Our Mission
We are the College Essay Ladies. As mothers and teachers, we understand how daunting the college application process can be for families. It doesn't have to be.
Our mission is to provide expert guidance and support to high school juniors and seniors on their journey of crafting compelling college application essays.
It is our privilege to help students find their voice, tell their story, and win over admissions committees.
Our Services
From group workshops to individual tutoring sessions to comprehensive application packages, College Essay Ladies provide a variety of services and packages to help rising college students put their best foot forward and show college admissions officers why colleges want them on their list of accepted students.
Comprehensive College Application Package
Start-to-finish guidance for the full college essay process, including personal statements and supplemental essays covering everything from Common App uploads to personal statements and supplemental essays for up to 6 schools. Additional schools are billed hourly. - 16 hours of live Zoom instruction - Unlimited additional asynchronous support to review drafts and provide feedback - Guidance through all components of the Common App and supplements Cost: $1,800 *Book directly with Armin by phone.
Personal Statement
Essay 7-session Package
7 sessions of personalized 1:1 advising tailored to each student’s individual needs - Guided brainstorming - Strategic insight - Detailed feedback and revision strategies - Asynchronous feedback between sessions - $70 savings compared to individual sessions Cost: $840 *Book directly by phone with Jill or Armin.
Individual Essay
Advising
Personalized 1:1 advising tailored to each student’s individual needs. - Guided brainstorming - Strategic insight - Detailed feedback and revision strategies Cost: $130/hour(Jun-Aug) $150/hour (Sep-Nov)
Summer
Workshop
An interactive workshop designed to help students generate strong, authentic ideas for their college personal statement. - 2.5 hours of guided brainstorming - Strategic insight - Jump-start on outline - 20% discount toward a future 1:1 advising session - Ten-student limit Cost: $125
Armin and Jill
Think of us as your creative writing teachers, participating in a rewarding exercise of self-discovery that culminates in a polished, compelling, and memorable essay. With our support, you'll feel confident sharing your work and your authentic self with colleges and universities.
Writing Consultant
Jill VanHimbergen
Jill is a licensed English teacher with twenty-plus years of experience as a writer and a writing teacher to high school and college students. She has worked with neurodivergent students, reluctant writers, and English language learners.
She enjoys helping hesitant writers wade into uncertain waters and find their voices on the page.
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Writing Consultant
Armin Radak
Armin has twenty-plus years of experience working with students as both tutor and advisor. She has held leadership roles as Director at Sylvan Learning and Director of Student Affairs and Interim Associate Campus President at Rasmussen College. She loves supporting students as they find their voice and enjoys celebrating their successes alongside them.
Our Process
Pre-Writing
The Pre-writing process includes getting-to-know-you exercises, where students identify their roles, identities, values, and character strengths. We'll hone in on a common app prompt that interests them. We'll free-write to generate ideas and determine which story excites us the most.
Outlining
This is where we start to identify the pieces that make the whole, and like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, we twist and move the ideas that will shape the bigger picture to form a cohesive whole.
Drafting
We write. It will be rough and redundant. We will misspell words and misuse words. We will struggle for the right analogy. We will not say enough and we will say too much all at the same time. But we will get it all down without stopping to see what shows up.
Revision and Draft 2
This is the work of envisioning again. What did we say? How did we say it? How can we say it better?
Editing and Proofreading
And then we nitpick. The ideas are wonderful, the story is compelling, but let's try to say it just a little bit cleaner.
Supplemental Writing
The schools you are applying to may or may not require additional supplemental essays. Here, we're just hammering that impression home with a few extra, but impactful details.
