ask you to give an account of how you’ve used your opportunities since you enrolled at the university.
Of course, they’ll look at your grades, so you need to have that area in order. They’ll ask for a resume of experience you’ve acquired in that particular field, so make sure your first encounter isn’t when you apply to major in it. You’ll list internships, shadowing, jobs, and your role in organizations that give you experience in the field. There may be an interview too. Requirements vary from school to school and university to university.
At some point, you’ll write a Statement of Purpose or Personal Statement, which is typically the story of your journey toward the major, what you hope to gain from the program, and what you envision yourself doing after you graduate.
The more competitive the program, the more writing they tend to require beyond the Statement of Purpose/Personal Statement. Additional essays ask you to demonstrate outstanding thinking on topics like current cultural issues, common problems professionals face, and how you manage both opportunities and challenges.
You’ll integrate personal narrative with analysis and insights you’ve gained through these experiences. You’ll prove that you’re already invested in this field of study, and you are passionate about pursuing professional excellence during your time on campus and beyond. And you’ll do all this using a modest word/character count.
How effectively you communicate in your undergraduate program application essay will impact your acceptance into the program.
How It Works
Let’s chat a bit about what a writing coach does.
I hate to begin with a caveat, but let’s first clear the air that writing coaches are NOT there to write the essays for the student. That is not ethical nor helpful since most competitive undergraduate programs use essays to get to know prospective students beyond their transcript and resume. The essays have to be student-written, and they have to be an authentic representation of who that student is.
Where I come in as a coach is in helping students think through the prompts, identify their strongest approach, select narrative and analytical elements, organize ideas, edit for word/character count, and polish style and mechanics.
For 2022, I will offer in-person and virtual coaching sessions. Virtual coaching sessions will be conducted online using shared Google documents and video conferencing via FaceTime, Google Meet, or Zoom.
The Cost
For start-to-finish coaching—from analyzing the prompt to selecting an idea to planning to structuring to drafting to final review—the cost is $0.12 per word, calculated based on the word count of the first draft.
For feedback-only (BYO first draft)—which includes two rounds of content, structure, syntax, style, diction, and mechanics coaching—the cost is $0.07 per word, calculated based on the word count of the first draft.
Payment may be made via Venmo or personal check.
How to Contact Me
If you are interested in essay coaching, please email Norma Weekman at normaweekman@gmail.com.
I would love to help you make sure that the essays you submit are as strong as possible.
Always Learning HQ 