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College Essay Guy’s Curriculum For the Personal Statement

A comprehensive set of step-by-step lessons—designed for teachers and counselors—to help students write outstanding college essays

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See inside our college essay curriculum:

Most counselors don’t have time to create step-by-step lessons to help students navigate the college application process.

Our curriculum was designed for busy teachers and counselors.

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WHAT IT IS:

  • Interactive exercises that help foster moments of self-discovery
  • Aligned with Common Core State Standards
  • Videos, PDFs, and PPT slides
  • Adaptable to a variety of formats
  • Developed by a former high school AVID teacher and college essay coach

WHO’S IT FOR?

Our curriculum was designed specifically for teachers, high school and CBO college counselors.

The lessons work equally well in the classroom, during advisory or homeroom periods, or in after-school and summer programs.

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WHAT’S INSIDE?

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Professional Development
Training for Your Team

  • College Admission Fundamentals
  • How to Guide Students Through the Personal Statement Process
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Interactive, Student-
Focused Lessons

  • Based on powerful insights from the industry leaders in college essays
  • Engaging opening questions, teaching strategies, and introspective activities
Google Slides presentation titled "Writing an Outstanding Personal Statement" with abstract blue designs and the College Essay Guy logo at the bottom.

Turnkey Resources

  • Fully adjustable/editable Google slides
  • Student Google Doc workbooks
  • Instructional video library
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Versatile Materials

  • Perfect for schools that offer a college counseling class/summer school
  • Also great for the weeks right after AP testing
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Video Tutorials

  • Access to all College Essay Guy videos of exercises and concepts in action
A set of educational documents, including curriculum slides, a student workbook, and a teacher’s edition titled “How to Write an Outstanding Personal Statement.”.

Additional Resources

  • 20 flexible lesson plans
  • 4-week pacing guide
  • Teacher’s guide/workbook

Who the college essay curriculum is for and why we created it

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“This curriculum saved me so much time planning my writing workshops. The lesson plans were rich with content that made it easy to review and go right into working with students. It took a lot of pressure off knowing I could fall back on this material.”

Elizabeth, Dean of College Counseling (Louisiana)

    PREVIEW A SAMPLE LESSON

Folks who used our curriculum reported…

A list of benefits for teachers and counselors, including reduced stress, saved time with peer evaluation, and less repetition of material.
A list highlighting student benefits: increased confidence, improved personal statements, and reduced stress from early completion of drafts by summer's end. Graduation cap icon above text.

The CEG curriculum was an amazing tool for our seniors. It gave them permission to allow themselves to be vulnerable. Many who have been alone since quarantine found their voices and owned their stories. My students were extremely proud of their writing by the time they arrived at the Read-Arounds, and the feedback given by their classmates made them proud of their growth.

Janis L

Cerritos High School

Curious to learn more?

We’d love to connect with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Included with the curriculum is a live PD session that walks you and your team through what colleges are looking for today and where personal statements fit in.

The Curriculum is designed for 11th and 12th grade students and can be delivered as early as January of junior year. Some junior teachers will find that a great time is in May, right after AP Testing. For senior teachers, early fall is ideal so that students benefit from receiving the information before early admission deadlines.

Not at all. The essentials are in the first two weeks, but even then, you can pick and choose which lessons you want to cover. The essentials include the brainstorming activities and the difference between narrative and montage essays.

Definitely. After you make your own copy, feel free to customize the workbook before sharing it with your students.

Absolutely. One counselor told us that as someone who never taught a class, these materials gave her the confidence to run her essay boot camp and that it saved her so much time to do other responsibilities.

And we’ve designed the curriculum to work equally well for counselors who have advisories, college counseling classes, or want to set up a summer program.