Liz Mastrangelo
Writing Coach
TUTORING, CONSULTING, AND EDITING SERVICES
COLLEGE ESSAY COACHING
Let's Get Started.
You'll be booking tours and buying hoodies before you know it!
The written portions of your college application, such as the main personal statement, supplemental essays, activities list, and résumé, carry the special cadence of your voice straight to admission committees. These mediums allow you to express your identity and accentuate your values with heartfelt authenticity, potentially transforming you from a typical candidate into a memorable and highly competitive one.
As a writing specialist, I will show you how to use these mediums to your utmost advantage.
-
I will help you speak directly to admission readers with clear, animated, emotionally-charged language...language that sounds like you.
-
I will assist you in editing your college essays so that they contain the most impactful elements of the stories you want to tell.
-
I will scrutinize your prose to catch and correct the smallest of stylistic and grammatical errors, ensuring that you present yourself as thoughtful, detail-oriented, and serious about your future.
I am not an "all-in-one" college admission counselor. I focus on guiding students like you through the final months leading up to application season, the stretch of the college admission process that often requires hours of creative energy, reflection, revision, and fine-tuning. This part of the journey also offers you generous control -- just when you happen to be entering the most mature and wise stage of your life -- and my goal is to empower you to take it.
At this point in your high school career, you can't go back in time. You can't change the grades on your transcript. You can't change whether a certain teacher "was out to get you" (they most likely weren't, by the way!). You can't change your choice to not join a particular club, or to watch Netflix over fulfilling twenty more service hours. But you still have the opportunity to carefully, imaginatively, and persuasively write yourself into vivacious life on the page in order to craft the most compelling college application possible.
I look forward to working with you!
College Essay Coaching
Spring/Summer 2024 Packages
Available for Booking April 8-July 31, 2024
10% Deposit of Chosen Package Price Requested at Time of Booking
Individual Hourly Sessions and Rounds of Feedback/Editing Can Be Added as Needed
Packages 02-08 Include a 15-30-Minute Introductory Zoom Call, Supportive Communication via Email
and Text, and a Comprehensive Google Folder with College-Essay-Writing Resources and Activities
01: A CHAT ON THE PORCH
$90 Zoom
$100 In Person
A one-hour conversation to discuss...
-
the qualities that college admission readers are seeking in essays;
-
the weight that colleges give to essays versus other application materials;
-
the differences between academic essays and personal/narrative essays;
-
prewriting and drafting methods;
-
organizational and storytelling approaches;
-
college essay ideas;
-
and more.
02: AN EVENING BREEZE
$260 Zoom
$280 In Person
-
Two one-hour live brainstorming sessions
-
Generous written follow-up questions and additional prompts to help with generating more content
03: A SEASIDE STROLL
$420 Zoom
$450 In Person
-
Three one-hour live brainstorming, outlining, and/or drafting sessions
-
One round of written feedback for the Common App main essay
04: A SUNSET CRUISE
$710 Zoom
$750 In Person
-
Four personalized one-hour live sessions
-
Three rounds of written feedback and editing for the Common App main essay
-
Meticulous final word-count edit to 650 for the Common App main essay
05: A BEACHY DAY
$995 Zoom
$1055 In Person
-
Six personalized one-hour live sessions
-
Three rounds of written feedback and editing for the Common App main essay
-
Meticulous final word-count edit to 650 for the Common App main essay
06: A CAPE WEEKEND
$1550 Zoom
$1630 In Person
-
Eight personalized one-hour live sessions
-
Three rounds of written feedback and editing for the Common App main essay
-
Meticulous final word-count edit to 650 for the Common App main essay
-
Unlimited rounds of feedback and editing for up to six supplemental essays, including final word-count edits
07: A MONTH ON THE VINEYARD
$1995 Zoom
$2095 In Person
-
Ten personalized one-hour live sessions
-
Unlimited rounds of written feedback and editing for the Common App main essay, including the final word-count edit to 650
-
Unlimited rounds of feedback and editing for up to ten supplemental essays, including final word-count edits
08: A SUMMER STAY
$2995 Zoom
$3200 In Person
-
Unlimited personalized live sessions
-
Unlimited rounds of written feedback and editing for the Common App main essay, including the final word-count edit to 650
-
Unlimited rounds of feedback and editing for all supplemental essays, including final word-count edits
-
Unlimited rounds of feedback and editing for honors college and scholarship essays
-
Assistance in crafting and editing résumé and activities list for the Common App portal
-
Priority scheduling of live sessions
-
Priority turnaround of reviewed and edited main and supplemental essay drafts (24-48 hours)
liz@lizmastrangelowritingcoach.com
781.526.6578
Love the language that tells your story.
My purpose is to help you to identify, nurture, and believe in your voice...even if you struggle with the writing process.
liz@lizmastrangelowritingcoach.com
781.526.6578
My Coaching Mentality
Whether you feel you were born to write, or consider your relationship with writing an uneasy one, you might benefit from a little coaching! A coach serves to guide and to encourage an individual as they work toward mastering a particular set of skills. In my role as a coach, I support others as they develop their writing skills.
I consider myself a writing coach when I lead a 9th grader through outlining their first analytical paper, offer a rising senior college essay writing help by modeling storytelling techniques, or suggest to an aspiring novelist how to raise the stakes for their protagonist.
As your writing coach, I want to convince you that your voice matters. I want to assist you in arranging language in clear, artistic ways so that your story resonates with the tones of your own lived experiences. I want to make you feel capable, creative, and persuasive as a writer, as I know that you embody all of these qualities.
My Experience
I hold a Master of Education, a Master of English, and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing, and I have taught English and Creative Writing at the high school level for over 20 years. My poems, essays, and short fiction have appeared in nearly a dozen publications, and in 2016, one of my stories was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. I have also ghostwritten and edited numerous nonfiction manuscripts and novels for fellow professionals.
I take pride in playing even a small part in the success of my students, whether they and I cultivate a long-term relationship over the course of several years of English tutoring, or share an intense couple of months focusing on college essay writing. I have witnessed most of them advance from standard English classes to AP classes by the time they graduate, as well as mature into scrutinizing readers and dauntless, articulate writers. Many of my students have also received acceptances from their dream schools, including…
Auburn University
Babson College
Boston College
Boston University
Bucknell University
Clemson University
Colgate University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Fairfield University
Gettysburg College
James Madison University
Marist College
Northeastern University
Pennsylvania State University
Providence College
Purdue University
Quinnipiac University
Tulane University
University of Chicago
University of Connecticut
University of New Hampshire
University of Texas at Austin
University of Washington
Villanova University
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story
inside you.”
Maya Angelou
Bio
I have been indulging my love for language since I started writing fiction on my mother’s Canon typewriter at five years old. By day, I teach literature and writing to high schoolers; by night, I ghostwrite nonfiction books, romance novellas, and website copy, and edit short story and novel manuscripts by fellow aspiring writers. My short stories, prose poems, and essays have appeared in Sheepshead Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Black Fox Lit, Visitant Lit, and Bartleby Snopes, among other publications. You can find my musings about womanhood, parenthood, teacherhood, and writerhood at my blog, www.spurredgirl.com. If you are a Disney fan, check out my affiliate blog, www.lizzylovesdisney.com.
I reside on the northshore of Massachusetts with my history-buff husband, Disney-loving daughter, baseball-obsessed son, and two sweet, incessantly-barking dogs.
Let’s Connect!
I’d love to hear from you. Please e-mail me at liz@lizmastrangelowritingcoach.com, call or text me at 781.526.6578, or submit your information through the website.