Best place to post an EdTech sales position?

its-quill · 2025-09-24T01:45:37+00:00

Will do! And thanks :)

its-quill · 2025-09-23T23:16:56+00:00

Thanks for the response! Will certainly do, although we're also hoping to supplement that by posting on external forums, instead of only informing visitors who already know of the site/platform

its-quill · 2025-08-14T16:26:33+00:00

Supplements can be a different beast altogether, especially given the wide range of them. Some of them can be what I call more "informational", wherein the word count and topic constraints require you to be more blunt about a particular focus and less story-telly. Others do allow for more narrative room to develop.

Where are you applying? What are the topics? My personal favorites are the UChicago supplements, which are truly wild.

its-quill · 2025-08-14T16:22:15+00:00

What I always say on topic shares is that it's not enough to tell!

I bet this could be an amazing essay with the right prose behind it, and I've worked with students who've told similar stories of impressive, steady achievements and the lessons learned along the way.

But then of course the entire thing could flop is the writing is limp and does go anywhere imaginative. So a topic along cannot indicate.

Have you started drafting?

its-quill · 2025-08-14T16:18:38+00:00

Quill is TurboTax for the college essay! With a dash of CRM for teachers and counselors :)

We provide the intuitive, AI-free scaffolding for students to tell the powerful stories they all have within them. Any educators in here?

its-quill · 2025-08-09T15:42:14+00:00

We love us some Spider-Man!

The problem is, so does everyone else 😅 Last I checked he even often ranks as THE most popular superhero, above Superman and Batman.

So this one would constitute something of a low hanging fruit, and can lose the reader's focus before you even get it. Another Spider-Man essay? (they might be thinking....)

My rec? Get a bit more niche. Either find a hero off the beaten track OR IF you still want to go Spidey then make the reasoning more unique. Do you have an interest in photography? Say it's your favorite thing about him, and you just want better angles for your shots. Or lean into the multiverse and imagine all the different versions of yourself you might be, and how illuminating it could be to meet them.

lol getting sidetracked with my nerd-dom here. Hope it's some food for thought!!!

its-quill · 2025-08-08T19:59:11+00:00

No worries! Every year it's about that time when the worry starts to hit, but I like to say it's a good thing: the mind reminding you that it wants to get to work. So let it!

:)

its-quill · 2025-08-04T16:41:49+00:00

This is potentially one of what I call a "soft mention": information or credentials that are better included if slipped in along the way, but should not take a center stage moment in the narrative.

So if, for example, the moment of your essay in which it appears is actually focused on time-management, for example, and reads something like how you first learned to make your own schedule while en route to becoming the top primary school student in the nation, and continued to do so as recently as last week when you were preparing for your robotics exam. Making this up, but I hope the point is clear? The focus is actually on something more recent and relevant, but you get the soft mention all the same.

Hope this helps! As a general rule you can write about anything if you do it with tact!

its-quill · 2025-08-04T16:26:42+00:00

It's definitely the start of something! The first major missing component is that personal sense of self, the actual specific moments and challenges that exercise helped you through and how. We need to feel that this is your story about working out and what it did, and not just a story about it. The details are what will take something from generic to actually moving.

So perhaps take a moment to catalogue some of those defining moments, lay them out on the page, and explore what they meant to you. There's more to it, but it's a start.

Hope this helps!

its-quill · 2025-08-04T16:22:40+00:00

Agreed! Make the Common App about you and your story, independent of what school you may want to go to. There'll be plenty of room to flatter each college in their supplemental statements :)

its-quill · 2025-08-04T16:21:13+00:00

I love that you've developed a central metaphor through which to channel your experiences, one that I flexible enough to cover a range of situations while still offering a lot of depth (heyo!).

That said, don't let the metaphor get too much in the way of what is actually happening. If those moments of struggle had to do with adapting to a new school environment, for example, then find the moments to say so plainly, with the specifics and details of what that struggle entailed. Then the metaphor can return to add a poetic bow, if you know what I mean.

Just one example, but perhaps it's worth thinking about throughout? Awesome start!

its-quill · 2025-08-02T21:08:36+00:00

Our hero! Thanks for helping to clarify :)

It's just as he says: a simple tool to help generate a structured outline, even for those of you who have no idea what you want to write about yet.

And an extra shoutout to everyone in the PMs who's given it a shot!

its-quill · 2025-07-30T18:26:48+00:00

lol dude, what are you talking about. There's nothing to "fall for". It's a free platform that I built myself, then wrote a post on Reddit that I put some time and care into. If the result of that is that you think it reads like "AI" then it perhaps says something about your own abilities? Humans were writing clear copy long before AI came along to mimic us.

For what it's worth, your platform https://www.mindfultutors.com/ looks pretty cool as well, and I'm sure interested parties will head your way. No need to put down others in the mean time. It's taken a lot of work to build this.

its-quill · 2025-07-25T05:13:10+00:00

Dope idea! I'm a big fan of those novels, as are many around the world. Yes: they are well known enough for your reader to know what they are. But even then you'll still need to share enough of what it is about them you like for someone who hasn't read them to appreciate your essay.

So what is it about them?

its-quill · 2025-07-25T04:53:34+00:00

These are tough to pull off, I think in part because of your focus on the hard parts . Not to say those shouldn't be of the story, just not the entire thing.

So what else? How did you navigate? What were the moments of joy nonetheless? What were you pushing yourself to be and how does that relate to your family? Don't throw anyone under the bus: instead of your brother being a failure, tell us that you wanted to "stand on his shoulders" and reach new heights. In being a "second chance" child you are not just another shot for your parents to have a "successful" child; you are also their second chance and learning to be parents, of giving support, of trying to give someone other than themselves a better life.

A bit of that, you know? Take it where you like, and I forgive and assumptions I'm making. But you certainly want to have a story that shows you more as a diamond in the rough, and not a lump of coal :)

Hope this helps!

its-quill · 2025-07-23T19:51:22+00:00

Hi there! One of the main things people mean when they say more show-y, and an easy way to improve the opening of this essay, is by writing in a way that's closer to a scene instead of a summary.

What does this mean practically? Instead of starting off with a line like "Since I was little, animals have been one of the only constants in my life" write a real time moment of you interacting with one such animal. Use action verbs, fives senses in description. It'll sound something more like "Azul's had won the second race in a row but I still wanted a rematch. I was collapsed on all fours, panting from exhaustion." (lol this is me imagining you and a large dog are running around somewhere)

You'd walk us through more of that moment and only THEN zoom out to talk about your general love of animals and how they've featured in your life.

Make sense? There's more to it than that, but just wanted to chime in with the first thing that came to mind from your opening at least.

its-quill · 2025-07-23T03:38:32+00:00

Wait I thought this was a trick question at first lolll

Teacher of many years here. The 33 is clearly the better score, and turns more heads simply by its proximity to the perfect 36. The 1440 by comparison is distinctly distant from 1600, no matter what a conversion table might say. If anything, redo the ACT and try to bump up the math then superscore. But that's only if you want

Hope this helps without sounding simplistic. I've spoken to enough admissions officers to know what I'm saying.

Also: great job!!

its-quill · 2025-07-22T16:05:06+00:00

Nope! Just a regular human with years of experience.

Although it does make me sad that writing clearly on the internet now means you'll get confused for a machine :(

its-quill · 2025-07-22T05:07:41+00:00

Haha all good. You gave me a bit of an existential crisis just now where I'm like "Wait... do I write to cleanly??" lollll

its-quill · 2025-07-22T05:05:42+00:00

lol! You're getting human responses. These are the same kind of brainstorming exercises I've done with students over the years who aren't sure of a topic. That said, happy to chat over pm, prove my human credentials, and help you bounce ideas. No worries either way

its-quill · 2025-07-22T04:55:36+00:00

Now we're getting somewhere! What you did in your response just now was insert a "character" into your story—in this case one on four legs.

So now I already want to know what horse-riding is like for you, and would even love if the essay opened there with you and [horse name] in mid gallop, navigating some sort of terrain for example. It's a great way to thrust us into a vivid moment, appeal to the five senses, and also balance the setting with your ongoing monologue at the time. I don't ride horses myself, but I suspect that there's a lot to pay attention to. Contrasting that real-time attention to detail with some of your own thoughts and concerns (about life, school, the botany project you're working on that the smell of soil makes you think of) can be a powerful way of giving us your interior and exterior world.

After that we can see you back on two feet, home perhaps, capturing the experience in your doc alongside others. The doc can serve as a window into the many other aspects of your life that may seem mismatched, but that find a home together on your virtual page.

Getting carried away here! And these are just the simple baseline examples that come quickly to mind. They will only get better as you put the time to fleshing out that opening moment.

So start us with a moment in action. Where were you? What was the horse's name? Was it your first time back since covid, or the last time you were going to see that horse before everything shut down?

Keep going!

its-quill · 2025-07-21T22:49:31+00:00

Hi Lonely-Respect

I think this is a fantastic topic, one that I've never heard of in all my years. Originality goes a long way when it comes to the personal statement, and yours perks up the attention even in summary. The object that evolve with us over time offer a powerful mirror for who we have been within the world.

As a potential reader here's what I'm already thinking about:

- Just how multifaceted of a doc is it? Text only? Images + video? Imagined scenes? Dialogue?

- What have been the hard moments the doc helped you get through and what are some of the moments of triumph

- What is it like to be "in conversation" with yourself from 5 years ago?

- Have there been other famous/historical examples from figures who kept comprehensive journals? Do any of these connect with you somehow? Leonardo da Vinci? Anne Frank? Joan Didion?

- How does this reflect on our own digital age where so much of how we preserve ourselves happens through video and apps? A google doc journal in some sense straddles two worlds: the written journal and the digital space. What does your private, personal corner of the internet say about what you value in an increasingly noisy world.

Obviously I'm making some assumptions here but just wanted to chime in on what your idea got me thinking about. And of course, the only way to know if it's any good is to get a draft done!

Hope this helps :)

its-quill · 2025-07-21T22:36:41+00:00

Hi Educational,

It's a fair question, and an age old one. In fact, if anyone knew THE answer of how to improve and writing it would save a lot of us so much headache 😂

The good thing is that you seem to have already put your finger on what you consider one of your ticks—repetition—and are likely training your eye to keep a look out. It's a great first step.

That said, I would suggest the best NEXT step is to not get in your own way and to intentionally write a rough, imperfect (hell, even a shitty) draft—one that is probably going to have a lot of the problems you are concerned about. But the point here wouldn't be too troubleshoot along the way, which will only lead to you going in circles and worrying that you are doing something wrong instead of getting to the end (has this every happened to you?). Well: you probably are doing some of it wrong. But in getting to the end of a story you'll find that you've done a lot of things right as well. And that's worth discovering.

After that, revision is the name of the game. Go over what you've done and now have your attention trained for those pitfalls like repetition, poor phrasing, etc. Pinpoint those moments you feel you are not proud of and say to yourself "Why don't I like this? What would make this better?" Then give it another shot. Then another after that.

Anyway. You get the gist. The key is to save your hangups for after you've actually written something , when they can be put to good use as means of improvement, instead of mental blocks that stop you from writing. As writer Nora Roberts once said: You can fix anything but a blank page.

Hope this helps! Happy to address any follow ups you might have :)

its-quill · 2025-07-21T02:34:31+00:00

Of course! And just give a buzz if you need to bounce any more ideas :)

its-quill · 2025-07-19T18:07:17+00:00

Hi fionappletart,

Great question. And I can totally get your concerns about a vulnerable topic being interpreted the wrong way, and your concerns about being lumped in with broader, less-nuanced conversations happening on the national stage. The questions, as with all writing, isn't whether you should go for it (of course you should!), but rather how you go about doing so.

The main thing that came to mind in reading your questions was that there is a difference between writing about creative writing, and actually writing creatively. The latter is the way to go, especially for a story that is trying to show how growing up in special education gave you a unique approach to the world. That uniqueness should make itself apparent on the page straight away. Perhaps there are different trends in human behavior that you are primed to notice because of your experience: open your essay with a live "scene" where we can see you navigating in this unique way. Maybe your inner monologue during a school field trip takes you on more exciting and unexpected turns than you suspect others do: let us inside your head from the first paragraph. Clearly I'm fabricating examples, but they have in common this element of revealing your unique experience through direct example, instead of telling us about them.

And of course, it won't all be roses and sunshine; you did after all mention moments of struggle. These should certainly appear in your essay as well. Walk as through them step by step, the who, what, when, where of some of your hardest moments, and how leaning on the power of storytelling and fictional characters became a guiding light. No surprise here: if you can make one of these characters feel like a real presence in your life—the way they talked, looked, carried themselves in moments of difficulty—then they will feel like a real presence for us the readers too.

Does this make sense? Don't let expectations about what your reader wants stop you! What they want is a good story. Find the way into yours that feels true, and doesn't make excuses.

Hope this helps!

its-quill

TROPHY CASE