Gwen Harper, Writing Coach

Community Subscriber
Berkeley
Owner:
Gwen Harper
Phone:
510-229-0129
Email:
gwendolyn.greer.harper [at] gmail.com

I’m a professional writer and teacher with a knack for helping young adults through the college essay process. I received a B.A. in English from Yale and an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown, where I also taught fiction. 

Beyond applications, my aim is to enable students as they grow more skillful, confident, and creative in their writing. I'm warm and highly individualized in my approach. Students come away with improved humanities grades across the board and better prepared for college.

My students' acceptance record is similar to those of top preparatory schools. Recent years include Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Howard, Tufts, U. Wisconsin-Madison, UVA, NYU, Northeastern, and top schools in both Canada and the UK. 

Parent Reviews

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My son used Gwen for college application writing assistance last year.  She was great for him to work with and he raved about her to me - she was diligent, punctual and turned a stressful process into manageable pieces for him.  She also had a good sense of strategy - pushing him on where he needed to put lots of effort and where he could do less.  He felt like she did a good job both helping him define his essays and then making them better.  He (and I) would highly recommend Gwen to anyone. 

My daughter worked with Gwen on her college essays last year and Gwen was actually able to make the process less stressful and even enjoyable (no exaggeration.) Gwen is incredibly patient and kind and is able to make a deep connection with teenagers, quickly engaging them in conversation. In working through the various essays, Gwen never told my daughter what to say but rather helped her figure out what she wanted to say and the best way to express it. My daughter claims that she became a better writer overall because of the work she did with Gwen. We couldn’t recommend her more highly.