Hi All,
Still trying the build the college list! One consideration in the “how wide of a net to cast” discussion is the ability to juggle all the multiple priorities Sept-Oct. Are the topics/prompts (not sure what to call them) available early enough to allow students to write the essays in August, or earlier?
Most are… In previous years, the prompts for the common app have been released early in the year. Some schools have their own applications. If they don’t participate with the common app, the universal app, or the new coalition app, they may post their essay prompts on their own websites early (sometimes on an admissions blog). The majority are available by the end of the school year. Supplemental essay topics and short answer essays and some “hidden” short questions, however, may not be available until after August 1st - or later - once the Common App and other applications are available.
The Common App questions are known well in advance, so that can be done. Some colleges change their questions from time to time, and the supplements are not always available right when the Common App is. So you are taking your chances of some throw away work if you write to last year’s question. If you want to get them for this fall’s cycle though, go now to the school admissions website and see if there is a .pdf application. Those apps may be pulled off the site by next summer.
By the end of senior year, your kid may have needed to submit so many essays that he becomes adept at adapting one or two core essays to almost any prompt, or at least using info from previous essays to build new essays. You could definitely get a head start and tailor it to your needs. It’s also worth noting that writing is easier once you have practice writing, so even if a new essay can’t use anything you’ve written before, writing for the common app will still help churn out the others.
An awful lot of schools have a “why do you want to go to X U?” question, so you can at least start putting together bullet points about what you like about the program, how it fits with your hopes for a career path etc. My S found these pretty draining, especially near then end when the answer was close to “I’ll go anywhere that lets me in and has a theater program.”