College essay coaching
A guided process
The essay you need to write is closer than you think. It might be hiding in something you wouldn't think to mention. Unwritten Potential helps you find it.
The approach
The college essay is often approached as a writing problem: Fix the sentences, smooth the transitions, make it sound impressive. Done. But the essay is more than prose and punctuation. It's the part of your application where a college gets to know you as a person, beyond the transcript, activities, and scores.
It starts with finding the particular: the details, traits, and values that are distinctly you. Then you choose from what emerges to craft an authentic and compelling essay that lets a college see who you are and who you're becoming. The kind of essay that makes a reader glad they read it.
A guided process. You don't have to know where to start.
Your voice. And the reader slows down to hear you.
Your story, connected to what colleges value. Growth over perfection. Showing, not telling. Specificity over summary.
Responsive, purposeful feedback. In session and between.
An essay you're proud to submit.
Packages
Your essay is yours.
Plus ideas and tools for your next essay.
The full process, one-on-one.
Plus ideas and tools for your next essay.
A focused two-session experience for students who want to find their footing and see where it leads.
All about ideas and tools.
Already worked together? Explore sessions for returning students →
About
As an English teacher, I nudge students past reading online summaries and beyond being bound by the five-paragraph essay. They move with confidence toward developing and supporting their own analysis and expressing their insights with dynamic, cohesive writing. I bring that same approach to the college essay: respect for the fundamentals, and room to find what's genuinely yours.
Any transcript. Any background. Any path forward.
The process
You don't have to know what to write about before we start. The Essay Intensive process is built to help you find your direction, so that by the time you sit down to draft, you already know what you want to say, why it matters, and how it all fits together.
Before session 1
Before we meet, you'll work through guided exercises, pulled together over years of working with students. These aren't open-ended writing prompts. Each one is designed to draw out something specific: a value, a pattern, a moment, a way of seeing the world. Together they build a portrait. The goal isn't a draft. It's discovery.
You engage with the exercises that resonate most. There's no single right path through the material.
Brainstorming
I arrive having read everything, with observations, connections, and ideas forming. Together we draw out what's most alive in your prewriting: the specific, the surprising, the details that add up to something real.
Outlining
Together we build your outline into a fuller map, weaving your threads together, adding transitions, and refining the structure so you can draft with confidence and purpose.
Editing
With a full draft in hand, our focus shifts to what your essay is actually communicating, and whether each piece is doing the work it needs to do.
Refining
The final session is about craft: the polish that makes your essay stand out.
Most students have plenty to say. Some have too much and don't know where to start. Others aren't sure what to include. Finding it, shaping it, and trusting that it's working—that's what Unwritten Potential is here for.
Without support
With Unwritten Potential
A free 15-minute call to see how the process could work for you.
Packages
Every package follows the same guiding philosophy: focused sessions and feedback that move your work forward. The difference is in the format, the pacing, and the level of individual attention.
Full packages
Four sessions, prewriting materials, practical tools, and individual feedback: everything you need to go from blank page to a finished draft that's genuinely yours.
Small group • 3–4 students
Total for the group.
Book this package Let's talk firstA small-group workshop where each of you works individually through the full process, finding what connects your own experiences and values, shaping your own material, and leaving with a complete, revised draft that's unmistakably yours.
What's included
This is a good fit if...
You work well with peers around, want the energy of a shared process, or are looking for the most accessible entry point. Groups often form naturally: friends, teammates, students from the same school.
Group sessions are structured so the personal nature of your essay is always protected. You workshop selected excerpts and apply feedback to your full essay independently.
One-on-one
The full process, entirely yours.
Book this package Let's talk firstThe same structured process as The Essay Intensive: four sessions, prepared materials, and feedback at every stage, with every hour of session time focused entirely on you, what connects, and the elements that will bring it to life.
What's included
This is a good fit if...
You prefer working one-on-one, want sessions that flex to your pace and process, or have a story or application situation that benefits from undivided attention at every stage.
New students • On-ramp
The Jumpstart is a complete, standalone two-session experience, taking you from blank page to a clear direction and an outline that's ready to draft.
This is a good fit if...
You want a strong direction and outline before you start drafting, or you want to experience the process before committing to the full intensive.
What's included
Want to keep going?
Your Jumpstart fee can be credited toward the Individual Intensive, so continuing into sessions 3 and 4 is an additional $400.
Returning students
These sessions are available to students who have completed The Essay Intensive or The Essay Intensive: Individual. You already know the language, the materials, and the process. These build directly on that foundation.
Structure
For a new essay prompt or school that needs its own structure. You bring existing material; we build a fresh outline together.
Supplements
Focused work on school-specific supplements: drafting, shaping, and refining using material you've already generated.
Flexible
No set agenda. You bring what you need. Open Sessions don't include the structured materials or guided framework of the full intensive. They're for returning students who know what they're working on.
Schedule a free 15-minute call. We'll talk through where you are and figure out together what kind of support makes the most sense.
About Jamie
For more than 25 years, I taught high school English in Los Angeles, and one of my favorite things was always the college essay. Not because it was easy, but because it was the moment students got to stop performing and start showing who they are beyond the transcript, and even who they're becoming.
I taught at a school that served students with all sorts of circumstances and just as many stories to tell. I watched students with the same curiosity and the same drive to tell a compelling story have very different experiences with college applications, simply based on what guidance they had access to.
I carried that with me. I have spent years developing materials to help students find what connects and build it into something real.
I show up to each session as a guide and a steady presence, breaking down the process and making it feel doable.
I now work remotely, bringing that same approach to students across the country. I stay current on the field, including the evolving conversation about AI in college admissions, because the students I work with deserve guidance that's honest, informed, and genuinely theirs. This process is for any college-bound student, any transcript, any background, any path forward, who wants to show colleges not only what they've done, but who they are.
On authenticity
Students don't need to invent something impressive. They need help seeing what's already there: the values, patterns, and moments that add up to a genuinely compelling story.
On my role
My feedback is focused and purposeful, responding to what will move the essay forward, not line-editing every sentence. That's what keeps your voice intact, where it belongs.
On outcomes
Students who do the writing themselves, guided by a real process, finish with work they're proud of and skills they can carry into other essays in their applications.
On access
Pricing is set deliberately to make this process accessible to students who need it, not only those who can pay thousands for it. Every student deserves to feel prepared.
On every student
This process isn't designed for the student chasing prestige. It's designed for the student who wants to show colleges who they actually are, and trust that the right places will recognize it.
On the process
The activities, the sessions, the scaffolding: none of it constrains the writing. It gives students a way in, so they can say something true.
Schedule a free 15-minute call to talk through where you are and whether this is the right fit.
Get in touch
Have a question about a package, not sure where to start, or want to talk through whether this is the right fit? Reach out.
Free 15-minute call
A quick call, by phone or video, to see if this feels like the right fit.
Schedule a callResponse time: I typically respond within one business day.
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