Many college admissions officer advise against receiving assistance in writing the personal statements. Why is it important that my child receive help?
Many college admissions officers fear that “getting help” will really mean “getting it done by someone else.” Writing a student’s admissions essays for them, or even editing for them, is, in our opinion, an unethical practice. That is why we conduct our private college essay classes like college writing seminars. We have two goals: our first is that students write their best possible college essays and the second is that they learn how to write for a college class. We couldn’t teach them how to write if we were writing for them. Perhaps the most important reason why most students need help with their essays is that the personal statement is often the first time high school students are faced with composing a narrative piece. The ideas and organization of the college essay are vastly different from a typical expository paper. Many students find that, because of lack of exposure to this genre, they are uncomfortable writing about their own lives. Therefore, students need help focusing, o
