<p>So I finished college apps a week ago and after finishing the stanford app( the worst in my opinion) I counted all the essays I wrote and it totaled around 12. I used two main essays for common app and additional info and the others that were about 400- 500 char. How many did you guys write? ( felt like your hand would remain in the mold of typing hands forever or..... wrote 1 essay and that was it for you!!)</p>
<p>I’m confused here! Now someone just clear it up for me–do we write a different essay for each college we are applying to or the same essay for each?</p>
<p>In my case (I am still a junior), I would be planning to write 8 or more different essays depending on if I choose to write supplements…</p>
<p>^^ Advice for JFetrov that I wish I had as a junior: Think about your essay topics NOW and compile your college list of about 30 schools your interested in. After you read and visit more about each college you’re list will probably go down to 8-15 ( include safeties, matches, and reaches) After you have you’re final list of colleges, begin the actual applications by first looking at the essay topics/ prompts or additional information space. BE sure to take into account the word limit. </p>
<p>You will find that most applications ( especially the common app which has the same essay sent to each of your schools) will have many similar topics. Many of the prompts will be extremely generic such as: Tell us something you haven’t mentioned in the application. Other prompts are specific and for your commonapp essay you are given a choice of which topic. </p>
<p>During the summer you should have a rough idea of your final list of colleges and a list of all the essay topics you must answer which includes the supplement essays and the short answers. You will notice that most of the essays topics are the same as other schools. EX: Columbia and Yale both want an essay where you tell them about yourself. It would be useless to write an individual essay for each school when the topic is the same. ( unless you want to convey a different side of your personality or accomplishments to each school) </p>
<p>Outlining the number of essays you have to write will save you a LOT of time. The important thing is that you can RECYCLE essays which means to use the same essay for many colleges. I pretty much used 2 main essays for every college I applied to because I included one for my common app and the other for the supplement. Save the essays because you can use them for scholarships too. I hope this helps;)</p>
<p>Common App Essay for 7 colleges + 1 outside common app
Supplementary essay used on 3 colleges
Supplementary used on 1 college + 1 college outside common app as main essay
A Last essay for a college with a specific question. </p>
<p>so I wrote 4 essays that I used. Prior to these though I wrote 4 terrible essays, which I never used. </p>
<p>so total 8. This does not count those 500 char responses and short questions.</p>
<p>9 in total</p>
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