When should my junior, or rising HS senior, have his first draft of college done by?
That was meant to be “colleges essay.” Oops.
This summer might be a good time to start working. Make sure any drafts are for the correct essay prompts (like, not last year’s if there are new ones every year).
I just went through the process so this might be helpful. When I first started writing my drafts it was around mid-August. I would say I finished the CA essay around early October/late September. However, after being Deferred early, I decided to completely rewrite my essay within a few weeks of the application deadline (December 31st).
Fortunately, things still turned out pretty well acceptance-wise so it seems, at least based on my experience, that there really is no structured time by which you should have the essay finished, aside from the actual deadline of course.
Work on different drafts/versions over the summer and if you end up working on it until the deadline, know that it can still be a great essay!
Our school wanted our kids to start over spring break of their junior year. They have a writing center in the library that can help them and they want them done by the end of the school year. Having said that a good majority of the students start as soon as school is out and have them done well before school is in session in August. Most of the students work on the Common App when it opens in august. Good Luck to you.
Our school asked students to come back in September with drafts for 3 of them. They then looked for themes and refined the one they choose to use. It was a good process for surfacing the best material.