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Fulbright Scholar, Northwestern Grad: College Essays & More
Tara S.

3,072 hours tutoring

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About Tara


Bio

I'm here to help you leverage the power of writing to achieve your goals. I helped a professor land her dream job and advised a student on an essay that won him an invitation to Oxford. An MBA admissions officer at Cornell even singled out my student's essays, calling them "Fantastic!" It is truly a joy to help students from all walks of life, from 7th graders struggling with 5-paragraph essays to MDs applying for residencies.

After graduating from Northwestern University in 2017, I was...

I'm here to help you leverage the power of writing to achieve your goals. I helped a professor land her dream job and advised a student on an essay that won him an invitation to Oxford. An MBA admissions officer at Cornell even singled out my student's essays, calling them "Fantastic!" It is truly a joy to help students from all walks of life, from 7th graders struggling with 5-paragraph essays to MDs applying for residencies.

After graduating from Northwestern University in 2017, I was selected as an AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow and trained in a one-on-one teaching program that's "more competitive than admission to Harvard Graduate School." Subsequently, I traveled to the Czech Republic on a Fulbright grant to teach writing to high school students. Since 2019, I've worked as a writing tutor specializing in application essays.

I've learned to decode and analyze what institutions and organizations seek in applicants. When it comes to college essays, my approach is guided by information that comes directly from the source: the admissions officers themselves. Through extensive research and interviews with admissions officers, I've learned that essays must be strategic, but they also must be authentic.

Together, we'll navigate your writing journey from start to finish. I'll walk you through brainstorming and outlining. Once you've written a draft, we'll revise and polish the essay until you're so proud you want to frame it.

My students have been accepted to...
-Every Ivy League school
-Top 20 schools including Stanford, MIT, Duke, and UChicago
-Top state schools, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, UMich, UT Austin, and UVA
-Elite liberal arts colleges including Swarthmore, Tufts, and Williams
-Scholarships, including QuestBridge and Fulbright.

Send me a message, and let's see how I can help!


Education

Northwestern University
English

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Approved Subjects

Writing

Writing

My goal is to help you become a masterful writer. My life-long love of writing was further developed by my study of English and Communications at Northwestern University, and deepened during my time as a Fulbright scholar. I'll show you how to use writing as a powerful tool to achieve your goals, whether that's being accepted by your dream school, getting an A+ on an English paper, or impressing a potential employer.
English
ESL/ESOL
Literature
Proofreading
Reading
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Ratings and Reviews


Rating

5.0 (835 ratings)
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Reviews

Tara is wonderful!

She has been a HUGE help for our son who struggles with writing. She’s extremely thorough making sure we’re covering all writing prompts for all the different colleges that my son wants to apply to and guiding him through the writing process. Today, my son said to me “I don’t even know what I would have done without Tara’s help and my writing is so much better because of her” after their lesson. So glad we found her! :)

Natalie , 6 lessons with Tara

Awesome!

It’s our first session with Tara and she’s extremely helpful in helping my daughter with her college application essays. Tara has a way of helping my daughter discover herself deeper so that her essays are that much stronger. My daughter is going to be needing many more lessons with her. We highly recommend her.

Zaw, 3 lessons with Tara

Expert for editing college essays

Tara was great at all aspects of college essays. She read drafts and gave great ideas on how to improve the content. She brought out the best in my daughter by asking her questions about her experiences. She gave great advice for the personal essay as well as the supplemental essays. Tara is very knowledgeable and really helped my daughter think through her strengths and highlight them in her essays in an authentic way. Tara also did a great job giving suggestions for edits and through the process my daughter improved her writing skills. Tara was also very accommodating and tried to fit us in even when it was a last minute request. My daughter was accepted to 15 very competitive schools and deferred to 2.

Nilam, 9 lessons with Tara

Guided by an excellent mentor

We are incredibly thankful to Tara for her invaluable guidance and tools she provided to our son during the college application process. Her expertise and personalized approach to brainstorming with her students, believing in their voice, and teaching the art of essay writing were instrumental in helping him craft thoughtful and compelling essays that showcased his unique story. Through her mentorship, our son not only learned how to structure his ideas effectively but also discovered how to write authentically and with purpose. Her insightful feedback and encouragement gave him the confidence to express himself in a way that truly resonated with college admissions officers, ultimately leading to his acceptance into UVA.

Manisha, 28 lessons with Tara

Brilliant ans insightful tutor

My son feels very excited and confident with his college applications after being started working with Tara on his common essay and supplemental essays. We are so much relieved. Highly recommend her!!

Suneela, 11 lessons with Tara

Knowledgeable and patient tutor

We went over one of my college essays. She was very helpful and patient. She gave great suggestions to my ideas that were not fully developed yet and helped me rewrite the whole essay into a better one.

Grace, 15 lessons with Tara

Brilliant tutor

My son’s second session with Ms. Tara and he is already so confident with his college essay and has a great sense of satisfaction. She could bring the best out of my son and make the process of writing an essay an exciting task rather than a stressful one. Can’t believe how much she could achieve with him in just two sessions.

Suneela, 11 lessons with Tara

Amazing tutor

My son could really connect instantly and could brainstorm his essay topic in one class and was super motivated with the college application process after his first session. He was super impressed with Ms. Tara and did not want any more support for his college application process from outside consultants. We are going to take her support until he and his brother are done with their college applications. I wish we knew her a bit early.

Suneela, 11 lessons with Tara

Knowledgeable & Patient Tutor

Tara was a wonderful help in guiding my daughter to dig deeper, brainstorming ideas in writing a meaningful essay. She helped her become confident and independent in the process. Tara is an incredible writer, provided edits making a point to highlight my daughters voice to help her produce an amazing essay. We highly recommend Tara.

Liz, 5 lessons with Tara

Helpful and productive tutor

Tara was a big help with finalizing my college essay! She used our time efficiently and stayed focused on what the essay needed. It was helpful to watch her fix some things and then let her guide me through fixing some parts myself!

Alexis, 1 lesson with Tara