We’re a small company that works one-on-one with students on their college essays, and every single one of our tutors not only holds a PhD from a top institution but has also published a book with a prestigious university press. And even though each one of us has a decade of experience working with students on their college essays (not to mention many years teaching in top colleges), it’s always challenging to help new applicants come up with a college essay that will really stand out.

After reviewing college essays for many years, we strongly believe that Common App prompt #7 is the single worst college essay prompt for most applicants. You may be tempted to think that because the prompt gives you a lot of freedom, it will allow you to express yourself and stand out more - but it usually ends up doing the opposite. Here are three big reasons we urge you to select one of the other prompts when you write your college essay.

So you’ve followed our advice and written a stellar college essay, and now you’ve gotten to the supplementals. The most popular prompt you’ll have to answer is: “Why do you want to attend our college?” 

Stanford is one of the most competitive schools to get into, and its supplemental prompts are different from other schools. You’ll need to write 3 essays of 100-250 words and 5 short answers of 50 words, in addition to your main college essay. But remember: you’ll be competing with the best students in the country (and around the world), so you’ll need to make sure that every response you submit is both distinctive and well written. If you don’t put in the work, there’s no reason to apply, because your application will simply be removed from the pile. 

If you’ve been reading our blog, you’ll know we don’t believe in reading sample college essays and we don’t think there’s any formula you can follow. But we do think some general guidelines can be helpful, so here are our top 3 tips for writing the Stanford supplementals.

A college essay tutor is the last qualified person to read your essay before it goes to admissions officers, and they won’t be doing you a service if they act like you’re ready to submit when you’re not. If you know what to expect, working with a college essay tutor can be extremely helpful and, we hope, enjoyable! Here are three reasons why you should seek out a college essay tutor who’s direct with you:

The topic of this week’s blog may seem absurd at first glance. But students often come to us with drafts of their college essays already completed, and when we ask them which prompt they’re responding to, they shrug and say they didn’t know they had to respond to a prompt.

This happens so frequently that we started to suspect something was going on - and then we discovered that some most popular college essay websites explicitly suggest: “don’t read Common App prompts.” This is terrible advice for any kind of writing, and in almost all cases, it will guarantee that you’ll write a mediocre college essay. Here’s why.

If you’re applying to college this year, you may be worried that you’ll avoid working on your college essays until the last moment, when it’s too late to write something impactful. This is an affliction known as “college essay procrastination,” and it’s extremely common among high school seniors. We understand why! Writing is challenging in the best of circumstances, but now you have to come up with a compelling essay that will play a large part in determining where you go to college. It’s no wonder students get freaked out and have trouble getting started.

That’s why we’ve assembled three of the most effective tips we recommend for our students. Each one covers a different part of the college essay process.

When you apply to college, you submit your test scores, your GPA, and your extracurriculars list - and the whole aim is to excel. Did you nail the SAT? Did you get good grades at school? Did you participate in enough extracurriculars?

But the college essay is different. The aim here isn’t to excel or boast about your achievements; it’s to tell a unique story. That’s why the single most important piece of advice anyone can give you when it comes to college essay writing is to avoid clichés. You may have a great GPA and SAT, but if your college essay sounds just like everyone else’s, the college admissions officer reading your file will immediately lose interest. If you’re wondering, “how can I make my college essay stand out?” check out our three top tips.

Every year, high schoolers come to us just before their college application deadlines, desperate for help with their college essays. They often have excellent GPAs, and they’ve spent many months preparing for the SAT or ACT – but they’ve left the college essay to the last minute.This year, we’re offering a solution. Our early bird webinar helps students start thinking about their essay topics long before the deadlines.

Here are three reasons you should consider taking our webinar, “Writing the Real You: Discover Meaningful and Authentic Essay Topics that Colleges Will LOVE.”

It’s always easy for us to identify top students because they approach their college applications in the same way: They take as many AP or Honors courses as possible, and they get perfect or near-perfect grades throughout high school; they do significant test prep and “crush” the SAT/ACT; they build an impressive list of extracurricular achievements that they showcase in their resumes.

Top students excel at everything they undertake, which is great. But there’s a problem here. The same skills that mean excellence in every other area can actually lead high achieving students to make a critical error when they write their college essays. Top students don’t necessarily write top college essays.