Live, Virtual Summer College Essay Workshops for Your Students

What is CEG Live? Expert-led, student-centered college essay & application workshops that help students move from “I don’t know what to write” to a clear, workable draft—while saving counselors time.

Trusted by public, private, international schools, non-profits, and CBOs worldwide
Led by Ethan Sawyer & College Essay Guy facilitators 

2026 SESSION DATES

JUNE
1 – 5
2026
Personal Statement Boot Camp
JUNE
15 – 19
2026
Personal Statement Boot Camp
JULY
13 – 16
2026
University of California PIQs Workshop
AUGUST
5
2026
How to Create Your Common Application
AUGUST
26
2026
How to Craft Strong Supplemental Essays & Activities List
 

What Are The College Essay Guy Live
Summer Workshops?

College Essay Guy (CEG) Live is a series of live, virtual college essay workshops designed to help students write strong personal statements with clarity and confidence.

  • Live and interactive (not prerecorded)

  • Built for rising seniors

  • Scalable for large cohorts

Students leave with direction, structure, and momentum—without adding work to counselors’ plates. 

You know soooo much about the college essay process. It was an easy program to promote and I felt comfortable knowing that an expert was leading the process for my students. It was a win-win!
-Public School College Counselor
 
"I LOVE THIS PROGRAM! I recently did a classroom lesson for 12th graders and asked who their favorite college website was. The students said—the College Essay Guy!"

-High School College Counselor

"I am so grateful for your willingness to help students (and counselors!) prepare their students for essays and to address other pertinent questions surrounding the college application process. This will be my 24th year as a Director of College Guidance, and your materials are truly the most user-friendly and practical guides for students I have ever encountered."

-Carla, HS Counselor


Who is CEG Live for?

College Essay Guy LIVE is an especially good fit for:

  • Public, charter, and independent schools

  • Schools with limited counseling ratios

  • Counselors who want a consistent essay framework

  • Programs serving first-generation and low-income students

Note that this program is not open to students to register directly, but only available to students whose counselor has registered for College Essay Guy Live.

 

We'll help you get the word out
To make CEG Live as impactful and joyful as possible, we’ve created a collection of shareable assets, ready to send out to your students:

Assets Included:

  • Promotional PDF (download here)

  • Email templates you can copy and paste

  • Short snippets of text for social media

  • Images/graphics to share with your students


Session Schedule & Details
How to Write the Personal Statement
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Workshop #1: June 1, 3, 5
BONUS REVIEW SESSIONS: June 8 & 10

Workshop #2: June 15, 17, 19
BONUS REVIEW SESSIONS: June 22 & 24

Session Times: 10-11:30am PT (1-2:30pm ET) & 4-5:30pm PT  (7-8:30pm ET)

Note: Workshops #1 and #2 will cover the same content.

Session 1 | Brainstorming
Session 2 | Outlining & Writing
Session 3 | Revising & Upleveling

In this workshop, I’ll walk your students step-by-step through how to brainstorm, outline, revise, and draft their personal statements.

Using my Choose Your Own Adventure essay tool, students will leave with everything they need to revise and polish their drafts.

 
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What’s the Choose Your Own Adventure Essay Tool?

As part of CEG Live, your students get access to our step-by-step tool that helps them discover their personal statement topic, decide on a structure, and revise it as much as they like. 

Inside the tool, I cover things like:

  • What’s the Purpose of the Personal Statement?

  • What are Four Qualities of an Outstanding Personal Statement?

  • Essay Brainstorming Exercises

  • Montage vs. Narrative Structure

  • 7 Types of Montage Essay

  • How to Raise the Stakes and Draw Your Reader In

  • 19 Ways to Make Your Essay More Insightful

  • How to Make Sure Your Personal Statement “Flows”

  • Lots more

 
How to Write the UC Personal Insight Questions

This workshop provides students with a step-by-step guide to understanding the University of California’s Personal Insight Questions and Activities List.

Workshop #3: July 13 & 15
BONUS REVIEW SESSION: July 16

Session Times: 3-5:00pm PT (6-8:00pm ET)

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I’ll cover:

  • 7 Essential Tips for Applying to the UC Schools

  • What are the 13 elements of a comprehensive review?

  • How to Pick Your 4 UC Personal Insight Question Topics

  • Why You Should Outline Your PIQs Before Writing

  • How to Structure Any PIQ

  • Getting Feedback on Your PIQ Topics

  • Revising a Narrative PIQ (Writing about a Challenge)

  • Revising a Montage PIQ (Not Writing about a Challenge)

 
How to Write the College Application + Supplemental Essays

Workshop #4 (Option 1): August 5 @ 12-2:00pm PT (3-4:00pm ET)

Workshop #4 (OPTION 2): August 26 @ 3:30-5:00pm PT (6:30-8:00pm ET) 

Note: Both options will cover the same content on those days.

In this workshop, I offer a values-based approach to helping students produce not only a stand-out Common Application, activities list, and additional information section, but also tips on answering the supplemental essays that many selective schools require. (Counselors are welcome to join too.)

In this workshop, I’ll cover:

  • How to Create an Inspired Application in Half the Time

  • The Activities List, Additional Info, and "Why Us?" Essay

  • The Extracurricular Essay

  • Specific Supplemental Essays for 40+ Colleges and Universities

  • The Short Answer Questions

  • How to Make Sure a College Application Is Doing Its Job


Students and counselors can tune in from anywhere.

watch anytime. anywhere.

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Your students will receive simple and clear instructions for logging in to the tools and live events from home.

Adaptable curriculum

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We’ll provide a suite of resources that can work flexibly with your college counseling process.

Counselor Support

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Counselors get access to all the resources, tools, and live sessions so you can follow along.



"The entire experience was very insightful and gave me the inspiration and motivation to get ahead on my college search and application process."

-Angelina, Student

"You're an amazing teacher, and I can feel the passion you have for us. I really appreciate all the work you've done for us. Thanks to you, I've been able to say what I've wanted to say about my life and show how it has impacted me. That's something that I've struggled to do in the past. So from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say thank you!"

-Miles P, Student

"I followed every step from your videos for the main personal statement essay and my college advisor was wowed by my first draft. I made some small changes and now it's finished. I just wanted to thank you for that."

-Tea, Student

"First of all, this was incredibly beneficial for my writing process. Kudos to you and your team and my school counselor for recommending this. I enjoyed the brainstorming activities a lot, especially the “Essence Objects” and the “I Love” exercises. I have a few essays written now, thanks to those brainstorming sessions. Also, independently of the sessions, I found your list of recommended verbs for the activities list. It was a lifesaver."

-Alex, Student

I love how we went over actual samples to critique so that we could look out for certain things in our own essays! I loved how there was a step by step process to follow that made the whole process achievable. With everything going on, the brainstorming part of the process helped me further appreciate what I have instead of mourning the things I’ve lost. The process has shown me how grateful I am to have so many things worth writing about. That being said, I just wanted to say thank you.

-Andrea, Student

COLLEGE ESSAY GUY
LIVE REGISTRATION
 

COLLEGE ESSAY GUY LIVE

Schools and Organizations

$997
$497*
*Early Bird Pricing

regular price: $997 PER YEAR

For: Any school or organization. Your contribution supports our Matchlighters Scholars program.

College Essay Guy Live

Schools and Organizations


$0*
*Pay-What-You-Can Spots

PER YEAR

For: At College Essay Guy, we’re committed to providing access to high-quality essay support for any student, anywhere. Qualifying schools or organzations may join College Essay Guy Live at little to no cost.

PERSONALIZED WORKSHOPS

Book a Private Workshop
Schedule a Call
with Us


  • Private customizable workshops for your school
  • Led by an inspiring trained facilitator
  • Take place virtually or in person at your school
  • Professional development, student workshops, and consulting options


 

MEET YOUR GUIDE

Ethan Sawyer is a nationally recognized college essay expert and sought-after speaker. Each year he helps thousands of students and counselors through his online courses, workshops, blog posts, and books, and works privately with a small number of students. A graduate of Northwestern University, Ethan holds an MFA from UC Irvine, two counseling certificates, is certified in Myers-Briggs and hypnotherapy. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife, Veronica, and their amazing daughter, Zola.

Learn more about Ethan »

 

Frequently Asked Questions

+Who is eligible to register for College Essay Guy LIVE?

This program is designed for high school college counselors who work within a school setting, as well as non-profit organizations and CBOs that support students through the college application process.

+Once resgistered, how do I sign up? How do I register my students?

For 2026, organizations have to provide a list of students in order to register them. We will provide the form and instructions for this.

+Can I register my students for only one or some of the offerings listed above?

You can register your students for as many of the workshops as you like.

+Can I make payment by paper check/wire transfer/some other method? Can I get a purchase order/invoice for approval from my school?

Yes and yes. We’ve got you covered. Just email help@collegeessayguy.com with the subject “College Essay Guy LIVE” and share a bit more and we’ll follow up with next steps.

+We have three counselors at our school. Should each of us sign up for College Essay Guy Live separately?

Only one counselor needs to sign up per school/organization. You’re more than welcome to add multiple counselors or teachers to the registration list when you begin that process.

Or, as noted above, you can register yourselves through the self-registration link shared in your welcome email so that you can be notified via email of the program events and receive links to the live sessions.

+Is my student’s contact information safe? Will students receive marketing emails for other services?

Student privacy is very important to us. We will never share student emails or information or send them any marketing emails. All communication will be related exclusively to how to receive access to the free live workshop sessions and the tools and resources in this program.

+I’m a current student/parent of a student. Can I register my child for the program?

At this time, this program is only open to students whose counselor from their school/organization has registered their student.

If you’d like to have your school register, please feel free to share this program with your high school college counselor to see if they’d like to join the program.

If your school is not joining this program, we also offer a suite of live and recorded student courses that guide students through the college application process. (Keep an eye on our email newsletter for more about our live summer Boot Camps.)

+Is there a limit to how many students I can register?

This program is open to your entire class of rising seniors.

+Will there be recordings?

You bet! We record each live session and send a follow-up email to everyone who is registered with a copy of the recording. Recordings are typically uploaded inside the CEG LIVE counselor and student dashboards within 24-48 hours.

+What is the deadline to register my students by?

We recommend that you sign up and let your students know as far in advance as possible of the live workshops so that you and your students can plan to mark the live workshop dates in the calendars. We recommend giving your students at least 4-6 weeks notice. The more time they have to plan, the more likely they’ll be to take advantage of the resources offered. We’ll close registration two weeks before the live event. At the very latest, aim to have your students registered a week before each live session begins.

+When will you send out emails to the students?

We’ll send out a “welcome” email to students once they’ve been registered.

After that, we’ll send them a few reminder emails in the weeks leading up to the boot camps that you’ve signed them up for.

+I received an email from my child’s school counselor about this essay boot camp. How do I register my child?

Your student’s school counselor will need to register their school, and they will likely have emailed you/your student directly with instructions on how to sign up. Keep an eye out for more instructions by email, or reach out to your counselor for more information.

+How long do my students have access to the materials?

Your students will have access to the video lessons, workshop recordings, and Choose Your Own Adventure revising tool through the end of the admissions cycle.

+What resources can I share with my students?

Our resources are always free to share with your students. But if you’d like to use our content in your curricula, please learn how to attribute materials to College Essay Guy at this link here.

+I’ve got another question that isn’t on here!

Check out our FAQ page, or email us at Help@CollegeEssayGuy.com if your question isn’t answered there and we will get back to you ASAP.