About the Essay Institute

The Essay Institute was founded by Erick Widman, a lawyer from California, and his wife Ivy, who (fortunately for Erick) is a talented web designer. The original idea for creating a website that would help students get ready for the SAT essay came after Erick had taken the state bar exam—a test that demands excellence in essay writing.

From its very beginning, the Essay Institute has seen that systematic practice will lead to success. We put this perspective into practice every day as we give high school students the tools they need to dominate the SAT essay.

Erick is EI's head tutor and he oversees the work of the other tutors on staff. Prior to founding the Essay Institute, Erick was Corporate Counsel at Philips Corporation in Silicon Valley and also taught for a year at the Budapest College of Economics. Erick can be reached at: erick@essayinstitute.com