COLLEGE ENTRANCE ESSAY EDITING

You write the first draft. I make it sing! 

Applying for college and grad school is daunting… essential… and life-defining. 

You’re on a very personal adventure – one that will define your entire life. 

As someone who has helped a generation of students get into the colleges of their choice, I make it easy. I create everything with you one-on-one. 

You hire me; you get me. No matter how many essays or applications you need, let’s talk about where you want to go and how I can help you get there by dedicating my time and expertise to you.

Writing Sample 

Essay for Josh and Marc to get in to private school – or else..

Both of our boys work hard at school, but their schools aren’t working for them.  

Our older son, Josh, sang “I wanna go to MIT” from the time he could toddle.  Math and Science have always been his strengths.  He will thrive at MIT someday, like the other students welcomed there, if and only if, he has the best teachers, intellectual stimulation and inspiration like the other kids do. 

But there’s none of that in Montgomery County – none - where faculty disappear like shadows, without warning or subs, leaving my smart boy with five empty classes, everyday, which his school fills with video games.  What? 

Our younger son, Marc, is Black, and came to us, temporarily, through the Foster Care program.  But temporary became forever in a heartbeat, because we all fell in love immediately with this joyous little boy with hope in his eyes.

He’s done well at school so far, loving math and making friends in the split second it takes to smile.  But trying to learn in a crime-filled ‘hood, where teachers spend most of the day on discipline and collecting weapons, he could end up right back where his abusive, drug-addicted, biological family abandoned him as an infant, at the corner of nothin’ and nowhere.

My husband and I thought it would be enlightening for our children to grow up in a mixed neighborhood.  But now, outside their seedy schools, the first things my kids see every morning are squad cars, with their engines running, waiting for gunfire, and yet another student’s murder.     

Our one-hundred-and ten-year-old house on Shepherd Street is all we can afford and is this close to falling down.  When it’s freezing in the winter, we stuff socks around the gaps in our windowpanes.

From day one of our professional lives, my husband and I have chosen to make a difference by working for non-profits instead of Wall Street.  We like to think we’re leaving positive footprints and a good example for our children.  But now, Wall Street has private school money.  And we’re relegated to the sad truth there are no opportunities for our promising, middle-class kids. 

This is not my America.  Is it yours?

(c) 2023 Anything With Words.

Tips to elevate your essay experience

• Provide context. Help the reader learn about who you are and what has brought you to this stage in your life.

• Tell a great story. Captivate your reader’s attention inside of a great narrative.

• Write like you speak. You want the reader to feel like you’re sitting next to them and telling the story.

• Consider your reader. While writing, imagine how the reader will feel after seeing your words. Write about a topic you love, something you’ve thought deeply about, or feel excited about.  

• Start early. There’s no such thing as preparing “too early.” Get that essay done and relax while your friends sweat it out as the deadline approaches.

“My son is all math/science. No writing skills. His entrance essay - just plain bad. We were terrified he’d end up in junior college. Then Molly made his essay sing, like she promised. Say hello to a UCLA mom.” –G. G. Rosenberg