What Admissions Officers Actually Read For
They have eight minutes and a thousand applications. Here's what actually makes one of them slow down.
Read→The advice I find myself giving over and over, written down. On essays, supplements, and the parts of the process nobody explains — opinionated, specific, and free of the usual platitudes.
They have eight minutes and a thousand applications. Here's what actually makes one of them slow down.
Read→A good essay is clean, correct, and forgotten by the next application. A memorable one breaks one small rule on purpose.
Read→Everything here falls into one of four buckets. Pick what's most useful to where you are.
Finding, shaping, and cutting the main essay until it sounds like you.
The 'why us' and short-answer prompts where fit is quietly won or lost.
How the pieces fit together, and where students spend energy in the wrong places.
Real examples (shared with permission) of essays that worked and why.
No spam and no drip campaign — just the occasional note when I write something worth your time.
Would rather just talk about your essay?