Founder of elite college prep agency Mint Tutors, Ashley Wellington
shares hard-hitting essay-writing advice tailored to each student's
strengths and potential pitfalls, inspiring students to write as if
guided by their own personal college admissions tutor. Your Own Pocket Essay Tutor
Ever wish you had a private tutor to help you write your admissions essays? With this book, you do. Ashley Wellington, founder of the elite New York college prep agency Mint Tutors, has personalized her hard-hitting advice just for you. Her unique “boot camp” process starts by helping you identify your student type, then figure out which topics will highlight your best (or worst) attributes to admissions officers. Thinking about writing an essay on . . .
• Sports? This popular topic is often limiting, but Wellington will help you come across as talented—and also thoughtful and well rounded.
• Your trip to Egypt? Wellington will help you avoid common travel clichés that make admissions officers groan.
• The color yellow? Wellington will make sure you sound quirky and creative in the right way.
Even the most impressive students can sound ordinary by following the formulaic approach of other essay guides—and in this über-competitive landscape, you need an edge to stand out to top schools. Wellington’s tutees have gained acceptance to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Georgetown, Duke, and other elite institutions, and with this book at your side, you can join their ranks.
My Impressions
I really enjoyed this book. I used it as a writing tutorial for my 9th grade daughter to see how her writing would improve and I was impressed. At the very beginning of her book Ashley sets the student up for success by getting them to establish what type of student they are. My daughter was the Dabbler. She has been through and tried several off shoots of what she feels she wants to do with life, but nothing is yet concrete. Once you established what type of student you are then Ashley delves into several other aspects such as Questionnaires, writing down your experiences and getting a rough draft and then onto the final organizing, outlining, drafting and making your admission essay count.
The way the book is organized has a natural progressive flow to it that lets your student work in small chunks towards their ultimate goal-the perfect admission essay tailored to them. MY daughter appreciated the good and bad sections of each essay prompts the most. There were a few she thought were phenomenal until Ashley picked them apart and explained why they did not work as they were wrote and how they could be tweaked to be successful. This book comes down to helping each student find their voice on paper without being fake or taking too many unneeded risks. Overall a great worthwhile read, especially for high school kids.
About the Author
ASHLEY WELLINGTON is the founder of Mint Tutors LLC (MintTutors.com),
an online educational community that specializes in academic tutoring,
college guidance, and test preparation. It is based out of New York
City, but caters to students across the globe.Wellington grew up in Dallas, Texas. As an undergraduate at Princeton, she was the recipient of the Theodore Weiss Creative Writing Award. She was then awarded a scholarship from the Ernest L. Ransome Trust to attend graduate school at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. There, she earned a master’s degree with distinction in creative writing. Wellington then tutored for several elite agencies, including Metro Academic Prep (MAP), the Tutoring Collective, and Olympiad Academia, before founding Mint Tutors in 2010. Her interests include teaching, competitive running, hiking, and being with her family.
Disclaimer:
I received a free copy of this book/Ebook/Product to review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations. I am part of The Bloggingforbooks Review Crew.
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