graduate admission essay editor

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Hourly Statement of Purpose Plans

If you don't need  comprehensive , start-to-finish statement of purpose assistance, but need help perfecting a draft you already have, then we recommend our hourly plans. This way, you only pay for what you need.

Here's how it works:

• Answered the question.
• Presented yourself distinctively.
• Organized your statement of purpose logically.
• Developed engaging openings and effective conclusions.

The consultant then provides you with feedback and recommends ways to improve. You revise and send the revised versions back.

Edit the micro  - Although your consultant checks the macro level, she focuses on the micro, specifically clarity, grammar, style, spelling, and word usage. She then sends you drafts with suggested corrections.

• Submit your awesome statement of purpose!

How much to buy? That depends on the number of drafts as well as the quality of your writing. You can either  obtain a free estimate before purchasing  or use the estimate guidelines to purchase and proceed ASAP.

How Many Hours Do I Need?

You can use the time you purchase for any hourly Accepted service including interview coaching and resume editing.

Choose How Many Hours You Want to Start:

Our rates provide prompt two-business-day turnaround.

Minimum required purchase

1 Hour (add-on)

Existing clients only

Starting at $30 /mo with Affirm .

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Initial statement of purpose packages.

With the Statement of Purpose Package, you'll receive:

• Up-front guidance and advising to save you “churn time.”  You introduce yourself to your consultant via a questionnaire. After reviewing the questionnaire, your consultant meets with you on the phone or Skype to get to know you better and discuss the best way to present you and your qualifications in your statement of purpose. During this brainstorming session, you will discuss a core idea, seminal experiences to include in the statement of purpose, and a structure for the statement of purpose. 
• An outline for your essay based on your responses in the questionnaire and the brainstorming session.  The outline consists of prompts and bullet points. It is NOT a draft. Clients say that the conversation and the outline give them the direction they need to write, save time, and ultimately help them produce a superior final result. 
• SOP editing.  Your consultant checks your essay for clarity, grammar, style, spelling, and word usage. She then sends you drafts with suggested corrections. You revise it and send it back. You then go back and forth editing and revising this statement of purpose until you are happy with it. Most statements of purpose benefit from 2-4 reviews.

The Statement of Purpose Package will give you the confidence of knowing you are submitting an awesome statement of purpose.

SOP Package

Starting at $107 /mo with affirm ., additional statement of purpose packages.

Since your consultant already knows you well and any brainstorming will take less time,   Additional  SOP Packages are less expensive than the Initial Statement of Purpose Package.

Additional SOP Package

Starting at $80 mo with affirm ..

One package provides all the editing and consulting you need for ONE statement of purpose at ONE school. Using our assistance in modifying this essay for other schools will incur additional charges.

The Additional Statement of Purpose Package is available for any essay assistance you purchase after an Initial Statement of Purpose Package. It cannot be used for your first essay.

Packages must be entirely used in one application year.

If you request to change consultants or work with a second consultant, you will incur additional charges.

Not sure if a package is right for you?

We Offer Complete Application Packages Too!

Boring but important stuff.

• All rates are expressed and billed in U.S. dollars.
• Our regular rates provide two-business-day turnaround for each round of editing. 
• Services are subject to availability.
• All prices are subject to change without notice.

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Admission Essay Editing Services

Make Your Application Stand Out

Admission Essay Editing

If you’d like to boost your chances of getting into your university or college of choice, you need an admission essay that sets you apart. And this means making sure it is clear, academic, and error free. But with the help of our admission essay proofreading service, you can be confident of making a great first impression.

Expert Editor

Expert Admission Essay Proofreading

Our expert proofreaders have helped countless university applicants win a place on the course of their choice. As a result, we know what makes a good admission essay. So let us put out skills to work and help you fulfil your academic dreams.

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing

With our admission essay proofreading service, we will:

• Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
• Ensure your language and tone are properly academic
• Make sure your essay effectively communicates your strengths
• Check for issues with consistency and structure
• Leave comments and feedback on your writing style

In most cases, we will also provide two copies of your edited essay:

• A ‘Clean’ copy in the original file format
• An MS Word Track Changes  copy

You can use this second copy to view every edit we make, so you are always in control of the final draft. And if your  chosen file format  doesn’t support Track Changes, we will adapt our process to match.

Lightning-Fast Delivery

You’ll never miss a deadline with our speedy services: our Next-Day Guarantee means we’ll return any document up to 10,000 words long within 24 hours

And if you need a faster turnaround, simply select your desired delivery speed when you submit your document. We have three options:

We can also meet custom deadlines! Just let us know what you need.

*For documents up to 8,000 words 

**For documents up to 3,000 words

How We Work With Students

You’ll never miss a deadline with our speedy services: our Next-Day Guarantee means we’ll return any document up to 8,000 words long within 24 hours.

We can also meet custom deadlines! Just let us know what you need. 

* For documents up to 8,000 words

** For documents up to 3,000 words

Great Pricing

Our pricing is affordable and transparent – the cost is based on the exact length of your document. Check out our pricing calculator for an instant quote, and rest assured that you’ll receive the highest quality proofreading and editing for the best value on the market.

Referencing Expertise

Our editors are experts in various referencing styles, including but not limited to APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago, and IEEE. No matter what style you’re using, they’ll make sure your citations and references are correct and let you know if any information is missing. Visit our referencing page to learn more.

Subject-Matter Experts

Our team includes over 750 professional editors with expertise in thousands of topics. This means we can always match you with the best proofreader for your writing, whether you need help with a dissertation in medicine or an essay on economics.

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Our support team is available around the clock to address any concerns or questions you have about your order. This means you’ll never be left in the dark, no matter where you are or what time it is.

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Christopher Null

The Write Stuff: 4 College Admissions Essay Editing Services Reviewed

Looking for good news about the college admissions process these days? You won't find much of it. Not only has the cost of attending college doubled on average since the 1980s, but also it's gotten considerably harder to get in. The majority of colleges in America have witnessed a plummeting acceptance rate as the number of student applications has exploded. Fifty years ago you had a 20 percent shot at getting into Harvard (all things equal, of course). Now the Crimson's acceptance rate is about 5 percent. In the last 10 years alone, the acceptance rate at many major universities has been cut in half . It's almost enough to make a kid consider trying out for the rowing team .

As if applicants didn't have enough to stress about, colleges have been making it more onerous to apply—requiring additional interviews, recommendations, and SAT Subject Tests. But the most burdensome of them all is an old standby: the application essay.

Essay requirements vary widely from school to school. The 150-plus members of the Coalition for College (which includes Harvard and Vanderbilt) requires a single 500-word essay selected from prompts such as "Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution." Those with eyes on the University of California system must write a whopping four essays, with prompts such as "Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced."

Students can reuse essays with other colleges if the prompts are similar enough—or if the schools happen to be members of the same application partnership—but you'd be surprised how seldom this occurs. My daughter found that out the hard way, when she learned that she'd have to write 12 separate essays to cover just five schools.

What's a kid to do who doesn't have parents who both work full-time as writers and editors? Just run their essay through Microsoft grammar check and hope for the best? Good luck. The acceptance rate at the University of Chicago has dropped 81 percent in the last 12 years. It doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to know that if you don't put your best foot forward, you may as well not even bother.

All of this led me to the curious world of online editing services. While you can hire a consultant to help guide your child through this overwhelming maze, these consultants are expensive and much of their work involves managing the complex application process, figuring out which colleges are a good fit, and brainstorming essay topics. If you just need help whipping an already written essay into better shape, an online editor might be a better (and much cheaper) fit.

To be sure, some of these services are exorbitantly expensive. Services like EssayEdge and TopAdmit can run you close to $200 for editing a single essay of fewer than 400 words. I've seen prices as high as $379 after various upsells. Word for word, that's more than what my editor at WIRED makes. (Hi, Mike!)

The good news is there are plenty of more affordable options available. I tested four of them, all reasonably priced and seemingly legitimate. Most of these services charge based on a combination of the word count of the original essay and the turnaround time required. I used the same raw essay from my daughter as a test piece for each of the four services, and requested the slowest turnaround time each of them offered to minimize the cost. I submitted her 383-word raw essay at the same time to each of the services, on a Wednesday afternoon. I gave all the services minimal guidance with my submission, noting only (when prompted) that this was a college application essay. All four of the services allow you to upload a Microsoft Word document and receive a red-lined and comment-filled Word document in return.

Gabrielle Caplan

When I received the revised essays, I reviewed them along with my wife (also a professional writer) and my daughter, the author. The reviews were done blind, without indicating the source of any of the edits, and we all rated each essay on a 1 to 10 scale. I also threw in a copy that I roughly edited. For the sake of comparison, the raw essay scored an average of 4.8, while my edit garnered a 6.9.

Here's what the various services cost, and how well they performed.

Note: When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read more about how this works.

Total price: $13.91, 48-hour turnaround promised. Edit received within 24 hours.

Scribendi offers seven different turnaround time tiers, but its 72-hour and one-week turnarounds were the same price as the 48-hour turnaround. A four-hour turnaround was quoted at $28.53. Scribendi returned both a changes-tracked version of the document and a "clean" version with all edits accepted. Scribendi's edit was not just the fastest, it was incredibly thorough—almost nitpicky—with 16 comments or prompts to the writer suggesting avenues for additional content or revisions that were beyond the scope of a simple edit. Oddly, the final edit didn't resonate with readers, who largely felt it was somewhat awkward and clunky in its overall flow. That said, the editor's notes and the service's overall speed were a big plusses.

Readers' rating: 5.0

Total price: $13.90, three-day turnaround promised. Edit received after two days.

Elite Editing has an Advanced Editing service for $40, but the $13.90 plan I chose offers only "basic editing," which doesn't include "suggested rewrites to eliminate awkward phrasing, repetition, passive voice, etc." and "taking into account your original assignment." Three days is the standard turnaround; one-day turnaround for the Basic Editing plan would have cost $19.90. The site crashed when I checked out, but my payment and submission both went through successfully. As promised, Elite's edit was indeed basic. Its editor made the fewest changes of any of the services and left only three comments, one of which was about whether the use of indentations and double-spacing was appropriate. While Elite's edits were correct, they weren't terribly deep—although that was enough to propel it to a second-place finish from the readers.

Readers' rating: 5.7

Total price: $15.32, five-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days.

Wordvice has eight different pricing tiers, with rates as low as 4 cents per word for a seven-day turnaround, though that tier was limited to materials longer than 3,000 words. The five-day turnaround tier was only marginally more expensive. When I received Wordvice's edited document, I was offered an upsell for a "second look" (basically another edit) for 30 percent off. Wordvice's embedded commentary was nearly as thorough as Scribendi's, though Wordvice was less obsessive over grammar and more focused on overall clarity. Turns out that was the right move: Wordvice's edit was the overall favorite of the quartet, and the finished draft reads cleanly and clearly.

Readers' rating: 6.3

Total price: $31.33, seven-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days.

Scribbr initially quoted a price of $25.36, but I shelled out an extra $6 for both the "structure check" and "clarity check" options, despite not really understanding what those were. Prices include a 2 percent surcharge for using a credit card. For those in a hurry, 24-hour turnaround doubles the price. Scribbr seems more focused on editing academic coursework essays than admissions essays, with a relatively formal structure applied to its edits (removing contractions completely, for example). Editor's commentary was sparse, though on target. This draft was the most divisive of the services, earning high marks from my wife but very low marks from my daughter, who thought it stripped the writing of her voice.

Readers' rating: 5.3

Any good college essay has to end with a conclusion, so here are a few takeaways. First, all of the services sent back essays that were, on average, felt to be an improvement over the original draft, with all of them catching numerous spelling and grammatical errors—so students with no professional editing help may do well to consider them, especially given how affordable these services are. That said, also remember that when you engage with an editing service, you're really engaging with a single (anonymous) editor who you won't ever meet or be able to interact with. That editor won't have any level of understanding of the writer's personality beyond what's on the page, and quality will necessarily vary from one editor to another, even within a given editing service.

Further still, remember that editing quality is always going to be subjective, just like any piece of writing. Except for this story, of course. It's amazing.

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Personal Statement Editing Service: Elevate Your Story Fast, Affordable, Professional

Personal statement editing transforms your personal statement into a compelling narrative. Use this service to ensure that your personal statement reflects your unique qualities and aspirations. Let us help you stand out with a polished, persuasive personal statement.

Try before you buy.

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• Personal Statement Editing Service: Elevate Your Story

Expert Personal Statement Editing Service

Your personal statement is a pivotal component of your college or graduate school application. It's your opportunity to make a compelling case for admission by showcasing your unique skills, experiences, and aspirations. However, crafting a standout personal statement essay requires time and skill. That's where our Personal Statement Editing service can help.

At Scribendi, we understand the significance of a well-written personal statement. Our team of experienced editors is dedicated to enhancing your writing and ensuring that your personal statement is error-free, clear, and impactful. Get more than just grammar and punctuation; get Structural Editing and constructive feedback to strengthen your content. Let's craft a college admissions or graduate school application that will help you shine.

Our editors are well-versed in what admissions committees and officers seek in a personal statement. They can help you avoid common pitfalls and guide you in effectively communicating your skills and aspirations. Don't let the pressure of writing a personal statement hold you back! Our editing service is here to help you present the best version of yourself to the admissions committee. Whether you need personal statement proofreading or a comprehensive editing service, we're your partner in this crucial phase of your academic journey.

Need Personal Statement Editing?

Your personal statement is your voice in the competitive world of college admissions and graduate school applications. Crafting a compelling and error-free personal statement essay is essential to make a lasting impression. If you find yourself struggling to perfect your statement, our Personal Statement Editing service is here to provide expert assistance .

We recognize the significance of a well-polished personal statement. Our experienced editors are dedicated to helping you achieve the best possible version of your essay. Whether you need assistance with personal statement proofreading or comprehensive personal statement editing , our team is here to ensure your writing is clear, coherent, and impactful.

We understand that the college admissions and graduate school admissions committees are looking for more than just good grammar. They want to get to know you through your writing and understand your unique skills and aspirations. Don't let the pressure of creating a perfect personal statement overwhelm you. Trust our editing service to guide you toward presenting your best self to the admissions officers. Try personal statement editing to take the first step toward success in your academic journey.

What will you receive with Personal Statement Editing? 

• An edited document in which misspellings, grammar errors, and typos have been corrected
• Changes and suggestions to help improve clarity, flow, structure, and readability
• Tracked revisions so that you can see and review all the changes that have been made
• In-depth critical commentary on your personal statement
• A short summary of the work that has been done and any major concerns

What types of documents can you use Personal Statement Editing for?

• Personal statements
• Other admissions documents

Rest assured, whether you're entrusting your confidential personal statement or engaging our expertise in personal statement editing services, your document's privacy is our top concern. We uphold the strictest confidentiality for your work. 

All uploads and downloads to our secure server are encrypted , and our robust privacy policies are in place to protect your personal statement, academic research, and personal data. Assistance for your personal statement editing needs is just a click away. 

We are dedicated to ensuring the highest level of security and quality for your academic work. Get an instant quote for your personal statement editing below and place your order now .

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Personal statement editing services faq, what do i write in a personal statement.

When it comes to the question of what to write in a personal statement for college or graduate school admissions, personal statement editing can help you craft a compelling essay. A personal statement is a critical component of your college or university application. You should write about your personal experiences, skills, and aspirations. Don't simply list achievements; provide real examples that show who you are and why you're an ideal fit. Personal statement editing services can be of great help in refining your statement, making sure it stands out to admissions committees. Take your time to write a personal statement that truly reflects your unique qualities and ambitions, and seek professional assistance when needed.

How do I start my personal statement?

When beginning your personal statement for college or graduate school admissions, personal statement editing can provide invaluable guidance. To start, focus on a compelling opening that grabs the admissions committee's attention. Share a personal anecdote, relevant skill, or life experience that connects to your educational and career goals. Show, don't just tell, who you are through vivid examples. Personal statement editing services can help refine and structure your introduction, ensuring that it makes a memorable impression on admissions officers. Don't rush the process; take the time to craft an engaging and authentic personal statement.

Why does my personal statement need editing? 

Personal statement editing is essential because it can significantly enhance the quality and impact of your personal statement. A well-crafted personal statement can make a difference in college or graduate school admissions. Editing refines your essay, helping you avoid common pitfalls and ensuring your writing is clear, concise, and error-free. It helps you communicate your skills, experiences, and aspirations effectively, making your personal statement more appealing to admissions committees. Experienced editors can provide constructive feedback and suggestions, ultimately helping you create a personal statement that stands out and resonates with admissions officers.

What are the advantages of hiring an editor to revise my personal statement?

Opting for personal statement editing services offers several advantages in crafting a compelling personal statement. Editors bring a trained eye to your essay, ensuring it's clear, well-structured, and free of errors. They can help you avoid common pitfalls, making your personal statement more effective at capturing admissions committees' attention. With their expertise, editors also provide valuable feedback on your content and writing style, helping you convey your skills, experiences, and aspirations more persuasively.

This assistance can be especially crucial when you're short on time or feel unsure about how to write a personal statement that resonates with admissions officers. Overall, hiring an editor empowers you to submit a polished and memorable personal statement that bolsters your college or graduate school application.

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Learn More About Us and Our College and Graduate School Admission Essay Editing Services

• Connect you with an experienced, personable, and reliable editor who will provide you with quality feedback to improve your work. Each editor recognizes that this is YOUR work, and that your unique voice needs to shine through. They will take your work to the next level, without losing anything that makes your essay uniquely "you."
• Provide you with a service tailored to meet your needs. We know that not all essays are at the same point in the writing process. Some are nearly final and simply need a proofreading session, while others need more guidance in terms of structure, tone, and content. Whatever your needs, we will do what we can to meet them.
• Leave you feeling confident in your application essay or academic paper. We want you to submit your work knowing that your writing clearly reflects your credentials, aspirations, and personality in the best possible way.
• Learn more about how we can best serve you, our customer. Should you ever have any questions or feedback, we want to hear them. We are constantly working to improve our services so we can continue to help students achieve their dreams.

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Admissions Essay Experts

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Gurufi is an online marketplace where graduate, professional school, and undergraduate applicants can find expert admissions essay editors.

Gurufi editors work with clients to produce highly effective admissions essays that strengthen their applications, reflect their personalities, and position them to achieve their educational goals.

Browse Editors

Sam is a writer, editor and university lecturer who has taught writing for almost two decades in the US and Europe. After graduating from Oxford University with a First Class Degree in Philosophy and Modern Languages, he spent a brief period working in magazine journalism then earned an MFA in creative writing from UC Irvine. He taught writing and literature to undergraduates at UC Irvine for close to a decade. Since leaving California he has taught at NYU, Bard and RISD, where he was on the Literary Arts faculty for 4 years and was a graduate writing advisor. Over the years he has edited thousands of essays, stories, articles, books and personal statements, and has developed a fine ear for eliciting what is unique and compelling in each writer's voice and their perspective on the world.

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Wordvice Ranked “Best College Essay Editing Service” in Essay Editor Review

Getting into a top college or university is not an easy feat these days, even for superb students. Within the past decade, many major universities have cut their acceptance rates by as much as 50%. Increasing numbers of international applications at Ivy League schools and other elite institutions means applicants must not only have impeccable grades and test scores but that they also have a compelling story that distinguishes them from thousands of other shining candidates. Writing a strong admissions essay is essential to getting the attention of the admissions committee and standing out as an applicant at top schools.

But many students forget the importance of essay editing and proofreading after they draft their application essays. The writing must not only be free of grammar and punctuation error but also have natural and appropriate language, flow logically, and contain personal stories and other content that will impress admissions committees enough to get you into your school of choice.

As good as your writing may be, even veteran writers use editors to improve their work and give it that extra ounce of polish. In short,  an unedited essay is less likely to get you into a top school —this is especially true if English is not your first language or if you have limited experience writing essays.

Which editing service should I choose to edit my essay?

One great option is to let a professional editing company revise your work—preferably one that is reputable and employs highly qualified editors but is also affordable and can quickly deliver your edited essay. And according to a 2019 article in  Wired.com , the company that best meets these standards is, in fact,  Wordvice Editing Service .

One  Wired  tech reviewer performed a blind study of four leading editing companies, evaluating them in terms of cost and quality of editing.

“When I received the revised essays, I reviewed them…The reviews were done blind, without indicating the source of any of the edits, and we all rated each essay on a 1 to 10 scale.”

When judged against the revisions completed by the other three top editing companies, the admissions essay sample edited by the Wordvice editor came out on top, earning the highest score according to these rigorous criteria, especially when price was factored in. (We won’t list all the scores here—but let’s just say it wasn’t that close.)

“Total price: $15.32, five-day turnaround promised. Edit received after four days…Wordvice’s edit was the overall favorite of the quartet, and the finished draft reads cleanly and clearly.”

Our staff here at Wordvice had no prior knowledge that this experiment was being conducted, and we were pleasantly shocked to find out that we were featured in a Wired.com article! But we weren’t at all surprised at the results or about the superior performance of our editor.

Our editing quality standards help ensure that every single admissions document we edit and proofread (from editing for Common App Essays to graduate SOP proofreading, to editing for recommendation letters and scholarship applications) is revised thoroughly and with attention to the objectives of the text. We focus on enhancing the elements that make for great writing, even providing constructive marginal comments for authors on improving content and expression.

How To Identify The Best Essay Editing Service

Every essay editing company will claim to be the best among its competitors. However, it takes more than a flashy website and images of professional editors and client reviews (whether real or fake) to assess the validity and quality of their editing services.

Here are some questions to consider when finding the best essay editing service online:

• Does the service have your best interest as a researcher, student, or professional in mind?
• Does it produce the best editing and most thorough correction notes within the requested delivery time?
• Is it trustworthy and does it provide a secure payment method for editing orders?
• Do third-party sites publish their editing service reviews ?
• How long has the editing service been around?

After answering these questions and doing your due diligence, you are sure to end up with a reputable editing service that will edit your essay in a way that will impress admissions committees and help get you into your target college or university.

The best essay editing services will help you achieve the following:

• Sharpen the style and expressions in your admissions essays
• Complete written assignments in English on short notice
• Spend more time on your essay content rather on the proofreading and copy-editing phase
• Feel confident that your application essay or college essay will be ready to submit to professors or admissions officials

Some people claim that getting editing and proofreading will make you a lazier student. On the contrary–a good essay editor will not only correct errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but they will also show you how to improve your writing in future essays. But what does being a “good essay editor” mean exactly?

What does it mean to be the “best essay editing service”?

We are happy with the title of “best essay editing service” from an online publication as esteemed as Wired.com. But we can’t help but note that this reviewer chose our standard admissions editing service for this study.

While our basic service still stands head-and-shoulders above the competition, Wordvice’s Premium Admissions Editing Services  are in another league altogether. It offers authors more extensive feedback about content, a full “Admissions Checklist” assessing writing elements, and a review letter explaining any major revisions and how the editor approached these issues. Customers who choose this service have a 95% satisfaction rate , and many choose to come back to Wordvice for editing on their other admissions documents.

“ Wordvice has eight different pricing tiers, with rates as low as 4 cents per word for a seven-day turnaround…The five-day turnaround tier was only marginally more expensive.”

Writing a great application essay can mean the difference between getting accepted into the school of your dreams and becoming just another application in the recycling bin. We would like to thank the team at  Wired.com  for highlighting the importance of editing your admissions essays, and we invite you to try our  professional proofreading and essay editing services  today and see for yourself how professional editing can give you the edge that your writing needs. Although it has been a couple of years since this article came out, our admissions editing service client review rate has only increased.

Best of luck to all college and university applicants in 2023-2024 and Happy Admissions Essay Writing from Wordvice!

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Precise Application Essay Editing

Transforming your essay into a focused narrative.

Our professional editing services ensure your application essay is organized logically and articulated with precision. We guarantee a seamless transition of ideas, ensuring each sentence builds upon the last for maximum impact. With ServiceScape, you can present your story with the clarity it deserves. Make your application unforgettable by presenting a coherent, compelling essay that speaks volumes.

Aligning Essays with Application Guidelines

Guaranteeing application essay adherence.

Our editing services excel in tailoring your essay to meet the exact requirements of any application. From adhering to word limits to addressing prompts with precision, we ensure your essay matches the intended audience's expectations, be it for college or graduate programs. Our approach guarantees your essay not only follows guidelines but resonates deeply, making your application impactful and aligned with your aspirations.

Work Together on Your Essay

Seamless editor communication.

If you need additional help or advice, our editors are always ready to provide feedback. You can work with your editor one-on-one through messaging and video calls anytime you want, enabling you to discuss your application essay’s direction and explore new ideas together. This partnership ensures your editor fully grasps your voice and intentions, transforming the editing process into a joint venture that not only sharpens your narrative but also deepens its impact.

Presenting an Authentic Result

Application essay editing to showcase your true self.

ServiceScape editors are dedicated to amplifying your application essay's unique voice and authenticity. We hone your narrative to ensure it reflects your individuality, all while elevating the writing to professional standards. By carefully preserving your personal tone and essence, we help craft an essay that stands out by being a true reflection of your character. Partner with us to present an essay that is not only polished but profoundly personal.

How It Works

Have your application essay edited in three steps.

Browse profiles of accomplished editing professionals.

Send your files and provide any details regarding the project.

Receive the edited essay before your requested due date.

Our Editor Marketplace

Choose your own application essay editor.

With ServiceScape, it is easy to find and hire the right application essay editor from our network of skilled professionals.

Many of our application essay editors:

• Hold Ph.D. or Master's degrees
• Offer decades of application essay editing experience
• Have hundreds of client ratings and reviews
• Are experts across various fields

Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Illinois

M.A. in Linguistics from Northeastern Illinois University

Editor at the Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship

M.A. in English from Lehigh University

M.A. in Childhood Education from Hunter College

Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from the University of California

M.A. in English from McMaster University

M.A. in English from the University of Louisiana

Senior Editor for Reader's Digest

Professor at Cincinnati State University

M.A. in Linguistics from the University of South Carolina

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii

J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law

M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University

Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology from Duke University

Our Testimonials and Experience

What we bring to the table.

ServiceScape is built on 24 years worth of experience, working on over 341,000 projects with over 98,000 clients. Join the thousands of people who have chosen ServiceScape to find the best and brightest talent.

"My freelancer's attention to detail and commitment to quality exceeded my expectations. Every aspect of the project was handled with utmost professionalism."

"I was amazed by the promptness and efficiency of the person I hired. The project was completed well ahead of the deadline, without compromising on quality."

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"Exceptional service! The professional was incredibly responsive and attentive to all my requirements, making the entire process seamless and enjoyable."

"I highly recommend her services. The professionalism and expertise displayed by the freelancer were top-notch, and the results were simply superb."

"The quality of work delivered was impeccable. Every detail was carefully considered and executed to perfection. Absolutely thrilled with the service!"

"Her ability to understand and adapt to my specific needs was remarkable. The final product was exactly what I was hoping for, and more."

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"The service was outstanding from start to finish. Communication was clear and frequent, keeping me in the loop at every stage."

"Truly impressed by the quick turnaround time. This professional managed to deliver a high-quality result in a remarkably short period."

"His commitment is evident in his work. He made sure I was completely happy with the final outcome."

"A blend of professionalism, skill, and creativity. This individual brought a fresh perspective to the project that was both inspiring and effective."

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"I appreciated his attention to detail and dedication to delivering a product that not only met, but exceeded my expectations."

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"Remarkable service! The quality of work was consistently high, and her ability to meet tight deadlines was impressive."

Learn More About Our Editing Services

The servicescape advantage.

Your Questions, Answered

At ServiceScape, our application essay editing service is designed to refine every aspect of your writing, ensuring it captures and retains the attention of admissions committees:

• Detailed Grammar and Syntax Check: We ensure your essay is free from grammatical errors and awkward syntax, making your ideas clear and engaging.
• Spelling and Punctuation Accuracy: Our editors correct spelling and punctuation mistakes, essential for a polished and professional presentation.
• Personalization of Your Narrative: We help shape your essay to vividly reflect your personal experiences and aspirations, making your narrative uniquely yours.
• Structural Coherence and Logic: Our service enhances the organization of your essay to ensure a coherent and logical flow of ideas, adding to the persuasiveness of your narrative.
• Insightful Feedback for Improvement: You'll receive constructive criticism identifying opportunities to strengthen your essay, making your application more compelling.
• Guideline and Word Limit Adherence: We guarantee your essay meets the specific criteria and word limits of your chosen program, tailoring your content for a perfect fit.
• Emphasis on Your Strengths: Our editors help highlight your unique strengths and contributions, showcasing your potential to the admissions committee.
• Optimizing Voice and Tone: We adjust the tone of your essay to resonate with the academic standards of the institution while preserving your individual voice.
• Boosting Clarity and Persuasiveness: Our goal is to enhance your essay's clarity and persuasive power, ensuring your application stands out.

Our team is dedicated to elevating your application essay, spotlighting your achievements and aspirations, and helping you secure your place in your desired program.

At ServiceScape, we are proud of our track record in helping clients achieve their academic aspirations. Below is a list of notable institutions where our clients have successfully been accepted:

• Harvard University
• University of Oxford
• Stanford University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• University of Cambridge
• Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
• California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
• Princeton University
• University of Chicago
• Imperial College London
• Yale University
• National University of Singapore (NUS)
• University of Toronto
• Columbia University
• University of Melbourne
• Yonsei University
• Tsinghua University
• University College London (UCL)
• University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
• University of Sydney
• Korea University
• University of British Columbia
• University of Hong Kong (HKU)
• University of Edinburgh
• London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• University of Michigan
• Peking University
• Seoul National University
• McGill University
• University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

You can hire an editor by just browsing our marketplace of editors , clicking on the "View Profile" button of an editor you want to hire, and clicking on the "Hire Me" button. After your payment method has been processed, your editor will get to work and will deliver the edited version before your due date.

A list of prices and due dates can be found within each editor's profile. Just find your editor and click on the "View Profile" button.

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Sure! Many ServiceScape editors provide free samples. You can submit a free sample request by just browsing our marketplace of editors , clicking on the "View Profile" button of an editor you want to request a free sample from, and clicking on the "Free Sample" button. If the editor accepts your free sample request, you will receive the sample edited version within a couple of days.

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14 Best College Essay Services for 2024 (40 Services Reviewed)

Research conducted by Emily Kierkegaard , PhD, and expert-reviewed by Kevin Wong, PrepMaven Co-founder

Not sure which college application essay coaching and editing service is the best? We compared the top 40 services, created in-depth reviews for 14 of them, and narrowed it down to the 4 best that will help guide you through the process of writing amazing college application essays.

What is the Best College Essay Service?

• PrepMaven  – best college application essay service overall
• College Essay Mentor  – best for individual consultants
• The College Essay Guy  – best for unlimited essay assistance
• College Vine  – best of the big platforms

The best of the rest:

Individual essay consultants:

• College Essay Editor  – small editing team
• Allison Karpf  – former English teacher helping students
• Your College Vision  – former journalist with more affordable rates
• The College Guru  – good on paper but unresponsive
• Sofia Zapiola – budget-friendly application assistance

Mid-size teams:

• Lotus Learning  – focus on health sciences

Large platforms:

• Study Point  – larger platform with mystery editors
• Ivy Select  – larger platform with mystery editors
• Empowerly  – larger platform with mystery editors
• BeMo  – expensive and aggressive with wrong expertise

Schedule a college essay consultation

Best College Application Essay Services in 2024

#1 – prepmaven.

Our Verdict — Best College Essay Assistance Overall Price: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package) PrepMaven’s one-on-one college essay assistance is the best option overall. Founded by brothers and Princeton grads Greg and Kevin, almost all of PrepMaven’s essay coaches have Ivy-League experience, primarily from Princeton and Harvard. All essay coaches also undergo a thorough training program in PrepMaven’s methods, developed by professional writers with deep understanding of the college admissions process, for helping students to discover the most compelling stories for their essays. Unlike other services, PrepMaven offers college essay assistance at several different price points. At the most accessible rate, students can work with current Ivy-League undergraduates who specialize in writing and have recently aced the college application process. At higher rates, students can work with coaches who are both Ivy-League grads and professional writers (screenwriters, journalists, editors) with many years of experience helping students to craft compelling essays. Interested students can even work directly with founders Greg and Kevin, who have over 15 years of experience helping students through the entire essay-writing process. PrepMaven’s services combine many of the best features of other good options into one, and it’s hard to beat their experience.

Sign up for PrepMaven’s college essay help now

Any student wanting college essay help, at any point in the process, with a range of budgets.

At a glance:

• Cost: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package)
• Writing coach qualifications: Princeton graduates and professional writers (or current Princeton students); all trained

What we like:

• Ivy League experience —most of their writing coaches are Princeton grads or current students, with some from Harvard and other Ivies
• Different pricing options to meet different families’ circumstances
• More flexible and greater capacity to take on new students compared to individual consultants

Sign up for PrepMaven’s college essay help

#2 – College Essay Mentor

Our Verdict — Best of the Individual Consultants Price: unknown but high Some college essay consulting services consist of just one expert. Of these individual essay consultants, Chris Hunt at College Essay Mentor is our favorite. He combines writing experience as a journalist for the Economist and the Wall Street Journal with personal experience as a graduate of Dartmouth. However, he only works with a small number of students each year, and students need to apply to work with him — he only accepts students with top grades and test scores who are already strong applicants for top schools. Chris offers the option for one-time written feedback, but this only gives big-picture generalizations. (And written-only feedback is always limited.) In order for help with the essay process, students need to purchase a complete essay package.

Students with top grades and test scores who want to work with a one-person business, who have a sizable budget, and who are ready to get started early.

• Cost: $210 for a one-time written essay feedback (big picture only), then $110 per draft feedback; pricing for essay process packages unknown
• Essay coach qualifications: professional journalist, Dartmouth grad
• Professional writing experience as a journalist
• Extensive experience working with college applicants
• Partners with Debra Felix, former Director of Admissions at Columbia, for full application review

What we don’t like:

• One-on-one work is limited to very high-achieving students, who need to apply with a resume : “I limit my one-on-one work to students who I believe will be strong applicants to elite universities. As a rule, this means having high grades in challenging classes, a test score of ACT 34+ or SAT 1500+, and substantial activities outside of the classroom.”
• Works with a limited number of students (60 per year), so often no availability
• All-or-nothing packages don’t allow students to work with Chris for just a few hours or for part of the essay-writing process
• Secretive about pricing (he’ll only give pricing details once he’s reviewed the student’s resume and agreed to work with them), but we expect the minimum cost of working one-on-one to be several thousand dollars

#3 – The College Essay Guy

Our Verdict — Best for Unlimited Essay Assistance Price: $4900 for application to 3 schools, $8050 for application for 10 schools We’re fans of Ethan Sawyer, the original “college essay guy”— his book, College Essay Essentials , is a great guide to the essay-writing process. Ethan doesn’t work directly with many students these days, but he now has a team of consultants who help students follow his principles. Their assistance is really all-or-nothing — they prefer to work with students from the very beginning of the process, and their minimum package is $4900, which includes assistance with essays for three schools. If students are applying to ten schools (a more realistic number for students aiming at competitive colleges), the fee is a hefty $7400.

Students who want unlimited help through the entire process, who have a sizable budget.

• Cost: $4900 (supplemental essays for 3 schools) – $7400 (supplemental essays for 10 schools)
• Essay coach qualifications: mix of Ivy grads and former teachers, some writers/screenwriters; all trained
• Great free resources about the essay-writing process
• Their Matchlighters Scholars Program gives back to the community by providing admissions consulting for select qualifying students
• All-or-nothing packages have a high minimum fee and don’t work for students who want just a few hours of feedback or help with just part of the process

#4 – College Vine

Our Verdict — Best of the Big Platforms Price: $140–180/hour There are plenty of large platforms with large stables of part-time tutors and coaches available to work with students. Of these big platforms, we think CollegeVine has the best offerings. Compared to other large companies, CollegeVine provides more information about their tutors, and students can pick individual tutors to work with from their roster. However, this model is really just a way of finding individual tutors to hire. Tutors don’t receive any training and don’t share a common approach, so it’s a mixed bag. Their rates are fairly high for part-time tutors who don’t have specific expertise and training in college essay consulting. Because CollegeVine is really just a marketplace where individual tutors can find students, the quality and price will vary widely.

Students who want to work with a big company, or those who want a quick session or two to go over their essays.

• Cost: Typically $140–180/hour
• Essay coach qualifications: no specific qualifications, but a few are Ivy League graduates
• Possible to select individual editors to work with from their roster.
• Easy to schedule ad-hoc sessions with a tutor through the website.
• No training or common approach for tutors
• Editors are part-time , with no option to work with full-time college admissions experts
• Relatively expensive for this level of expertise

College Essay Editing Alternatives (that Didn’t Make the Cut)

Individual essay consultants, #5 – college essay editor.

Our Verdict — Small Editing Team Price: Roughly $5,950 for applications to 10 schools College Essay Editor comprises two graduates of Stanford. This means that they have personal experience applying to highly competitive schools. One member of the team also has a college counseling certification, which is a good background for college essays. Based on their website, they appear to focus on the editing and proofreading phase of the essay-writing process. This can be helpful to students, but we recommend working with a service who can help students to uncover their values and brainstorm really great material that allows them to really shine—and if this doesn’t happen at the beginning of the process, it’s much harder to add in later on.

• Cost: $195/1000 words for proofreading, $495/1000 words for 3 rounds of editing and proofreading, or $595/1000 words for unlimited rounds of editing and proofreading; for the purposes of comparison, complete applications to 10 competitive colleges would be around 9,650 words, or $5950.
• Writing coach qualifications: Stanford graduates, one of whom has college counseling certification
• Editors are graduates of Stanford University , and one is a member of NACAC, the national association of college counselors
• They focus on editing and proofreading only , not on the crucial earlier steps of brainstorming and strategy
• Small team with very limited availability
• All asynchronous editing so you won’t be able to cultivate a real relationship with your essay coach.

#6 – Allison Karpf

Our Verdict — Former English Teacher Helping Students Price: $385/hour or $3850 package for application to one school Another option for students looking to hire an individual consultant is Allison Karpf. Allison is a former high school English teacher and a graduate of UC Berkeley who also holds a Masters of Education from Stanford. Her rates are definitely on the higher side, especially for someone who doesn’t have a professional writing background, but she does have extensive experience working with students to craft their essays.

• Cost:  $385/hour or $3850 unlimited counseling (includes supplemental essays for one college)
• Essay coach qualifications: former high school English teacher; Berkeley grad, Stanford MEd
• Lots of experience helping students improve their college essays
• Very quick to respond to client requests
• No professional writing experience or Ivy-Plus undergraduate experience
• High rates relative to other options
• Limited availability , since she works alone

#7 – Your College Vision

Our Verdict: Former Journalist with More Affordable Rates Price: $180/hour, or packages starting from $3500 Laurie Lande is another individual consultant who helps students through the essay-writing process. She comes recommended by other consultants like Chris from College Essay Mentor . Laurie did not herself attend a highly competitive school, so she doesn’t have that personal experience of going through the selective admissions process, but she does have a professional writing background as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

• Cost: $180/hour or packages starting at $3500
• Essay coach qualifications: journalism background
• Affordable pricing , relative to other options
• Not a graduate of a highly selective school

#8 – The College Guru

Our Verdict — Good on Paper but Unresponsive Price: unknown Yet another individual essay consultant is Geanine Thompson from The College Guru. Geanine attended Dartmouth as an undergraduate and also holds an MBA from Duke. She also has a professional writing background as an assistant book editor at Berkley Publishing Group. Like Greg and Kevin at PrepMaven , she combines experience in the business world and at Wall Street firms with experience in education.

• Cost: unknown
• Essay coach qualifications: former assistant book editor; Dartmouth grad, Duke MBA
• Dartmouth graduate and former book editor
• Not responsive to emails and client requests

#9 – Sofia Zapiola

Our Verdict — A budget-friendly, personal essay editor. Price: $80/hour Yet another individual essay consultant is Sofia Zapiola, who offers a mix of essay editing and college application counseling services.

• Cost: $80/hour
• Essay coach qualifications: M.A. from Harvard; certificate in College Counseling from UC San Diego.
• Individual approach, budget-friendly rates, commitment to working within families’ budgets.
• Very few testimonials, so it’s difficult to evaluate how effective she is.

Mid-size Teams

#10 – lotus learning.

Our Verdict — Expensive for Tutor Background Price: $165/hour Founded by a Harvard grad who is a former teacher and veteran of the publishing industry, Lotus learning offers college essay help in the Boston area. They have a small team of tutors, mostly recent grads from good but not Ivy-Plus colleges, and mostly with focus in health sciences.

• Cost: $165/hour (minimum 8 hours)
• Essay coach qualifications: tutors are recent grads, but not Ivy-Plus schools
• Reasonable pricing with flexible packages
• Essay editors aren’t graduates of Ivy-Plus schools and don’t have professional writing experience

Large platforms

#11 – study point.

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: Rates Between $60 and $120/hr Study Point is a larger essay editing service. They claim to have several decades of experience helping students to craft their college essays, but they do not give information about who their essay coaches are and what qualifications they might have.

• Cost: $60-120/hr, depending on tutor experience
• Essay coach qualifications: unknown
• Larger company with several decades of experience
• Unclear who the essay coaches are
• Lack of statistics about their results

#12 – Ivy Select

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: unknown Ivy Select makes a lot of big promises on their website about having the best college essay consultants in the business, but they offer no information on who these consultants are, or on their backgrounds. They also brag that each consultant “only” works 20 students in one application cycle, but in our experience, that’s quite high.

• Long list of impressive (but anonymous) testimonials
• Only work with “top students”
• No information on their website about who the editors are
• Each essay coach works with up to 20 students at one time

#13 – Empowerly

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: High, from $6000/year Empowerly has over 60 college counselors who each work with an average of 5 students per year, in order to have more time to devote to each student. Their counselors come from “different educational backgrounds,” and while they do not provide specific biographical details we can assume that most of their essay coaches did not attend highly selective schools.

• Cost: typically from $6000/year
• Essay coach qualifications: college counselors
• Counselors work with just a few students per year
• You have to upgrade to “Empowerly Elite” to guarantee a counselor with a more selective educational background
• No professional writing experience

#14 – Prepory

Our Verdict — Expensive but with Good Expertise Price: $325/hr Prepory is a college application and career counseling service that offers a comprehensive program for college applications at any stage of the process (including as early as 9th grade). They make a lot of impressive claims about the expertise of their coaches, but it’s quite difficult to actual find much information about their essay coach qualifications.

• Cost: $325/hr
• They have a comprehensive college application program that begins as early as 9th grade.
• Limited information about essay coaches
• High prices

Top 40 College Essay Services Considered

• College Essay Editor
• The College Essay Guy
• College Vine
• College Essay Mentor
• Study Point
• Allison Karpf
• The College Guru
• Lotus Learning
• Summit Prep
• Sofia Zapiola
• Ivy Global / New Summits
• College Essay Solutions
• Your College Vision
• Essay Edge*
• ServicEscape*
• PapersForge*
• QuickWriter*
• JustEditMyEssay*
• JustDoMyEsssay*
• ExpertWriting*
• SpeedyPaper*
• GradeMiners*

* A number of services will edit essays directly for students, or even write portions of the essay for students. We do not condone this. Admissions officers can tell when essays have been written or edited by adults and this can have severe consequences. We have excluded these services from our reviews.

Why are college application essays important?

Can a great college essay alone get you into Harvard?

No. You’ll need your grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities (as well as letters of recommendation and interview) to be outstanding.

But can a mediocre essay be the reason you didn’t get into Harvard?

Yes. There are thousands of amazingly-qualified students who graduate from high school each year. Great grades and test scores might be a prerequisite for admission to a competitive college, but they alone aren’t enough.

College essays are a key component of a student’s application . When done well, they transform a collection of numbers—GPA, class rank, SAT or ACT scores , number of AP classes taken, AP scores—into a glimpse of a real, individual person.

Essays do many things. Good college essays can highlight extracurricular achievements which otherwise would be overlooked in a sterile list. Strong essays often indicate the student’s future plans —how they plan to leave a mark on their college campus and on the world. They can shine a light on unique challenges that a student may have had to face on their journey.

College admissions officers only have a few minutes to spend on each application. College essays need to be original, interesting, and memorable . They need to grab the attention of the admissions officer and persuade them that this is the student out of hundreds or thousands of other similarly-qualified applicants who should be admitted.

College admissions essays are usually unlike any other kind of writing that students have done before. They’re a combination of memoir and marketing pitch, and they need to be creative but also highly strategic. That’s a tough assignment!

What’s more, students are left to figure this assignment out on their own. A thoughtful and generous high school English teacher may provide guidance or offer to read essays and give feedback, but these teachers are responsible for many students, and they’re (usually) not experts in admissions strategies.

There’s another reason college essays are especially important from 2024 on. After the recent Supreme Court decision, the application essay has become one of the main ways that you can communicate how your racial identity has affected your life.

In fact, the New York Times published an article about how important it can be for students to discuss race in their college application essays!

Why work with a college essay service?

You may want to consider a college essay service if:

• You have no idea where to start in order to write your college application essays
• You feel overwhelmed by all of the different ideas you have and don’t know what would be the most strategic for college admissions—and what topics to definitely avoid for college essays
• You don’t know how to craft a compelling stor y
• You’re not sure how to edit and refine what you’ve written
• You have a hard time keeping yourself on track and want an external structure to hold you accountable
• You’re tired of conflict between students and parents about college essays
• You’re aiming at a competitive college (not just the Ivy League!) and know that you need your essays to be outstanding
• Your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars aren’t exceptional, so you need your essay to make your essay stand out from the pack
• You’re unfamiliar with the US college admissions process (a common situation for international students and first-generation families in the US)

Any of these are strong reasons to consider working with a college essay service!

It’s also worth remembering that a lot of the free advice on college’s website isn’t always very clear. For example, NYU’s admissions Senior Assistant Director of Admissions says that “There is no right or wrong way to answer as long as your answer is genuine to you.”

While that’s true, that doesn’t offer much guidance on how to actually write the essay!

Though many college applicants might not mention it, more and more students are using professional college application consultants. Research at the University of Chicago has shown that over a quarter of high-achieving seniors employed private specialists to help with the college application process.

In fact, according to NPR , some companies are even offering college admissions counseling to their top employees as an incentive–that’s just how important professional help can be in the current landscape of college admissions.

It’s important to note that a good college essay service will not write your college application essays for you . This is unethical and illegal. That’s not just coming from us: take it from a school like Princeton, whose website insists on the importance of writing your own application essays.

A good college essay service will guide you through each step of the process , teaching you how to self-reflect and write well while sharing insider insight about admissions strategy .

What makes a good college essay service?

We strongly believe that students need to write their own college essays , and we do not condone plagiarism or “buying” a college essay.

However, writing college application essays requires a completely new set of skills that is rarely taught in high school!

Writing a personal essay is much more creative than simply writing a good paper for English class. It requires a compelling narrative and a great deal of writing craft . A good essay service will teach how to do this kind of writing.

There are many college essay services that will provide only written feedback to students, usually in the form of comments added to an essay draft. (Remember, it’s important that students write their own essays, so avoid any college essay service that will make edits directly to an essay document .)

Written comments can be an effective component of good essay coaching. However, writing college essays is a deeply personal process , and it’s incredibly difficult to guide a student through the process of self-reflection, brainstorming, and planning purely through written comments.

In addition, a great college essay coach will teach students how to do this entire process of brainstorming, planning, outlining, writing, and revising . It’s difficult to learn why an essay coach is advising certain changes through written comments alone.

For these reasons, look for a college essay service with live, one-on-one services , not just written feedback. These days, it’s easy to work with the best college essay consultants in the country over Zoom!

Students need to reflect on their goals, their passions, and what drives them to be the person they are. This requires a great deal of self-awareness and self-analysis . An experienced college essay coach can help draw these ideas out of students through tested introspection techniques and brainstorming exercises .

On top of all of that, students need to be cognizant of which traits and accomplishments will be most appealing to colleges , and which stories will be cliche and boring. Personal statements and supplementary essays need to fit together to tell a cohesive story, and they need to work together with the rest of the student’s application (extracurriculars, grades, and other accomplishments).

In other words, there’s a great deal of strategy here! An experienced college essay service can help students decide how to present themselves in the best possible light .

Furthermore, most students don’t know how to edit effectively . A really top-notch college essay service will also teach students how to edit their own writing —how to reorder sections for better flow, cut unnecessary words to meet a word count, eliminate passive verbs, and make their writing vivid and exciting. Our students are routinely amazed by how transformative this step can be, and how much they learn by doing it together with the essay coach.

Finally, the best college essay services can also help students to make a writing plan and keep them on track , so that parents don’t have to be involved directly.

Ready to work on your college essays? Schedule a free 15- to 30-minute consultation with Jessica or one of our founders.

Best overall: PrepMaven’s tutors offer the highest quality at the best price. With three tiers of tutors, they make it easy to work with an Ivy League undergraduate for as little as $79/hr. Or, families can work with education professionals or Ivy League graduates from $150/hr. PrepMaven’s track record means that you can be sure every hour is being spent productively, so that you can expect real results from the work.

Best for individual consultants: College Essay Mentor. In theory, College Essay Mentor would offer an unparalleled level of individual attention and guidance: his website boasts of some very impressive results. You might find it hard to actually schedule with him, however, since he’s very selective about his clients.

Best for unlimited essay assistance: The College Essay Guy might not offer that personalized attention you get from live, face to face essay coaching, but they do offer unlimited essay editing for up to 10 schools (if you’re comfortable paying a hefty package price).

Best of the big platforms: College Vine will always be a bit of a gamble. Because it’s a tutor marketplace, your results (and costs) will really depend on how lucky you get with your consultant. From our research, however, many of their essay coaches look to have solid track records.

Ready to work on college essays with one of our experienced writing coaches? Schedule a free test prep consultation with Jessica (Director of Tutoring) or one of our founders to see what would be the best fit for your family.

It’s always best to start early and not wait until the last minute to write your college essays! Remember that essays can be used to earn scholarships as well as college admission, so a few months of writing now can pay off with up to $300,000 in tuition saved later. 

We work with students at all stages of the writing process, from I-have-no-idea-what-to-write to final edits. To start working with an Ivy-League writing coach today, set up a quick free consultation with our team.

Schedule a free college essay consultation

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Emily graduated  summa cum laude  from Princeton University and holds an MA from the University of Notre Dame. She was a National Merit Scholar and has won numerous academic prizes and fellowships. A veteran of the publishing industry, she has helped professors at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton revise their books and articles. Over the last decade, Emily has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay. 

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