Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Write and revise a college application essay in this 2-week program for high school students on Georgetown University’s campus.
Course Description
What makes a college essay memorable when admissions readers already know a student’s grades and activities? Students learn how personal statements and supplemental essays can reveal character, perspective, growth, and goals. Guided brainstorming helps them identify meaningful moments, mentors, challenges, identities, and experiences worth developing into an authentic story.
The workshop moves from idea generation to deliberate craft. Students practice showing instead of telling, add sensory detail, adapt ideas to different prompts, and organize an essay with a clear structure. Sample essays, hook activities, outlines, scene writing, and peer read-alouds help them test openings, strengthen reflection, and make their voice sound natural rather than generic.
Revision turns an early draft into a focused application essay. Students examine tone, sentence flow, verb tense, punctuation, fragments, run-ons, and other mechanics that affect clarity. Peer review, “So What?” checks, grammar activities, self-editing, and a final checklist help them refine meaning as well as correctness. By the end, each student completes a polished draft that stays within expected limits and represents their own experience.
This two-week course takes place at Georgetown University. The course is available to residential and commuter students. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what students may want to study or pursue next. The program is developed by Georgetown University and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What Will You Do?
• Brainstorm personal experiences that could become compelling essay topics
• Analyze personal statement and supplemental essay prompts
• Practice sensory detail, scene writing, and showing instead of telling
• Build an essay blueprint with a focused structure and opening hook
• Give and apply peer feedback on voice, reflection, and clarity
• Revise and proofread a college application essay using a final checklist
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Select and develop an authentic personal story for a college application prompt
• Organize a focused essay using narrative structure, voice, and meaningful reflection
• Revise a draft for clarity, coherence, grammar, mechanics, and required limits
Students leave with a revised college application essay draft, stronger writing and feedback skills, and clearer direction for future academic and application writing.
Why College Essay Writing Skills Matter?
College application essays ask students to do more than report achievements. Strong writing helps them select a meaningful experience, explain why it matters, and connect reflection with specific detail. That process builds self-awareness while strengthening organization, voice, grammar, and revision.
These skills reach beyond admissions. Students use them when writing scholarship essays, school assignments, internship applications, and professional introductions. Learning to give and apply focused feedback also makes revision more purposeful. Instead of treating editing as simple proofreading, students learn to test whether every scene, sentence, and reflection supports the impression they want a reader to understand.
Who Should Attend?
This course is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and want structured support developing a college application essay. It fits students who have stories or experiences to share but need help choosing a topic, organizing the narrative, or making their voice come through clearly.
Participants should be willing to write regularly, discuss sample essays, read work aloud, exchange respectful peer feedback, and revise more than once. Students who are ready to reflect honestly, experiment with different approaches, and strengthen both storytelling and mechanics will benefit most.
Recommended by More Than 4 out of 5 Students
Based on students surveyed in 2026 about Summer Discovery High School programs at Georgetown University campus.
Why Georgetown University?
Studying on Georgetown University’s campus gives high-school students the opportunity to explore an academic interest while experiencing campus life in Washington, D.C. Its historic campus and surrounding neighborhood sit near embassies, institutions, and organizations that shape national and international conversations, giving the summer a distinctive sense of place.
Students learn alongside peers with similar interests, navigate a new environment, and gain independence through everyday choices and responsibilities. Time outside class helps students experience the broader rhythm of university life while considering what subjects, communities, and possible directions feel right for them. For families, the program offers a combination of substantive academic exploration, personal growth, and clearer insight into what a student may want to study or pursue next.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive