Socratic Summer Academy offers college essay writing help!
What is college essay help? What do you do?
We can help you just with the essay or coordinate the whole college process, making sure you don’t miss college admissions deadlines and have all your ducks in a row. Especially when it comes to writing compelling supplements - college advisors always say to fill out EVERY supplement, as that’s the only way to make yourself stand out! We can help making every word count!
College essays
Brainstorming topics
Strategies for doing the writing if you just hate writing in general
Getting colleges to see the part of you that you want to showcase
Editing
Rearranging/combining multiple essays
Getting the word count down
Making you sound smart but not show-off-y, intellectual but not brown-nose-y
Supplemental essays
How to use the same supplemental essay for multiple schools
Writing things that are compelling and that showcase a piece of you that you want colleges to understand within a tiny word limit
We also can help with:
College list - targets, reaches, safeties (including realistic predictions of your success)
Filling out the Common Application
SAT and ACT prep
SAT subject test prep
Financial aid help
Student resume/extracurriculars
Making it easy for recommenders to give you the best recommendation possible (brag sheet, bulleted recommendations)
Where are the sessions held?
Right now, all consulting takes place via Zoom (an online videochat platform, similar to Skype).
How does essay writing work?
We start by brainstorming a list of things that the student might be able to talk about. We’re looking specifically for the ways the student changed as the result of a given event - what was the before/after of the event/how did it impact/affect/change him/her/them
Identify the subject area(s) about which the student has the most to say
Interview the student about 1-3 big areas (depending on how many supplemental essays the student has to write), taking verbatim notes of everything the student shares
Ask questions focusing on the salient event, couched in terms of before/after (how did this change you from what you were before)
From the student’s verbatim commentary, we put together a general sketch of the broad strokes of the essay(s) and send it(them) to you. Because they are verbatim notes, they are already in the student’s words
We urge the student to rewrite as much as desired, with an eye towards tightening prose while preserving candid, forthright style
We urge the student to send the essay, in any of its incarnations, to as many folks as s/he/they want to, in order to get outside input
We continue the rewriting/editing/tweaking process until the student is satisfied that the student’s essay reflects that student the way they/s/he wishes to be represented
You'll get the most out of our work together - and pay the least - if you are as proactive as possible. Most of what you'll need is your student’s engagement and hard work - if you have that, everything else will go smoothly. Encourage him/her/them to know which college he/she/they is/are interested in, so that we can identify supplemental essays and short answer questions.
Who help students with their college essays?
Socratic Summer Academy teachers and staff with years of experience getting students into college - including our Executive Director Alyssa Bowlby and former Executive Director of The Intersection, Anastasia Marouani - help students plan, write, and revise essays.
How long does it usually take you to do the college essay - how big a package should I buy?
We can meet with families as much as is needed to get it done. Most families are able to get through the essay (assuming they don’t have to write a ton of supplements) between 5-10 hours.
We try to limit the number of meetings as much as possible, to save families time and money - we’ll give you work to do on your own and then come back to us with results. The more work you do on your own, the more quickly we will go!
Questions? Call us: 409-404-0728
How are sessions billed?
You can either purchase a package of hours (where you save money by buying more hours in a package) or bill by the hour.
$250/hour when purchased by the hour
5 hours for $1185; save $75!
10 hours for $2250; save $250!
20 hours for $4300; save $700!
