Meet the Founder: Nora Anderson
Nora knows narratives –
and she knows how to craft them for successful presentation to colleges, private schools and graduate programs.
Hello!
As the daughter of an engineer and librarian, I learned straightaway the values of mechanical craft, systemic process, imagination, and storytelling. I loved building and breaking; imagining, creating, and revising; reading - and, above all, writing.
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I wrote about James Bond for my college personal statement: wholly me (if you know me, you know), fun, whimsical, yet, authentic and layered.
I attended UPenn, where I studied Engineering, English Literature, and Economics.
Then, abroad to King's College London, where I earned a Master's in Literature degree.
A semester spent at Harvard as a Graduate Fellow followed, finishing at Yale for a Master's in 20th Century Cultural History degree — where I began teaching.
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After a Teaching Fellowship at Yale, I went on to teach at several top-ranked private schools in the United States for a decade before adventuring to Zambia for five years to lead a non-profit community school / NGO program for first-generation college-bound students. I returned to my home in New York City in 2021 to start Narrative Solutions to lend my expertise to students, globally, assisting them with writing their personal statements for college admissions.
I connect well with students and have a gift - ‘the Nora knack’ - plus a process (that engineering background) for assisting in the discovering, identifying, and crafting of authentic personal statements for successful admission to colleges, private schools, and graduate programs.
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These statements are not easy to write. They require not only self-reflection and excellent writing skills (the hook, the build, the pacing, the structure - all in 650 words), but “fit” (can the admissions readers see you among the incoming class, and how); and “fill-in-the-gap” (addressing the elemental "you" between the numbers, lists, grades, rankings); and - above all: authenticity - ideally layered.
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Personal statements for college have only increased in significance.
Now, more than ever, the statement is where you can make yourself stand out and tip the scale if you take full advantage of the opportunity. If you want to get into your best college, you need your best personal narrative statement.
Get in touch for a FREE 15-minute consultation with Nora.