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Write and revise a college application essay in this 2-week program for high school students on Georgetown University’s campus.
Course Description
Your grades and activities tell one part of your story. A college essay gives you room to show what matters to you and why.
In this course you will turn a meaningful experience into a personal essay that sounds like you. Brainstorm moments, people, challenges, and parts of your identity worth exploring. Sample essays and different application prompts help you choose a direction. Try an opening hook, sketch an outline, and build a scene with details a reader can picture.
Reading work aloud and exchanging feedback reveal where your voice comes through and where the story needs more. A “So What?” check pushes you to explain why an experience matters. Revision covers reflection as well as tone, sentence flow, grammar, and punctuation. You’ll refine a personal statement or supplemental essay into a polished draft within the required limits. It’s practice in choosing details and shaping a story that you can bring to future writing.
This two-week course for high school students takes place at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The program is developed by Georgetown University and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery. Residential and commuter options are available.
What You Will Do
• Brainstorm personal moments that could become essay topics
• Compare personal statement and supplemental essay prompts
• Try sensory details and scenes that show your experience
• Build an outline and test an opening hook
• Read work aloud and exchange feedback on drafts
• Revise and proofread your essay with a final checklist
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Develop an authentic personal story that responds to an application prompt
• Connect specific details with reflection in a focused, natural voice
• Revise writing for clear meaning, flow, mechanics, and required limits
You’ll leave with a revised college application essay draft and a certificate of completion.
Why College Essay Writing Skills Matter
Choosing a story means deciding what a reader needs to know and why it matters. Connecting specific details with reflection helps you explain an experience in your own voice, rather than listing achievements.
Those choices matter in scholarship essays, school assignments, and introductions too. Reading work aloud and using feedback help you hear where meaning gets lost. Revision becomes a way to clarify your thinking as well as improve a sentence, a habit you can carry into future academic writing.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
You might have a story in mind but struggle to find the opening, or have several ideas and no clear favorite. This course gives you space to work out what you want to say and make it sound like you. Regular writing, reading work aloud, and exchanging peer feedback are part of the experience. Expect to try different approaches and revise more than once.
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.
Your Summer at 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