College Essay Coaching with Darcie Whelan-Kortan
It’s college applications ESSAY time for Fall/Winter 2024!
- Are you overwhelmed by the college essay?
- Are you staring at a blank document and can’t get started? Or…
- Have you written a lot but it isn’t coming together as an essay?
- Are you stuck on the shorter supplemental responses?
- Are your parents backing away, saying, “I’m an engineer (cook, administrator, anything but a writer)!”
Deadlines for applications might be anytime between now and spring 2025, but most regular decision deadlines are not later than January 1, 2025.
Your personal statement and supplemental essays (“supplements”) are your chance to add story, style, and color to the simple data and facts that make up the rest of the application. Don’t miss this opportunity to shine. Put your stamp on it and make it memorable!
You don’t have to do this alone. Get help with completing your essays for the Common App, Coalition App, and other formats for a handful of colleges. On average, students spend 30-40 hours completing the personal statement and the dozens of supplements.
Without expert guidance, many students are spinning their wheels and not producing the quality essays they are capable of. Teachers who offer to help are overwhelmed with massive piles of first drafts and can only give so much time.
“I was feeling super unsure about how my essay was worded and, after giving it to Darcie, she gave me pointers that made me feel more confident handing it in to colleges!” –Emily L.
Who is Essay Coach Darcie Whelan-Kortan?
I have been on the faculty at UC Berkeley and Marist College, where I taught writing. I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College; I also develop and teach business writing to top executives (whelanseminars.com). The college essay is essentially the “best story” you might tell in a job interview—but in writing. It is the perfect marriage of my expertise: creative + business writing.
Check out my own writing: For twenty years, I have published personal essays about raising a child with disabilities and advocating for him. Here are a few of my favorites posted on Medium.
Whelan Essay Coaching Program and Cost
Step 1: Brainstorm with me, looking at the prompts and deciding on your best story/message. Develop an outline with my feedback.
Step 2: Send me the first draft. I will mostly review the essay for structure and content. We meet over Zoom for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
(Steps 1 & 2: $150.00)
Step 3: Send me the second draft. I will review for structure and content and suggest some close edits. We meet over Zoom for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
(Step 3: $75.00)
Step 4: Send me the final draft. I will review for close edits (word choice, sentence structure, clarifying phrasing). We meet over Zoom for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
(Step 4: $75.00)
Pricing is a la carte (purchase just the first few steps or all four).
Total Program (Steps 1-4): $300.00
Help with supplements (average 250 words)
($50.00 each)
Guidelines for the Personal Statement
The Common App is the main application used by most colleges in the U.S. The personal statement is 650 words max (under 1 ½ pages single-spaced). The Coalition App (used by some colleges) is also 650 words. A handful of other colleges (e.g., the University of California system) have different guidelines.
With the Common App, the good news is that there is one choice that allows you to send “any essay.” Here are the 2024-25 application year prompts with my simple 1-2 word summary at the top of each. Begin by browsing these and contact me to get started!
Common App Personal Statement Prompts
IDENTITY:
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
CHALLENGE:
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
CONVICTION:
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
GRATITUDE:
Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
PASSION:
Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
PERSONAL GROWTH:
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
DESIGN-YOUR-OWN:
Share an essay on a topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
College Essay Coaching with Darcie Whelan-Kortan 