Carla has helped me twice now- once with my undergraduate application to Vanderbilt and now with my application to medical school. I am happy to say I got into Vanderbilt and have been told by many people that my Common App Essay was one of the best they had seen. I attribute so much of this to Carla. She kept my authentic voice but helped me get right to the point of my message. She knew what questions to ask me to prompt my thoughts. I met with her once to brainstorm ideas for my Common App essay and expressed that I did not feel I had enough of a story they would want to hear. She went through every single prompt option with me until we arrived at a moment I still consider dear to my heart in my consideration to be a doctor. I then wrote my essay and remet with her. She did not add a single word but took out what was unnecessary and guided me toward an essay that I absolutely loved and still do to this day. When it came to my medical school application, I expressed a similar concern that everyone has the moment they knew they wanted to be a doctor, but I just knew the moments that confirmed this decision. She said that was okay and to write that in my essay. She made sure I addressed the prompt and helped me convey my words in a clear, concise manner. She even met with me same day and made sure to say I had "veto power" when it came to these decisions. She was here to guide me and wanted me to keep my voice no matter what. In other words, if you are doubting whether or not to go with Carla, DO IT! She is so worth it. She is incredible, supportive, and truly can help with any application you throw her way. She remembered me after all these years, and I attribute a large part of my journey to her. I've never seen a better writer than her, and I feel confident that I am walking into medical school with a strong essay from her help. read more

I highly recommend Carla if you are looking for a writing tutor/coach who will make your child or yourself a better and more confident writer. I am a second semester senior at Alameda High school, and Carla helped me throughout the college application process with more than just advice. We worked on the mountain of college essays and personal statements that often bog applicants down, along with other activities and vocabulary tests. Not only did I receive help in cleaning up my statements, but Carla was there every week to help me schedule when I should finish my essays as well as talk to me about putting my ideas on paper. She communicated excellently with me about what issues I wanted to fix while integrating her advice. She is very experienced with high school level and above writing, and she works very well with students who want to have a clear voice in their writing. Carla not only is a great writer herself, but she is excellent at giving advice to students who may be criticism adverse, and works with them to improve their writing skills. For me, this was key, because when writing college essays about yourself, it is hard to hear criticism. However, the process of revising and talking over Skype or in person was seamless, and I felt that my writing after submitting my applications was much clearer and more concise, without losing any of my personal voice. Again, if you are looking for someone who will work with, and not simply edit or criticize your child's writing, I HIGHLY recommend Carla Castillo. You will see great improvements in your child's confidence in writing along with a significant increase in the quality as well. read more

Earlier this summer I asked my mom if she could help me find a college essay writing tutor. After a while we found Carla who has helped me exponentially in my college essay writing endeavors. At the time I knew absolutely nothing about college essay writing, let alone how the UC application worked or even the common application process. Carla invited me to her home, sat me down and asked me about my personality, my interest in and out of school, and possible topics that I could write about. She was professional and personal and made it so enjoyable and easy to begin the process. After a couple weeks my university of California and common application essays were practically finished and she would revise them within the hour. As of right now I am submitting my applications and I can honestly say that so much of what she taught me and helped me with is implemented in the essays I have written. She has relieved an exponential amount of stress from my life and made my college application and essay writing experience so much more structured and easy. Carla has made me confident in my ability to write and confident about applying to the schools that I want to go to. She worked around my schedule and was available on Skype or in person so I never had to worry about when I could meet her or if there was a timeline crunch. She listened to me and gave me wonderful advice on how and what I should write my essays on. She literally has been my rock the past couple months and I am so grateful for all the help I have recieved. I would recommend her to literally anyone trying to write a wonderful and professional college essay. read more

My teenage daughter (now a high school freshman) lacked confidence in her writing and had difficulty putting ideas to paper. After working with Carla for a few weeks, she was transformed. Now, more than a year later, she is thriving. Carla is not a tutor, but a coach who is deeply invested in the success of her team. With warm guidance, she started by working with my daughter on the basics - vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation. They've now advanced to drafts of the UC application essay prompts and detailed character analysis. Carla never steps in to rewrite a project; instead, she nudges my daughter with constructive questions that teach her to review and edit her own work product with a careful eye. Every finished project is written entirely by my daughter in her own voice. Where I used to hear "I can't think of what to write!" or "I hate this!", I now hear muttered phrases like "compound or complex?" and "that's not parallel sentence structure." My daughter's work with Carla has been challenging and immensely rewarding. Which brings me to Carla's true gift: her ability to connect with people. Carla has established a personal, meaningful relationship with my daughter that has inspired her to pull the best from herself. She looks forward to her weekly sessions and considers Carla a mentor. Both of us enjoy Carla as a person and find her easy and flexible to work with. Without hesitation, we highly recommend Carla as a writing coach. read more

Carla has been the most wonderful support system throughout my college application process. I am a high school senior who has applied to many colleges, which translates to a huge amount of supplementals and essays. Carla has been incredibly patient and supportive in my process, while also giving stellar feedback, and making sure I never settle for a mediocre essay. She is incredibly reliable, and follows through on all deadlines she commits to. She is always able to work around my busy schedule, even when we were in completely opposite time zones. The feedback she gives is always clear and concise, which has helped immensely in the editing portion of my essays. Her vast experience with college essay writing is noticeable, especially when she redirects my writing to fit certain prompts. She has made my college application process significantly less stressful, through encouragement, positive and constructive feedback, and a warm and inviting personality. Carla did such an amazing job, that I often can see the edits that need to be made before she even suggests them. I am immensely grateful for the help I have received from her, and I would highly recommend Carla to anyone who is looking for guidance in the college essay writing process. read more

The college application process is one that can't be described, only experienced! We are blessed with a daughter who is fiercely independent and often refuses our suggestions, but never the less wanted to help her find whatever resources she felt she needed during this process. Carla Castillo was recommended by the College Counselor at our daughter's high school. We met Carla at the end of Junior year and they worked over the summer to complete the main essay for each of Rachele's applications. Carla's couching had a tremendous impact in helping Rachele crystallize and articulate her thoughts and truly express herself in each of these applications (and supplemental essays). She made the process of working together, both face to face and through the use of Google docs, easy and seamless. The results were significant and were further reinforced by the many comments in acceptance letters that referred specifically to the positive impact the essay had on her acceptance. From a parent perspective, hiring Carla as her writing coach was the best help we could have provided and allowed us to "stay out of the process". read more

Carla Castillo was an immense help throughout my college application process, and I truly believe my essays would not have been nearly as well-written if it weren't for her invaluable assistance. She was extremely organized with her schedule, which made scheduling meetings with her both easy and convenient. Even though I practically live on the other side of the country, it was still as though she was working right next to me. Meetings went smoothly and were very effective. My essay drafts were always well over the word limit, but for every single one, Carla managed to abridge each so that they were within the limit but still said everything I'd hoped they would. Not only was she a great help with my writing, but she was also incredibly cordial, and wanted to know me beyond my essays (we bonded over our shared love of Hamilton!). I highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for help on their college essays, or really for any piece of writing. She is beyond exceptional and I will be forever grateful for the help she has given me. read more

Our elder son, who just finished his freshman at Tufts University, worked with Carla Castillo for several months when he was a senior at Albany High. She was extremely helpful through the college application process, in particular on the essay writing. Not only does she, of course, provide corrections for grammatical issues, but she thinks big picture and in many ways nudged the essay into providing more insight into who are son is, adding structure to his story, and punch to his strengths, all without affecting his genuine voice and tone. From our perspective, his essays were significantly improved with each round of reading and revising. She was also gracious in providing a quick turn-around even when our son put her into the corner with essays due ''tomorrow''. She was easy to work with, via email (actually through Google Docs) as well as in person. Our younger son will be working with her in the upcoming year on his applications. You can check her out at www.carlaswritingspace.com or call her at 510-847-3789. read more

I can not say enough amazing things about Carla. She is simply an incredible writing coach. She has given my daughter the confidence she needed to take on the endeavor of applying to many colleges with lengthily writing supplements. Every session my daughter has with Carla, she comes to tell me how amazing Carla is and how much she loves her. She has had incredible input and has challenged my daughter to write with more intention and specifics. Her energy is warm and enthusiastic, while being supportive and clear about changes that need to be made. I deeply believe that the skills my daughter is getting from Carla's expertise is setting her up to be a more successful and clear writer in her college years. My daughter even said. "I think I'm going to slow down on my writing so I can have more time with Carla!" Once she is done with her applications she will miss her special time with such an insightful and brilliant support of her writing experience. read more

I worked with Carla during my junior and senior years of high school, and my writing really improved under her guidance! She helped me edit some applications to summer programs and college application drafts; during this process I felt like she made an effort to get to know me, additionally strengthening my writing by recommending stronger vocabulary and making it more concise. Sessions with her impacted my writing in the long run as I slowly got into the habit of using what she taught me. Her services are also super flexible, and I was able to work with her in person, over zoom, and she also offered to edit/leave comments on drafts that could be emailed to her. Because I take a long time to put ideas on paper, I'd recommend working with Carla to edit drafts instead of writing during the actual session (time is money!) to utilize her services to the fullest. All in all, I'd definitely recommend for any important writing projects! read more

Many know Carla as a terrific writing coach for college-bound students. We are different! We have a 6th-grade son who has enjoyed writing / blogging but needed help in vocabulary and structural development. As parents with little professional coaching experience, we have probably made more mistakes than progress while trying to "coach" him. It all changed after our son was introduced to Carla! In just a few months, Carla has opened up a whole new world to him in writing concepts, vocabulary, and clarity. She is concise in style yet flexible in accommodating our schedules/needs. Above all, Carla truly knows how to tailor her coaching / teaching to younger kids with a different level of attention span. Today, our son is not only learning a ton from Carla, he is also having a lot of FUN! When a 6-grader is willing to put off a playdate so he wouldn't miss a writing lesson with Carla, we know we have found the right coach! read more

As someone who was stressed out about my college applications amidst all that has happening I wasn't sure where to start with my writing. Carla was really helpful throughout this process. Not only was I able to bounce my ideas off of her but she read over my work to make sure it it was ready to send in. What I really liked was that she didn't she wasn't ever re-write my work, she made suggestions every so often, pushed me to add more detail, but as we polished up my work, my voice was never lost. Not only did Carla help me with my work but she was also very compassionate. Each video call she always asked how I was doing and was flexible with time. I am so glad I came to her for my writing and would recommend her to anyone who's either just starting their essays or needs someone to read over them. read more

Carla did an amazing job of helping my son prepare his college application essays. As a student strong in science & math, writing essays was something he had a bit of a harder time with. Carla helped my son find his voice when crafting his college essays, coached him on how to structure the content to best engage the reader, and helped him come up with strategies to manage the multiple essay prompts required for many different college applications. My son ultimately got accepted to UC Berkeley which the whole family was elated about! University admissions are so competitive that we don't know exactly what was the deciding factor in him being accepted, but I'm sure his college essays helped. Many thanks to Carla for all her help over the course the college admission process! read more

My son went to Carla for help with college transfer applications. It was difficult and stressful for him to be dealing with this while busy with his current school work, but he put together a list of schools he was interested in and got to work. Carla's input in the whole process was essential. She responded quickly to the material as he sent it to her and gave him great advice and encouragement. By the time he finished the applications, he had a real sense of accomplishment and a stronger sense of his own writer's "voice." Some decisions are still coming but he already has many good options for the fall, including some that had originally felt like a reach. I enthusiastically recommend Carla to anyone looking for assistance with their writing. read more

I worked with Carla throughout the college application process as she assisted me with my essays. She helped me to effectively keep my voice while also making sure I was concise. She allowed me to take the wheel and treated every edit as a suggestion, careful not to detract from the message I was trying to send in my writing. Not only is she great at helping with essays but she is quite possibly one of the nicest people I have ever met. Beginning every meeting with a "How is your day going?" goes a long way during such a stressful time. I will be attending Brown University this fall and I truly could not have gotten through this journey without her. I am immensely grateful for her wisdom and support. read more

I highly recommend Carla as a writing coach. She has been working with both of my boys, one is sophomore in high school and one is in elementary, for over a year. My kids love her. My younger one used to hate writing, now he is always happy after the writing session with Carla. Carla is very patient and encouraging. She always tries to find creative writing options to let my kids engaged. She guides them to find mistakes and discuss options of revision. As my old one said, "Carla is passionate about writing and her students." We don't live in Berkeley area and only have weekends available to meet with her. Carla is so easy to work with and very understanding and flexible to accommodate our schedule. read more

Carla definitely helped me greatly throughout my college application experience. As a person who focused on STEM, I never enjoyed writing, and, as a result, was not a skillful writer. Carla allowed me to become a better writer by carefully scanning my essays, pinpointing every mistake possible. She gave prompt responses to all my essays, editing and reviewing them within a couple days. In addition, she gave me many tips on how to effectively express my ideas. In addition, Carla was very friendly throughout the entire time we worked together, never making me feel insecure about my writing and always throwing in words of encouragement. Carla is a fantastic teacher and definitely worth working with! read more

I worked with Carla on graduate school application essays. Applying for graduate school was a stressful process as I was working full time and had to find time to fulfill all the requirements by the deadline. After the schools posted the essay prompts online, I only had three months to write, edit, and then submit everything. I was grateful that I found Carla. She scheduled with me right away and formed a plan to move steadily forward to meet those deadlines. During writing, she helped me see what fits where and have my thoughts focused and my statements concisely delivered. Carla also has a warm personality. She is patient, caring and cheerful. It was a wonderful experience working with Carla. read more

Carla is a great editor for college essays. I struggled with getting to the points I wanted to make in my essays. She was able to help me cut through the excess and concisely say what I wanted to say. Her knowledge of college application essays is also a wonderful resource because I knew my essays were being read by someone who had real experience with the process and who could help me when I ran into some of the roadblocks commonly faced by prospective college students. Furthermore, as a student, I was able to keep what I truly felt was important, even if Carla disagreed, and I appreciated not feeling as though I was doing something wrong. Overall, I highly recommend working with her. read more