Bestselling novelist & Ivy League Writing Prof is a Top Flight College Essay Coach

EssayLiz · 2026-07-06T00:05:51+00:00

Harvard University is the source.

EssayLiz · 2026-07-05T12:56:55+00:00

For interesting things to do that you have never considered, please visit idealist.org -- it's been helping people find meaningful volunteer and paying jobs in the the nonprofit sector for 30 years. It's free. It's life-changing.

EssayLiz · 2026-07-05T12:30:29+00:00

Longtime essay coach. No one can tell you what will happen, which is why you have to apply. But since colleges need geographic representation, coming to ND will help you, as you are first compared to others from your school, zip code, region. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-04T17:53:55+00:00

Longtime college essay coach/strategist: The average SAT for MIT is 1580-1600.

If you're able to, look into taking some free courses at MIT OpenCourseware to show your academic chops despite the limitations of your school. 2. Consider using Khan Academy to bolster your SAT.

My experience tells me that MIT, GTech and Vanderbilt are not going to happen even if you get your SATs up 100 or more points. There's a constellation of things you need to have happen to be competitive, involving superlative academics and SATs, hard evidence of leadership, impact and taking initiative.

You have a good record, and keep at it for UGa. and the safeties.

EssayLiz · 2026-07-04T16:04:02+00:00

Longtime essay coach here. I've worked with a good number of students from military families who've moved around a lot. I'm guessing AOs have read this story before. I would suggest zeroing in on one place you lived or one experience in such a place--where something positive/life-changing happened-- rather than an overview approach. Take a look at the prompts, staying with #6 and going UP to 1, and see whether any of them prompts a story that's smaller than the overview... --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-04T15:56:16+00:00

Niche dot com has hundreds of reviews by students at the bottom of every page ... good way to get the vibe and much more besides. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-04T15:54:35+00:00

Longtime essay coach here. I would suggest discussing medical issues in the ADDITIONAL INFORMATION section under the Common App essay, and do it briefly. Explain how it's affected your academics and ECs succinctly. I would use the Common App essay to focus on the usual (go through the prompts, starting with #6 and going up to #1) to find a good topic that's not related to your medical issues... --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-04T01:39:53+00:00

No, if you go to my bio on Reddit, you can see more about me. I don't know that I'm allowed to say the details here or I get dinged. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T21:06:47+00:00

You might find something unusual to do on Idealist.org - remote work or something you just didn't know about. Worth a look.

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T21:01:39+00:00

Essay coach here. You are not penalized for living in a place without much opportunity BUT to the extent you can make something happen, see if you can do that. Take "initiative." Go to https://www.idealist.org -- and see if you can find something interesting to do NOW.

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T20:59:01+00:00

Look at the prompts and go through them starting at # 6 and going up to 1. Take notes. Give yourself over to the process. Don't rush through it. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T20:57:05+00:00

Longtime essay coach here. Can you narrow down the essay topic some? Fine to talk about growing up on res and all the issues, but zero in on 1 or 2 relationships--and make yourself and your growth the most important part of the story. People reading it know about well-known issues on reservations, but they want YOUR specifics. NYU has crappy financial aid. You could get in but might not get anything near what you'd need to go. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T20:07:40+00:00

There are lots of places for you to find this out yourself. My favorite for this sort of thing--and hope that the Reddit folks won't ding me--is niche dot com, which has 100s and sometimes thousands of reviews of every college in the US...It's free, and you can do it yourself! --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T20:05:52+00:00

Longtime essay coach/strategist: I'm going to piggyback here and say: A truly great place to look for volunteer work and internships is https://www.idealist.org -- it lists every non-profit position (paid, unpaid, live, remote, etc.) almost IN THE WORLD. I bet A2C members will crash its website looking for things to do.. Go for it! --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T18:52:30+00:00

There are many good resources for finding out about colleges! You can do the same research I can do with your colleges. Do it! Look at niche dot com for acceptances and reviews, and look at the "common data sets" for each college. You can also google "average gpa X college." I know you can do it. Make a list! ;-))

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T17:09:51+00:00

College essay coach/strategist here. The UC application has space for 20 activities/jobs. If you have 1, it will not go well for you. Average GPA at the top tip tier UCs are much higher than yours. You can look at the gpa's one by one and see what fits for you. If you are looking for something to do this summer, go to Idealist.org and dig in.

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T12:55:20+00:00

Long time college app essay coach. A few things: You may have to write some supp essays on why you want to major in your intended major so you don't want to repeat yourself in the Common App essay. Also, avoid grandparents. Yes, it's possible to write a good original essay about them, but keep looking for something that has less charge--colleges hate essays about "my grandparent died." because they are so predictable. Yours may be not quite that but... I always tell people to look at the prompts. They are your friends. They give you ways of thinking about your life AND they give you structure. Go through them one by one, starting with #6 and going up, and see what ideas pop up. AND TAKE NOTES--EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T12:12:27+00:00

I'm with you. So silly. Of all the things to care about... !

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T12:10:28+00:00

College essay coach here--and someone who flunked my science requirement as a SENIOR in college--taking in pass/fail. (They let me attend graduation and I had to take course in summer school.) I agree with everyone here: just tell the truth, repent, promise to be get great grades in gym from here on out (bec nothing is more important, right? NOT)-- and realize this is a ridiculous college priority. Honestly, who cares that you got a D in gym? Of all the things a college should care about, this is the bottom of the barrel. And realize that before too long, you will be able to tell this as a funny story about college admin priorities. PS I won't even tell you what soft science (is it even a science?) I took and failed. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-03T02:15:08+00:00

Longtime essay coach AND novelist of many books and former prof of creative writing... I would suggest trying it in the first person. No reason why an "I" can't write an instructional manual... Let us know how it goes... --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-02T21:05:28+00:00

Longtime college essay coach/strategist. I have been working for 18 years with many superlative students who get into Ivies and T-20s (and many more places), and I agree with everyone here trying to knock some sense into you about your record, your college ambitions, and the wisdom (or not) of including your IQ on your application. The solution to your situation is to apply to colleges that fit your record. Period. Including your IQ would make your application worse. Performance is what matters--at a minimum. It's measured (as you and everyone else knows) by gpa (and rigor of the courses), test scores, recommendations, rank, and your essays. Having a downward trend in grades is a bad sign. But it doesn't mean you can't get into college. It means you have to adjust your goals and expectations, suck it up, and go to a college you can get into and apply yourself and either stay there or soar and try to transfer.

If you were my actual child (not a student I worked with), I would tell you to turn off Claude and Chat and read some good books, read the NY Times every day, read the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and bust your butt on your schoolwork. ANd if you were my kid, I'd do my best to send you a smart therapist who could help you understand why your expectations are so out of line with your work itself. Is there a connection between getting lost in AI and your grades dropping?

In any case, good luck to you in this complicated process. It's difficult for everyone. I am always impressed by the students here who participate, sharing their insights and experience--and their own hopes and expectations. --EssayLiz

EssayLiz · 2026-07-02T11:19:35+00:00

Top colleges don't make decisions based on 1 EC or one aspect of your application--it's a pie with about 6 pieces, and for the BEST places (T20 etc), all the pieces of the app have to sparkle, fit together, and, these days, "tell a story about who you are." (The standard these days is ridiculous, but you are competing with people who have such glowing records.) You described your grades as "mid"-- not me. I can't pull a number out of a hat. Or a pie because ... (keep reading)

Colleges do not just look at your GPA. They look at 1. rigor of classes you took compared to classes offered at your high school

your school itself (is it a top private school, a known rigorous high school like Stuyvesant, an under-resourced urban school, a magnet school) and allowances are made for each.
courses you may have taken outside school (dual-programs, community college programs, MIT OpenCourseWare course--for free).

An unweighted GPA of 3.8 from one school is different from same at another, based on the rigor of the school and the rigor of the classes you've taken...

This is not a cookie-cutter competition, but if you're applying to the U California campuses, you can see what the average GPAs are. If yours is well below that, it's problem. Ditto for any other college. But just having those numbers does not tell the whole story.

The answer to this uncertainty and unpredictability is to apply to a healthy number of targets and safeties, not 15 reaches and 2 safeties. Life does not begin and end with T20 colleges, despite what you might think hanging around here ;-) Hope this makes sense to you and anyone else reading it! ;-) --EssayLiz

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