essay blue book cost

What Is a Blue Book?

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A blue book is literally a book with about 20 lined pages that college, graduate, and sometimes high school students use to answer test questions. More specifically, a blue book refers to the type of exams that require students to use these books to complete the test . Blue books generally require students to answer open-ended questions or a list of topics to choose from with written answers that vary from between a paragraph to an essay-length response.

Fast Facts: Blue Books

• Blue books originated at Butler University in Indianapolis in the late 1920s. They feature blue covers and white pages because Butler’s colors are blue and white.
• Blue books can cost as little as a quarter a piece. Their covers often include a title such as, "Blue Book: Examination Book," as well as blank spaces for the student's name, subject, class, section, instructor, and date.

What to Expect

Blue book exams generally are given in courses that involve the social sciences or English , such as classes on political science, economics, history, or English literature. Blue book exams can be a bit intimidating. The professor usually walks in and hands out a single sheet or two containing questions that students are expected to answer. Sometimes students are given two to four specific questions; in other cases, the professor breaks the exam up into about three sections, each containing a list of two or three questions from which the students can select.

For answers to gain full, or even partial, credit, students are expected to craft a clearly and correctly written paragraph or essay that accurately answers the question or questions. A sample question for a blue book exam in an American history or a government class might read:

Describe the influence of the Jeffersonian-Hamiltonian strains of thinking on American political thought through the decades and centuries.

Just as if they were writing an essay outside of class, students would be expected to create a clear and compelling introduction, three or four paragraphs for the body of the essay that contain well-referenced supporting facts, and a well-written concluding paragraph. In some graduate or professional schools, however, a blue book exam taker might fill up the entire blue book during the course of a single exam.

Since a blue book test might contain several such essays, students cannot simply bring a bunch of loose notebook paper that might easily get mixed up or mixed in with the papers of dozens of students handing in their exams.

Purchasing Blue Books

Blue books can cost as little as quarter up to $1 or more depending on where you purchase them. Students generally buy blue books at college bookstores, stationery supply stores, and even at some big-box stores. Students nearly always bring their own blue books to exams. Professors rarely hand out blue books to students, except at the high school level.

You can easily recognize blue books, which often have a title on the cover such as, "Blue Book: Examination Book," as well as spaces for the student's name, subject, class, section, instructor, and date. The section is listed because some college classes have several sections and providing a section number ensures that the completed booklets get to the right instructor and correct class.

Why Colleges Use Blue Books

Blue books are the main method professors use to administer written tests, though some universities are trying to do away with them . The exam books are convenient for professors. Certainly, students could bring a few sheets of notebook paper to class for exams. But that would increase the number of items each professor would have to organize and track. With blue books, the professor has only one book to handle from each student. With loose-leaf notebook paper, a professor might have to handle three or four pieces of paper, or many more, from each student.

Even if each student stapled the loose-leaf paper, it's easy for a page or two to become detached, leaving the professor scrambling to determine which loose page goes with which exam, often from among dozens of tests. And since blue books have blank spaces on the cover for the student's name, subject, class, section, instructor, and date, a professor can find all the relevant information about each student in the same location on each book.

Many schools are opting for different colors than blue for their exam books. "Blue books at Smith College are yellow, and at Exeter they occasionally come in white. Ten to 15 other colleges spice things up with a rotating color scheme," notes Sarah Marberg in her article " Why Blue Books Are Blue ," in the Yale News .

Additionally, such schools as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are trying to replace blue books and allow students to take exams on computers and computer tablets, but that requires spending thousands of dollars for special software that restricts students' ability to surf the web looking for answers.

History of Exam Books

The beginning of blank, bound examination booklets is a bit sketchy, according to a paper published on Research Gate, a website for scientists. Harvard began requiring written exams during the early 1850s for some classes, and in 1857, the institution started requiring written tests in nearly all areas of study. Harvard often provided students with blank exam books because paper was still expensive at the time.

The idea of using exam booklets spread to other universities; Yale started using them in 1865, followed by Notre Dame in the mid-1880s. Other colleges made the shift, and by 1900, exam booklets were widely used at institutions of higher learning across the country.

Blue books and blue book exams, specifically, originated at Butler University in Indianapolis in the late 1920s, according to University of Virginia Magazine . They were first printed by Lesh Paper Co., and they were given their distinct blue covers because Butler’s colors are blue and white, according to the UVA publication.

Colleges and universities have used the distinctive blue books ever since.

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What Is a Blue Book?- All you need to Know as a Student

Oct 21, 2023 | 0 comments

Oct 21, 2023 | Blog | 0 comments

Table of Contents

Introduction to a Blue Book

Welcome to the world of the blue book essay exam. You have probably seen one before, maybe even used one. An actual blue book is a test booklet allowing students to write answers to an exam. They are typically used in courses where students must give longer answers than multiple choice or short answer formats. This is often done in humanities classes such as history and English literature. Some science classes require a more thorough essay format than the typical multiple-choice test.

The most common size of blue book is 8×10″, but other sizes are available, such as 7×9″ or 9×11″. The number of pages inside varies according to how much information writing your professor expects, so it could be ten pages or 30 (which is not as intimidating as it sounds).

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What to Expect in Blue Book Exams

You’ll have various questions, from multiple-choice to essay answers.

Because there are only so many blue books, you and your classmates will take turns writing in the same book for each exam. You’ll have about 45 minutes per question, with one or two questions total. Bluebook exams are usually graded on a pass/fail basis, with an A being the highest grade possible.

The grading policy varies from class to class and may differ if the exam is proctored by someone other than your professor (e.g., those who teach graduate-level courses). If you’re unsure how yours will be administered, ask before sitting at your desk!

Purchasing Blue Books

Knowing how to obtain the necessary Blue Books is crucial to earning a high score on your exam. If you were not given a Blue Book at the beginning of the testing session, immediately check with a proctor. You may need to travel to a different building to find one. Be sure to bring your ticket stub to prove you are enrolled in the class and designate your course.

If you run out of pages while taking the test, don’t panic! Raise your hand and ask a proctor for another Blue Book.

Before purchasing Blue Books, it’s important to consider how many tests or assignments you need them for and how many pages each assignment will take up. Ensure that everyone in your study group has a copy of each book to keep track of their work in one place.

If you lose or misplace your book for whatever reason, let someone know immediately so they can keep an eye out for it and get it back into your hands ASAP.

However, if all else fails, there are plenty of places online where you can purchase used books from fellow students who have completed the course or even those who have opted not to use theirs after all!

Why Colleges Use Blue Books

Every year, more and more students are taking up writing exams. Many schools use blue books to ensure students receive in-depth feedback on their writing skills. Blue books are short papers written by first-year high school students, who receive these papers back periodically throughout the school year. They’re an invaluable part of the college curriculum and help shape student writing ability into collegiate form.

History of Exam Books

We have all heard of the famous blue book for exams, but you may not know where the tradition came from.

In the early 20th century, students were expected to bring their papers to exams. Some students were better prepared than others—the more privileged students would show up with a stack of papers and a binder they could use to keep their papers organized. Students who didn’t come prepared brought loose-leaf papers, omitting any way to keep them together or ensure they got turned in.

The college administration at Harvard University wanted a solution that would allow all students equal opportunity on exam day. They decided to sell booklets containing collated sheets so anyone who wanted one could participate equally. At first, these booklets were just bound stacks of loose-leaf paper available for purchase. Still, eventually, the school began filling the pages with their questions and selling them as prep materials for specific subjects (hence why some call blue books “exam books”).

The blue book is a staple of the American educational system.

If you’ve ever been to school in the United States, the chances are that you’ve used a blue book. A blue book is a small booklet with blank pages inside; it is used in schools and by educators nationwide.

Since their invention, blue books have been an essential part of the American educational system; they are used from elementary school through college and beyond. They are also used in standardized tests; according to Kaplan Test Prep, most tests use white or blue paper and require test takers to write answers.

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Beginner’s Bluebook Style Guide Online

Bluebook style is one of the less known systems of citations that is used majorly in the legal system to provide reference and citations for the literature and sources that are used in legal documents and that build the foundation for the current case. So if you plan to commit your future to law-related fields, knowing how to cite in Bluebook format is a must for you.

There is no specific history that would explain the name and origin of this style. The current edition is the nineteenth in the range of corrections and modifications incorporated to the Bluebook citation format during the last decade. As it can be derived from the history of the formation of the guide, major field of application of this style is among legal institutions, academic works and Blue book essays, prepared and written by the Law students. That is why you’ll hardly find some sample research paper in Bluebook format – they are mostly written in MLA style.

Main peculiarities of the Blue book writing style are as follows:

• This system does not provide guidance to the way the document as a whole should be structured; neither has it defined acceptable fonts and spacing for the document.
• The main objective of the Bluebook format is to provide easy reference to the cases that are discussed or referenced in order to ground the foundation for the decision.
• Due to the nature of the discipline that Bluebook style is trying to support and address, it is one of the most dynamic and transformable styles that is adjusted based on previous practices and requirements of modern legal systems all over the globe.
• What is considered to be one of the distinguishing features of the Bluebook format style is its precise citation format that goes down to the pages and paragraphs that refer to previous cases and/or literature that support findings and conclusions of judges, lawyers, and other legal system officials.

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There are two alternatives to the Bluebook citation style, namely Maroonbook and ALWD styles. All of them follow the same objective to emphasize the importance of citation for logical reasoning and further reference of the case. There are also several locally-based citation styles on the country and even court levels that are required to meet specific characteristics of a particular legal system or institution.

Remember, it is better to use correct formatting from the stage of writing drafts of your paper. It is also recommended to write down all the information considering sources you take as a basis at the stage of literature research so as not to forget some important details. If all of this seems too complicated, you can get expert’s Bluebook essay writing advice or even professional paper writing service help right here on our website.

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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

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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.

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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

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#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

Top College Essay Posts

• Qualities of a Successful College Essay
• 11 College Essays That Worked
• How to Answer the UC Personal Insight Questions
• How Colleges Read your College Applications (A 4-Step Process)
• How to Write the Princeton Supplemental Essays
• The Diamond Strategy: How We Help Students Write College Essays that Get Them Into Princeton (And Other Ivy League Schools)
• What is the College Essay? Your Complete Guide for 202 4
• College Essay Brainstorming: Where to Start
• How to Write the Harvard Supplemental Essays
• How to Format Your College Essay

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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