<p>I’ve got most short answers done and part of Exeter essay done. I plan on writing an essay every day or so, and review them at the end of break.</p>
<p>I have two rough drafts done. (One for each school I am applying to). Over vacation, I intend to do an essay boot camp and get all of them done.</p>
<p>Glad to see my Essay Boot Camp idea has been so popular. But I’m still procrastinating… argh…</p>
<p>^Essay boot camp! Woot woot!
Schedule for Essay Boot Camp</p>
<p>7:00-8:00 AM Get up, eat breakfast
8:00-10:00 AM Read some good college and newspaper essays
10:00-12:00 PM Write essays
12:00-12:30 PM Lunch
12:30-1:30 PM Break. Nap time!!
1:30-3:30 PM Essay writing and revising!
3:30-4 PM Break
4:00-6:00 PM More essay writing!
6:00-7:00 PM Dinner and break
7:00-9:00 PM Essays! Yay-not.
9:00 PM SLEEP!</p>
<p>Hahahahaha, jk. I don’t think I’d be able to survive eight hours of essay writing in one day. I’m almost done- just have one school to do, then revise, revise, revise.</p>
<p>haha I’m applying to seven schools and so far I have five drafts done. feel pretty accomplished :P</p>
<p>Haha I heard about the handwriting thing too! Pretty intense. If Gateway doesn’t let you go over the word limit, I’m screwed. >_< I’ve pretty much shortened them as much as I can :(</p>
<p>oh wow I definitely relate about the word limits. it takes me about an hour to write the essay, then over 2 hours just to cut it down to fit the limits. everything just seems so important for the essay to make sense as a whole! D:</p>
<p>Another thought- wow, this has gotten a LOT of views.</p>
<p>DO AOs “grade” essays?</p>
<p>@supersnail,</p>
<p>Gateway will NOT let u exceed the character count limit. The essay will be cut off if it is too long. You will be able to tell when u review the document.</p>
<p>Do you all know if it’s proper form to use contractions like “I’d” and “weren’t” in these personal essays?</p>
<p>My counselor who’s reviewing my essays for me this year and my friend at NYU who reviewed my essays for me last year both put an emphasis to NOT use contractions in formal essays like this. I do it way too much and it took me forever to edit out. xD</p>
<p>Although it might sound colloquial, I think using contractions is better when there is a word restriction at hand…then if you did not exceed the word limit after you are done with your essay, you should switch some</p>
<p>Oh okay thanks! I was wrong about the limit I did the print preview went back then it said I was over. Thanks for letting me know. I just keep trying to cut it down and I was doing that with contractions!</p>
<p>Is anyone else struggling with the Blair essay? I can’t seem to write anything especially meaningful in just 150-250 words…</p>
<p>pinkandgreenprep- what’s the essay prompt (not currently applying to blair)? Just try to get your point across; not so much of the frilly, fluffy stuffy 
(It is good to have some frilly, fluffy stuff, but try to tone it down when your word limit is less).</p>
<p>azpandaman - there are three prompts to choose one from. They are:
A. Where do you see yourself ten years from now? How have your acquired experiences shaped your aspirations for the future?
B. Which people, places, or experiences had the most significant impact on your character and view of the world?
C. Describe a moment when you faced adversity. What was your response and the ultimate outcome?
I’ve tried including as little info as possible - still ending up a few hundred words over the limit. Bleh. Who would have thought the shortest essays would be the hardest (Well, in my opinion)</p>
<p>I found this ironic because I have a trouble getting my essays longer. I know it’s fine to have them shorter than the limit but I feel that they need to be longer :P</p>
<p>Haha, I guess we all struggle with different things.</p>
<p>Listing from 1 to however many schools you are applying to, what are your best essays?</p>
<p>For the Ssat app if I’m sending my recommendations directly to the schools will it still let me submit the rest of the application online? Or if i tell my teachers to send the recommendations to Ssat instead how does that work? Do they photocopy the recommendations for how many schools I’m applying to and send them to Ssat? If you can’t tell I’m really confused hah so can someone explain how the recs work for Ssat?</p>