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Craft the Right Message

Do you need help writing your admissions essays, scholarship essays, or personal statement? Crafting the right message can mean the difference between getting accepted to the school of your choice or not.

We are TheSecretToWriting.com, and we help applicants write winning admissions essays for college, graduate, and professional schools.

More specifically, we offer editing services to help finesse your words and ensure the message remains in your voice. We won’t write the essay for you, but we can help you achieve the results you want. 

Video

Who We Serve

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    Applicants to College

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    Applicants to Graduate School

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    Applicants to Business School, Law School, or Medical School

What We Do

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    Help you to solidify your essay topic(s)

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    Advise you on how to structure your essay(s)

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    Coach you on ways to write more clearly and effectively

How You Benefit

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    You gain a competitive advantage in the admissions process

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    You develop your writing skills

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    You gain more self-confidence as a writer and as a person

Webinar Presentation

"How to Write Winning College Admissions Essays & Scholarship Essays"

Topics include:

  • Why are admissions essays and scholarship essays important?
  • What do colleges and funding institutions look for in an essay?
  • What types of essay questions are students asked to address?
  • What can or should you write about when responding to an essay prompt?
  • What are the essential components of an admissions or scholarship essay?
  • How can you best communicate your story and polish your essay?
  • What are some key do's and don'ts when writing admissions essays and scholarship essays? 

 

Audience: rising 9th-12th grade students and their parents.

Tip: Start early. Don't wait until senior year to begin thinking about college admissions essays and scholarship essays. Plan and prepare for success.

 
Thursday, September 26, 2024, 7-8:00 p.m. CDT
$29.99

Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

High School Students Applying to College

Option 1
One Essay (the equivalent of 650 words)
Includes up to three reviews
$699

Buy Now

Option 2 - MOST POPULAR
Three-essay Package (the equivalent of 650 words/essay)
Includes up to three reviews of up to three essays within 3 weeks of receiving your initial document submission

$1,499.

Buy Now

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Option 3

College Admissions Essay Boot Camp
The college admissions essay boot camp is offered online, complemented by one-to-one coaching. Specifically, the boot camp includes four weeks of online writing instruction and two weeks of personal coaching that is designed to help the applicant fine-tune his or her essays. The boot camp is ideal for students who desire a more structured approach to completing their essays. Learn more about the College Admissions Essay Boot Camp here
$1,399

Buy Now

Option 4

College Counseling Package
Complete assessment and support of your college applications, including goals review, application completion schedule, testing plan, recommendation review, college list development, admissions essays, and application proofreading. Learn more here

$3,750-$14,750

Buy Now

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Applicants to Graduate School or Professional School

Option 1
One Essay (the equivalent of 650 words)
Includes up to three reviews
$799 

Buy Now

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Option 2
Three-essay Package (the equivalent of 650 words/essay)
Includes up to three reviews of up to three essays within 3 weeks of receiving your initial document submission
$1,599. 

Buy Now

Testimonials

Thank you for helping me with my essays! I really appreciate all of your help. Just wanted to let you know that so far I have gotten acceptance letters from Baylor, Auburn, Samford, OU, and Texas A&M. Thank you!

K. Patch, Texas Applicant

I met Stan a few years back when I was applying to business school. Stan helped review my MBA application, and gave me some pointers on how to improve both the content and the flow of my essays. Moreover, he provided valuable insight on what admissions officers may be looking for in a candidate... further helping me to determine what I should focus on in my writing.

Stan's warm and friendly personality, along with his capable coaching, made me feel confident that I was submitting the best application that I could put together.

And, by the way, I was admitted and matriculated to the Anderson School at UCLA, a top ranked MBA program.

Tiffany Chu, California Applicant

Mr. Lemons' help enabled me to navigate my way through the labyrinth of the college admissions process. His book provided me with the facts and information necessary to understand what was going on. His personal guidance helped me organize my thoughts and goals to write effective essays, structure my time to meet deadlines, and find the colleges that were my best options. He also gave me advice on interviewing. Overall, he has been supportive and encouraging throughout my college search process.

 Peter Kotara, Student

Mr. Lemons was by far one of the most considerate and dedicated tutors that I had throughout my time in high school. When it came time to start writing my essays for college, I knew exactly who to reach out to; Mr. Lemons was able to provide me with the organization and help I needed. I know for a fact that my writing has only progressed with his help, and without his support and guidance I don’t think my papers would have been as strong as they were. Mr. Lemons is hardworking, dedicated, and wants to see you succeed and share in your happiness. I for sure recommend Mr. Lemons for help with not only your college essays, but also for any other writing assignment. His help over the years has enabled me to truly grow as a writer!

Zoë Purdy Alumna, Greenhill School Member, Jack and Jill of America, Inc. Dallas, Texas

Stan Lemons and his company, The Secret to Writing, played an integral role in our successful college journey. As a busy working mom trying to balance both work and family in a pandemic, and staying on top of deadlines for college applications on behalf of our daughter, I needed a trusted resource to help us with the college application process. Stan provided that “missing piece” for our family. He was able to organize timelines for college essays and worked diligently with our daughter to help her craft essays that were reflective of both her strengths and achievements while in high school. Stan challenged her to dig deep and to think critically about the questions asked of her and from those numerous re-writes blossomed wonderful individual essays that truly captured who she is as a person and resulted in multiple college acceptances on her behalf. I would highly recommend Stan to assist your family as you begin your college journey.

Monica McCoy Purdy, Dallas, Texas

Stan Lemons is an exceptional mentor, writer, and friend. I've never met a tutor who was strikingly dedicated to my success. We worked strategically for six months straight. He taught me how to formulate my thoughts, organize and draft my essays in my own writing style. I learned how to be confident in my writing and articulate well. He instilled bravery in me to voice my story. I'm proud of my improvements in essay writing. I'm incredibly grateful for Stan's motivation, coaching, wisdom, and patience. He has been an integral part of my success. I was offered interviews at Duke and Mayo Clinic for Nurse Anesthesia programs. I would highly recommend The Secret to Writing!

Lauren Ashley Larson, Minnesota Client

My name is Mallory Wallace and I am a senior at Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School. I had the privilege of working with Stan over the summer, and I can proudly say the experience was great. Stan gave me a head start in the college application process by assisting me with college essays and also serving as a great mentor as I navigated my way through early action applications and supplemental essays. I can't thank Stan enough for his guidance, support, and undivided attention during this process.

Mallory Wallace, student, Irma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School, Dallas, TX

I just wanted to thank you for the help you provided me throughout this stressful process. The college application process is very difficult and you made it a lot smoother. I am not the best writer so I am glad that an elite writer was able to guide me in my writings. I admit at times, it was stressful and annoying to do all these corrections, but in the end it was worth it. I have also learned some of your great writing strategies, which I will use in the future.

Thank you for all the help and all your commitment to helping me succeed.

Elan Goetz, student, Bellaire High School, Houston, TX

I had the opportunity to work with Stanley Lemons during my MBA application process. Stanley helped uncover my “Why” and challenged me to think about the story I wanted to convey to the admissions teams. He pushed me to think about my story in the simplest of terms and helped me to not overthink every minute detail. As I continued to trust him, I saw my authentic voice come through my application and I realized I was able to apply my learnings to multiple applications.

I am pleased to say that I was admitted to and plan to attend the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Stanley’s guidance was instrumental to my MBA process and helped me secure a place at my dream school.

Samuel McDaniel, MBA Applicant, New York

School Acceptances

Frequently Asked Questions

After you make your payment, here’s what will happen next:

  1. Within 48-72 hours after we receive your payment, we will email you a welcome letter that details our operating guidelines for the admissions essay coaching service. Included with the welcome letter is a questionnaire that asks for additional information about the applicant. The applicant should complete the questionnaire and return it to us via email within 48 hrs. at info@thesecrettowriting.com. If you (the applicant) already have a rough draft of your essay(s), please email your document in MS Word to us along with the questionnaire. The applicant’s full name should be included in the subject line of the email.
  2. A representative from TheSecretToWriting.com will contact the applicant to schedule an initial phone call/videoconference. The initial meeting will last approximately 45 minutes to one hour. During the initial meeting, a company representative will review our essay coaching process and discuss a project plan and timeline for the applicant’s essay(s).
  3. Following the initial applicant meeting, we will schedule a subsequent meeting or "email exchange" between the applicant and our essay coach in order to commence the essay writing process.

No worries. During the coaching session(s), we work with students to identify essay topics that the student feels passionate about. 

We recommend that you review the Common Application (www.commonapp.org) and consider using the Common Application writing prompts.

Three weeks. After we have the initial client meeting, we work with the student to complete the essay assignment within a three-week time frame.

We enjoy working with students from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, we evaluate all our essay coaching projects on an individual basis in order to make sure we will be a good match for our clients.

We equate one essay to 650 words. Our service fees are calculated on a cost per essay basis. If, for example, you are required to write a total of 1,300 words, we will bill you for two essays. A number of our clients write six or more essays for their applications. In this scenario, our clients typically choose to take advantage of our three-essay discount package.

If, for example, your student has three short-answer essays to write and each short-answer essay has a maximum word count of 250 words, then would would aggregate the word count and bill you for only one 650-word essay.

We encourage students to write about what's important to them. It is perfectly fine for a student to change essay topics; however, if we have started to work with a client on a given essay, then we will bill the client the full fee for the original or first essay.

Please talk with us before you pay the service fee. Given your short submission deadline, we would want to make sure that we have the availability to support you. A rush fee will apply.

Our fees are nonrefundable.

Ethics Statement

We do not write admissions essays for students; students do the work. Please know that admissions officers are skilled readers of admissions essays, and can easily detect an essay that has been written, for example, by a parent or a professional writer. Our goal is to help students think through their ideas and ultimately, for students, themselves, to communicate their story through writing. We also aim to help students develop foundational writing skills. We believe that writing is an invaluable skill, which, surely, will benefit a student well beyond the application process. While we cannot promise that a student will be admitted to any particular college, graduate school, or professional school, we can say -- proudly-- that our services are time-tested and provide added-value. Our client testimonials speak to the quality of our work.

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