College Essay Coaching
The 650-word personal statement and many supplemental essays due with any college application are essential. They tell colleges what a student values and what values that student will bring to their new community. Our essay coaches work with their students to find, clarify and communicate their voice: their personality, values, and future plans. Our students write essays they’re proud of, and they often experience epiphanies about their lives along the way. Best of all, of course, are their stellar admissions results.
“I got into quite a few schools, including six Ivy Leagues, MIT, the PLME program at Brown, and many universities and honors programs. I couldn’t have done it without your help in improving my SAT scores and writing an absolutely smashing Common App essay.”
– Bespoke student now attending Harvard
Why A College Essay Coach?
Co-Directors Sam Segan and Gary Jaffe together have more than 30 years of essay-reading and essay-coaching experience. They have trained a diverse team of over 50 Bespoke essay coaches, many of them creative professionals themselves, to follow the principles of sound essay coaching while retaining their own unique styles of guiding students.
The Bespoke Second Reader Service
For all college essay students, Bespoke includes, at no extra charge, extensive written essay feedback from two expert admissions coaches who model colleges’ responses to their essays. The Bespoke essay coach then helps students integrate this feedback to take their essay to the next level.
Past College Essay Webinars
Everything You Need to Know About College Essays
What makes a great personal essay? How do I pick my topic? What is a supplement? What is a parent’s role in college essay creation? Bespoke college essay experts Sam Segan and Gary Jaffe discuss how to craft authentic essays for college applications.
College Essay Masterclass
Expert college essay coaches Sam and Gary take on the roles of student and tutor to recreate the process of creating an outstanding personal statement for the Common App.
How NOT to Write Your College Essays: Lessons from AI
Bespoke’s college essay coaches discuss the pros and cons of AI and demonstrate how ChatGPT and similar tools can result in essays that lack depth, specificity, and authenticity. They compare ChatGPT-generated essays to student-written essays and highlight key differences and shortcomings of AI-generated essays.
The Next-Level College Essay
In this advanced webinar, our top college essay coaches Sam Segan and Gary Jaffe share the writing toolkit you need to craft a dazzling personal statement.
How Does Bespoke Help?
The Process:
A Bespoke College Essay Coach will guide students from the blank page to a final draft for all college essays.
- Brainstorming: Students explore everything from a favorite color or a family tradition to a collection of shoes—anything could become a fantastic essay. Everyone’s got a story to tell!
- Topic: We ensure each student loves their topic and will enjoy exploring it for the time needed to craft an exceptional essay.
- Outline: We have templates that allow for flexibility and individuality.
- Drafting: Micro-assignments simplify writing. Just one rule: NO DELETING ALLOWED
- Feedback: Two Bespoke experts provide written feedback modeling how colleges will respond to student work.
- Editing: “Writing is rewriting.” Through multiple drafts, we refine, trim, and polish to make the essay shine.
- Voice: we help your student find their authentic voice – no AI here!
- An Ethical Commitment: Bespoke tutors only comment upon student work; we never write for them!
The Packages
Restrictive Early Action or Early Decision? A pre-college course at Brown or a journalism internship in NYC? Test-Prep or Test-Optional? How does FAFSA work, anyway? Find your answers here. Bespoke refers to a select few College Advisors to answer all these questions and more.
12-Hour Package:
Our introductory package guides students toward a clean first draft of their personal statement.
In these twelve hours, the College Essay Coach will guide the student through the steps (brainstorming, outlining, and multiple rounds of drafting and editing) to a clean first draft of the 650-word personal statement included in every application and on the Common App. The student’s statement will also receive feedback from Bespoke’s Second Readers, modeling how colleges will respond to their work.
24-40 Hour Package:
Our complete packages guide students toward final, polished versions of their personal statement AND all other written components of their applications.
In 24 to 40 hours of work, the College Essay Coach will guide the student through all of the steps to complete final polished versions of not only their personal statement but also every supplemental essay, activities list, and resume. We provide organizational templates so students are sure to complete this daunting array of essays efficiently and well in advance of due dates. The student’s personal statement will also receive feedback from Bespoke Second Readers, modeling how colleges will respond to their work. Packages with more hours are intended for students who apply to many colleges, have ambitious goals for their essays, or wish for additional support in the process.
Download Our FAQs
“Your insight, guidance and positive support through the essay writing was beyond what I could have even hoped for. I am so proud of what both my kids accomplished writing their personal statements — I know it’s a task oriented piece of writing but when I read through both I am just blown away what they were able to communicate in writing on paper about themselves and we owe that all to you.”
– Parent of Bespoke student now attending Washington University in St. Louis
“I feel good about my essay because it feels like my story and who I am as a person. It was easy working with Ms. D.”
– Bespoke student from Uncommon Charter School
“Sam was incredible and made me a much better writer.”
– Bespoke student now attending Georgetown University
“My favorite part of essay work is when students discover the power of their own voice. I’ve seen students who write like my favorite fantasy authors all the way to the precise scientific language of academic articles and everything in between. It’s so exciting to hear their voices arrive on the page!”
– Christine S., Bespoke Education Coach
“When I ask students questions about the ideas close to their hearts, their responses–reflecting on the past, imagining the future–yield essays that shine. The process of writing a college essay can be instructive, meaningful, even transformative.”
– Sally D., Bespoke Education Coach
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