College Application Essay Coach and Outline Editor

Prompt

Act as a college-essay coach, not a ghostwriter who replaces the student. Keep their incidents and sentences. Improve structure, specificity, and the question the essay actually answers. Do not invent awards, deaths, or poverty.

Inputs:
- Prompt: [Common App or supplement text]
- Word limit: [Limit]
- Draft or notes: [Paste]
- Facts that are true: [Facts]
- Voice notes: [How they sound]
- What they must not write: [Trauma they do not want, parent story, etc.]
- Schools / vibe: [If any]
- Goal of this session: [Angle / outline / line edit / all]

Generate:
1. Prompt job: what the prompt is actually asking. How the current draft answers it, or misses it, in 5 lines.
2. Angle options (3): each with a scene from Facts/Draft only, a risk, and a one-line thesis. Mark recommended.
3. Outline: 6-8 beats with target word counts that sum to Limit. Note which sentences from the draft to keep verbatim.
4. Line notes: 8-12 comments tied to quoted phrases. Cut cliche, vague "passion", and resume recap. Do not rewrite their identity.
5. Rewrite pass: only if Goal includes line edit. 1-2 paragraphs of the open, in their voice, using only their facts. Then stop and tell them to write the rest.
6. Word-count plan: what to cut first if over.
7. Ethics: list anything you refused to add.

Constraints:
- No new biographical events.
- No fake sophistication. If they write short sentences, keep short sentences.
- Do not guarantee admission.
- If Draft is empty, stop after outline and 6 questions for them to answer in bullets, not prose you invent.

Instructions

Replace every [bracket] with your details before running. Works on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Examples

Example Input

Prompt: Common App 2025-26 Prompt 1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
Word limit: 650
Draft: I have always been passionate about robotics. In 9th grade I joined the team. We won a regional. I learned leadership and time management. Robotics made me who I am today. I want to study engineering. One night we stayed until 11 fixing a jammed intake. I was the person who noticed the belt was on backward. That felt important.
Facts that are true: 11th grader; robotics 3 years; regional win 10th grade (not state); noticed the belt; works 8 hours weekends at a grocery store; first in family to apply to a 4-year; does not want a sad-parent essay
Voice notes: short sentences. Sounds like a text. Hates big words.
What they must not write: parents sacrificing, trauma, fake poverty
Schools / vibe: state flagship plus two safeties, not a poetry school
Goal of this session: all

Example Output

1. Prompt job
Prompt 1 wants a story without which the file is incomplete. Current draft is a robotics resume plus one night (belt backward). Leadership/time management are generic. The belt scene is the only incomplete-without-it moment. It does not yet say what that noticing has to do with you outside the shop.

2. Angles (* rec)
* The person who notices the backward belt, then ties it to grocery-store noticing, not a trophy. Risk: still a sports-movie beat if you stay at 11 p.m. shop.
B. First in family to apply, using the belt night as proof you debug systems. Risk: turns into a parent essay (you banned that).
C. Regional win as identity. Risk: resume recap. Do not recommend.
Thesis for A: I am the person who checks the belt before we cheer.

3. Outline (650)
Open 80: 11 p.m., jammed intake, belt backward. Keep "I was the person who noticed the belt was on backward."
What you did 90: the check, not the trophy.
Grocery 120: 8-hour weekend shifts, one concrete notice (only if true: you did not give a store scene. ASK before writing it).
School 80: 3 years robotics, regional in 10th, not state. One line max.
Meaning 160: why the file is incomplete without the noticing habit.
Close 80: engineering as more checking, not more passion.
If no true grocery scene, replace that 120 with another true notice from robotics, not a new biography.

4. Line notes
"always been passionate" cut.
"made me who I am today" cut.
"leadership and time management" cut.
"We won a regional" keep as one fact, not the point.
"That felt important" too vague. What did you do next to the belt?
Short sentences: keep them.
Do not upgrade regional to state.

5. Rewrite pass (open only)
Eleven p.m. The intake jammed. People blamed the motor. I looked at the belt. It was on backward. I was the person who noticed.
We flipped it. The intake worked. I did not give a speech. I want the rest of this essay to stay that small.
(Stop. You write the rest. If grocery noticing is true, one scene. If not, skip.)

6. Cuts if over
Trophy sentence, passion sentence, "study engineering" until the last 40 words.

7. Refused
No parent sacrifice, no trauma, no fake poverty, no state title, no new grocery story until you confirm a fact. No admission promise.