Krithika and I explored two topics before settling on her passion for music, which was a major part of her ilfe. (The first focused on an event from middle school which felt too long ago to be relevant.) We focused on making her opening as compelling as possible since that sets the first impression. An intro about playing a classical piece may sound trite, but the magic is in the details.

Some journaling questions that helped: “What are your thoughts going through your head during this? Show us the struggle here and inner dialogue. The goal is here to build the momentum and really make us feel like we're in your head. Don't forget most people don't play an instrument - make us feel like we do with evocative instruction.”

We then focused on cutting anything wordy to strengthen her already sharp writing and let her humorous voice come to life.

Imagine how thrilled I was when Krithika emailed me this: “I hope you are staying safe and healthy during these times. It was great to hear from you! My admissions season went well. I was accepted into Duke, Emory, and UNC-Chapel Hill's Honors Program and assured enrollment to their Nutrition program at the Gillings School of Public Health with a $40,000 scholarship. I will be attending UNC in the fall. Thank you for your support during this process! Go Heels! :) ”

I was so excited to hear about her good news that I had to ask her for a testimonial. Read it below:

"Working with Ms. Shuster not only bettered my essays but also facilitated a better understanding of myself as a person. I considered myself a strong writer, but working with Ms. Shuster took my ideas from good to authentic and creative. Throughout our extensive calls, Ms. Shuster encouraged me to really reflect on each and every experience I could remember to fully enrich the most detailed essays I could have written. Most importantly, Ms. Shuster was very easy to work with. If I ever encountered writer's block, I could regularly rely on Ms. Shuster to help me work through whatever obstacle I was facing in my writing and come out with a significantly better essay than what I had when we started."

-Krithika, Accepted to Duke, Emory, and UNC