We’re at the point where we just want to be done. It’s been stressful. The essay seems good enough, and I think it has all the necessary ingredients, but it doesn’t knock my socks off. When do you decide it’s ready to be sent? Thanks.
My son’s essay was just okay. Not terrible, but nothing amazing.
Most of his schools were safety/matches where GPA and sat scores mattered most, so I didn’t stress about it. He has been accepted to 5 of 8 schools so far.
If your son has done his best and the essay seems good enough, then it’s probably time to move on.
Maybe you’d feel comfortable if you had a trusted English teacher take a look at it? I agree with the previous poster. Unless you are in the group trying for the super competitive schools, it’s the scores and GPA that will matter.
My older son got into some super competitive schools with an essay that one could charitably say was “good for an engineer”. All the other parts of his application were stellar. (Well we assume the recommendations were, neither he nor I saw them.)
If your kid is happy with it, it is what it is. Sometimes English teachers suck the lifeblood out of college essays, so be careful with that.
My kid’s didn’t inspire fireworks either IMO. Gets the job done. I think it’s better an authentic voice than overworked anyway.
Yep. My D’s is fine, but nothing exceptional, although it did sound like her - upbeat and happy.
TBH I’ll bet that many of the parents and kids who say their essays were amazing are looking through rose colored glasses.
I understand the importance of essays, but sometimes the advice makes me a little crazy - they should sound like the kid without too much parent/professional editing, but have to have perfect grammar. They should give great insight, but be real. Don’t write about winning the big game, grandparent death, pet death, etc… Come on, these are 17-18 year old kids!
I did not like my son’s essays. But he had good admissions results, so obviously I was wrong and he knew what he was doing. I realize now that most of my concern was related to his stilted writing style (I’ve described before but he’s a stiff techie type and writes like an unhappy, constipated senior citizen), but that the subject matter was good and even the odd writing was an accurate representation of who he is.
If the essays are not your personal taste but are a good representation of who your kid is and how he thinks, it may be that they’re done.
I felt that way about both of my kid’s essays…but both essays were well written (checked over by an English teacher), in their own voice, and told a story they wanted to tell (that did display positive attributes). And both kids had success in admissions.
Sorry @citymama9 , but your question made me LOL! I work with students on their college essays professionally, and it is the very rare student that writes anything exceptional. In all honesty, I can say that I have read one essay out of dozens that was truly outstanding. I’ve read a lot of very good essays, but the vast majority of essays I have read are a real effort of the student doing the best he/she is capable of, which means they are good enough.
If your child’s essay can achieve any of these three criteria, it’s “good enough”: Does it tell the reader (AO) something about the student they won’t see anywhere else in the application? Does it keep the reader awake? (IOW, if it isn’t boring, that’s good enough.) After reading the essay, does the reader think “I like this kid”? That is really the best that 99% of students should be aiming for.
My older daughter had back surgery in June going into her senior year. She was on pain meds for a couple of months which affected her ability to think clearly. But she was determined to get her CA essay done over the summer. It was ok. It did meet @Lindagaf’s criteria though so I guess it was good enough.
Her supplements, which were written a few months later, were much better.
I think my younger daughter’s essay was more original. But she’s a quirkier kid which made it easier to come up with a topic that showcased her personality.
If both supplements and common app essay have the same voice, humor and level of engagement with a reader, I would not intervene.
If you hear your son’s voice in the short supplements (often easier to write), show him the difference and suggest he take another look at the longer essays.
I’ve found that if the essay isn’t negative, boring, repetitive, a replay somehow of the activities/achievement list or otherwise braggy, its probably fine. It should capture the readers interest and be reasonably well written, and not sound like you are familiar with big words you rarely use in your everyday speech.
Thanks everyone. Your responses were so helpful. I think the problem for me is that I find it boring. Otherwise it seems ok. Her Eng teacher liked it, but suggested a couple of changes.I just read it again, and I don’t like it, but I’ve been outnumbered at home
In my opinion, my son’s essay was quite mediocre, and whether it was boring or not, it had his own voice. Although it wasn’t to our full satisfaction, he decided not to mess with it too much. We even found a grammatical error after the submission, but none of these concerns seemed to have affected his admissions.
“The essay seems good enough…”
Seems you already know.
Not everyone is going to have a knock it out of the park essay in terms of the quality of the writing. But what it needs to do, to be considered good/effective, is to reveal something about the writer not apparent in the rest of the application, to provide some insight into the writer’s character, to allow the reader to get to know the applicant and to shine a positive light on the student.
The higher the tier, the more what you show needs to relate to what they look for, attrubutes. Not just “you,” your yet unrevealed, say, love of cats.
My kids’ essays weren’t great, but hit the mark. In the end, with all the stress, most important is your child be satisfied he tried his best, when he hits the Submit button. You can’t perfectly control for an admit and that satisfaction is important. Especially in case the results don’t go his way.
Citymama9, I appreciate your asking this question. I had the same concern about my DD’s essay. I realize my problem came from her topic, and its painful history for me. It is well written, it tells an unusual story, and it is uniquely her own. I guess we’ll see what happens…
My central concern in reading the essays in draft was that they were “authentic.” Above and beyond being grammatically perfect and accurate in content, they should be in the applicant’s voice, revealing something of the applicant’s personality and values. This is a purely subjective criterion, of course, but as the people who knew the children best and who had ourselves written many essays and papers over the years we had a sense for the medium as well as the authors.
The point of the essays wasn’t to knock the socks off of the reader, but to tell the reader something revealing about THIS applicant.