Hi! I’m a senior and I applied to about 13 colleges, my initial list was over 20 but I cut down to just 13. The writing process was agonizing, sure, but it really makes you look into who you are and the experiences you’ve had, and tests your writing abilities. I personally liked/appreciated the “Why Us” essays because it made me look into the college’s resources and what they could specifically offer to MY education, as well as their enrichment programs and research, more so than the colleges that didn’t require me to do those essays. For some colleges I dropped them because I really couldn’t say “why them” other than their ranking. It makes you critically think about and analyze why do you truly want to go to this college. Also, I didn’t get the chance to visit any of my colleges except 2 since they’re too far away, but I was still able to write compelling essays based on the materials I found online, watching various YouTube videos(from students and the college itself), and if I truly wanted to I could’ve contacted professors through email or something to discuss their research if I wanted to have that kind of interaction with them. They aren’t really all that hard, and they don’t have to be generic, if a student really looks into what brought them into the school and does a little bit of extra research to see what sets apart a certain school from the others they apply to.