Hi, Reader!

As school starts back up (#WhereDidSummerGo), a few things are certain: Nobody wants to get up early, someone forgot something important at home, free time becomes scarce, and college application deadlines get closer.

Application season creates time management challenges, not to mention the inevitable parent-student disagreements (students often tell me “All my parents want to do is talk about college. All the time.”).

I get it (and I lived it). It's a big decision (likely the biggest decision students have been tasked with thus far), and parents want and need to be involved.

As hard as it feels sometimes, though, part of this process means finding ways to combine external structure with gradually increasing student ownership. Here are four ways that students and parents can work together to make meaningful progress on essays without either feeling stressed out or micromanaged.

1. Create a master calendar with all deadlines, working backward to establish mini-deadlines for personal statement, supplemental essay drafts, recommendation requests, and FAFSA completion.
2. Break larger tasks into specific actionable steps — not just "work on essays" but "brainstorm Common App topics" or "draft activity descriptions."
3. Identify consistent weekly work blocks (ideally, 2-3 shorter sessions rather than occasional marathons).
4. Form accountability partnerships — whether with parents, peers, or counselors — to provide motivation.

For students who haven't started their personal statement, Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) is running a 4-week live Fall Essay & Application Program Sept. 15-Oct. 7. It covers both the personal statement and the supplementals — live sessions, 50+ on-demand videos available now, and real feedback along the way. By early October, students walk away with a submittable Common App essay and polished supplementals, not just another generic template.

​Register here. (And get 10% off with code JULIA10.)

Or, if you'd rather DIY it, there are two other ways to get things done:

If your student wants a self-paced option, College Essay Guy also has a solid two-week plan for getting a full draft down on their own. Two weeks sounds tight until you break it into daily 20-30 minute chunks instead of one overwhelming weekend marathon. I've watched this play out both ways with my own students, and the ones who write a little every day almost always end up with a stronger, more honest draft than the ones who cram it into one sitting.

If your student needs more structure than "write a little every day," I built a $9 roadmap that walks through the whole thing week by week — Draft to Done in 4 Weeks.

If you're the parent reading this instead of the student: your job right now isn't to write the essay, edit the essay, or even read every draft. It's to offer support. Here's a blog that offers seven ways you can do just that.

Here's the thing: Even as school starts back up, you don't have to have everything figured out right now. You have to have the next thing figured out. That's it. And hopefully this helps you identify and tackle that next thing.

✏️ QUICK WRITING TI(P

Parallel structure trips up more essays than almost anything else, and it's an easy fix once you see it. When you're listing things in a sentence, each item needs to follow the same grammatical pattern. Take this line: "I love walking the dog, to read historical novels, and going to the beach." One item's a gerund, one's an infinitive, one's a gerund again, so the rhythm breaks. A cleaner version keeps the pattern consistent: "I love walking the dog, reading historical novels, and going to the beach" — now all three are "-ing" phrases matching the same shape. It's a small thing, but a broken parallel structure makes a sentence feel clunky even when the reader can't say exactly why.

📆 UPCOMING WEBINARS & DEADLINES

See my full calendar here.

Happy Writing!

Julia

​​​​

​Interested in Coaching? Let's Talk! | ​View My Resources | Need Help? Open a Support Ticket.​

This email may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a percentage of the sale in commission, but using these links doesn't affect the price you pay. I recommend only products I use myself and believe in. Thank you for supporting me! Read more: Privacy Policy​

You're receiving this email because you opted in to my mailing list or because you're a current or past client. Don't need (or want) this information anymore? No hard feelings. Just use the links below to adjust your subscription.

If a friend has forwarded you this email and you'd like to subscribe, come join the party by clicking here.​