Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to Lehman & Hunter College in NYC

Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to Lehman & Hunter College in NYC

"I have to thank you for all your help! Ms. Shuster's techniques for helping students with their essays are astonishingly effective. She just doesn't limit herself to fix our essays, but rather to make us part of the essay's revision by asking us questions about us that can help, she also ensures we are comfortable with her suggestions. Without Ms. Shuster, I doubt I would have had been able to be as confident about both my personal statement and supplements. All of this is pro-bono."

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😩😩😩 Class of 2021 Sets New Admissions Records

😩😩😩 Class of 2021 Sets New Admissions Records

Applications have skyrocketed to Ivy League schools. Cornell got 47K+ apps and accepted only 12.5% (a record low). UPenn had 40K+ apps and admitted only 9.15%—the lowest in history. Brown had 32K+ apps and accepted a record low of 8.3%. Stanford got 44+ apps and admitted just 4.65% of that application pool, another historical lowest rate.

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Admissions Essay Gimmicks Not to Fall For (The Hashtag Essay is Not a Thing)

Admissions Essay Gimmicks Not to Fall For (The Hashtag Essay is Not a Thing)

Writing the admissions essay is so stressful that I don't blame students for reading about seemingly easy, out-of-the-box approaches and thinking, well, if it worked for this guy, why not me? The problem with such methods, though, is you're not the only one thinking that. Once an admissions trick becomes a trend (and a national news story), it's no longer out of the box. Translation: instead of looking creative, you look lazy.

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Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to NYU, Baruch, Lehman & more!

Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to NYU, Baruch, Lehman & more!

I worked with Marie last winter pro bono in partnership with a public school in NYC and I knew right away she was a force to be reckoned with. Her first draft was impressive and it was clear she knew the power of a creative narrative. Her first line started "in media res" (in the middle of the action), which draws the reader in right away and continued with evocative descriptions that helped me feel like I was right there with her throughout her narrative. We worked on clarifying timelines and context, cutting cliches and repetitions, reordering paragraphs for a smooth, easy-to-read flow, and digging deeper to get to the emotional root of the story.

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The Most Important Quality To Show In Your Admissions Essay

The Most Important Quality To Show In Your Admissions Essay

 "Letters of recommendation are typically superfluous, written by people who the applicant thinks will impress a school. We regularly receive letters from former presidents, celebrities, trustee relatives and Olympic athletes. But they generally fail to provide us with another angle on who the student is, or could be as a member of our community."

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Shocker Alert: UVA Gives Wealthy Applicants Admissions Priority

Shocker Alert: UVA Gives Wealthy Applicants Admissions Priority
  • Oh boy...The University of Virginia allegedly kept track of applicants with wealthy relatives to offer them special admission. You assumed this kind of thing happens; well the Post's got the receipts. [Teen Vogue]
  • Which may explain why Princeton is scrambling to block the release of its own admission records [BuzzFeed]
  • And don't stress too much: all the blood, sweat & tears you put into your application only takes 4 minutes to read [HuffPo]
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Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to St. Ignatius College Preparatory

Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to St. Ignatius College Preparatory

Yelena encouraged us to write freely and give a lot of examples to help our son come alive before the Admission Committees. She then skillfully edited our answers to highlight his strengths and show how he was working on his weaknesses. As we moved along, to ease the process, Yelena created a master file with all of our answers so that we could reuse them efficiently. She not only edited each application package, but also helped us ensure that we were consistent between the parent and the student essays, covered everything we needed to, and were not repeating ourselves—no small feat with such a volume of work! I am very happy to say that we completed all the applications several weeks before the deadline and feel very good about them.  We could not have gotten this done without Yelena!"
—Regina, parent of Max, who was accepted to St. Ignacius College Preparatory & JCHS

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Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to the USC School of Social Work (with Scholarship!)

Testimonial Tuesday: Accepted to the USC School of Social Work (with Scholarship!)

 

"Yelena provided my essay with the perfect pair of fresh eyes. She shined a light on all of the blind spots, showing me which content I needed to highlight more or less. And the best part? The revision process was conveniently done online via a Google Doc. Yelena gave lengthy and straightforward comments that were 100% helpful. Without her guidance, I'm not sure if my essay would've had the same impact." —Dara, accepted to the USC School of Social Work
 

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How to Get Strangers to Pay For Your College Tuition Money

How to Get Strangers to Pay For Your College Tuition Money

In this week's Admission News You Might Have Missed:

  • With college costing more than 14 illegal kidneys, more students are turning to GoFundMe campaigns to raise money for college costs. Over the past 3 years, more than 130,000 GoFundMe campaigns nationwide have raised $60 million from over 850,000 donations for college tuition and related expenses. [Chicago Tribune]

  • Careful out there...35% of 365 college admissions officers in a Kaplan Test Prep survey said they check social media during the admissions process. 47% said what they found had a positive impact on prospective students versus 42% who said what they discovered had a negative impact. [CNN]
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DROP. EVERYTHING. New Common App Essay Prompts for 2017-2018

DROP. EVERYTHING. New Common App Essay Prompts for 2017-2018

🚨 🚨 🚨 There are two new Common App Essay Prompts for 2017-18: one is literally a blank slate, reinforcing my advice to ignore them altogether when writing yours.

Describe a topic, idea or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? [New]

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

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Testimonial Tuesday: Pro Bono Admissions Essay Workshop

Testimonial Tuesday: Pro Bono Admissions Essay Workshop

In addition to my one-on-one pro bono work with underserved students, I also love going back to school (#NERD) and hosting admissions essay seminars. Last fall, I led an essay workshop at a local New York public school where 73% of the students receive a free lunch. We discussed how admission essays are different from the academic essays they're taught at school, why the personal statement can influence your acceptance, and the secret things admissions officers look for (and don't want to see) in your answer. 
 

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3 Ways to Beat Admissions Essay Writer's Block

3 Ways to Beat Admissions Essay Writer's Block

Whenever you’re sitting at the screen panicked like a Cathy cartoon, just remind yourself that you will revise it into a masterpiece later. For now, just get it all out, hide it in a locked treasure chest in your secret nuclear bunker (these are required for 2017, no?), wait a week, then revisit it with a fresh mind and perspective. Voila!

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Stuck On Your Essay? This Writing Mantra Will Save You

Stuck On Your Essay? This Writing Mantra Will Save You

The hardest part about writing is getting out of your own head and silencing your inner critic. This quote helps remind you that all you can do now is word-vomit your first draft and then take time later to finesse it into perfection. 

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BOO: 4 Scary Personal Essay Mistakes To Avoid

BOO: 4 Scary Personal Essay Mistakes To Avoid

In honor of last night's Halloween shenanigans, let's talk about terrifying mistakes not to make in your admissions essay. As someone who helps students brag about themselves for their admissions essays, I’ve realized there’s a fine line between impressing someone and irritating them. So what do you do when the cover letter practically begs you to be #blessed all over the place? Check out our killer tips for wowing their socks off without turning them off. 

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Admission Essay Lessons from Tonight's Election Debate

Admission Essay Lessons from Tonight's Election Debate

Whatever your politics, you can agree that presidential debates can bring out the best in people—or the worst. Some people onstage look calm, educated, and even presidential. Others look mean-spirited, angry, and even unstable. So what does that have to do with the admissions essay? Republican or Democrat, you have to come across as LIKABLE in your personal statement. Based on countless interviews with admissions officers, that is the #1 quality they look for when making the decision to accept you or not. So how do you that exactly? 

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3 Reasons You Should Stop Freaking Out About Getting In

3 Reasons You Should Stop Freaking Out About Getting In

First, the bad news: college admissions rates are lower than ever.  Thanks to the growing population of American 18- to 24-year-olds, better financial aid packages, and the recession-fueled surge in college value, more people are applying to college than ever before. But before you panic, check out these reassuring trends.

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