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Elite Writing Mentor | Princeton Graduate
Solene L.

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Hourly Rate: $110
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Response time: 21 hours

About Solene

Bio

I run a boutique writing mentorship for students pursuing ambitious goals. Whether you need help with a college admissions essay, Scholastic poetry portfolio, RSI application, fellowship proposal, literary journal submission, or long-term learning, I draw on 11 years of coaching to tailor lessons to your goals.

I am a Princeton graduate with an insider’s understanding of how committees evaluate writing. I served as an editor-in-chief of arts publications (Kunstkammer and Picture This...

I run a boutique writing mentorship for students pursuing ambitious goals. Whether you need help with a college admissions essay, Scholastic poetry portfolio, RSI application, fellowship proposal, literary journal submission, or long-term learning, I draw on 11 years of coaching to tailor lessons to your goals.

I am a Princeton graduate with an insider’s understanding of how committees evaluate writing. I served as an editor-in-chief of arts publications (Kunstkammer and Picture This Post) and then as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University before co-directing College Admissions and Competition Writing at the MorningStar Institute.

My writing students have earned 80+ national awards, including 15 National Scholastic Gold Keys, 10 Silver Keys, 18 Honorable Mentions, 3 YoungArts awards, 6 Society of Classical Poets prizes, 5 National History Day finalist distinctions, and top prizes in the John Locke, New York Times, and Maria Faust competitions. Their work has appeared in The Concord Review, The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Vine Leaves Press, and Stepping Stones Literary Magazine.

Applicants I have mentored have earned admission to Princeton, Stanford, Oxford, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Berkeley, Duke, and other selective programs, such as NASA GeneLab, Telluride, MITES, Davidson, Simons, Stanford EPGY. Former graduate clients have become Fulbright, Marshall, and Lindau Fellows and Rhodes finalists.

I have worked with students through every stage: middle school academic & creative writing; high school competitions, publication, and summer/research programs; college admissions; and graduate school, scholarships, and fellowships.

My approach begins with research. I analyze successful submissions, editorial standards, judging rubrics, and institutional priorities, then use Sarah Harberson’s Soundbite Method alongside my own research-driven approach, assisting students in crafting portfolios with exceptional audience fit while supporting independent skills.

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Education

Princeton University
French and Italian Language and Culture
Indiana University
Masters

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Approved Subjects

College Counseling

College Counseling

As Admissions Counselor & Writing Instructor at the MorningStar Institute, I launched and co-ran the college admissions division, planning community workshops servicing 80+ parents virtually and at UC Irvine, and designing courses in “Competition Writing” for 30+ students looking to increase admissions chances by building writing portfolios. Prior to this position, I spent 5 years working as an Independent Consultant, intaking information on clients interests and strengths and assisting students to create compelling narratives. A former Questbridge Finalist, I understand what is needed to craft a successful soundbite strategy. My investment in student growth resulted in a 92% enrollment rate in top 40 schools (US News Ranking), including: 6 out of 7 Ivy Leagues, all 10 UCs, Oxford, Stanford, Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, University of Virginia, as well as graduate fellows of the Marshall, Fulbright, and Lindau / Rhodes finals.
Fiction Writing

Fiction Writing

For 4 years, I designed and taught 20 distinct competition writing sequences for students ages 9–17, each built around the editorial standards, judging criteria, and stylistic expectations of a different national or international writing competition. Taught in intensive seminar-style classes of 4–12 students, the curriculum explicitly taught advanced literary craft through close reading, compression, layering, narrative architecture, ekphrastic writing, revision, and competition-specific strategy; students learned to reverse-engineer masterworks, breaking down how great writers construct voice, subtext, symbolism, pacing, and endings before consciously applying those techniques to their own original fiction and poetry (Chekhov, Joyce, Hemingway, H.G. Wells, etc). Students from these sequences or continuing in individual mentorship models with me have earned recognition in the New York Times Tiny Memoir Contest, National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Scottish Book Trust Fiction Competition, Young Writers, Society of Classical Poets, Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest, The Lyric Magazine, Rattle, Bennington Young Writers, Skipping Stones Magazine, Vine Leaves Press, 100 Word and 50 Word Magazine, and numerous other selective literary competitions and publications.
Thesis Writing

Thesis Writing

I graduated from Princeton University with Highest Commendation for original interdisciplinary research spanning literature, musicology, media studies, and art history. My research in the form of three junior and senior theses was recognized by Princeton faculty as "masterful," as making "an outstanding and genuine contribution to its field," and as "ambitious enough to qualify as a dissertation in its own right," and has been presented at Princeton Research Day (including a Featured Talk), the Ivy League Research Symposium, Stanford Research Association, and the University of Pennsylvania. As both a researcher and editor, I have also mentored students whose work has earned distinctions in the John Locke Essay Competition and National History Day, while independently coaching research projects later presented at Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Musicological Society. I teach students how to formulate original research questions, synthesize primary and secondary sources, construct compelling arguments, and write with the clarity, originality, and scholarly rigor expected by highly selective universities.
Art History
French
Literature
Proofreading
Reading
SAT Writing
Vocabulary
Writing
Solene L.'s Photo

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Contact Solene
Response time: 21 hours
Hourly Rate: $110
Response time: 21 hours
Contact Solene