Writing Coach for College Admission Essays

Background

Euphony Coaching is a small business specializing in college admissions essay coaching and advising. We guide students through the admissions essay process using a combination of strategic editing and the Socratic method—asking thought-provoking, open-ended questions that spark self-reflection and deeper engagement with their ideas. Our approach empowers students to focus on generating meaningful content that authentically represents their experiences. Meanwhile, our coaches provide expert editing, trimming, and organizational support to help students refine their ideas, uncover meaningful connections, and produce their strongest work.

We work with students from the beginning of the essay process to the very end. Students may come to us with essays, but we often help them brainstorm, choose topics, revise multiple drafts, perform sentence-level editing and, in the final stages, trim the essays to the word limits.

This Posting

This posting is for a Junior Coach (trainee) position for the Fall admissions cycle. This position offers an opportunity to develop expertise in structured editing, work with a highly collaborative team, and play a role in helping students submit stronger, more authentic college essays.

The admissions cycle begins in June and ends in December. Onboarding will be on a rolling basis through April and May. The workload should steadily increase as we move closer to November, then fall in December as we wrap up. Hours will vary depending on the coach’s capacity and performance.

Hiring Process

The hiring process consists of three steps: Resume/screening question review, skills assessment, and interview. Applicants who pass the resume review will be invited to complete a skills assessment, which includes editing two sample essays and answering a series of questions. This will take approximately 2-4 hours and will help us evaluate editing style, adherence to guidelines, ability to provide effective feedback, and overall fit for the role. Those who pass the skills assessment will be scheduled for a virtual interview.

Applicants who do not complete the screening questions in this job posting will not be considered.

Compensation

This is a seasonal position with tiered pay. The initial training period should last \~8 weeks. Because reviewing speed varies greatly during the initial learning curve, training is paid at a flat rate of $85 per set of drafts. This will also be supplemented with a $15/hour training rate for onboarding, feedback reviews, and live training. As you master the process, your speed and effective hourly rate will increase. You must satisfactorily pass training before moving on. Pay will then increase to $20/hour for a probationary period lasting 3 to 4 weeks, depending on performance. After the probationary period, you will be paid $25/hour and receive a $100 bonus to compensate for your time spent on the initial skills assessment.

Responsibilities

Developmental, substantive, and copy editing are all required for this position. The Junior Coach will be expected to

• Provide written feedback on essays to help students develop effective content
• Reorganize drafts to improve cohesion, clarity, and flow
• Perform sentence-level editing, particularly for grammar, tone, and clarity
• Trim drafts to strict word or character limits
• Proofread
• Adhere to guidelines for content and formatting when providing feedback/editing

As a Junior Coach, you will not be helping in the brainstorming phase, but you may be asked to provide feedback for any other stage in the drafting/revision process. You will also not be working directly with students. Instead, you will be assigned essays to review, and then a Senior Coach will review your work and provide feedback.

You will normally have 24-48 hours to review each student’s material. You will usually work on 4 essays and additional materials for a student, and you may have more than one student per day. Most of the work will be for a particular college system that has strict rules and guidelines for the written portions of their application.

The work is rigorous and the learning curve is real. However, while editing is done independently, we are a highly collaborative team, and you will have ongoing support from returning coaches through email, Slack, and phone communication to help you master the process and ensure consistency across the team.

We are looking for someone who can reliably meet 24-48 hour deadlines while maintaining flexibility in their schedule. While work volume will fluctuate, we need coaches who can consistently commit to deadlines through November.

There are opportunities to continue work through multiple seasons/years (there is a busy Spring season of appeals and waitlist statements in April, as well as occasional work throughout the year).

You must be willing to sign an NDA as personal client information is sometimes exchanged.

Requirements

• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Strong time management skills
• Flexible schedule
• Strong critical thinking skills
• Ability to read and synthesize a high volume of information
• Proficiency in sentence-level editing without losing the author’s voice
• Ability to trim essays to word/character limits without losing important content
• Ability to adhere to 24-to-48-hour deadlines
• Strong command of English grammar
• Ability to proactively ask questions
• Ability to read/follow directions and constructively implement feedback to improve your work
• Ability to distinguish between meaningful content and fluff
• Experience working with high school students preferred but not required
• Experience adhering to in-house style guides preferred but not required

Job Type: Contract

Pay: $15\.00 - $25\.00 per hour

Application Question(s):

• Why does this job interest you, and what do you hope to contribute to this role?
• Describe any experience you have with admissions essays, editing, or working with teenagers. If you don’t have direct experience, how do you believe your skills could transfer to this role? What techniques or strategies have you found effective in helping others improve their writing?
• Please provide the number of hours per week you believe you will be available to work in each of these months: June, July, August, September, October, and November. We understand availability may change, but please provide your best estimate.
• Can you work on weekends? Do you have any ongoing commitments or time restrictions that might affect availability? Do you have any scheduling preferences you’d like us to be aware of?
• This role requires strong collaboration and the ability to ask questions for clarity. What would you want to know about the role, training, or expectations before starting?
• What experience do you have with freelance, remote, or contract work? How were tasks and communication structured, and how did you organize your work day or week to ensure you got everything done? If you don’t have direct experience in these areas, please consider any situations where you had to manage tasks independently, structure your own workflow, or coordinate with a team remotely.

Work Location: Remote