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🏛 Qodiriy Community is open 🏛

Last time we named our group after Oscar Wilde. This time we stayed in Tashkent.

Abdulla Qodiriy wrote the first Uzbek novel. There was no book like it in Uzbek before, so he had nothing to copy. He wrote something nobody had written before, and people still read it a hundred years later.

That's what we want for your essay.

What it is
An 8-week writing program, online.
- 16 sessions, two a week
- 8 hours one-on-one with the special mentor
- Peer reviews from Agora alumni and more

How it works
The first month is about your writing itself. We cut what's vague, fix your structure, and help you find your own voice.
The second month is your personal statement and supplements, built from your own ideas.

You write every word. We push you to revise until it sounds like you.

What you've been asking us

"My English isn't good enough."
If you can follow an SAT class, you can follow ours. The first month exists for exactly this.

"I don't have an interesting story."
Almost everyone says that in week one. Said came in with a list of activities and no story connecting them. He's at KAIST now.

"Can't I just use ChatGPT?"
So can every other applicant. We teach you to write the essay it can't, because it comes from your life.

"Will this get me in?"

Nobody honest can promise that. Our students are at Kyoto, KAIST, CUHK and Franklin & Marshall, and they wrote their own essays.

Who it's for
- ED2 and Regular Decision applicants
- 10th–11th graders who want to start early

If your deadline is November 1, write to us first. We'll tell you honestly whether it's too late.

Price

$500 for the full program.
$400 for SATashkent students.
You can pay in parts.

Dates
15 seats only.
Applications close 18th October at 23:59 Tashkent time.

How to join
Apply here: agorawriting.com/qodiriy
Or write QODIRIY to @agoraaid.

@agora_writing

Announcing it in a few minutes.

Stay close 👀

🏛🏛Should my PS be related to my major?

Yes, but it doesn’t have to name your major. It has to point toward it.

When an admissions officer reads your file, they need one clear sentence about you, like: “This student uses philosophy to understand power and history.” If your essay is only philosophy and your application is politics/history, the reader has to guess how they connect. Don’t make them guess.

The good news is that philosophy and politics are neighbors. Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes and Locke all wrote philosophy about politics. So keep your philosophical idea, and add a bridge to the real world.

Example:

• Philosophy only: "The Ship of Theseus asks: if you replace every plank of a ship, is it still the same ship?”
• With a bridge: “Since 1991, Uzbekistan has replaced many planks. A new alphabet, new street names, new constitutions. But it kept one. Our national anthem uses the same melody as the Soviet one, only with new words. I want to study how countries decide what to keep from their past and what to throw away.”

Put this bridge in your last paragraph. One or two sentences are enough. But don’t force it. If the link feels fake, find the political question already hiding inside your philosophical idea. It’s almost always there.

🏛How do you write about a common topic in an uncommon way?

French printers once had a shortcut for pages they expected to print again and again.

Instead of setting the type letter by letter, they cast the whole page as one solid metal plate.

They called it a cliché, possibly after the click of the mold striking the metal.

A cliché was a sentence nobody had to think about anymore.

That is the trouble with a topic that resonates.

The grandmother, the injury, the move to a new country. These subjects feel enormous to everyone, so the plate has already been cast.

In the 2025–26 cycle, more than four in ten Common App applicants chose the adversity or personal-growth prompt.

The usual advice is to “choose another topic.” But these topics are common for a reason. The Lindy effect says if something has lasted a long time, it will probably last much longer. People have written about family for thousands of years. It matters, so it will stay.

So the real question is how to write good essay on an old topic.

Common: “I hurt my knee, but I learned to never give up.”

Better: “One week after knee surgery, my doctor made me walk on it, and I named my crutches ‘Pain’ and ‘Suffering.’ Wolff’s law says bones grow stronger where they carry weight, and now I ask why some stress builds us and some breaks us.”

Keep your topic.

And follow one rule. Bring an idea, a question, and a true detail about you in an interesting way.

@agora_writing — Keep Learning.

Before we open our new community, we want to hear from you.

Ask us anything about essays: your personal statement, supplements, finding a topic, using AI, or being stuck at 2am.

We'll answer the best questions in posts tomorrow, right before the launch.

Comment below 👇

Or ask anonymously

@agora_writing — Keep Learning.

Our last group was named after Oscar Wilde.

The next one is named after someone much closer to home.

Guess who? 👇

100 ❤️

Have you heard of the Agora Writing program?

We're thinking of opening a new Community for students who are applying now and are stuck on their essays.

If that sounds like you, or you'd want in, leave a ❤️

If enough of you do, we'll open it.

Quick poll coming.

Answer like nobody's watching. (Nobody is, it's anonymous.)

📢 Application Results Are Out

We’ve finished reviewing all applications. Thank you to everyone who applied.

10 applicants were accepted to Agora AID.

A small number of applicants have been accepted into the Pre-Agora AID Track, and some have been invited to an interview so we can learn more about them. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to move forward with most applications this round.

Please check your inbox for your result and next steps.

Thank you all for your interest and effort!

AGORA AID applications are now closed.

Thank you to everyone who applied. We're reading every application in full.

Check your inbox today and tomorrow.

If you missed this round, our other programs are still open at agorawriting.com.

Questions: @agoraaid

Last day: AGORA AID closes tonight at 23:59 Tashkent time.

Free, full support for your early application to a top-20 US university. 25 places.

If you planned to apply, do it now. The form takes one sitting, and it closes at midnight.

👉 agorawriting.com/agora-aid
Questions: @agoraaid

P.S. Sorry for the message that went out by accident earlier. Today is the deadline.

🏛AGORA AID applications close tomorrow evening.

We dare you to be delusional for one evening. Open the form and write the name of the university you think is out of your reach.

Many strong students never apply early to Princeton, MIT or Stanford because they decide in advance that the answer will be no. AGORA AID is free, full support for that application.

If you are selected, you meet your mentor every week until November 1. We work with you on your essays, activities list, recommendation letters and financial aid forms. Before you submit, a former admissions officer reads the whole application and tells you how it comes across.

We take up to 25 students, and you pay nothing.

You can apply if you:
- have an SAT score of 1500 or above
- are applying early to a top-20 US university
- are in the Class of 2031 (12th grade now, or a gap year)

If your score is below 1500, you can still apply. Use the form to show us what makes your application strong enough without it.

Most people finish the form in one sitting. You won't hit every shot you take, but you have to take this one by tomorrow.

Apply: agorawriting.com/agora-aid
Questions: @agoraaid

🏛@agora_writing

Our upcoming cohort, Wilde Community, starts this Wednesday.

If you want to join the elite Agora Writing Program, you are welcome to join our new cohort.

You can find full information at agorawriting.com.

Requirement: IELTS 7.5 or SAT English 700+

If you have questions or want to learn more, message @agoraaid.

@agora_writing

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