Host Julie Lythcott-Haims checks in with our group of seniors about how their college essays are coming along. The personal statement might be only 650 words, but these paragraphs have the power to make a student stand out to the admissions office, or get lost in the pack.

New Jersey twelfth-grader Alessandra LePera gets essay feedback from our expert Steve LeManager, a former director of admission at Princeton and the president of the private college counseling firm, Edvice. And we hear more essay-writing do's and don'ts from our panel of experts: private college counselor Parke Muth, Amy Young, director of college counseling at Avenues New York, and Josh Steckel, college counselor at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative and the author of Hold Fast to Dreams.

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