Are you spinning your wheels trying to find a topic for your college application essay?

Get off the treadmill. Let it go.

You probably need a new approach. That’s where I come in. Together we explore your life, interests, experiences, and beliefs.

I”m the College Essay Confidante — an award-winning journalist and the former editor of the Westford Eagle and Littleton Independent. I know how to guide you in writing a good essay.

I offer a three hour workshop with seats for no more than six rising seniors. Each of you gets some time to share your thoughts. No matter how vague your topic ideas are, we can home in on your ideas, massage and refine them into an organized essay.

You’ll leave with a solid topic, an opening paragraph and a promise from me to edit your first draft if delivered by an agreed upon deadline.

To register for the June 28 workshop, CLICK HERE.

If you have questions, email me at winningcollegeessay@gmail.com.

The College Essay Confidantè tells you why writing a well-composed, compelling essay can make a difference in the college acceptance process.

A new workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, June 27, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Westford. REGISTER HERE.

High School juniors, are you panicking as junior year ends and you face the prospect of having a college essay to write and college applications to complete?

Attend my college prep night on Thursday, June 28, 7 to 9 p.m. in the Chelmsford Public Library, 25 Boston Road, Chelmsford. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about applying for college and answer all your questions.

The event is free-of-charge and open to rising seniors and their parents.

REGISTER HERE: https://www.collegeessayconfidante.com/events/

Panelists: 

Andrew N. Carter, Senior Associate Director, Office of Admissions, College of the Holy Cross;

Julie Shields-Rutyna, Director of College Planning at the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority.

Joyce Pellino Crane, the College Essay Confidante, specializing in help with brainstorming college essay topics.

Questions? Email winningcollegeessay@gmail.com.

The College Essay Confidantè is holding a workshop to help rising seniors brainstorm topics for their college essays. 

The three-hour workshop is limited to 6 students. It meets on Wednesday, June 27 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The workshop will take place at a Westford location. The address will be provided to registrants.

Students will leave with a solid topic and the opening paragraph for their essay. The College Essay Confidantè will review a finished draft if the essay is completed by a mutually determined deadline.

We’ll do brainstorming exercises to help you know yourself better and think deeply about a topic that will help an admissions officer know you better.

SEATS WILL SELL! PURCHASE NOW; collegeessayconfidante.com/workshops.

The New York Times has just released this year’s standout essays by graduating seniors.

The essays are a testimony to how the simplest or most mundane thing about your life could become a compelling story. I often tell my students that I could write an essay about brushing my teeth and make you want to read it. [Email me if you’d like assistance with writing your essay: winningcollegeessay@gmail.com.]

Each of these essays has something in common. Notice how each one begins in the middle of an action or a thought. That’s an important aspect of the college essay because space is limited. Knowing how to begin is the key to your success.

Here are the opening paragraphs of each of the essays published in the NY Times on May 11 [Click here to read the complete essays]:

“My grandmother hovers over the stove flame, fanning it as she melodically hums Kikuyu spirituals. She kneads the dough and places it on the stove, her veins throbbing with every movement: a living masterpiece painted by a life of poverty and motherhood. The air becomes thick with smoke and I am soon forced out of the walls of the mud-brick house while she laughs.” —  Eric Ngugi Muthondu

“I always assumed my father wished I had been born a boy.” — Alison Hess

“Not all sons of doctors raise baby ducks and chickens in their kitchen. But I do. My dad taught me.” — Jeffrey C. Yu

“’Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’ Not only do Benjamin Franklin’s words still resonate today, but, if you are like most, filing income taxes is simply unpleasant.”     – Caroline S. Beit

Seniors, if you’d like to share the essay you wrote for college admission, send it to winningcollegeessay@gmail.com and, if it’s a standout, I’ll post it here. [The editor reserves the right to reject essays deemed inappropriate in any way — including language, content, and grammar .] 

I often talk to my students about their “true essence.” What I mean by this is that I want them to truly understand who they are for all their talents, skills, assets, foibles, and insecurities. That’s not easy to do. It takes courage to face our less attractive traits and admit them to ourselves. But once we’re able to do this, we start to get a clearer picture of ourselves.

LET’S PLAY A GAME

Here’s a quick game to help you get started. Come up with one word to describe yourself for each letter of the alphabet, A through Z. Are you alert, aware, agile, awesome?

Would you describe yourself as zany, zen-like, zealous? (Z words are not so easy to come up with!) This game is designed to make you think about yourself in a detailed way as you begin the process of getting to know yourself intimately. Understanding yourself and skimming over your daily life will help you find an essay topic that engages you.

If you’d like some help, sign up for my upcoming workshop here.