“ I have been a college counselor for almost 25 years.
Taking Ethan’s course made me a better resource for my students.”
Lisa Sohmer
Ethan Sawyer, Author of College Essay Essentials & College Admission Essentials
Crafted by counselors
for students counselors
Are you a college counselor or essay coach looking to take your essay coaching to another level?
Looking for techniques and resources to help your students dig deep and get creative in how they tell their story?
The Advanced Personal
Statement Course for
Counselors
This course is the result of requests from counselors to share more tools for helping students dig deep and stand out on their college essays.
I introduce brand new techniques for counselors, share a step-by-step guide to using these techniques with your students, and answered your questions during live sessions. Recordings of this course are now available anytime.
To make this course accessible, I'm offering pay-what-you-can spots to counselors in high schools, nonprofits, and CBOs.
What's in it for you
You'll learn how I guide students from "I feel totally lost" to "I love these essays."
4 Advanced Essay Techniques
We'll review 3 example essays that used the new techniques I'll be introducing.
Step-by-Step Guides
You'll get a step-by-step guide to how to use each technique with your students.
Get Inside their Minds
I’ll also walk you through how each of my students arrived at their topics.
Deep Analysis
We're slowing things down to analyze what makes each essay outstanding (and how your students can do the same).
Meet your facilitator
Ethan Sawyer has been eating/sleeping/breathing college essays for most of his waking hours since 2003. He is an internationally recognized college essay and admissions expert and the author of the Amazon bestsellers College Essay Essentials and College Admission Essentials. Each year he and his team reach more than one million students and counselors through the College Essay Guy blog, online pay-what-you-can courses, workshops, books, and one-on-one work.
Receiving his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in Performance Studies, an MFA in Acting from UC Irvine, and two counseling certificates, Ethan’s educational experiences, reading, and training have informed his deep interest storytelling as a vehicle for personal development and growth, which in turn inspired Ethan to start College Essay Guy.
Raised in Spain, Ecuador, and Colombia, Ethan is dedicated to serving diverse communities. With a passion for access and equity, Ethan has provided quality resources for students, families and professional communities alike. Through his work he has supported, advised and counseled thousands of students through the complicated college search and application process, all while staying true to his core values of providing ease, purpose and joy in the process.
I'm already an experienced coach. Would this add to my toolbox?
Absolutely. The goal of this course is to challenge you to think about the personal statement in ways you haven't before.
"The Advanced college essay seminar offered by Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) was very helpful in understanding multiple alternate/advanced techniques to format college essays. The theory was very well supported by real life essay examples to solidify the concept and style.
Highly recommend for counselors as well as students. I am a college essay counselor and found it very useful. ”
“From the essay brainstorming exercises and advanced essay techniques to Ethan's live counselor sessions, I've gained many new tips and tricks to enlighten students. Now their hum-drum essays spring to life with "Ah-Ha!" moments. From all of my students and me ~ Thank you Team Ethan!!"
“Ethan helps me ask better questions of myself during the essay review process, as well as of my students when coaching them through brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and polishing.
Every session gave me actionable strategies and/or tools for improving my work with students, which is the mark of truly exceptional professional development, in my opinion. Additionally, Ethan conveys a great sense of warmth and care when engaging with educators which helps me trust that he has students' best interests at heart when he's suggesting these tools, strategies, and techniques.”
We go way beyond the essentials
Testimonial from another course
“ I have read Ethan's book and watched many of his free videos, but this training provides a level of instruction and insight far beyond those resources.
Taking it will help anyone looking to hone an important part of their college counseling skills with the goal of truly helping students.”
Michelle Silbernagel
Course Content
& Overview
Recording #1
The Braiding Technique
Recording #2
The Hegelian Dialectic Technique
Recording #3
The Hybrid Technique
Recording #4
The “Person(s) I Learned From” Technique
Recording #5
Mid-Season Check-in
What makes this course different from your other courses?
- We strongly recommend either your having taken How to Write a Personal Statement or have 7+ years experience as a counselor or writing coach
- Deeper dive on fewer topics (we’ll focus on just one specific technique each recording)
- Longer live recordings (2 hrs instead of 90 minutes)
- Example essays + concepts that include: A Framework and Mini Assessment for Learning a Student’s Working Style (Structured vs. Unstructured) and 10 Ways to Bring More Insight into an Essay
Bring the best coaching techniques to your students
$597 -
Enroll Now“The College Essay Guy has transformed my understanding of how to write college application essays and has enabled me to help students in so many practical and effective ways. His resources and expertise are invaluable! Read his book, take his classes, and learn all he has to offer--he's amazing!”
Sharon Spiers
Can’t afford this course?
I’m offering pay-what-you-can spots
Access is really important to me. In fact, it’s at the heart of most of everything I do and is why so many resources on my site are free. It’s why I’m offering pay-what-you-can spots for high school college counselors in schools, CBOs, or non-profits with small budgets and few resources for professional development.
“Wait, so if our counseling department doesn’t have a budget, we can still join?”
Yep. If that’s you, request a pay-what-you-can spot. Don’t be shy; I’d love to have you.
