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Our comprehensive workshops are designed for high school students who will be applying for college. The best time to take a workshop is the summer between your Junior and Senior year.
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In the past, we have offered both 2-day and 4-day workshops; however, through the years, especially after the Covid pandemic, we have found that the 2-day workshop is not enough time for a significant number of students to make enough progress on the draft of the main essay. While all required (and optional) essays and supplements are important, the main essay is the most important place where students communicate their character qualities and story to the admissions counselors. For almost all students, the main essay takes the longest amount of time to brainstorm, draft and revise to create a story that truly captures and portrays who they are.
Different college have different essay requirements, For example, colleges such as the University of Houston and Southwestern University, typically require one main essay. Some universities, such as Texas Tech and Texas State, list the admissions essay as optional. Our professional advice is to always submit optional items to distinguish your application. Furthermore, college such as Texas A&M and the University of Texas require one main essay as well as several supplemental (shorter) responses. In addition, certain major choices, such as engineering and architecture, for example, often require additional admissions essays. Additional universities, such as Baylor and TCU require one main essay and an additional responses as well.
Finally, we are offering a 1-day Supplemental Workshop to focus specially on supplemental responses and to provide extensive feedback on supplemental drafts.
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Our unique, comprehensive workshop begins with brainstorming and topic selection; this is a vital component of the college essay process in the landscape of competitive college admissions. This key step can become diluted when students bring essays they have already written, especially in junior year English courses. Students should be willing to modify, extensively revise or if necessary, scrap these essays altogether. Topic selection is critical for making students essays distinctive.
After brainstorming and topic selection, we will also cover numerous high-impact writing techniques and strategies, sample essay review and comparison, insight into how the admission process works, and assistance identifying essay and supplement requirements, among other topics. Finally, and most importantly, we offer extensive in-person feedback and assistance while students write in class as well as on the drafts students will submit each evening.
As instructors, our overarching aim is to empower each student to vividly tell a story that truly relays who they are as students and individuals.
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All College Admissions Essay Workshops are held at The Woodlands Methodist Church, which is located at 2200 Lake Woodlands Dr, The Woodlands, TX 77380.
The morning workshops are held from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. The afternoon workshops are held from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm. All supplemental workshops will be held from 10:00 am - 12:30 pm. All registered students will receive a detailed email the week or so before the workshop begins that will provide the room number; these details will be sent to the parent and student email addresses as input when you registered.
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• A device to write on, a laptop or tablet is ideal, and the accompanying charger
• Headphones, if they are helpful for concentration
• Water bottle
• Sweater or sweatshirt, if cold natured
• A great attitude!
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We offer a full refund (minus Squarespace processing fee) until May 1st.
We offer a 50% refund (minus Squarespace processing fee) until June 1st.
No refund is offered on or after June 1st; however, we will allow a registration change if you have another student who can take your spot.
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Students should research admissions requirements for all schools they are planning to apply to on each school’s website under freshman admissions. They can also create an account on the Common App and search for schools’ requirements through that platform. We also will provide assistance during the workshop as well.
Universities do occasionally make last minute requirement changes; we do our very best to stay abreast of these changes. Very occasionally they occur in July; if that happens, we will work with students via email and shared Google documents to modify their essays appropriately.
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We regularly work privately with students as well. Please email us for more details.
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We are more than happy to answer questions. Please go to Contact Us on the home page and submit a form, or feel free to email us with any questions.
missydennis@gmail.com or jenny @toups.org