Testimonials

  • "Kristina was a perfect complement for my son. She quickly assessed his personality and encouraged his writing. She was patient and set up a calendar with attainable goals that he stuck to. She allowed my student to write and use his voice without dominating his ideas. Kristina truly met him where he was. His writing improved and I enjoyed getting to know a different side of my child through his writing. Kristina was incredibly easy to work with and responsive. I will enlist her services again in a few years!"

    -Rebecca A, parent of class of 2025

  • "It was really easy for my son to work with Kristina. Between the two of them, they developed a plan for the various schools he was interested in, worked out schedules, and kept on top of the plan and coordination. Several rounds of feedback and guidance were very helpful as well as her experience in helping him to break it all down into a series of manageable steps. As a parent I appreciated her availability if I had questions, and her guidance on the overall approach. Highly recommend."

    Chad G., parent for Class of 2025

  • The class did a good job of teaching what to do and not to do when writing a college essay. Kristina was a really cool teacher, and I think the time I spent for the class was worth it.

    -Edward, Class of 2025

  • Kristina was an amazing teacher. Going into senior year, I wasn't at all sure of what to write about and the content, grammatical structures, and more. Using this class a resource I was able to get feedback through lessons, 1:1 help, and also personalized video feedback. On top of this, she gives you resources like how to reduce your word count, and types of ways you can structure the essay, picking it apart slowly.

    -Roman G, Personal Statement Class, 2025

  • "We are so thankful for the guidance and partnership Kristina provided for our son (and our family) during the college application process. After every meeting, he told us how happy he was to be working with her. He was inspired to write, revise, and share, and he appreciated having someone outside of school and our home to give him objective and honest feedback on his writing. Kristina's coaching, collaboration, and support from start to finish made a high-pressure experience more positive and enjoyable. We are deeply grateful!"

    Heather and Jack D, Parents class of 2024

  • "Kristina was such a joy to work with. She gave helpful direction and set up my writing schedule in a way that made it seem less daunting. Her process was very clear and I can tell she really caters to her individual students' needs. I highly recommend her!"

    Lucy C, Class of 2024

  • "I never thought I would hire a writing tutor for my child because she's a strong writer, I'm a professional editor and we had always enjoyed working together on writing. But the college essay introduced a particular challenge. My daughter struggled with writer's block and became overly critical of herself in ways that I, as a parent, could not help her overcome. We clearly needed a compassionate outsider, and one who insisted that this essay remain my daughter's work — an no one else's. Kristina's gentle encouragement worked like magic. She set realistic deadlines, responded quickly to questions and charged very reasonable fees. I can't recommend her more highly. She's also just a delightful person."

    Lauren K, Parent

  • "Doing this personal statement class with Kristina was the best thing I’ve done in my entire college process. Kristina was so helpful, available, encouraging, and honest throughout the entire writing process and I get to start school with a finished essay that I’m very proud of. "

    Lainey L, Class of 2024

  • "From brainstorming topics to the final read through of my essays, Kristina always helped me feel confident in my writing and ideas. Before launching into the writing process, Kristina worked to get to know me, so she could understand where I was coming from as a writer and a person, which I really appreciated. She helped me overcome the stress and writers block I had been having before working with her by teaching me exercises that helped get my thoughts down on paper without second guessing myself (which I had been doing a lot of). Then, once I had a draft, Kristina would give helpful guidance on what I could expand on to help the reader know more about me, and we'd revise from there. If I ever needed to reach out to her, Kristina was always very quick to respond or address any of my concerns. Kristina created an environment that reduced so much of the pressure I was feeling, making it much easier to really enjoy the writing process and feel proud of my essays. Thank you so much Kristina, I am beyond grateful!"

    Rachel K, Class of 2024

  • I love Kristina. I mean this 100%, but she has made my college process so much less stressful. I seriously think finding her was one of the best decisions my parents have made, and I am so grateful to them and to Kristina for all her help. She responds to my texts, emails or calls in a quick manner and is probably the most organized person you will ever meet (though I've never actually met her, just zoomed :)) She is always willing to set up times to meet and review essays even if she's read it multiple times before, even while traveling, sick or maintaining her busy life schedule. I think what I am most grateful for however was her constant persistence with my personal statement. My college counselor didn't like it after I was very confident about it with Kristina's help and so instead of telling me to rewrite the whole thing, she suggested small tweaking edits and then sent it to other counselors or advisors who could tell me from a college admissions standpoint if they could truly learn a lesson about me. She prioritized me, and my well-being which I truly loved. Though I am still waiting to hear back from schools, I know without a doubt that I will go somewhere I love and I am so so proud of all the essays I have written with Kristina's help. She was so clear and poised, and would always make a to-do list with deadlines so I would stay on track and really wanted to get to know me as a person. She cares so much, and every time I got onto a zoom or recieved an email from her I would take a deep exhale, and know everything was going to be ok. Thank you thank you Kristina for everything. goes here

    Channing M, Class of 2024

  • Working with Kristina was always something I looked forward to, she helped me write all of my essays and boosted my confidence along the way! Her advice was always super helpful and being able to work with her was one of the things that helped ease my application process!

    Mia N, Class of 2024

  • "Kristina made me feel very confident about my personal essay and helped me shape it to best reflect who I am as a person! "

    Ava G, Class of 2023

  • "I just have to give you shout outs again! I cannot say enough about how awesome and positive this essay writing process with you has been for Natalie. She is encouraged and motivated and just really feels good about it. I am so appreciative of your encouragement and positivity with her. It truly means a lot! You certainly have a knack for this and I am so very happy we have connected with you."

    Kelly G, Parent

  • "I got in! Woohoo!!! I am officially all done with college applications :) Thank you so much for everything, you have helped me so much not only in applying to colleges, but also in becoming a better writer. I have seen so much improvement in my writing at school, and that has come from our short few discussions and your comments on my essays. Again, thank you so so much for everything, I really cannot thank you enough!"

    Erin, Class of 2023

  • "Kristina was so helpful during every stage of the writing process from beginning to end. If I ever was unsure of where to start with an essay or out of ideas for a specific prompt, she had plenty of different activities available for me to brainstorm possible ideas. I always had multiple solid options to choose from for each prompt I tackled after we brainstormed. She was great to talk through my thoughts with and helped to hone them into a coherent essay response. I really liked how at the beginning of each essay she really emphasized getting all of my ideas onto the paper before worrying about word count or perfect grammar. Once I had a first draft written up, she was really useful in terms of editing. She knows what parts of an essay should be expanded on to make the response stronger and how to write for colleges and what they want to see. I loved working with Kristina and definitely felt so much more confident in all of the essays I worked with her on that I would've been. I feel like I am a much stronger writer now and can use a lot of the strategies she taught me in future essays and writing."

    Francesca, Class of 2023

  • "Kristina helped make the college application process so much less stressful for me. She is very understanding about overall stress and helps chunk up writing into sections so it’s less overwhelming. Her techniques and guidance while I wrote my essay allowed me to focus more on the content of my essay than the stress of writing it. Kristina is very bubbly and easy to talk to so our workshops were never boring or unproductive."

    Greta R, Class of 2023

  • "Kristina was the best help I got during my college process. Everyone obviously has many stories and ideas to share, but she helps narrow someone's whole life down to the stories that would make the best essays for colleges. The 1-on-1 sessions were amazing. Every single second was productive and she was very flexible with the scheduling. She also doesn't write the essay for you. She really just guides you in the right direction and is just someone to throw things back and forth with. Worth every minute."

    Carter H, Class of 2022

  • "Mrs.DeVesty was such an amazing source of help! She not only encouraged me to write about what I was passionate about, but helped me hone my own writing skills further. I highly recommend working with her because she is a fantastic help throughout the whole process. She helped me learn how to brainstorm and plan out the content of my essays, then aided me in fitting the pieces together and finally worked with me to polish my completed essay. Best of luck to all in the college process, and definitely talk to Mrs.DeVes"

    Alex F, Class of 2022

  • "Working with Kristina has been an invaluable experience. Her guidance and expertise removed the stress from the writing portion of the college process and has been instrumental in strengthening my applications. She helped me grow as both a writer and an individual, as we dove into my personal experiences with a new lens. Now that the application process has come to a close, I will miss working with her, but I am proud of everything that we accomplished together."

    Anna H, Class of 2022

  • "Our daughter was accepted to eight of the nine schools and I'm sure that her strong essay was a large part of the decision process. As her mother, I wanted to let you know your kindness meant a lot to our family during a stressful time. Our younger daughter is a sophomore and we plan to reach out to you next summer for some coaching with her essays."

    Barbara C, Parent

  • "We used Kristina for both our kid's college application essay coach and I credit her support as a primary reason my kids got into William and Mary. :) My daughter is a Sophomore and my son will be attending this coming fall. She is supportive, easy for the teens to connect with, and most importantly not you - the parent. My daughter stated that Kristina finally taught her how to write and my son loved working virtually with her over last summer. We tried 2 different essay tutors before finding Kristina for my daughter. Kristina was the one that she felt most comfortable with. It is really hard to write about yourself and the essay prompts force the student to explore reflection and introspection of themselves. It is basically self-analysis so the teen reveals the critical thinking skills that are hallmarks of a promising college student. This is even hard for adults to do well. Kristina is able to create a trusting relationship where the teen can convey something meaningful and specific about who they are in all their essays. She supports them in developing essay prompt topics (a very important part of the essay), helping them to organize when each essay is due (all different times), supporting the drafting (but they do write the essay since it has to be in their voice) and finally going over clarity, style and editing. For instance, many college specific essays are short - and we learned it is harder to write a good essay in less words. If you have a junior this year - she will be your 'fairy godmother'."

    Lisa R, Parent

  • "The brainstorming for the topic, breaking it down into manageable steps with deadlines has really taken some of the stress and pressure out of the process for my daughter. I liked the updates you shared with parents and how you focused on teaching the students ways to hone their craft so that it was more than an essay writing camp for the college applications but something they can put to use in all of their writing going forward. She enjoyed and really benefited from the whole process. Thank you so much!"

    Jill C, Camp Parent

  • "My 13-yr old son very much enjoyed working with Kristina to improve his writing and literary analysis skills. She worked with him on many different types of writing, advised him on how to improve his writing structure and content, and also practiced vocabulary and reading interpretation skills with him -- all of which can be applied this year in school and on standardized tests. Through working with Kristina, my son gained the confidence and skills he needed to be able and willing to tackle writing projects when first assigned, rather than putting them off and taking forever to complete them."

    Cathy K, Parent