We offer several packages for college applications and essays. Many students purchase the Complete Application Consult, our most comprehensive service for full guidance through the entire admission process. Others just want help with essays, or want a written review of their application. We are happy to recommend a plan or create a custom package that meets your needs.
We also offer a comprehensive guides package with over 150 pages of our best advice for just $25.
Use the Purchase page to see availability and check out online. Please contact us if you have questions.
Consultations - One on One Guidance
This service is designed to help you build your entire application from the ground up. We will walk you through each component of the application and help you decide what to include and how to present it. As the most full-service plan we offer, the Complete Application Consult includes:
- Unlimited access via email for questions throughout the process
- The Better College Apps Guides to Essays, Extracurricular Activities, Awards, Interviews, and Letters of Recommendation
- The Better College Apps Introspection Worksheet
- Resume and Information Worksheet
- Email feedback and one hour planning session following worksheets submission
- Seventeen additional hours of one-on-one consultation (18 hours total) to review and discuss essays and application materials. This also includes strategy, college choices, financial aid, and anything else for your college admissions process. These can be scheduled in 30 or 60 minute increments as needed. This will generally cover about ten to fifteen full applications, and more hours can be added as needed.
You’ll start with our guides and worksheets. The guides will give you a foundation for how college admissions works and how you can make your application outstanding. The worksheets give us a sense of who you are, what strengths you bring, and what themes to layer into your application strategy and narrative. We’ll meet to review the worksheets live and give you direction and guidance as we polish and finalize your strategy and narrative. We’ll work with you from brainstorming all the way to final submission. This process has been carefully designed to maximize the value and impact of your application by adding depth and dimension that goes beyond what strong applicants typically present. The result is a cohesive and compelling application, along with significantly higher acceptance rates.
Since our goal is an outstanding end product, we will not accept a new Complete Application Consult within thirty days of an application deadline. We also require that all phone/video calls related to the application content be completed or scheduled by fifteen days before the deadline so there is sufficient time for revision. Audio or video recordings of all meetings will be provided.
Now booking for transfer students, current juniors, and rising seniors. Payment plans are available. Contact us if you have questions about this service.
This service is best if you are confident in most of your application, but you want comprehensive help drafting one full-length personal statement essay from scratch. We will review potential topics, identify compelling themes, give direction for your writing, and provide comprehensive review. A Complete Essay Consult includes:
- Unlimited access via email for questions about your essay throughout the process
- The Better College Apps Guides Package
- The Better College Apps Introspection Worksheet
- Resume and Information Worksheet
- 30-minute planning session following worksheets submission to discuss topics and outlines
- Four and a half additional hours of phone/video consultation (5 hours total) to revise and perfect your essay. These can be scheduled in 30 or 60 minute increments as needed.
Since our goal is an outstanding end product, we will not accept a new Complete Essay Consult within ten days of an application deadline. We also require that all phone/video calls related to the essay content be scheduled or completed by ten days before the deadline so there is sufficient time for revision. Audio recordings of all meetings will be provided.
Contact us if you have questions about this service.
Transfer admission is a somewhat different process and carries its own challenges. This plan helps you review and finalize all components of one transfer application. It includes:
- The Better College Apps Essay Guide and Transfer Guide
- The Better College Apps Transfer Introspection Worksheet
- 30-minute planning and strategy session following worksheets submission.
- Four and a half additional hours of one-on-one consultation (5 hours total) to discuss strategy and review application materials.
Additional consultation time can be added on as needed or to support several applications. Since our goal is an outstanding end product, we will not accept a new Transfer Student Package within ten days of the application deadline.
Contact us if you have questions about this service.
This package will prepare you for success in professional interviews such as those for co-ops, internships, summer programs, and jobs. It includes:
- Achieving Your Career Ambitions, our comprehensive, 25-page guide to successfully navigating the process for securing internships, co-ops, and job offers.
- Acing The Interviews, our 18-page guide that explains interviews, how to prepare, and how to maximize your ratings.
- The Better College Apps Interview Worksheet.
- A 30 minute one-on-one coaching session to review your completed worksheet and discuss interview strategy and best practices.
- A 30 minute mock interview designed to mimic the actual interview you’re preparing for.
- A 30 minute interview feedback and review session. We’ll discuss what went well in your mock interview, areas to improve, and missed opportunities.
- A 30 minute resumé drafting and review session. We’ll ensure your resumé or CV is tailored to the opportunities you’re applying for and that every section is strategically and optimally crafted.
We will email you a contract upon purchase. Audio or video recordings will be provided after each meeting.
Please contact us if you have questions about this service
If you have questions about the admissions process, want to brainstorm essay ideas, review an essay together, or discuss your application strategy, we are happy to chat with you via live video meetings. These can be scheduled in 30-minute increments. We will send you the complete Better College Apps Guide Package prior to our call. We ask that you email us any application materials or drafts prior to the meeting to maximize effectiveness. After our consultation, we will email you an audio or video recording of the meeting.
Contact us if you have questions about this service.
Reviews - Feedback on Completed Essays and Applications
This plan helps you review and revise all components of one completed application. An Essential Application Review includes:
- The Better College Apps Guides Package
- The Better College Apps Introspection Worksheet
- Review of one draft of one application with detailed email feedback following each draft. This includes all essays, activities, awards, and other sections for one application. Our feedback is extensive and comprehensive.
Our turnaround time for an Essential Application Review is four business days. If you choose to “rush my review” for an additional $99, we will provide feedback to you within 48 hours of receipt of your application.
Contact us if you have questions about this service.
This package is best for students who only want help reviewing and revising one essay they have already written. An Essential Essay Review includes:
- The Better College Apps Guides Package
- The Better College Apps Introspection Worksheet
- Thorough review of one draft of one essay with detailed written feedback. Our notes, recommendations, and explanations are often over twice as long as the essay itself.
Our turnaround time for an Essential Essay Review is four business days. If you choose to “rush my review” for an additional $25, we will provide feedback to you within 48 hours of receipt of your essay.
Contact us if you have questions about this service or if you are interested in a quote for review of supplemental essays, UC PIQs, or other materials.
This package is best for students who simply want summary feedback and a rating for their essay, similarly to how admissions officers read and rate essays during the admissions cycle. A Basic Essay Rating includes:
- The Better College Apps Guides Package
- The Better College Apps Introspection Worksheet
- A basic review of one draft of one essay with a summary of the overall impression and advice for enhancement. This also includes a numeric rating out of ten and key areas to focus on revising.
Contact us if you have questions about this service.
Guides
The Better College Apps Guides Package
This package includes all six PDF guides, walking you through each aspect of your application. At $25, we consider it to be one of the best values in college admissions. It covers the following in over 150 pages:
- Introspection and brainstorming, including identification of your application theme and the beliefs, values, and passions you want to illustrate in your application
- Writing compelling essays that effectively showcase who you are, while avoiding common essay pitfalls
- Maintaining your unique interests while choosing extracurricular activities, and describing ECs in your application to maximize their value
- How to best list honors and awards to convey their scope or importance, and what to do to strengthen this section
- Ensuring you receive an outstanding letter of recommendation that adds dimension and depth
- Preparing for interviews and how to give a top-rated response to every question
Includes all six resources listed above! Save over 50% on 150+ pages of our best advice, written in our approachable, practical, just-the-good-parts style.
An eight-page worksheet with over 100 questions designed to help you find yourself and showcase your personal strengths, core values, motivations, and personality in your essays.
A thorough, practical, 51-page guide that maps the whole essay-writing process from start to finish. We address the best essay strategies, common pitfalls, and how to creatively craft a compelling essay that showcases you effectively.
Our guide delves into how admissions officers view ECs, what activities to pursue, how to maximize their value, and how to describe ECs in your app. We cover depth and breadth, do’s and don’ts, and myths and facts – everything you want to know about the extracurricular section of your application, in a detailed 29-page guide.
You won’t be the one writing your letter of recommendation, but there’s still so much you can do to ensure you get a good one – 23 pages worth, in fact. We discuss who to pick as a recommender, how to prepare a “brag sheet” and request a recommendation, and what makes a letter of recommendation exceptional.
This 11-page guide will help you maximize the value of your honors and awards. It has tips on what awards to include, how to describe them, how colleges evaluate them, and what to do when your awards section feels underwhelming.
This comprehensive, 23-page guide explains what colleges are looking for in interviews, how to prepare, and how to maximize your ratings. It’s worth it just for the three simple steps to ensure a top-rated response to EVERY interview question. To further solidify your confidence and understanding, it also includes a practical list of do’s and don’ts as well as commonly asked interview questions and strategies for acing them.
Feedback we’ve received for these guides:
- “Thanks for all these guides. I went through them all, and they all offered great advice/tips. In all honesty, I really had no clue going into this what to focus my essays/application on. I believe that after some thinking, I have a better idea of what I want to express about myself to the admissions officers.” – Isaac N., a student just starting the college admissions process
- “I think your essay guides should be mandatory reading for all teens – even I was grateful for them.” – Julie W., a parent
- “I’ve read a handful of books on college admissions, but your guides were so much easier to follow. This was by far the most helpful thing I read in the process.” – Sasha P., a student admitted to MIT and several other top colleges
- “I definitely liked the guides you wrote as well as the essay ideas/brainstorming sheet which helped me out a bunch when I was starting to draft my common app.” – Jamie G., a student admitted to Penn ED
- “I’m not a great writer by any means but I really think incorporating awesome content within your essays is where it’s at. I bought /u/ScholarGrade’s 25 dollar college app guide, which included a really amazing writing guide. 10/10 would recommend” – A student on Reddit who used the essay guide to get into Rice [Link]
“I have used his guides in every part of my application. If there is something I recommend for all the students who want to take their applications to the next level, that would be getting the guides from u/ScholarGrade. Thank you Mark!” – Another Redditor who used the guides package to get into Harvard [Link]