Five Reasons to Hire a College Essay Tutor

Every year, more and more students reach out to private tutors to help with the college admissions process--for good reason.  Over time, the process has become increasingly competitive and complex.  Submitting a good essay is no longer enough to gain admission to the Ivy League or similar top-tier colleges; students need to make themselves stand out with authentic and original work that excites admissions readers.  Fortunately, an experienced private tutor can help students navigate the writing process and frame their story in the best possible light, increasing their chances of admission.  A college essay tutor will add value during the five key stages of the writing process.

1.     Organizing Your Personal Story

The first step toward success in the application process is forming a plan.  A tutor can help you review and organize your academic and extracurricular materials—transcripts, awards, honors, activities, and memorable life experiences.  While you can certainly organize your materials without a tutor (and most tutors encourage having these items on hand before an initial meeting), a good tutor will help you highlight the most impressive areas of your resumé. From here, you can begin to identify possible areas to write about in your personal and supplemental essays.  

2.     Choosing the Right Topic

Once you have your academic, extracurricular, and personal history laid out in front of you, a tutor can help you identify the best topics. The main goal of the personal essay on the Common Application, Coalition Application, and school-specific applications is to highlight your authentic personality and values.  Too many students use this space to cover details about activities and academics that are already discussed in the application (and often belong in specific supplemental essays).  A private tutor can help you brainstorm to find topics that are original and authentic—often based on events or passions you never would have considered writing about on your own. A successful tutor’s job is not to assign you a topic but to help you explore your options until you settle upon your personal best fit.   

3.     Mastering the Style

Before you start drafting your essay on the perfect topic, it helps to know what colleges are looking for in these essays. Unfortunately for most students, the modern high school curriculum does a poor job preparing students to write personal, literary essays.  This is where a skilled tutor can make the difference.  Before beginning the writing process, a tutor can help you learn the ins and outs of writing a personal narrative, blending informal style and formal grammar, and refining catchy introductions and conclusions.  Taking the time to discuss the do’s and don’ts of essay writing with a professional will give you a leg up on your peers who are still writing to please English teachers instead of admissions officers. 

4.     Revising for Success

Iteration is fundamental to great writing.  If you write multiple drafts without external input, however, you are likely to miss crucial structural, stylistic, and even grammatical errors.  This can lead to more work and worse results in the long term.  With a tutor, you can get rapid, customized feedback on each draft. With each round of professional feedback, your current essay improves, and your overall essay writing skills grow.  Overall, this should increase your efficiency and quality throughout the entire process.

5.     Proofreading for Perfection

 You have finally finished your essay after multiple rounds of revision. Now, it is time to proofread.  While parents and teachers can help catch many errors, a professional writer turns to a professional editor for the highest quality work.  You should do the same to ensure the competitiveness of your college essays. Not only can a tutor help with the fundamentals of proofreading (grammar, typos, etc.), but they can also read through each line to ensure the highest level of cohesion and flow throughout the essay. 

While hiring a tutor can be beneficial during any stage of the writing process, students get the best results when they start with a tutor from the beginning.  This can save both time and money because it reduces the amount of frustration and rewriting on the student’s part. With the help of a tutor at every step of the way, students have the confidence and support necessary to produce their absolute best work.