<p>Everyone is advising to start the college apps in the summer, but how do you do that w/o the college essays coming out? anything I can do until they do?</p>
<p>If you already know some schools that you want to go to where you plan to apply for scholarships or honors programs, check to see if their essays differ from year to year. My daughter found it so hard to write the ones that were due Jan. 15, Feb 1 and March 1 because she had peaked out at the year-end rush. She really wished she had had some of those done.</p>
<p>The Common App essays are the same from last year. I don't think the new app is posted online yet, but D got a copy in a mailing this week.</p>
<p>Correct, the Common App essay prompts will not change this year. I suggest you start writing essays about something meaningful to you. Or even trivial. Work on developing your "voice", writing something that will convey who you are, or the confusion in trying to figure out who you are. By the end of the summer, you should have enough to either adapt to a prescribed prompt or be used in the "choose your own topic" category.</p>
<p>In addition, many colleges want a "Why ____?" statement or essay. Start planning/researching what you will say.</p>
<p>Good call (people above me). </p>
<p>For reference, there was also a 150ish word question asking to elaborate on an activity that you did, in addition to the larger essay. </p>
<p>I believe that the new CApp is due to be available in early July</p>
<p>bumpbumpbump</p>
<p>you can make most essays work with any prompt with a little tweaking... write a couple about what you feel "passionate" about, and I guarantee they will work on most college aps.</p>
<p>You can read this link from UVa and think about how its advice might apply to you:</p>
<p>For the common app, I just did a topic of my choice for all eleven and it worked out fine for me, so work on this one first, since you don't necessary have to stick to a topic, though I think there are four/five other choices on the common app if I remember correctly. It's just look out for those damn supplement essays, that's really when the going gets tough, so get going. Though I can't say much for myself since I wrote my essays starting a week after Halloween and finishing oh, about December 15th.</p>