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Getting College Essay Help: Important Do's and Don’ts

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, is it okay to pay someone to write my college essay.

I've been struggling with writing my college essays and I'm considering the idea of hiring someone to write them for me. Is that ethical? What are your thoughts on paying for college essays?

Paying someone to write your college essay is definitely not ethical and falls under academic dishonesty. Colleges expect authentic and original work authored by the student, and using someone else's work not only undermines the admissions process, but can also lead to severe consequences if discovered.

Rather than paying someone to write your essays, consider seeking help from free resources or professionals that can guide you through the process without actually writing the essay for you. School counselors, teachers, or tutors can assist you with brainstorming topics, outlining, and polishing your drafts. Online resources like Collegevine, as well as friends and family, can also provide valuable feedback to help improve your essay.

Developing writing skills is important for your academic career and personal growth. By putting in the effort to create a compelling essay that reflects your own background, aspirations, and passions, you'll not only increase your odds of getting accepted based on your genuine talents and abilities, but also learn crucial skills that will help you succeed in college and beyond. Remember, a thoughtful and authentic essay can make a significant impact on your application and set you apart from other candidates.

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

More From Forbes

Paying others to write college essays involves more cheating than meets the eye.

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According to recent news stories, college students are increasingly hiring others to do their ... [+] writing assignments. That deprives them of a potentially valuable learning experience, and it may reflect the failure of our K-12 system to teach writing effectively.

An increasing number of American college students are cheating by paying others to write essays for them. They’re also cheating themselves out of a vital part of their education—and they may have been cheated by a system that has failed to teach them to write.

Recent stories in the New York Times and the Daily Mail paint a disturbing picture of a global system that has affluent students in the U.S., the U.K., and other English-speaking countries contracting out their writing assignments to people in developing countries like Kenya who need the money. Cheating is nothing new, but the internet has made the practice easier and more widespread. While it’s hard to come by exact numbers, the Times reports that “millions of essays” are ordered through websites annually, with 7% of North American students admitting to turning in papers written by others.

The focus in these stories is on how college students are cheating—and how the paid essay writers are complicit, whether they see it that way or not. That’s true, but there are other kinds of cheating going on as well. For one thing, the students contracting out their writing assignments are cheating themselves of what could be a powerful learning experience.

Writing assignments, if they’re well designed, aren’t just a way of assessing what students have learned or how well they can write. They’re also a way of building and deepening students’ knowledge and developing their analytical abilities.

When you try to write about a topic, you may realize you don’t understand it as well as you thought—a realization that should, ideally, push you to undertake further research and analysis. As you write, if you’re doing it well, you’re also necessarily making connections between different bits of information, determining which are more important, and deciding what order to present them in. In order to write clearly and logically, you’re forced to practice thinking clearly and logically—a valuable habit that can stand you in good stead in years to come.

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The process of writing can also boost understanding and retention of information. When you try to recall information you’ve partially forgotten, you’re far more likely to absorb and retain it—a phenomenon cognitive scientists call retrieval practice . There’s also evidence for something called the protégé effect , the boost to learning and retention that you get from explaining a concept to others in your own words. Scientists have documented the benefits of retrieval practice in the context of quizzing or testing (in fact, it’s sometimes called the testing effect), and the protégé effect has generally been framed in terms of students’ oral interactions. But both apply in spades to what can happen when you write.

A Kenyan essayist-for-hire profiled in the Times piece, Mary Mbugua, has written on topics ranging from whether humans should colonize space to how the Great Depression ended. Presumably she, rather than the students who got credit for the papers, actually learned something from the experience (although the latter topic proved so difficult for her to address that she ended up rejecting the job). Mbugua has ethical qualms about the work, but said she “loved learning, and sometimes wished that she were the one enrolled in the American universities she was writing papers for.” By this time, she might well qualify for several degrees—if they were awarded on the basis of who was actually acquiring the knowledge and skills universities are supposedly in business to impart.

In addition to students cheating themselves—as well as their professors and universities—there’s also the cheating done to many of them by the failure of our K-12 education system to teach writing effectively. It’s hard to know why individuals are paying others to do their writing assignments. They may be good writers who are lazy—or bad writers who for some reason failed to take advantage of good writing instruction. But given the generally dismal state of American students’ writing—and the serious deficiencies in the way American schools approach writing instruction—I suspect that many have simply never been taught how to produce an effective essay.

Traditional writing instruction has focused on having students learn rules of grammar. But studies have consistently found that approach has no impact on students’ writing. In the last several decades, schools have moved away from teaching grammar at all—especially in elementary school—trusting that if students just read and write enough, they’ll pick up the conventions of written language. Given that only 27% of students score proficient or above on national writing tests , it’s clear that for many, that doesn’t happen. And teachers rarely learn anything about how to teach writing during their training.

In elementary school, where writing instruction should ideally begin, students are often encouraged to write about their own experiences or opinions rather than about what they’re learning. They might gain the ability to write a decent personal essay, but many reach high school and college ill-equipped to produce the kind of expository and analytical writing expected there.

Students are also encouraged to write at length , beginning in the early grade levels, and to simply pour out their thoughts without much advance planning. That approach drastically underestimates how difficult writing can be for those who are inexperienced at it. If students are still grappling with spelling and word choice, writing an essay is likely to be so overwhelming that they will neither learn to write well nor derive the knowledge-boosting benefits writing can confer. Some will reach high school without ever having learned to construct a good sentence—making it unlikely they’ll ever construct good paragraphs or essays. Often students aren’t taught how to create clear linear outlines before they write, making it hard for them to stay on track or avoid repeating themselves.

When students arrive in college without having learned to write well, it may be too late to do much for them. Ideally, writing instruction involves maintaining a consistent approach across the curriculum, with as many teachers as possible using a common vocabulary and common activities. College professors, a notoriously autonomous bunch, are unlikely to embrace that kind of consistency—and, understandably, they don’t see teaching basic writing skills as part of their job. At best, college students get a one-semester or one-year expository writing class, which is unlikely to be enough for many.

If college students and graduates in Kenya and other places can turn out essays that get high grades from American professors, perhaps educators and policymakers in this country should take a look at how those countries teach their students to write. That might help cut down on the cheating—and produce American college graduates who have better writing skills, deeper knowledge, and a greater capacity to engage in analytical thinking.

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NEVER pay someone to write an essay for you

• Thread starter Thread starter hectorwalls
• Start date Start date Aug 8, 2024

hectorwalls

• Aug 8, 2024

Avoid paying individuals to write essays for you. Many "ghostwriters" advertise on college forums, claiming they will write essays on your behalf. Often, they provide plagiarized content found online with your name attached. Using such services can lead to severe consequences, including suspension or expulsion for violating academic integrity policies, as institutions use plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin. Additionally, advertisement messages from these "tutors" frequently contain spelling and grammatical errors. For assistance with writing, utilize your school's writing center, where help is provided for free by individuals familiar with your essay.  

alainaingram

I have encountered advertisements for such services. The quality of the essay is uncertain and generally correlates with the cost. The likelihood of being caught for plagiarism is high. Instructors will likely notice if you are unfamiliar with the essay's content. My advice is to spend an hour writing your own essay. Assistance with the topic is available from others here if needed.  

hayleejustice

I usually use EssayPro.com . Their prices are reasonable, and the support team is helpful. You can visit the site and talk to the tutors. They also write custom essays with no plagiarism.  

jacobpatton

At our school, a ghostwriter reported a student for plagiarism when the student refused to pay for the essay.  

jacobpatton said: At our school, a ghostwriter reported a student for plagiarism when the student refused to pay for the essay. Click to expand...

I agree. As an English major, I aim to improve my writing skills. Paying someone else to write an essay for me undermines my work and its authenticity. Professors know your grammar and writing style. Plus, attending college without intending to complete the work seems pointless.  

5 Best Websites Where I Can Pay Someone to Write My Essay

Every day the number of requests from students on the Internet is growing.

The search words “pay someone to write my paper” help people find help with their assignments .

Where there is demand, there is always supply.

As students’ need for assistance with papers grows, more and more sites with authors began popping up in Google searches.

It has become increasingly harder to decide who can be trusted with an essay and whether their services are safe.

These are the top 5 sites where you can hire someone to write an essay:

1. EssayShark.com

Topping our list is one of the best writing services you can use to pay someone to write your essay.

Are you looking for a service that has been helping students complete their academic work for a long time? Want to get personalized help?

This website has it all.

We decided to put EssayShark at the top of the list because its reputation precedes it.

Over the years, this website has earned customers’ trust and boasts a well-known reputation for security.

We analyzed the site in detail and found that it, without question, fulfilled the requirements of the search query – “pay someone to write my essay.”

Each paragraph you “write” through this service reveals the company’s attention to detail.

Carefully study what we have written so that you can make a decision and entrust your task to professional authors.

On its website, the company details exactly how they hire writers. To hire someone to write an essay, you need to be confident in the person with whom you are entrusting your important assignments.

Before EssayShark writers collaborate with clients, the service tests their skills and education, making sure that their authors can cope with both simple essays and complex dissertations.

Ease of Collaboration

To pay for an essay on this site, you can visit any of their web pages, and on the right, you will see a form for registering an order.

Modern people value their time and aren’t interested in wasting it trying to figure out how to navigate a company’s website.

The site’s interface is straightforward and transparent, making it even more attractive for students.

Price Policy

Can I pay someone to write my essay cheaply? The cost of the assistance is essential. If the price is too low, it’s alarming, if too high, it repels customers.

On this site, the price is justified since the client chooses the author and the price they offer at the auction. The price for one page starts from $13.40 and depends on the terms and volume of work.

Before you pay someone to write your essay, it is essential to be sure that their payment system is safe.

EssayShark assures its users that it only uses well-known payment systems.

Also, the client can use the site’s free plagiarism checker and have their authors make revisions as their task is being completed.

If you choose this service, you will receive an original text with no worries about losing your anonymity.

The pay someone to do my essay desire is one that should be executed with care as your security and grades depend on it.

2. WriteMyEssayOnline.com

You might wonder why WriteMyEssayOnline made it onto our list of places to pay for paper writing.

First, the opinion of customers who visited and collaborated with different sites was essential to us.

Before writing this post, we naturally analyzed the reviews and found this company among them.

According to their clients’ opinions and observations, we highlighted several main points about the company.

Security and Anonymity

The pay-to-write essay plan is quite normal, especially if you have a lot of projects and assignments to turn in to a professor.

Anonymity for students is essential, and we understand why.

WriteMyEssayOnline, as we have seen, only requires clients to give their email when filling out their applications and asks for no personal information.

We concluded that the service does not collect data about its customers and respects their anonymity.

When you pay for essays online, it is essential to be mindful of your safety and pays only for services that guarantee it.

Essay Originality

When you pay someone to write an essay, there must be guarantees against plagiarism.

This company assures its customers that the authors of the service work exclusively with unique content for each student.

And clients can independently check their essays for uniqueness and pay no extra to check.

In our opinion and from feedback from clients, the authors of this site are producing original work, and this is certainly something to rejoice about.

Customer Support

Paying someone to write an essay means that you should be able to always count on help from the service when you need it.

While you are working with the site, you may have questions. A quality service should always support its students.

WriteMyEssayOnline claims to be available 24/7 to clients and ready to provide answers for students.

Write paper for me – these are the words that students say when they’ve decided to fully trust a service with writing their essays.

WriteMyEssayOnline is worthy of your attention and will allow you to select an author and collaborate with them on your project.

The price and number of free features will please you if you visit their site. Get someone to write your essay there if you are satisfied with the authors and their level of experience.

3. PayforWriting.com

The pay someone to write essay option may be the best after you’ve weighed everything in your mind.

Most likely, after reaching the decision to entrust someone with your task, you saw a lot of advertising on the Internet about essay writing services, and, of course, it was difficult to figure out which service to use.

That is why we decided to help you make the choice.

PayforWriting made it onto our list of the best sites because it has a good reputation among customers.

We only considered the opinion of those who had decided to pay someone to write an essay for them, and many of those who used this site had positive reviews.

The best way a site can be characterized is by how well its team members adhere to the promises made to customers.

After analyzing the site pages where the company highlights its advantages, we managed to draw some basic conclusions and want to share them with you.

Before paying someone to do an essay, we are happy to invite you to consider these findings:

Free Features

Pay for an essay on this site, and you need not be worried about overpaying for the author’s work.

As we can see, PayforWriting offers its customers several free features that are guaranteed to be available to every customer.

Judging by the reviews, all of its clients receive free revisions, uniqueness checks, quoting, and formatting.

That way, they can get help when they pay someone to do an essay without hurting their wallets.

Money-Back Guarantee

By deciding to pay for an essay, you get the right to a refund if you are unsatisfied with the help you received from PayforWriting authors.

The site says that clients can ask for compensation if the order they received does not suit them.

To receive a refund, you contact the site’s support team, which is available around the clock.

Managers check the order for errors and compliance with the client’s instructions, and if there’s an issue, your money is returned.

Accurate Delivery

Clients of this service pay for essays, as they need to turn in their assignments on time.

One of the most popular reasons students turn to such services for help is the need for more free time.

Therefore, services such as this always highlight precisely how they help their customers to save time.

According to the company, their authors always deliver their orders on time.

We read the comments related to the delivery times and found that most often, their clients were satisfied with the timeliness of their deliveries after they made the decision to tell the authors of PayforWriting – “I’d like to pay to do my essay.”

Based on our research, we’ve concluded that you can safely and efficiently pay for a paper on the PayforWriting site.

Of course, it is up to you to decide what exactly you should pay attention to and how best to choose a site to pay to write an essay.

4. BuyEssay.org

To pay for essay writing is much easier if you know all the best available options.

To save you time, we have created this list of the best sites specializing in essay writing. BuyEssay has earned our attention with positive reviews and an interesting approach to working with clients.

You can pay people to write essays here who have proven their competence and can give you the support you expect online.

Diverse Disciplines

The desire to pay for someone to write an essay implies that the student hopes to receive support no matter the subject they are having difficulty with.

BuyEssay, during the application registration, offers its clients more than 60 disciplines in which their authors can create papers.

Philosophy, Art, Economics, Business, and many other subjects are available upon registration of the order.

If you decide to pay for someone to write an essay on this site, you’re sure to find someone specializing in what you are looking for.

Urgent Help

BuyEssay clients who pay for someone to write essays for them are guaranteed help within 4 hours.

This kind of fast help is available if you have a one-page assignment. With that said, the company does advise you to consider delegating papers to its authors more in advance of the deadline.

With its service, you can choose the period you need on its calculator and simultaneously determine how much it will cost you to get assistance based on the deadline you set.

The cost of writing assistance is reduced when you give your author more time to finish your assignment.

Blog with Examples

If you choose, before you pay for an essay, you can view examples of your potential author’s work.

You will feel more confident with the final result because before placing an order, you can both calculate the cost of that order with their online calculator and you can evaluate the writing proficiency of the author by reading an example of one of their finished texts before you’ve selected them.

This is a great advantage BuyEssay has over other services you can find on Google when you pay for college essays with them.

When you say, “I want to pay to write my essay!” at that point, your wishes are their commands.

As it became clear to us in our research, you can get excellent customer support on this website.

Calculate the cost of your potential author’s work, evaluate samples, and only decide to pay for the essay with them if you are pleased with what you see.

BuyEssay is one of the best examples of quality student support, and we encourage you to take a closer look at its offerings.

5. WritingCheap.com

“I dream of paying for my essay and not paying a lot of money!”

We perfectly understand your desire not to spend a lot of money on essay help.

WritingCheap, even in the name of their service, makes it clear that their services won’t make you pay much. Of course, we wanted to check this ourselves before adding the site to our list.

When looking to get an essay written, the first thing that students tend to pay attention to is the price per page and then to all the other factors.

Naturally, in these reviews, we, therefore, look for comments regarding pricing policy.

Go on to read our notes about this service to see if paying someone to write your paper on this website is worth it:

Affordable Price

To pay someone to do your essays is best at an affordable price when you don’t have a lot of expendable income.

In researching this site, we’ve seen that the service authors offer a minimum price for paper of $9 with a maximum deadline.

As part of the service, the authors include custom formatting, create a title page for you, and make corrections for free.

That is to say, you can make whatever revisions you need to in your order without paying extra to the author.

Also, customers choose their authors themselves and can review various bids from potential authors before selecting one to work on their essays.

Online Chat with the Author

Paying someone to write an essay is best when there is an opportunity to personally discuss with the author any questions that might arise while you’re working with them.

“Individual approach” is what the company calls its method of collaboration with clients who come to them for help.

Students who decide to pay for essays with this service can contact their authors in real time and receive the necessary answers.

This way, students can have corrections made and ask for help with their topic and anything related to the writing of the paper.

The online chat feature is free, as are the other features we described.

Safety and Quality

It doesn’t matter what the quality of the writing help is if the writing service lacks a safe approach for students who decide to pay people to write an essay for them.

According to WritingCheap, their services are free and anonymous to every student who registers an order with them.

They guarantee security by closely monitoring the data and payment systems that their site uses. They also do not ask for unrelated personal information.

Their service also provides students with a plagiarism checker, which is absolutely free, to ensure that students receive absolutely original work.

You might still be asking yourself, “Is it safe to pay someone to write my paper?” After analyzing this website, we’ve concluded that you can trust them.

WritingCheap deserves a place on our list, and the budget-minded student looking to pay for essays should consider them as an option.

We evaluated a number of important characteristics when researching WritingCheap and found that they have a lot to offer.

Want to get affordable help and a quality paper? You will be satisfied if you decide to register an order with this cheap assignment writing service.

The affordability of the price wins over customers from the first line.

FAQ About How to Pay Someone to Write My Essay

How can I pay someone to do my essay and be safe?

Paying for essays online is safe and very easy. Want to order an essay online without stressing about safety?

Read their guarantees and their reviews.

The sites that made our list of the best are safe for students because they do not store your payment data and do not ask for your personal information.

When you decide to “pay someone to write my essay,” make sure you are not asked for information about your residence, your name, and so forth.

Can I pay to do my essay and be sure it’s original?

Originality is essential when you decide, “I want to pay someone to write my paper.”

Your identity is confidential for each of the 5 sites because the author’s custom-write original papers.

Before your professor grades you, they will check the text for originality.

Some of these sites will give you the opportunity to check the originality of the essay yourself, while the rest will provide you with a report that the author will send along with the order itself.

Is paying to write an essay costly?

Our list includes services that offer students affordable and reasonable prices.

We recommend researching how much your author’s help will cost you before going forward.

You’ll be able to evaluate prices via registration forms or via online calculators on the site pages. Ensure you understand your essay’s exact cost before getting an author to help you with it.

Which author will I get as an assistant for my essay?

Pay for essays only with authors that you feel confident in. According to the companies hosting these writers, they are professionals with appropriate levels of education.

By choosing a site with a bidding system, you will be able to select an author yourself and read their profile before entrusting them with your essay.

If you first pay for the order and then are given the author, you should read the information provided about their hiring practices—the sites we have chosen test the authors before starting to cooperate with them and guarantee you professionalism.

When I pay someone to write my paper, am I guaranteed to receive my order on time?

Beyond needing to hand in their papers on time, pricing is another reason why customers consider delivery times.

The writing services in this post have an excellent reputation and receive excellent reviews, in which customers thank them for timely deliveries.

If you decide to order an essay, you must clarify when and how you would like to receive your order.

In all cases, it’s best to give yourself more time for the essay to be completed to save yourself time and money.

Will I get a good grade if I pay someone to write an essay?

When you choose authors to help you, you get support from professionals who have already created many papers.

Among other things, your score will depend on your originality and adherence to all the writing and formatting rules.

Since the authors of the services we have chosen are professionals, you can count on good grades.

Get an A by telling the pros – “I want to pay someone to write my essay.”

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• 14 Best College Essay Services for 2024 (40 Services Reviewed)

Research conducted by Emily Kierkegaard , PhD, and expert-reviewed by Kevin Wong, PrepMaven Co-founder

Not sure which college application essay coaching and editing service is the best? We compared the top 40 services, created in-depth reviews for 14 of them, and narrowed it down to the 4 best that will help guide you through the process of writing amazing college application essays.

What is the Best College Essay Service?

• PrepMaven  – best college application essay service overall
• College Essay Mentor  – best for individual consultants
• The College Essay Guy  – best for unlimited essay assistance
• College Vine  – best of the big platforms

The best of the rest:

Individual essay consultants:

• College Essay Editor  – small editing team
• Allison Karpf  – former English teacher helping students
• Your College Vision  – former journalist with more affordable rates
• The College Guru  – good on paper but unresponsive
• Sofia Zapiola – budget-friendly application assistance

Mid-size teams:

• Lotus Learning  – focus on health sciences

Large platforms:

• Study Point  – larger platform with mystery editors
• Ivy Select  – larger platform with mystery editors
• Empowerly  – larger platform with mystery editors
• BeMo  – expensive and aggressive with wrong expertise

Schedule a college essay consultation

Best College Application Essay Services in 2024

#1 – prepmaven.

Our Verdict — Best College Essay Assistance Overall Price: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package) PrepMaven’s one-on-one college essay assistance is the best option overall. Founded by brothers and Princeton grads Greg and Kevin, almost all of PrepMaven’s essay coaches have Ivy-League experience, primarily from Princeton and Harvard. All essay coaches also undergo a thorough training program in PrepMaven’s methods, developed by professional writers with deep understanding of the college admissions process, for helping students to discover the most compelling stories for their essays. Unlike other services, PrepMaven offers college essay assistance at several different price points. At the most accessible rate, students can work with current Ivy-League undergraduates who specialize in writing and have recently aced the college application process. At higher rates, students can work with coaches who are both Ivy-League grads and professional writers (screenwriters, journalists, editors) with many years of experience helping students to craft compelling essays. Interested students can even work directly with founders Greg and Kevin, who have over 15 years of experience helping students through the entire essay-writing process. PrepMaven’s services combine many of the best features of other good options into one, and it’s hard to beat their experience.

Sign up for PrepMaven’s college essay help now

Any student wanting college essay help, at any point in the process, with a range of budgets.

At a glance:

• Cost: $79–349/hour (minimum $510 package)
• Writing coach qualifications: Princeton graduates and professional writers (or current Princeton students); all trained

What we like:

• Ivy League experience —most of their writing coaches are Princeton grads or current students, with some from Harvard and other Ivies
• Different pricing options to meet different families’ circumstances
• More flexible and greater capacity to take on new students compared to individual consultants

Sign up for PrepMaven’s college essay help

#2 – College Essay Mentor

Our Verdict — Best of the Individual Consultants Price: unknown but high Some college essay consulting services consist of just one expert. Of these individual essay consultants, Chris Hunt at College Essay Mentor is our favorite. He combines writing experience as a journalist for the Economist and the Wall Street Journal with personal experience as a graduate of Dartmouth. However, he only works with a small number of students each year, and students need to apply to work with him — he only accepts students with top grades and test scores who are already strong applicants for top schools. Chris offers the option for one-time written feedback, but this only gives big-picture generalizations. (And written-only feedback is always limited.) In order for help with the essay process, students need to purchase a complete essay package.

Students with top grades and test scores who want to work with a one-person business, who have a sizable budget, and who are ready to get started early.

• Cost: $210 for a one-time written essay feedback (big picture only), then $110 per draft feedback; pricing for essay process packages unknown
• Essay coach qualifications: professional journalist, Dartmouth grad
• Professional writing experience as a journalist
• Extensive experience working with college applicants
• Partners with Debra Felix, former Director of Admissions at Columbia, for full application review

What we don’t like:

• One-on-one work is limited to very high-achieving students, who need to apply with a resume : “I limit my one-on-one work to students who I believe will be strong applicants to elite universities. As a rule, this means having high grades in challenging classes, a test score of ACT 34+ or SAT 1500+, and substantial activities outside of the classroom.”
• Works with a limited number of students (60 per year), so often no availability
• All-or-nothing packages don’t allow students to work with Chris for just a few hours or for part of the essay-writing process
• Secretive about pricing (he’ll only give pricing details once he’s reviewed the student’s resume and agreed to work with them), but we expect the minimum cost of working one-on-one to be several thousand dollars

#3 – The College Essay Guy

Our Verdict — Best for Unlimited Essay Assistance Price: $4900 for application to 3 schools, $8050 for application for 10 schools We’re fans of Ethan Sawyer, the original “college essay guy”— his book, College Essay Essentials , is a great guide to the essay-writing process. Ethan doesn’t work directly with many students these days, but he now has a team of consultants who help students follow his principles. Their assistance is really all-or-nothing — they prefer to work with students from the very beginning of the process, and their minimum package is $4900, which includes assistance with essays for three schools. If students are applying to ten schools (a more realistic number for students aiming at competitive colleges), the fee is a hefty $7400.

Students who want unlimited help through the entire process, who have a sizable budget.

• Cost: $4900 (supplemental essays for 3 schools) – $7400 (supplemental essays for 10 schools)
• Essay coach qualifications: mix of Ivy grads and former teachers, some writers/screenwriters; all trained
• Great free resources about the essay-writing process
• Their Matchlighters Scholars Program gives back to the community by providing admissions consulting for select qualifying students
• All-or-nothing packages have a high minimum fee and don’t work for students who want just a few hours of feedback or help with just part of the process

#4 – College Vine

Our Verdict — Best of the Big Platforms Price: $140–180/hour There are plenty of large platforms with large stables of part-time tutors and coaches available to work with students. Of these big platforms, we think CollegeVine has the best offerings. Compared to other large companies, CollegeVine provides more information about their tutors, and students can pick individual tutors to work with from their roster. However, this model is really just a way of finding individual tutors to hire. Tutors don’t receive any training and don’t share a common approach, so it’s a mixed bag. Their rates are fairly high for part-time tutors who don’t have specific expertise and training in college essay consulting. Because CollegeVine is really just a marketplace where individual tutors can find students, the quality and price will vary widely.

Students who want to work with a big company, or those who want a quick session or two to go over their essays.

• Cost: Typically $140–180/hour
• Essay coach qualifications: no specific qualifications, but a few are Ivy League graduates
• Possible to select individual editors to work with from their roster.
• Easy to schedule ad-hoc sessions with a tutor through the website.
• No training or common approach for tutors
• Editors are part-time , with no option to work with full-time college admissions experts
• Relatively expensive for this level of expertise

College Essay Editing Alternatives (that Didn’t Make the Cut)

Individual essay consultants, #5 – college essay editor.

Our Verdict — Small Editing Team Price: Roughly $5,950 for applications to 10 schools College Essay Editor comprises two graduates of Stanford. This means that they have personal experience applying to highly competitive schools. One member of the team also has a college counseling certification, which is a good background for college essays. Based on their website, they appear to focus on the editing and proofreading phase of the essay-writing process. This can be helpful to students, but we recommend working with a service who can help students to uncover their values and brainstorm really great material that allows them to really shine—and if this doesn’t happen at the beginning of the process, it’s much harder to add in later on.

• Cost: $195/1000 words for proofreading, $495/1000 words for 3 rounds of editing and proofreading, or $595/1000 words for unlimited rounds of editing and proofreading; for the purposes of comparison, complete applications to 10 competitive colleges would be around 9,650 words, or $5950.
• Writing coach qualifications: Stanford graduates, one of whom has college counseling certification
• Editors are graduates of Stanford University , and one is a member of NACAC, the national association of college counselors
• They focus on editing and proofreading only , not on the crucial earlier steps of brainstorming and strategy
• Small team with very limited availability
• All asynchronous editing so you won’t be able to cultivate a real relationship with your essay coach.

#6 – Allison Karpf

Our Verdict — Former English Teacher Helping Students Price: $385/hour or $3850 package for application to one school Another option for students looking to hire an individual consultant is Allison Karpf. Allison is a former high school English teacher and a graduate of UC Berkeley who also holds a Masters of Education from Stanford. Her rates are definitely on the higher side, especially for someone who doesn’t have a professional writing background, but she does have extensive experience working with students to craft their essays.

• Cost:  $385/hour or $3850 unlimited counseling (includes supplemental essays for one college)
• Essay coach qualifications: former high school English teacher; Berkeley grad, Stanford MEd
• Lots of experience helping students improve their college essays
• Very quick to respond to client requests
• No professional writing experience or Ivy-Plus undergraduate experience
• High rates relative to other options
• Limited availability , since she works alone

#7 – Your College Vision

Our Verdict: Former Journalist with More Affordable Rates Price: $180/hour, or packages starting from $3500 Laurie Lande is another individual consultant who helps students through the essay-writing process. She comes recommended by other consultants like Chris from College Essay Mentor . Laurie did not herself attend a highly competitive school, so she doesn’t have that personal experience of going through the selective admissions process, but she does have a professional writing background as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

• Cost: $180/hour or packages starting at $3500
• Essay coach qualifications: journalism background
• Affordable pricing , relative to other options
• Not a graduate of a highly selective school

#8 – The College Guru

Our Verdict — Good on Paper but Unresponsive Price: unknown Yet another individual essay consultant is Geanine Thompson from The College Guru. Geanine attended Dartmouth as an undergraduate and also holds an MBA from Duke. She also has a professional writing background as an assistant book editor at Berkley Publishing Group. Like Greg and Kevin at PrepMaven , she combines experience in the business world and at Wall Street firms with experience in education.

• Cost: unknown
• Essay coach qualifications: former assistant book editor; Dartmouth grad, Duke MBA
• Dartmouth graduate and former book editor
• Not responsive to emails and client requests

#9 – Sofia Zapiola

Our Verdict — A budget-friendly, personal essay editor. Price: $80/hour Yet another individual essay consultant is Sofia Zapiola, who offers a mix of essay editing and college application counseling services.

• Cost: $80/hour
• Essay coach qualifications: M.A. from Harvard; certificate in College Counseling from UC San Diego.
• Individual approach, budget-friendly rates, commitment to working within families’ budgets.
• Very few testimonials, so it’s difficult to evaluate how effective she is.

Mid-size Teams

#10 – lotus learning.

Our Verdict — Expensive for Tutor Background Price: $165/hour Founded by a Harvard grad who is a former teacher and veteran of the publishing industry, Lotus learning offers college essay help in the Boston area. They have a small team of tutors, mostly recent grads from good but not Ivy-Plus colleges, and mostly with focus in health sciences.

• Cost: $165/hour (minimum 8 hours)
• Essay coach qualifications: tutors are recent grads, but not Ivy-Plus schools
• Reasonable pricing with flexible packages
• Essay editors aren’t graduates of Ivy-Plus schools and don’t have professional writing experience

Large platforms

#11 – study point.

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: Rates Between $60 and $120/hr Study Point is a larger essay editing service. They claim to have several decades of experience helping students to craft their college essays, but they do not give information about who their essay coaches are and what qualifications they might have.

• Cost: $60-120/hr, depending on tutor experience
• Essay coach qualifications: unknown
• Larger company with several decades of experience
• Unclear who the essay coaches are
• Lack of statistics about their results

#12 – Ivy Select

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: unknown Ivy Select makes a lot of big promises on their website about having the best college essay consultants in the business, but they offer no information on who these consultants are, or on their backgrounds. They also brag that each consultant “only” works 20 students in one application cycle, but in our experience, that’s quite high.

• Long list of impressive (but anonymous) testimonials
• Only work with “top students”
• No information on their website about who the editors are
• Each essay coach works with up to 20 students at one time

#13 – Empowerly

Our Verdict — Larger Platform with Mystery Editors Price: High, from $6000/year Empowerly has over 60 college counselors who each work with an average of 5 students per year, in order to have more time to devote to each student. Their counselors come from “different educational backgrounds,” and while they do not provide specific biographical details we can assume that most of their essay coaches did not attend highly selective schools.

• Cost: typically from $6000/year
• Essay coach qualifications: college counselors
• Counselors work with just a few students per year
• You have to upgrade to “Empowerly Elite” to guarantee a counselor with a more selective educational background
• No professional writing experience

#14 – Prepory

Our Verdict — Expensive but with Good Expertise Price: $325/hr Prepory is a college application and career counseling service that offers a comprehensive program for college applications at any stage of the process (including as early as 9th grade). They make a lot of impressive claims about the expertise of their coaches, but it’s quite difficult to actual find much information about their essay coach qualifications.

• Cost: $325/hr
• They have a comprehensive college application program that begins as early as 9th grade.
• Limited information about essay coaches
• High prices

Top 40 College Essay Services Considered

• College Essay Editor
• The College Essay Guy
• College Vine
• College Essay Mentor
• Study Point
• Allison Karpf
• The College Guru
• Lotus Learning
• Summit Prep
• Sofia Zapiola
• Ivy Global / New Summits
• College Essay Solutions
• Your College Vision
• Essay Edge*
• ServicEscape*
• PapersForge*
• QuickWriter*
• JustEditMyEssay*
• JustDoMyEsssay*
• ExpertWriting*
• SpeedyPaper*
• GradeMiners*

* A number of services will edit essays directly for students, or even write portions of the essay for students. We do not condone this. Admissions officers can tell when essays have been written or edited by adults and this can have severe consequences. We have excluded these services from our reviews.

Why are college application essays important?

Can a great college essay alone get you into Harvard?

No. You’ll need your grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities (as well as letters of recommendation and interview) to be outstanding.

But can a mediocre essay be the reason you didn’t get into Harvard?

Yes. There are thousands of amazingly-qualified students who graduate from high school each year. Great grades and test scores might be a prerequisite for admission to a competitive college, but they alone aren’t enough.

College essays are a key component of a student’s application . When done well, they transform a collection of numbers—GPA, class rank, SAT or ACT scores , number of AP classes taken, AP scores—into a glimpse of a real, individual person.

Essays do many things. Good college essays can highlight extracurricular achievements which otherwise would be overlooked in a sterile list. Strong essays often indicate the student’s future plans —how they plan to leave a mark on their college campus and on the world. They can shine a light on unique challenges that a student may have had to face on their journey.

College admissions officers only have a few minutes to spend on each application. College essays need to be original, interesting, and memorable . They need to grab the attention of the admissions officer and persuade them that this is the student out of hundreds or thousands of other similarly-qualified applicants who should be admitted.

College admissions essays are usually unlike any other kind of writing that students have done before. They’re a combination of memoir and marketing pitch, and they need to be creative but also highly strategic. That’s a tough assignment!

What’s more, students are left to figure this assignment out on their own. A thoughtful and generous high school English teacher may provide guidance or offer to read essays and give feedback, but these teachers are responsible for many students, and they’re (usually) not experts in admissions strategies.

There’s another reason college essays are especially important from 2024 on. After the recent Supreme Court decision, the application essay has become one of the main ways that you can communicate how your racial identity has affected your life.

In fact, the New York Times published an article about how important it can be for students to discuss race in their college application essays!

Why work with a college essay service?

You may want to consider a college essay service if:

• You have no idea where to start in order to write your college application essays
• You feel overwhelmed by all of the different ideas you have and don’t know what would be the most strategic for college admissions—and what topics to definitely avoid for college essays
• You don’t know how to craft a compelling stor y
• You’re not sure how to edit and refine what you’ve written
• You have a hard time keeping yourself on track and want an external structure to hold you accountable
• You’re tired of conflict between students and parents about college essays
• You’re aiming at a competitive college (not just the Ivy League!) and know that you need your essays to be outstanding
• Your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars aren’t exceptional, so you need your essay to make your essay stand out from the pack
• You’re unfamiliar with the US college admissions process (a common situation for international students and first-generation families in the US)

Any of these are strong reasons to consider working with a college essay service!

It’s also worth remembering that a lot of the free advice on college’s website isn’t always very clear. For example, NYU’s admissions Senior Assistant Director of Admissions says that “There is no right or wrong way to answer as long as your answer is genuine to you.”

While that’s true, that doesn’t offer much guidance on how to actually write the essay!

Though many college applicants might not mention it, more and more students are using professional college application consultants. Research at the University of Chicago has shown that over a quarter of high-achieving seniors employed private specialists to help with the college application process.

In fact, according to NPR , some companies are even offering college admissions counseling to their top employees as an incentive–that’s just how important professional help can be in the current landscape of college admissions.

It’s important to note that a good college essay service will not write your college application essays for you . This is unethical and illegal. That’s not just coming from us: take it from a school like Princeton, whose website insists on the importance of writing your own application essays.

A good college essay service will guide you through each step of the process , teaching you how to self-reflect and write well while sharing insider insight about admissions strategy .

What makes a good college essay service?

We strongly believe that students need to write their own college essays , and we do not condone plagiarism or “buying” a college essay.

However, writing college application essays requires a completely new set of skills that is rarely taught in high school!

Writing a personal essay is much more creative than simply writing a good paper for English class. It requires a compelling narrative and a great deal of writing craft . A good essay service will teach how to do this kind of writing.

There are many college essay services that will provide only written feedback to students, usually in the form of comments added to an essay draft. (Remember, it’s important that students write their own essays, so avoid any college essay service that will make edits directly to an essay document .)

Written comments can be an effective component of good essay coaching. However, writing college essays is a deeply personal process , and it’s incredibly difficult to guide a student through the process of self-reflection, brainstorming, and planning purely through written comments.

In addition, a great college essay coach will teach students how to do this entire process of brainstorming, planning, outlining, writing, and revising . It’s difficult to learn why an essay coach is advising certain changes through written comments alone.

For these reasons, look for a college essay service with live, one-on-one services , not just written feedback. These days, it’s easy to work with the best college essay consultants in the country over Zoom!

Students need to reflect on their goals, their passions, and what drives them to be the person they are. This requires a great deal of self-awareness and self-analysis . An experienced college essay coach can help draw these ideas out of students through tested introspection techniques and brainstorming exercises .

On top of all of that, students need to be cognizant of which traits and accomplishments will be most appealing to colleges , and which stories will be cliche and boring. Personal statements and supplementary essays need to fit together to tell a cohesive story, and they need to work together with the rest of the student’s application (extracurriculars, grades, and other accomplishments).

In other words, there’s a great deal of strategy here! An experienced college essay service can help students decide how to present themselves in the best possible light .

Furthermore, most students don’t know how to edit effectively . A really top-notch college essay service will also teach students how to edit their own writing —how to reorder sections for better flow, cut unnecessary words to meet a word count, eliminate passive verbs, and make their writing vivid and exciting. Our students are routinely amazed by how transformative this step can be, and how much they learn by doing it together with the essay coach.

Finally, the best college essay services can also help students to make a writing plan and keep them on track , so that parents don’t have to be involved directly.

Ready to work on your college essays? Schedule a free 15- to 30-minute consultation with Jessica or one of our founders.

Best overall: PrepMaven’s tutors offer the highest quality at the best price. With three tiers of tutors, they make it easy to work with an Ivy League undergraduate for as little as $79/hr. Or, families can work with education professionals or Ivy League graduates from $150/hr. PrepMaven’s track record means that you can be sure every hour is being spent productively, so that you can expect real results from the work.

Best for individual consultants: College Essay Mentor. In theory, College Essay Mentor would offer an unparalleled level of individual attention and guidance: his website boasts of some very impressive results. You might find it hard to actually schedule with him, however, since he’s very selective about his clients.

Best for unlimited essay assistance: The College Essay Guy might not offer that personalized attention you get from live, face to face essay coaching, but they do offer unlimited essay editing for up to 10 schools (if you’re comfortable paying a hefty package price).

Best of the big platforms: College Vine will always be a bit of a gamble. Because it’s a tutor marketplace, your results (and costs) will really depend on how lucky you get with your consultant. From our research, however, many of their essay coaches look to have solid track records.

Ready to work on college essays with one of our experienced writing coaches? Schedule a free test prep consultation with Jessica (Director of Tutoring) or one of our founders to see what would be the best fit for your family.

It’s always best to start early and not wait until the last minute to write your college essays! Remember that essays can be used to earn scholarships as well as college admission, so a few months of writing now can pay off with up to $300,000 in tuition saved later. 

We work with students at all stages of the writing process, from I-have-no-idea-what-to-write to final edits. To start working with an Ivy-League writing coach today, set up a quick free consultation with our team.

Schedule a free college essay consultation

Top College Essay Posts

• Qualities of a Successful College Essay
• 11 College Essays That Worked
• How to Answer the UC Personal Insight Questions
• How Colleges Read your College Applications (A 4-Step Process)
• How to Write the Princeton Supplemental Essays
• The Diamond Strategy: How We Help Students Write College Essays that Get Them Into Princeton (And Other Ivy League Schools)
• What is the College Essay? Your Complete Guide for 202 4
• College Essay Brainstorming: Where to Start
• How to Write the Harvard Supplemental Essays
• How to Format Your College Essay

Emily graduated  summa cum laude  from Princeton University and holds an MA from the University of Notre Dame. She was a National Merit Scholar and has won numerous academic prizes and fellowships. A veteran of the publishing industry, she has helped professors at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton revise their books and articles. Over the last decade, Emily has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay. 

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Can You Pay Someone To Write A College Essay For You?

There are several pitfalls of homework, and there’s no sugarcoating it. From unwarranted stress to the fear of poor grades, most students dread homework writing and treat it as an additional obligation. But the thing is, you cannot take assignments lightly, as they play a significant role in shaping your grades. Despite the hardships, you should give your best effort and write quality papers to get better grades.

The good news is you no longer have to lose your sleep over critical assignments like essay writing. With the advent of technology, countless digital academic platforms have come into existence to ease essay writing woes. You can sign up, share your requirements, pay a nominal amount, and get a complete solution in about seconds. For instance, All Essay Writer is a well-known platform that offers a comprehensive college essay writing service to students across the US on request. 

Each expert essay writer at Allessaywriter.com is known for their deep knowledge, impeccable skills, and extreme professionalism. According to their clients, the experts leave no pages unturned to deliver brilliantly written essays within the deadline. If you need personalized support for essay writing, you can trust this site for credible work. 

Perks of Paying Someone to Write Your Unfinished College Essay

Paying someone for essay writing support has simplified theoretical tasks and allowed learners to free up time for self-studies, relaxation, and other activities. Let’s now explore the benefits of buying college essays from experts online.

• Perfect solutions:

Creating a flawless essay based on extensive research is a dream for all students. Unfortunately, only a few can turn it into reality as they possess the necessary skills, resources, and expertise. 

With essay help services, you can create quality write-ups based on deep research. The writers possess profound subject knowledge and have the skills and experience to create stellar essays on any topic. English, philosophy, psychology, science, or management, you name the subject. The writing experts will craft A-1 quality essays following the standard formatting and structuring guidelines.  

• No plagiarism hassle:

Plagiarism is a serious concern in academics and invites unfavorable consequences. Besides cancellation of the paper, it can tarnish your reputation and jeopardize your academic career. However, it is possible to avoid plagiarism in your work if you focus on citing the sources accurately. The challenge with citations is that not everyone is skilled at it. 

You don’t have to worry about citations or plagiarism when buying college essays from professional writers. All top-ranked experts are skilled in various citation styles and have a thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of each style. You can get essay citations from APA and MLA to IEEE and OSCOLA in all popular formats.

• Timely delivery:

One of the key reasons to buy a college essay online is the lack of time. Most of you are likely to be overburdened with multiple obligations. Back-to-back lectures, multiple deadlines, test preparation, and other social and family commitments keep you on your toes. Amidst so much, meeting essay deadlines has become a difficult conundrum for the students. 

Buying a college essay online can permanently solve this issue. Professional writers are trained and skilled to deliver top-notch essays within the deadline. Stringent deadlines are also no issue for these writers as they have experience working on different types of essays, irrespective of the type, difficulty level, and urgency. You can pay a fair charge, get your hands on high-quality solutions, and meet any deadline with any effort. 

• Top-quality resources:

What is the backbone of a good essay? Research. Quality research can help you elevate a shoddy paper’s quality into something extraordinary. Plus, when you research and include exclusive information in your essay, it becomes more valuable and puts your effort in a positive light. 

However, most students lack access to quality resources online. Since most platforms require paid subscriptions, you cannot get in to find data for your essay. Such limitations are no issue for writers you buy college essays from. They can access large academic databases, peer-reviewed papers, academic tools, sample assignments, and other paid and unpaid resources. They refer to verified sites and sources to find data and cite each source in your essay to credit the source. 

• All-time support:

Academic emergencies can arise at any hour, especially past midnight, given most students tend to study at odd hours. However, none of your professors are active in the wee hours of the night. If you encounter any hurdle while writing an essay, you will either have to figure it out on your own or leave until the next class, which can further delay your deadlines.

Round-the-clock support is no issue for online essay writers as they guarantee 24/7 live student support. You can reach out to them whenever you need help and get instant solutions to your queries. Besides instant support, customer support is super active and maintains transparent communication. So whether you want to inquire about an essay order or need more information about the writing services, you can count on them for instant assistance.

• Improved grades:

Essay writing has its unique challenges. You need to clearly understand the prompt, define the type of essay, and adopt the right approach to meet the main purpose of the task. If not, your weaknesses will reflect on your paper, which will impact your essay’s overall grade. 

Professional writers know students’ love-hate relationship with essay writing and go above and beyond to help students obtain the grades they have always dreamed of. Buying essays from them will get you the complete package – from brainstorming and researching topics to writing and editing the drafts. The writers cover every bit of the process, so you don’t have to worry about poor grades and can catch a breather. 

Whom Can You Pay For College Essays?

You cannot trust any XYZ website when paying professional writers for essays. Reliable sites are a must for genuine quality essay solutions. Then, how do you identify the best platforms for buying essays for college? Simple! Just remember these tips:

• Research and learn everything about the website. Check whether the writers are committed to their words and deliver work within the deadline. 
• Carefully evaluate the official website and the published content to get a fair idea about their writing skills. You can also check their recent activities like blogs, sample essays, and previous write-ups to understand their writing style, use of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and so on. 
• Verify the writers’ qualifications and professional expertise. Make sure they have the relevant industry knowledge. Only then the assigned writer will be able to deliver the perfect copy you have been looking for.
• Check the area of services. Top-ranked essay writers offer complete one-to-one support when students buy essays. Therefore, ensure that the writer offers help with brainstorming ideas, researching topics, writing, editing, and proofreading for all types of essays. 
• Read the student reviews on the site and other third-party review portals to get the perspective of previous clients. Then, weigh the negatives from the positives to determine if the website is worth trusting. 
• Gather references and connect with them to get unbiased feedback on the writer and their work ethics.
• Check if the website assures features like a money-back guarantee and free reworks on unfulfilled orders without hidden charges. The site should also ensure add-ons like free tools, signup bonuses, condition-free prices, year-long offers, and one-to-one doubt clearance sessions.
• Most importantly, the writer MUST ensure 100% confidentiality and anonymity to students buying essays. They should have a robust security system to protect student data from third-party intrusions. 

These days, buying college essays online has become a common norm among students to meet tight deadlines and earn higher grades. Thus, if you are considering buying a college essay, remember to countercheck the above factors to optimize the benefits to their full potential. 

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How Much Should I Pay Someone to Write an Essay?

Thanks to online writing services, students who don’t have enough time can always pay someone to write an essay. If you need help with your papers, you can choose from among thousands of writing services, and all of them offer different prices. It can be difficult to find a service that provides high-quality papers and has affordable prices. Many cheap services promise to deliver great papers but they rarely keep their promises. As for the more expensive services, it’s important to know what prices can be considered reasonable.

Writing services are extremely popular because many students get too many writing assignments but don’t have enough time to deal with all of them. Therefore, these students can simply fail their deadlines or hire someone to write an essay and forget about their problems. In this article, we will focus on the prices of custom writing so that you will know how much you need to pay someone to write an essay for you and avoid overpaying.

How Much Does Essay Writing Cost?

Generally, you can find writing services that will write your papers for $10-$35 per page. The price of custom essay writing depends on many factors, including the academic level of the essay, its length, and deadline. If your essay requires in-depth research, it may cost more than a simpler essay based on just a couple of sources. High school essays cost less than essays of higher academic levels. If you’re looking for a college or graduate-level essay, you should be ready to pay more. Ph.D. dissertations are the most expensive type of papers.

The reason why prices change depending on the academic level is that complex papers should be written by experienced writers who are perfectly familiar with the necessary area of study. Services that hire native English speakers also charge more than services with ESL writers . Obviously, the price of writing also changes depending on the deadline. All writing services work with different deadlines. For example, on some websites, orders with deadlines of six or twelve hours are considered urgent, while other services even work on papers that are due in three hours.

Should You Use Cheap Writing Services?

Students rarely have a lot of money. Tuition costs grow every year so there’s no surprise that most students want to use any opportunity to save some money. However, when it comes to essay writing, choosing the cheapest option is definitely a bad solution. If you simply google “pay to write essay,” you will find dozens of services that offer to write your essay for $10 per page or less. You should keep in mind that quality always has its price and not all writing services are actually trustworthy.

Most legit writing services don’t write essays for less than $10 per page. There are many services with even lower prices, but these are either scammers or companies with unprofessional writers that sell poorly written unoriginal papers. You may fix some grammar mistakes and edit your paper if it needs some improvement in terms of style. However, if your paper is unoriginal, it can undermine your academic credibility. It can be really difficult for students to find a legit affordable writing service because professional writers deserve fair compensation, and they rarely agree to write essays for cheap. 

Disadvantages of Cheap Writing Services

• Not enough options

It may seem like there are hundreds of cheap services, but the truth is that finding a decent affordable service is a challenging task. First, many companies that offer the lowest prices are simply scammers so if you decide to save some money and use these services, you may not receive your essay at all. Secondly, there is no business that would intentionally occupy the low-price segment while having other options.

Many services call themselves cheap, but in fact, offer average prices. Fewer companies can actually write your essay for $9 or even $7 per page, but there is always a reason why these services are so cheap. Therefore, if you want to avoid unnecessary risks, don’t choose services that have much lower prices than their competitors.

• Unprofessional writers

The price that you see when you pay someone to write your essay includes the writer’s fee, as well as the company’s share. In other words, your writer will get even less money than you pay for your paper when ordering it from a cheap writing service. If the price of your order is suspiciously low, it means that your order will likely be completed by an unprofessional ESL writer who may not even know anything about your area of study.

Experienced writers with Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in their disciplines deserve fair compensation for their effort so they don’t work for a few pennies. You should also keep in mind that writers from English-speaking countries also demand higher salaries than ESL writers from developing countries. Therefore, if you want your paper to be perfect in terms of grammar, you must be ready to pay more.

• Questionable business models

We’ve already mentioned that many cheap services are just scammers. You may make an order in an attempt to save a few dollars without getting any papers at all. However, this is not the only way students get scammed. Some companies may also sell pre-written essays for cheap , so you may get an unoriginal essay that has already been submitted by another student and that won’t pass a plagiarism check.

Legit writing services may offer low prices for some types of papers but they also realize that it’s impossible to offer the same low price for orders of different complexity levels. Therefore, if a cheap writing service has a fixed pricing system, we recommend that you think twice before making an order. Legit affordable writing services usually have a different business model: they work as bidding platforms. When making orders on such websites, you can see bids from different writers and choose the one with the lowest price.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to pay someone to write an essay, you should be able to choose reliable services that won’t force you to overpay for their papers. There are many writing services with reasonable prices that can write decent custom essays. However, if you see an offer that looks too good to be true, the chances are that you will get a poorly written unoriginal essay that will be completely useless.

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Further reading

Best essay writing services on reddit in 2022, how to start an essay with a quote, how to make a cover page for an essay.