|THE APPLICATION ESSAY|

"The challenge was of this life-shaping experience of the Peace Corps and trying to package it or showcase it in a way that would make sense to a person who hadn't been there...I think especially right after experiencing it, you haven't had the time to process what it means, but that's what you're being asked to do.

I really appreciate the way Ariel approached advising me and helping me to find my own voice in the essay. It was different from what I expected. In the past, I had worked with people who edited my work, rather than what Ariel did, which was to take something that I'd written and ask me a lot of questions about it -- what my goals were, what each specific sentence was about. For me, writing is always a daunting task, and the open-ended nature of the graduate application questions made it even more daunting.

She helped me drill down to the essence of what I was trying to say, rather than just reacting to conjunctions or grammar-type issues. After meeting with her, I felt like I had a clear picture of what I wanted to say and that made it a lot easier to write more on my own. The admissions committee said my essay was one of the best they received that year."
- MPA student, George Washington University, full tuition scholarship/stipend