Application Express

Jumpstart Your College Applications and Essays During Our 3-Day, Hands-On Workshop

"Emma found the essay help and scholarship writing support very helpful!"

-Michael Knapp, parent of Emma, West Anchorage High School grad who completed a college admissions consulting program and earned the Willamette Trustee Scholarship ($32,000/year)

What You’ll Learn

During Application Express, you'll work directly with our college admissions counselor, as you learn and apply key college applications concepts.

Day 1

  • How to research colleges and build your college list

  • The personal statement and supplemental application essays: Structure and brainstorming topics

Day 2

  • The Common App: Strategy and tactics for each section (Profile, Family, Education, Testing, Activities, Writing, and Recommenders)

  • Designing your SAT & ACT strategy

Day 3

  • Practice mock interviews

  • How to strategically request letters of recommendation

  • Individual work time: Review Common App, personal statement/supplemental essays, and resume

What You’ll Leave With

Icon of a college building wearing a graduation cap.

Targeted College List

You will research colleges and generate a balanced list of "reach," "match," and "likely" colleges tailored to your competitiveness and your academic, geographic, extracurricular, lifestyle, and financial preferences

Icon of a paper. The top right corner is folded and across the top of the page it says "essay". To the right of the page is an icon of a fountain pen

Strategic College Essay

You will identify a strategic topic after reflecting on your life experiences, values, and goals. Then, you will draft and revise your personal statement (or other essay of your choice). 

A generic icon of a computer monitor.

Completed Common App

You will draft and receive feedback on key sections of your Common App, including Activities (where you describe 10 activities in order of importance), Testing (deciding which scores to include), and more.

You will also format and edit your resume (which can be used for scholarship and employment applications), develop a plan for requesting letters of recommendation, and experience a mock college admissions interview.

Who & Where?

Application Express is currently only open to rising seniors — that is, students heading into fall of their senior year. Students can attend in-person at our offices in Anchorage, or remotely via Zoom, so students across Alaska can participate!

Required Materials

Students should bring the following to each session:

Laptop/charger, draft resume*, essay brainstorming exercise*,  unofficial transcript*, baseline PSAT/SAT/ACT scores*, Common App account login*

*After you sign up, we'll send you a confirmation email with instructions on how to access each of these items