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Week 1 - Introduction & Brainstorming Overview of the Consultation In the initial consultation, the following will be covered: An overview of the full college essay process and timeline. An assessment of writing habits, strengths, and weaknesses. Identification of potential career and major interests. An introduction to journaling as a brainstorming tool. Student Responsibilities Between Sessions Students are expected to: Complete daily journaling for a minimum of 15 minutes.

A practical guide to choosing four UC Personal Insight Questions, writing clear and memorable 350-word responses, and using specific examples to stand out.

Learn how to write a standout BS/MD Why Medicine essay using compelling stories, reflection, medical experiences, and revision strategies.

Finishing Strong and Submitting with Confidence By Week 10, your essay is essentially complete. You have built your narrative, refined your storytelling, added depth through reflection, strengthened your voice, and polished your sentences. Now, the focus shifts to the final step: making sure nothing undermines all that work. This week is not about major changes. It is about precision, clarity, and confidence in your final product. Step 1: Shift Your Mindset. You Are Not Rew

Polishing Your Writing Without Losing Your Voice By Week 9, your essay should already be strong: your ideas are clear, your story is engaging, and your voice feels authentic. Now, the focus shifts to precision, making sure every sentence is clear, connected, and purposeful. At this stage, strong essays don’t just say meaningful things, they flow smoothly from one idea to the next, guiding the reader without confusion or interruption. This is where good essays become polished

Adding Style While Enhancing Content By Week 8, your essay should already be doing a lot well. You’ve built a clear narrative (Weeks 3–5), strengthened storytelling and sensory detail (Week 6), and added reflection, emotion, and deeper introspection (Week 7). Now, the goal is to refine how your ideas are expressed by introducing figurative language and stylistic voice. This is the stage where your essay begins to sound distinctly like you. Step 1: Understand What Figurative

What You Thought, Felt, Learned and Where It’s Leading You By Week 7, your essay should already be clear, structured, and engaging, with strong storytelling and sensory detail. Now, the focus shifts deeper: your internal world, your thoughts, emotions, and personal growth, and how those moments shape your future direction. This week is not just about reflection for its own sake. It’s about showing how your experiences changed you and how that growth connects directly to wha

The Importance of Engaging Storytelling By Week 6, your essay should have a clear structure, strong examples, and a well-developed narrative. Now, the focus shifts from what you are saying to how you are saying it. This is the moment when your essay begins to stand out. This week is about transforming your writing from clear and organized into vivid, engaging, and memorable storytelling by incorporating sensory detail and descriptive techniques. Step 1: Understand the Role of

Email me your essay idea and I'll give you feedback for FREE! Email: spencer.harrison@prestigewritingconsulting.com Week 4 By Week 4, you now have a full draft of your essay. But this is where the real work begins. Strong college essays are not created in the first draft; they are built through thoughtful revision. This week focuses on expanding your essay with forward-looking ideas while also strengthening your structure, clarity, and overall narrative. Step 1: Add Forward

I recently had the opportunity to serve as a panelist for the “International Speaker Forum: Inspire Across Borders,” hosted by the Fulbright Association Claremont Consortium Chapter at Pitzer College during Alumni Weekend. The event brought together Fulbright alumni from a wide range of professional and academic backgrounds to discuss global issues including artificial intelligence, healthcare, international relations, social media, and the future of cultural exchange. I spok

Recently, I had the opportunity to be featured on the Fulbrighter Podcast alongside staff from the Institute of International Education and other Fulbright alumni to discuss the application process for the Fulbright Program—an international education exchange program that has produced all kinds of successful alumni including Nobel laureates and even heads of state. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Kazakhstan from 2023–2024, I shared advice for future applicants ba

Email me your essay idea and I'll give you feedback for FREE! Email: spencer.harrison@prestigewritingconsulting.com Week 5 By Week 5, your essay should feel much more complete. You’ve added meaningful experiences, clarified your direction, and incorporated future goals. Now, the focus shifts to something that often separates average essays from strong ones: structure and balance. This week is about reorganizing your essay into a clear, compelling narrative that is easy to fol

Email me your essay idea and I'll give you feedback for FREE! Email: spencer.harrison@prestigewritingconsulting.com Week 3 By Week 3, you’ve done something most students skip, you’ve taken the time to brainstorm deeply and build a clear outline. Now it’s time to turn that outline into your first full draft. This is a major milestone, but it’s important to approach it with the right expectations. Your goal this week is not to write a perfect essay. Instead, your goal is to cre

After completing Week 1, you should have a collection of journal entries filled with ideas, experiences, and reflections. Now comes the critical next step: turning that raw material into a clear direction and a structured plan for your essay. This is where many students get stuck. You may have too many ideas, or you may be unsure which one is “best.” (This is where having a friend, teacher, or tutor to talk through your ideas can be very valuable.) Week 2 is about making deci

Week 1 of this 10-week process (overview of the 10 weeks can be found here) is entirely focused on brainstorming and journaling. Before you worry about structure, word count, or sounding “impressive,” your only goal is to generate meaningful ideas. This stage sets the foundation for everything that follows. A strong essay doesn’t start with a perfect topic, it starts with reflection. Step 1: Shift Your Mindset Before you begin writing, it’s important to approach this process

Prepare a few base essays (250–500 words) on these 8 common themes: Personal Background / Your Story – Describe your background, experiences, and how they shaped who you are today. Leadership Experience – Explain a time you demonstrated leadership and what you learned from it. Community Service / Impact – Discuss how you have helped your community and why service matters to you. Challenges or Adversity – Describe a significant obstacle you faced and how you overcame it. Caree

Assemble a Team Start by assembling a team. Application writing should not be done in isolation. Seek out mentors, peers, previous grant awardees, alumni, or current and former employees connected to the opportunity. Their perspective will sharpen your thinking and help you avoid blind spots. Search for Opportunities Search broadly for opportunities, including grants, jobs, or educational programs. Try identifying at least ten options. Then, start with your number one choice.

How I Wrote 90,000 Words in One Summer Without Burning Out After reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace I was inspired to major in English, become a professor, and write novels. So, I chose an English advisor and declared English as my major. After I graduated, I said, “Okay, now its time to write a novel.” So, I sat down and opened up my laptop, and I started typing on a blank word document. After just a few minutes of typing, I realized I had no ideas for a novel…

Crafting Accessible Academic Writing When I was working at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I tutored a Fulbright exchange PhD student on their dissertation. The topic was interdisciplinary, spanning neurobiology, chemistry, and machine learning. This posed a unique challenge. The student needed to write for both specialists and generalists. They had to provide enough technical detail to engage specialists while ensuring that the language remained comprehensible for tho

There’s no shortcut around this part: if you want to develop a strong writing process, you have to write. Not when you feel inspired.Not when you know exactly what you want to say.Not only when an assignment deadline is approaching. Writers who excel—academically and creatively—develop a daily writing practice. This practice doesn’t begin with brilliance. It begins with consistency. The good news is that building this habit doesn’t require hours of writing or perfectly formed