Berkeley High’s College Essay Readers are a group of professional writers and editors committed to helping BHS seniors shine through their personal statements for UC, the Common App and supplemental essays. Readers will be available in the College Career Center on a first come, first served basis to help students brainstorm, write and revise their essays.
Questions about volunteer essay readers can be directed to Elaine Lotus Chan (elainelotuschan@gmail.com).
Links and tips:
- Familiarize yourself with the UC essay prompts, the Common App prompts, and the Coalition App prompts.
- Brainstorm. This is a really important step, but one that writers usually breeze past. Here are two good videos for guided brainstorming: Objects Exercise and Values Exercise
- Join our Facebook page. Updates and reader schedules will be posted there.
Other resources (there are tons of resources on websites and YouTube. Some are free, some are not).
- The College Essay Guy has a bunch of good free resources including —
- College Essay Advisors have a good breakdown of the Common App.
Essay reading has begun! An updated schedule can be found here.