Email Merlyn's Pen at merlyn@merlynspen.org, or call Merlyn's Pen at 1-800-247-2027.

 

Admissions officers know how smart you are. In the personal essay, you get to show them who you are.

Get Real! Be yourself! Write about something that is significant to you. If you care, so will readers. That's advice from one admission officer writing for Merlyn's Pen magazine.

 

Admissions officers are human. When they read, they need to care, to understand, to be entertained, and sometimes to be shaken!

 

In their voices you hear their very human expectations as they discuss essays they've loved. Listen to these officers describe two essays that made them take notice. Sam and Hannah’s essays appeared in Merlyn’s Pen. Sam’s concise essay, says one, shares values that make him who he is. . . . The reader learns so much about who Sam is through his retelling of a childhood incident. . . .

 

We get a revealing glimpse of Sam’s very interesting family history and heritage, says another. We learn something about what’s important to Sam. If his goal is helping the reader to know him and understand who he is, he succeeded.

 

Note how admissions officers focus on knowing Sam. Their comments on Hannah's essay show the same need to get closer to the writer to see what makes her tick. Her descriptions . . . reveal her own persona: giving, thoughtful, and self-aware.

 

Admissions officers are more interested in connecting with applicants than they are in judging their essays. None dwells on the formalities of style, grammar, and format. These considerations are important, of course, but they don’t put steam in the kettle. To heat up the personal statement, the writer must reveal the genuine self.

 

Ah, but there’s the conundrum. Not many high school students will say with confidence, “This is who I am!” In the chaotic and high-stakes autumn of senior year, meeting the complex expectations of peers, parents, teachers, and coaches makes “getting real” seem impossible. Finding "I" in the Admission Essay helps college-bound teens find the true self and write the personal statement that reveals it.

How to Get Started

Let's begin! To start working with a Merlyn’s Pen mentor-editor, call Program Director R. James Stahl at 1-800-247-2027, or email Mr. Stahl at Merlyn@merlynspen.org. (In your email, please suggest one or two times when you might be reached by telephone between 9 A.M. and 9 P.M., Sunday through Friday.)

What Happens After You Sign Up?

After speaking with Mr. Stahl, you’ll receive an email from your Merlyn’s Pen mentor, who will ask you to suggest a time and date for your first telephone conversation. You’ll also get a list of questions to help your mentor get to know you, your interests, your passions, and your feelings about writing the personal statement. You’ll have approximately five telephone conversations, and may exchange emails with your mentor over several weeks – or days, if you prefer – at times convenient to you. In all, you’ll spend four to five hours with your mentor. It is your responsibility to call your mentor at the times you have selected together.

The Program Fee

For first-time students: $595.00. (If you apply to six colleges, that's an investment of about $100 in each of the schools you wish to attend.)

 

Payment by check, fully refundable until the first mentoring session, is expected upon enrollment. Address checks, payable to Merlyn's Pen, to Merlyn's Pen, Finding I, Suite 301, 11 South Angell St., Providence, RI 02906.

Email Merlyn's Pen at merlyn@merlynspen.org, or call Merlyn's Pen at 1-800-247-2027.

Who Is Best Served by Mentoring?

This is not a correction or proofreading or essay-writing service.  You will do the hard work of writing and revising your essay. You should enroll if you are eager to explore your "real" self and willing to take a few risks. Finding one’s “authentic voice” – the one admissions officers are asking for – can be difficult and confusing. But you can do it. Your Merlyn's Pen mentor will help.

What Does the Mentoring Look Like?

The first telephone conversation, and the first few email exchanges, may not involve any essay writing. This critical stage is reserved for brainstorming, sharing, questioning, guessing, and testing ideas. In short, it’s a free-play of feelings, memories, incidents, opinions, and wonder. You’ll be asked questions, lots of questions! When you answer one, you’ll often be asked another, each new question helping you get closer to what you really mean, what you really feel. The process can be both demanding and fun. You might be asked to write a journal entry, an editorial, a free-verse poem, a sketch, a brief memoir, or even a song – to help bring up unique thoughts, insights, feelings, and aspirations that, revised and clarified, will find their way into the first draft of your personal statement.

 

The goal of every session is to help you unlock your most authentic voice, and to help you bring it to light in a powerful and unique personal statement. You will know yourself better after this experience, and you will be proud of your discoveries. Best of all, your admissions officer will know you, too, thrilled to have met a genuine personality amidst a thousand other essays.

About the Merlyn Method

Like the Socratic method, the Merlyn method relies on questions – posed cheerfully, gently, respectfully, patiently, but determinedly – that nudge a writer toward specific, clear, and unambiguous expression. When the essay writer says she cares about world peace, the mentor-editor may ask, “How would an outside observer know you care? What does caring, in your case, look like? What does it sound like?” Questions and answers can lead to a remarkably detailed portrait of the writer’s personality and goals; on the other hand, the questions may reveal a thin commitment to a hastily chosen essay topic and point the way to something more authentic. In short, the question-and-answer process allows the college applicant to “get real,” which makes the admissions officer very happy! 

 

Our experience with more than 100,000 student writers vying for publication in Merlyn’s Pen magazine revealed that an authentic voice is rich in detail, rooted in real experience, and untethered from popular jargon or formulaic notions of “good writing.”

Are Only Seniors Invited?

While Finding "I" serves the needs of high school seniors applying to college, students at any level – middle school through graduate school – are encouraged to enroll. Independent schools, summer programs, and scholarship opportunities often require an effective personal statement, and this program will help you write one.

About the Director & Mentors

Finding “I” Program Director R. James Stahl taught English and writing at The University of Chicago Laboratory School, Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, and the American International School in Vienna, Austria. He founded Merlyn’s Pen magazine in 1985, assisted by several teachers who graduated with him from the Master of Arts in Teaching program at the University of Chicago. Merlyn’s Pen grew into an award-winning magazine of student writing used in 5,000 schools. Its success is attributable to its combination of recognizing and rewarding excellence – fewer than 125 in 10,000 writers made it into the magazine each year! – while responding in a personal and encouraging way to every student not chosen for publication. Merlyn’s Pen ceased publishing in 2001, but each week thousands of readers still find inspiration in its archives at the New Library of Young Adult Writing at www.merlynspen.org.

 

Mr. Stahl has trained 50 teacher-editors for Merlyn’s Pen, helped thousands of students turn good writing into great writing, felt pride in seeing one earn a spot on The New York Times Bestsellers list, and assisted the U.S. Department of Education and several states in improving their writing assessments. Mr. Stahl served on the Princeton-based committee that developed the writing portion of The National Writing Assessment, known as The Nation’s Report Card. In 1997, he launched the American Teen Writer Series -- paperbacks of classic Merlyn's Pen stories -- which enjoyed distribution in seven countries. He has served as a trustee of several independent schools and educational programs and as an admissions volunteer for Georgetown University, his undergraduate alma mater. He has two daughters, whose glow has often revealed new paths for their dad to follow.

 

Mentors in the Finding “I” program are patient and gifted senior editors with years of experience working closely with students seeking publication in Merlyn’s Pen. Many have honed their tutoring skills in the venerable Merlyn’s Pen Mentors in Writing Program, a tutorial for serious writers that is recommended by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Mentors in the Finding “I” program love their work and feel extraordinary pride when their college-bound students find their writing voice. Meet the mentors.

A history of Responsiveness Since 1985

"When I was in the mentoring program, I really liked the advice I was getting on my writing, and when it ended, I missed it a lot -- so much, in fact, that I ended up going to Sarah Lawrence for creative writing."

-- Clarissa Y., student

 

"Merlyn’s Pen helped me develop my own style and technique, and it did something a lot of places were unwilling to do: it listened and responded."

-- Tamar F., student

 

"The comments I got were so insightful . . . I learned a lot, not just about the craft of writing, but about myself."

-- Matthew C., student

 

"I want to thank you personally for the time they spent with my work. I was so much encouraged by the comments, especially on my poems that were not selected for publication. In a whole year of English class at school I didn't get so much personal attention paid to my creative writing."

-- Rachel A., student

 

"Beth has sent many letters to different editors, and your comments were the most uplifting. Thanks for caring."

-- Jeanne H., parent

 

"Your comments on my story were so helpful that I continued to work on it and entered it in several more writing contests. I ended up winning the Scholastic Writing Award. The scholarship money I received from that story made it possible for me to attend my first-choice college, Yale."

-- Lauren K., student

 

"It's remarkable to us that Merlyn's Pen is able to review thousands of student manuscripts each year. When a managing editor takes the time to make a personal phone call to the parents of one young aspiring author, that indeed is evidence of devotion beyond the call of duty!"

-- Barry T., parent

 

"I would like to take a moment to tell you how appreciative we are, as parents of an emerging writer, for the thoughtful, supportive, professional way you communicated with our daughter. . . . You handle communications about submissions with great sensitivity."

-- Nancy C., parent

Educators Appreciate Merlyn's Focus on Achievement

“Merlyn’s Pen presents students with success-oriented reading and writing experiences.”

-- ENGLISH JOURNAL, The National Council of Teachers of English

 

“Here’s an opportunity to taste some of the best writing by peers.”

-- BOOKLIST, American Library Association

 

"The success of Merlyn's Pen points to a wave of interest in the writings of young people."

-- CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

 

"This is a strong magazine that treats its teen readers/contributors with respect."

-- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

 

“America's best young writers.”

-- EDUCATION TODAY

 

"Merlyn's Pen already enjoys a stellar reputation as the best publication for teen writers. For four years running, it has won the coveted Parents' Choice Award given by the Parents' Choice Foundation . . . "

-- US AIRWAYS Magazine

Helping  Students Meet Goals

Students appearing in Merlyn’s Pen have gone on to write for The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Georgia Review, Christian Science Monitor, New Republic, Seventeen, Glamour, and Columbia Law Review.

 

In the year 2000, the New York State Recommended Reading List for high school students recommended eight publications, among them The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Merlyn’s Pen and Time.

 

About one-fourth of students published in Merlyn’s Pen attend Ivy League schools, with Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, and Yale taking the greatest portion.

To Begin, Call Merlyn's Pen at1-800-247-2027.

We look forward to speaking with you!

Our email address is merlyn@merlynspen.org.

 

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