Want to Keep Helping Students with Their College Essays? Join Us as a Volunteer Essay Reader on CC

College Essays
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@Joe_Suarez, at this time, we are asking for senior users to volunteer because they have built a level of trust within College Confidential. That helps reassure students that the person who has offered to read their essay has some level of credibility in the CC community.

Thank you for your interest. We hope you remain here on CC and contribute to our forums as you work towards senior membership.

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38

Got it. Thanks!

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@Joe_Suarez welcome to this forum…if this is your real name, I would urge you to change it. Here is how:

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I want to say that I’ve already been working with two students. It is a great experience so far, and I do think I can be helpful. But also, it is more time consuming than I thought, if one is doing a conscientious job and putting thought into it. I am really enjoying it!

I notice that kids who post late at night/early morning might not get readers volunteering?

Another thought might be for the students to give some feedback as to how helpful they found their reader and the suggestions.

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42

Each student will at some point have several essays. They may also drift into asking advice about other aspects of their applications.

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Yes, that’s possible.

Readers can point students to the general forum if they want additional advice, and they don’t have to commit to working with students on all essays.

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44

I am happy to help, but don’t seem to be the first to respond, so feel free to assign me as well if that is ever an option.

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46

We are happy to accept more readers. Please click the link in the first post to request membership as a reader.

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I believe that this is a great opportunity to help students in their college journey.

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I’m happy to volunteer, but want to be upfront that I don’t do this for a living. I’ve been told that I write well by a number of people. Is that enough?

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@illneversaynever, thanks for your interest in this initiative. Please click on the link below to request access and I’ll add you to the group.

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Someone asked about how they can approach reviewing a student essay. I suggested this as a basic approach:

The first suggestions might be based on your initial reading.

  • What worked for you in the essay?
  • Did you feel that you understood who the person was after you read it?
  • What’s your impression after the first read?
  • What do you think is the main issue to work on?

Maybe you felt that a few paragraphs were disorganized and didn’t have a cohesive idea. Maybe a sentence would work better elsewhere in the essay. Maybe there was too much telling and not enough showing, so the essay needs more detail.

I wouldn’t focus too much on perfect grammar and punctuation. However, if there is missing punctuation that interferes with comprehension or makes it too hard to read something, such as run on sentences, then you can feel free to mention that.

Perfection isn’t the goal. We are offering them an extra pair of eyes and doing out best to offer a free service that if hopefully useful in some way.

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Do we review one at a time? In other words, does DadOfJerseyGirl handle this draft?

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Right, it’s sort of first come first served. Unless dadofjerseygirl says he is unable to help any longer and wants someone to take over. We are getting more students signing up all the time, so I’m sure you will get your turn. :slight_smile:

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I can never get there fast enough.. Lol

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58

@essay-readers , there are currently a couple of essays up for grabs :blush:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/c/college-essays/essay-feedback/788

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Thanks for the heads-up. Picked up one.

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60

The above post is from one of the essay review threads.

Question: if someone posts their essay on the subforum, it’s visible to all other students who are requesting essay feedback, correct?

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Yes, that’s correct. That’s why they should only share their essays via PM.

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