The Admission Studio
A Personal Statement to Distinguish Your Application
The personal statement is your sole opportunity to distinguish yourself from the thousands of applicants whose academic profiles parallel your own and who are vying for a slot at your top choice schools. We will help you to craft the distinctive essay that will set you apart from every comparable applicant. Every senior is limited to a mere 650 words to tell the story that defines their story. We will ensure that you make the most of each of those precious few words, optimizing the syntax to amplify all of your assets. We at the Admission Studio will help guide you to construct a narrative essay that will illuminate those transformative experiences that forged the exceptional traits that you and you alone can offer to the incoming class. Our collaborative process will empower you to document and articulate those key moments into a compelling personal statement that will properly showcase your most distinctive and appealing traits.
Your personal statement adds a face to the numbers on your transcript; you have but a single page with which to make a memorable and urgently admissible impression.
At the Admission Studio, our creative process and editing protocol will help you to optimize every word to feature all you have to offer to your top choice schools.
Our Purpose
For over 20 years, we have helped seniors craft their optimal college essay. We've polished the triumphs, we've salvaged a few disasters, and we've helped uncover many hidden gems in our students' personal histories. Ultimately, we connect with students and guide them toward creative approaches with which they can amplify their distinctive experiences and exceptional traits.
Many students simply need someone other than a parent holding them accountable to get their essay done. That's not us. We know that even amidst the academic grind and ever-increasing demands of sports and activities, every kid has lived through many transformative experiences. Our job is to help students shine a light on these stories and articulate how each distinctive journey uniquely prepared them to contribute to campus life in a meaningful way. With recent changes to the selection and admissions processes across the country, a compelling personal statement is more critical now than ever:
​
“Most of what we’re hearing from that highly selective group is that they’re going to lean more heavily on the essays.”
David Hawkins, National Association for College Admission Counseling
Forbes Magazine, 10/7/2023
We’ve helped dozens of students elevate their application at the Admission Studio. Students we coached have matriculated at, respectively, Bates, Colgate, Dartmouth, Fordham, Villanova, Boston College, UVM, U. of Georgia, Lehigh University, Stonehill, Drexel, U.of Delaware, Union College, U. of Oregon, UNH , Endicott, Hobart, Bentley, WPI, Boston University, Catholic University, Indiana U, and the University of Michigan, among others.
​
Our services are available only during the summer, and we encourage rising seniors to complete as many steps of the admission process as is possible before the start of senior year.
​
Our Process
Amplifying Transformative Moments and Cultivating A Memorable Essay
Finding The Story
Documenting the Transformative Experience
Many students are too humble to recognize the significance of their experiences and their achievements. At The Admission Studio, the fun of the process lies in finding and shaping the optimal narrative to showcase the applicant.
Our creative process is predicated upon relationship building. By getting to know each student, we learn their strengths, their values, and the aspects of their personality that cannot be quantified on their academic transcript.
Optimizing 650
Our Writers' Workshop
Our philosophy borrows from that Strunk and White's timeless writing manual The Elements of Style: Every Word Must Tell. In the first phase, we cast a wide net, in which we document experiences and details well in excess of the 650 word limit. From those lengthy drafts, we extract the most distinctive moments and memories structure them to synthesize a comprehensive portrait of each applicant's past, present and future. This approach helps applicants craft an essay that reveals much, much more than just 'that one thing to write about.' Finally, we edit, trim, cull, and prune to produce a rich and revealing 650 word statement.
Most Personal Statements require four sessions to complete this process, but that number may vary from student to student.
Meeting Formats
Real Time Revisions
We find that meeting online is highly conducive to writing workshops, as we can interface with students while discussing specific passages simultaneously. Consequently, we prefer to meet our students online so that we can guide students through the creative process and the revision process in real time. We do offer in person meetings for clients who reside nearby and feel that interpersonal proximity is beneficial.
When possible, we provide additional complementary lessons on syntax, diction and usage.
​
TESTIMONIALS:
"We highly recommend! He is so personable, thoughtful, insightful, kind, caring and very helpful. He is excellent at taking a student's experiences, thoughts, and ideas and guiding them through the process of writing a compelling essay that really conveys the heart and soul of the student."
​
"He is terrific to work with! He guided two of my seniors through the essay writing process. He helped them by asking a lot of questions so at the end the essays really captured their voice. They came out beautiful!"
Getting Started
Booking With Us
Most seniors require four sessions to cultivate the optimal essay. We can work with students and their schedules; we can meet once or twice a week over a few weeks, or we can book all four sessions in a single week. Our rate for each 60m session is $100. Some students require more than four sessions; we will meet as frequently as is needed in order to complete the best possible essay for each student.
Call or text 617-308-3738 to book your first session or to inquire for more details.
​
We also offer guidance and workshops for students' supplemental application essays as well. We are not 'college coaches.' We specialize in essays- both the personal statement and school-specific supplemental essays.
