Are you a high school senior struggling to write the perfect college application essay? It’s difficult to strike the perfect balance between personal narrative, future goals, and  still come across with your authentic voice within 500 to 650 words. But it can be done, and done artfully. The college application essay is the one part of a college application that you, the applicant, have complete control. While your SAT performance depends on your ability to learn how the test works, the College Board can’t decide how well you convey your motivations and thoughtfulness. This is where the college application essay comes in.

Since 2013, Harrison has been tutoring the art of writing college application essays. With five years and more than 200 hours of experience advising Princeton students on how to revise their academic assignments in the Princeton University Writing Center, he has the professional tutoring experience to help elevate any writer’s work, no matter their discipline or aspirations. As a former Head Fellow in the Princeton University Writing Program, he’s also had the chance to tutor the writing tutors themselves. If you’re concerned specifically about applying a creative writing approach to your essay, he also completed his undergraduate creative writing certificate at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, so he’ll be happy to help you in that respect as well.

Please note that this isn’t a rewriting service. Harrison uses a Socratic question-based process of conferencing to help you unlock your potential—and the potential of your writing. Through these conversations, he’ll help you identify the weaknesses of your drafts, help you brainstorm, and determine tactics to improve your product, but the ideas and writing will be entirely your own. It doesn’t matter what stage in the process you’re in—whether you have a full draft, partial draft, or plain nothing, Harrison can still talk to you about your work. Discussions usually take place over the phone, Skype, or in person, if you’re both in the same neck of the woods.

Past clients have successfully been admitted to Dartmouth College, Swarthmore College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Virginia, and the University of Maryland-College Park, among others.

If you’re interested, please email harrisonblackman@gmail.com for rates and to book an appointment.