Los Angeles has no shortage of college advice. Very little of it comes from someone who writes for a living.

What's actually on offer

The story angle is not a marketing frame. It's the method.

I created TV projects that sold to ABC and YouTube Originals, with Kerry Washington producing, and to Warner Bros. TV, with John Wells producing. I wrote Sharon, the Osbourne biopic, named to the 2018 Black List, and the 2008 Fox feature The Rocker, and I wrote and directed This Is Happening. I studied History and Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, cum laude, and for over a decade I interviewed applicants for Penn as an alumni interviewer. Twenty years of that work means twenty years of reading drafts and finding the one moment that makes the rest land.

Admissions essays and screenplays fail the same five ways. Nothing actually happens. The details are generic, so nothing is visible. The writer announces the meaning instead of showing it. There's no voice, because the student is imitating what they think an essay should sound like. And a theme gets stapled on in the final paragraph, where every reader can feel it.

Those are fixable. They're fixable with notes and questions, not with a template.

A city-sized range of situations

Los Angeles students come to the essay from wildly different places. Some have had a whole class period devoted to it. Some have had nothing and are the first in the family to apply. Some come from independent and parochial schools (Harvard-Westlake, Brentwood School, Marlborough, Crossroads, Viewpoint, Buckley, Notre Dame, Archer, Campbell Hall, Marymount, Louisville, Chaminade, Milken), where a counselor has been on this since ninth grade and the problem is not organization but voice. Some are aiming at a list of twelve schools with supplements attached to each. Some are transferring out of community college and need an essay that explains a decision rather than telling a story.

The intro call sorts that out. Twenty minutes, free, parents welcome, and by the end you'll know what has to happen and in what order. If I don't think I'm the right help, I'll say so.

Deadlines, honestly

Most Early Decision and Early Action deadlines fall on Nov 1 or Nov 15, though each school sets its own, so check the list. UC deadlines land in the fall as well; confirm the current dates on the UC admissions site. Regular decision runs later, and supplements pile up in a way that surprises families every single year.

Nobody here is going to scare you about this. Senior fall is genuinely stressful, and the useful response is a calendar and an order of operations, not more urgency.

Neighborhood pages

I'm based in Calabasas, I meet students in person across the San Fernando Valley, I come over the pass to the Westside, and I work with families throughout the city by video. These pages cover the areas I hear from most:

• Woodland Hills: the center of the service area, in-person sessions
• Calabasas: writing an essay that doesn't blend into a competitive cohort, public or independent
• Sherman Oaks: evening and Saturday scheduling for booked students
• Encino: starting junior year, plus transfer applicants
• Studio City: development notes for families who already speak the language
• Beverly Hills: what four years of good advice does to a seventeen-year-old's voice
• Santa Monica: finding the material that isn't on the transcript
• Brentwood: why the essay can't be a second copy of the activities list
• Los Angeles: this page, the overview of how the work runs

How the work runs

Zoom sessions of 45 to 60 minutes, plus written notes on every draft in the document with a short summary of what to fix first. A tighter schedule around early deadlines can be arranged, and we settle that on the intro call. In-person sessions are available in the Valley.

Coaching hours are Monday through Friday 9am to 1pm and 4pm to 8pm PT, and Saturday 9am to 2pm PT. Closed Sunday.

Own Your Essay is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any school or district. I work directly with families.

Services

Single Essay Review, UC PIQ Package, Full Application Package, and a standalone brainstorming session. See full service details →