How to Give Great Essay Feedback
A Two-Hour Mini-Course w/ Ethan and the College Essay Guy Team
All proceeds from registrations will benefit the Matchlighters Scholars program.
This one’s for you, college counselors.
What should I be looking for when I’m reading a personal statement for the first time?
What techniques can I use to help a student trim words fast?
What questions should a student be asking before they hit “submit”?
I have a lot to say about these things. But guess what? I also have an amazing team of coaches and peer counselors who have a lot to say about these things. So — back by popular demand — we’ve put together another end-of-year mini-course. And the content this year is new!
How’s this course different from our previous courses? Fresh voices. Deeper dive on fewer topics. New content.
How to Give Great Essay Feedback
A Two-Hour Session with Ethan Sawyer and the College Essay Guy Team
This course is the result of requests from counselors to share more on how to provide concise, insightful feedback on students’ college essays.
And best of all, it’s a fundraiser:
All proceeds from registrations go towards the Matchlighters Scholars program.
That means all the money we raise from sign-ups will go toward helping low-income students receive free college essay help.
Over two hours, we cover:
- A “look over my shoulder” session to watch how I (Ethan) edit an actual essay—at three different stages of the process
- A mini masterclass in cutting words, phrases, and sentences taught by one of my veteran essay specialists
- Tips for adding unique details at the last minute
- Before and after case studies
- Tips for helping students edit essays on sensitive topics such as mental health issues
- A set of specific questions students can ask about each section of their application before clicking “submit”
- Lots more
Workshop Real Essays
My team and I will workshop essays from our students, and you’ll get the chance to bring yours to the table as well.
Learn from Expert Coaches
I’m bringing two experts from my team so you’ll hear multiple perspectives on the essay-editing process.
Every Stage of the Journey
We’ll cover how to provide great feedback on first drafts and last drafts.
All proceeds from this course will support the Matchlighters Scholars Program
The Matchlighters Scholars program offers free college application counseling for high-achieving, low-income students.
College Essay Guy funds a team that works to match and support hundreds of trained volunteer counselors with students from around the country (and world).
Want to know more about the program or become a volunteer counselor yourself?
Dawn Blanchard
Lisa Sohmer
Sharon Spiers
Meet Hanah
Hanah Lim is a former high school English teacher and essay specialist who is passionate about helping demystify the college admission process for young people and their families. Before teaching English at the high school she attended growing up, she worked as a college consultant for students in Bangkok, Thailand, directed SAT prep centers in Irvine, California and worked with non-profit groups and as an AVID counselor to help close the achievement gap. She has helped students in the college admissions process from different backgrounds from all over the world and has worked with over 5,000 students in her career. She has helped her students, many of them first generation, get admitted into top universities like Harvard, Yale, Duke, Georgetown, UChicago, Harvard Law, Yale Law, and dozens of other great institutions. In addition to helping seniors write their college essays, Hanah has also trained teachers district-wide on how to take seniors through the college essay process. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Education and is a credentialed single subject teacher. Hanah also oversees College Essay Guy’s essay and application workshop team and organizes speaking events and college application and essay workshops for students at schools and organizations in the US and around the world.
Meet Lyn
Lyn Fairchild Hawks is an experienced essay coach with her own business, Success Story, and loves helping students tell cinematic stories. Her students earn merit scholarships and hear good news from schools such as Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Cal Poly, and Cornell. She is a graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Education and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of young adult novels, short stories, and books for educators, including lessons for teaching Shakespeare. As someone juggling critiques from agents and editors, she understands what it’s like to wrestle with feedback and make deep revisions.
For 15 years Lyn designed and ran online programs for gifted youth at Duke University and loves personalizing writing activities for students as well as training teachers. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC with her partner, Greg Hawks, an Americana singer-songwriter, and Sonny the orange tabby, the namesake of bluegrass, jazz, and blues musicians. Her stepson, a proud graduate of DePaul, now mixes sound in an L.A. film studio and still forgives his stepmom for making him rewrite all his essays. She loves drawing, cooking, dancing to ‘80s music, and Wordle.
Meet Ethan
Ethan Sawyer is a nationally recognized college essay expert, sought-after speaker, and author of the Amazon bestsellers College Essay Essentials and College Admission Essentials.
Each year he helps thousands of students and counselors through his online courses, workshops, articles, products, 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 and daughter.
Up-level your essay coaching game.
Pay-what-you-can options below.
Can’t afford this course? We offer pay-what-you-can spots
Access is really important to me. In fact, it’s at the heart of most of everything I do and is why so many resources on my site are free. It’s why I’m offering pay-what-you-can spots for high school college counselors in schools, CBOs, or non-profits with small budgets and few resources for professional development.
“Wait, so if our counseling department doesn’t have a budget, we can still join?”
Yep. If that’s you, request a pay-what-you-can spot. Don’t be shy; I’d love to have you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I access the product I purchased?
If you have purchased any of our online video courses or live webinars, you can login here. Once logged in, you can access all of your products in your library. From there, select what you want to watch!
Can I use your materials with my students?
Absolutely! All that we ask is that you leave the logo and website on the materials. You can find more information here.
Is this course live?
No, but you will have access to the recordings from the previous live sessions.
What if I hate the course? Can I get a refund?
Sure! If you purchased the course within 30 days and feel it did not help you, you can get a 100% guaranteed, no-questions-asked refund
Where are the recordings?
Recordings from previous sessions are inside your CEG account, specifically inside the course modules.
I can't afford this. Are there any discounts available?
Access is really important to all of us at College Essay Guy. It’s at the heart of most everything Ethan does and is why so many resources on the site are free. As this is something we are passionate about, you have the option to submit a pay-what-you-can request on each of our course pages. The form for it is located right above the FAQ section.
How long will this course be available inside of my CEG account?
Counselors have lifetime access to the course.
I have another question!
My FAQ page has you covered. Or, if you can’t find the answer there, shoot an email to my team: [email protected].