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Personalizing Your College Essay | Essay Editing Toolkit

mcenteio@hubspot.com (Maria Centeio) — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 18:48:00 GMT

Hi everyone!

I spend a lot of time proofreading and editing college essays, and a question I get pretty often is "How do I make sure that my common app essay stands out from all other applicants?" It's definitely an important question to map out seriously, but when you're competing against 23,000 other students for one of just 2,300 spots, the answer to that question is harder to find. I can't say there's an exact answer either, but I believe personalizing your common app essay plays a big part in it being outstanding. As part of your essay editing toolkit, here are some tips on how to do so:

Featured Student Resource | Global Student Advising

ccosta@hubspot.com (Cristina Costa, GSA Founder and Student Advisor) — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 13:15:00 GMT

Hello everyone!

Today we have a guest blog post from Cristina, CEO and Advisor @GlobalStudentAdvising:

English essay writing, especially for international students looking to study abroad in the United States, can be extremely difficult. Most foreign students have learned English as a second language and therefore, do not have the proper writing experience as their future American classmates. During my time as an English Teacher at a High School in Japan, I taught an English Writing Course which focused solely on being able to write an American 5 paragraph style essay. It really amazed me that most of my high school students had never even had to write an essay or research paper and many of them wanted to go to college in the United States. They all had dreams of leaving their home countries and using their English skills to study and strive in the US.

Why essay help for low income students in Boston is important

mcenteio@hubspot.com (Maria Centeio) — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 20:57:00 GMT

Hi Skolars!

This post will cover why I believe essay help for low income students in Boston is important (note: I think it's important everywhere, globally and domestically), but for the purposes of the focus of this site i.e. targeting low income students in the area, we'll focus on Boston. Below is a graph of the percentage of high school graduates enrolled in a 2 or 4yr college, by income level (provided by the Pew Research Center, read full article here).

How to Write Your Best Essay

mcenteio@hubspot.com (Maria Centeio) — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 18:46:00 GMT

Welcome back, Skolars!

Let's dive into how to write your best essay, for your personal statement, scholarships, etc.

A simple google search will tell you that there's a ton of information, and quite a bit of tips and resources on what makes your essay "your best" piece of writing. I found an infographic on Sharon Espstein's website that gives you a very thorough step-by-step guide on how to go about writing it, from start to finish. Here are a couple of things that stood out to me that Sharon highlights, which are often overlooked on many "essay tips" sites:

College Essay Help for Low Income Students in Boston

mcenteio@hubspot.com (Maria Centeio) — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 02:53:00 GMT

Hello Skolars!

As some of you know, I created this site to provide college essay help for low income students in Boston. My essay services give students access to a personal advisor who understands their needs, and can give valuable advice to help them with the process. Existing essay services can be costly and appear almost "off-limits" to low income students. With this site, I was hoping to fill this gap, in any way possible.

Scholarship essay help for low income students in Boston

mcenteio@hubspot.com (Maria Centeio) — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 19:46:00 GMT

Hi Skolars!

I know some of you are seniors in hihg school, have just finished writing your college essays and submitted the majority of your applications. Others are juniors, just trying to be prepared and get ahead of the game. CONGRATS! That's definitely a huge step. I know that the cost of most colleges in the US can drive you crazy to think about, which is why I'm devoting much of this website to providing scholarship and scholarship essay help for low income students in Boston. The first step is finding the scholarships you qualify for, and then setting aside time to actually apply to them. To help you with that first task, I wanted to share a relatively new app with you - Scholly.

When first I heard about it, I thought, "This is a GOLD MINE! LITERALLY!"

Essay Editing Toolkit

mcenteio@hubspot.com (Maria Centeio) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 03:39:00 GMT

WELCOME TO IVY SKOLAR!

This post will simply be an introduction to your essay editing toolkit , IvySkolar. Here's a little about me and the importance of providing students with an essay editing toolkit.

I'm going to be very honest - I actually started writing my college essay during my freshman year of high school, 3 years before I even had to apply. My 9th grade English teach had us write a prompt about ourselves, which turned into 6 pages of my LIFE story. My 11th history teacher later convinced me that it was worth using as a framework for my college essay. I was off to a good start! But cutting 6 pages down to a beautifully concise 3 paragraphs of 500 words was probably as difficult as writing the essay from scratch.