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Course details
Explore comprehensive course materials and learning objectives designed for your growth.
About the course
The essay is the part everybody worries about and roughly a third of the work. The other two thirds — the activities list, the supplements, the recommendations, the aid forms, the portals and the deadlines — is where applications actually go wrong, usually quietly, usually in October.
This workshop runs the whole thing. Ten Saturdays, twelve students, from a rough school list in September to submitted applications in November.
The schedule is the deadline
Sessions are sequenced backwards from 1 November. Every week has a deliverable that is due whether or not you feel ready, because the deadline will also arrive whether or not you feel ready. This is the most structured thing we run and it is structured on purpose.
Weeks 1–2: the list, the calendar, and every deadline written down in one place
Weeks 3–5: the personal statement, drafted and workshopped twice
Week 6: activities list and additional information
Weeks 7–8: supplements, in bulk, with the research that makes them specific
Week 9: recommendations, aid forms and portal mechanics
Week 10: final proofs, submission, and what happens next
Two sessions with parents
The financial aid sessions require a parent or guardian present, because the forms require their information and their signature and every year some families discover this in week nine. These two sessions are recorded and the recording is shared, but attendance is genuinely better.
Twelve students
Each of you gets written feedback on every deliverable, every week, from me. Twelve is the number at which that is possible in the time between Saturdays. It is also small enough that the group knows each other's applications well by October, which turns out to matter — the best supplement feedback usually comes from a peer who has read your personal statement four times.
What we do not do
We do not write, ghostwrite or 'polish' any part of an application into something that is not yours
We do not predict admission chances, because nobody can and the people who claim to are selling that certainty
We do not contact colleges on your behalf
We do not rank the schools on your list for you, though we will ask you to defend each one
Payment
Three monthly instalments at no extra cost, or paid at once. Need-based awards cover part or all of the fee for two seats in every cohort — apply through the contact form; the application is read by one person and nobody in your group is told.
Enrolment closes 16 September, three days before the first session. Cohort B runs in parallel on Sundays if the Saturday group fills.
In this course you will be able to
Submit a complete, proofread application to every school on your list before its deadline
Finish with a personal statement and every supplemental essay drafted, workshopped and revised
Write an activities list that uses all 150 characters deliberately
Brief your recommenders properly, early, with material they can actually use
Build a list you can defend, where every school is one you would genuinely attend
Run the financial aid timeline in parallel rather than discovering it in January
Sit an alumni interview without rehearsing answers that sound rehearsed
Prerequisite
Applying to US colleges for Fall 2027 entry — grade 12, or a gap-year applicant
A draft school list, however rough. Building one from nothing is a different service and is not what this workshop does
Available live at 10:00 AM Mountain Time on Saturdays for ten weeks
Six to eight hours a week, and considerably more in the fortnight before your earliest deadline
Both a student and a parent or guardian on the two financial aid sessions
Comfortable sharing drafts with eleven other applicants
Topics covered
Reading an application the way a committee reads it, in the order they read itThe personal statement as the one place your own voice appears unmediatedSupplemental essays and the research the 'why us' question is really testingThe activities list: 150 characters, and how much can actually fit in themThe additional information section, and when using it helps rather than pleadsRecommendation letters: who to ask, when, and what to give them to work withInterviews — preparation that is not rehearsalEarly decision, early action and restrictive early action, explained plainlyBuilding a balanced list without the word 'safety' doing any emotional damageDeadlines, portals and the logistics that sink otherwise-strong applicationsFinancial aid forms and the timeline they run onInternational applicant specifics: transcripts, credential evaluation and English proofHandling a weak semester or an unusual transcript honestlyWhat a committee does with test scores now, and the honest answer about optionalManaging the wait, and what to do with a deferralReading an acceptance, a waitlist and a rejection accurately
