Meet Comet’s All-Star Team of Essay Experts
Comet’s Essay Experts are rigorously trained by a team of former admissions counselors and college consultants. Together, our crew boasts 30+ years of experience with over 10,000 essays reviewed, supporting successful applicants to top universities nationwide.
Semilore Sobande
Stanford
Semilore (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at Brown University. She holds a B.A. in African & African-American Studies and Comparative Literature from Stanford University, as well as an M.A. in English from Brown. As a graduate student, she has worked on both research and teaching, leading her own seminar classes as well as working one-on-one with students as a writing center associate for the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.
She's been lucky enough to work with students applying to various levels of postsecondary institutions and fellowships, but keeps a special place in her heart for the undergraduate college application experience. Semilore is excited to continue to help introduce students to one of her favorite genres of writing: the personal essay.
Emily Schmidt
Stanford
Emily is a full-time journalist with a passion for mentoring students through the college admissions process. She recently graduated with her Master's degree in mass communications (Health Disparities Journalism concentration) from Arizona State University and completed her undergrad at Stanford University with two degrees in English (Creative Writing concentration) and Spanish.
Emily has five years' experience guiding students to write their college admissions essays in a way that demonstrates their unique passions and personalities. She has worked one-on-one with numerous students through Common App and supplemental essays, using positive yet honest feedback through a multi-draft process. She understands that writing is a vulnerable (and sometimes scary) experience, so her goal is to develop mutual trust with students to share their most important stories.
In her spare time, Emily loves being outside in the Arizona heat. Originally from Philadelphia, she enjoys hiking and biking in shorts during the winter months and escaping to the mountains in the summer. When Emily isn't writing, she can be found playing with her new kitten, Birdie, or finding the best tacos in the Phoenix Valley.
Colleen Williams
UC Davis
She has a B.A. in English from the University of California, Davis, and began her writing career there, at The California Aggie. She went on to intern at Sactown Magazine, learning the rigorous research, proofreading, and fact-checking processes that go into magazines. She’s also served as managing editor and editor-in-chief of the Sacramento Press, where she worked closely with reporters and journalism interns to add details, evaluate sources, and create compelling community-focused news stories.
As an essay specialist, Colleen delights in supporting students to embrace their stories and articulate them with clarity and authenticity. Through her attentive eye and introspective questions, she guides students in crafting essays that leave a lasting impression. She’s collaborated students across the U.S. and abroad, who have been accepted to Columbia, Brown, Stanford, Vassar, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and many other universities.
When she’s not supporting students, she loves being in nature with her kids (her goal is to spend 1000 hours outside this year), reading library books, and doing 30-day yoga challenges.
Angela Torres de Amante
UC Berkley
Angela is a first generation daughter of immigrants and California native who graduated with a B.A. from UC Berkeley. As an undergrad, Angela tutored underprivileged students in Oakland, California, through the Oakland Asian Student Education Services (OASES) program. It was there that she realized the joy of empowering students as they pursue their goals and navigate the education system. Angela is a freelance writer, scriptwriting for clients such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning physics research laboratory, CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research). Angela writes TV screenplays and fiction, all of which help her craft interesting narratives that make for compelling essays.
Having dedicated herself to the profession and art of writing, Angela is familiar with the work it takes to get the essence of a life or experience onto the page. It can feel daunting, at first. The college essay is no different, and Angela loves the opportunity to support students through such a process by offering practical encouragement and technical guidance.
Zoe Larkin
Yale
While studying Political Science and English with a concentration in Creative Writing at Yale University, Zoe has written extensively across a variety of professional and creative mediums. Zoe has been published in Ms. Magazine, TV Guide, and the Sacramento Bee, and served as a staff writer for several university publications, including the Yale Daily News and the Yale Record. This combination of rigorous academic training, immersive journalistic work, and creative writing gives Zoe a unique lens through which to advise high school students on crafting excellent essays for college admission.
Throughout the college admission process, she strives to help students feel confident in their writing skills, hone the ideas that will help them shine, and make the essay creation process smooth and rewarding.
Ellie Frank
University of Chicago
Ellie grew up in Washington, D.C. before attending the University of Chicago as a University Scholar where she earned her B.A. in English Literature and Language and also completed the full pre-medicine curriculum. Her six years of experience as an academic coach and private tutor allow her to successfully aid students going through the process of writing admissions essays. Currently, she is finishing her graduate certificate in Biology from Harvard and is a 2022 Edie Windsor Coding Scholar entering a career in Data Science. Her interdisciplinary background allows her to support students who are interested in pursuing either the humanities or STEM.
Through sincere feedback and editing, writing exercises and tools, and other means of support, Ellie helps young people craft expressive and meaningful essays. She understands the pressures high school students face while juggling the college admissions process with coursework and extracurricular activities. She builds individual connections with students and encourages them to find their personal voice so that they may gain confidence in their writing and share their best work with potential colleges.
Beyond her role as an essay specialist, Ellie enjoys puns, reading as many books as she can, and playing first base for her softball team. She also believes that the em dash—without a doubt—is the best piece of punctuation in the English language.