To all of you experienced, wise parents:
I need to have an idea about how long does it take for a student to write the essays?
My kid is applying to mostly private colleges and some public colleges. The colleges range are from highly selective to less selective.
How is/was your kid strategy to write essays?
Did you kid receive help from their HS college counselor? or someone else? or ?
Any feedback and words of wisdom is highly appreciated.
TIA
At my DS’s High School, the write their Common App essay in English class the 4th quarter of Junior year.
This is going to vary so much from person to person, and college to college, that I don’t think anyone can really say.
I assume you were talking about the supplemental essays that some colleges require. For the three schools my son is applying early action, one required no supplementals, one required 1, and one required 2.
My son is a very quick writer, so each supplemental essay probably took him 15 minutes, but he often spent a significant amount of time letting the ideas percolate in the back of his head before he wrote. Once he wrote them, somebody proofread them, gave him a few suggestions, and he finished them up in another five minutes. But I would not recommend allotting only 20 minutes for them!
Anything from an afternoon to several months, depending upon the student and the ease with which they find their inspiration and get it into a well-done essay.
The only one I recall is Thing 3, who went through several ideas, each with an essay, and finally came up with the good one, with several proof-reading sessions.
And then you have all the supplemental essays for certain colleges. Or you can apply to U Toronto or McGill, and have no essays whatsoever.
In general, probably a good idea to get going on it in August, before school starts. Certainly by Sept. If your child hasn’t yet begun, it’s time to hop to it!
It seemed like the process took forever at the time. Procrastination, perfectionism, it was painful! I would say it was probably 3 weeks per application.
My H’s HS also had students write their common essays in English class at the end of junior year. They went through peer reviews and editing, and then got feedback from both the English teacher and the school college counselor. I think D worked on hers for about a month. The supplemental essays also took some time but she worked on them over the summer before senior year.
“The only one I recall is Thing 3, who went through several ideas, each with an essay, and finally came up with the good one, with several proof-reading sessions.”
That’s what I’m thinking that sometimes a student needs to write some essays and the writing by itself will lead them to the good one. Drafts, proof-reading, and rewriting is a time consuming and necessary process too.
Who help you student with the proof-reading?
@MAmomto4, it seems your son had kind of a quick essay writing experience. May I ask who proofread his essay drafts?
@Eeyore123, so nice to have an English class to write common app. That is not happening at my kid’s hs.
Does anyone has any tips that really help with the essay writing?
Your user name is so appropriate 
I think it probably depends on the kid… S23 started in August and is not yet done with them. Even the main personal statement has been through a few different revisions and is still being revised. But I know some get theirs done very efficiently.
At our HS, they do some essay writing in English classes, but not until senior year… and they haven’t even started that exercise yet this year! I think they have not adjusted their process to allow time for ED / EA apps.
My daughter took a summer session class/workshop at UCLA on essay writing. It gave her a lot more confidence. She did not end up using that essay because it did not fit any of the prompts.
@Impatient_parent, yes it’s not an easy experience for a parent. Three weeks for application I imagine maybe 3 essays per application?
I am sure there are people with much stronger essays than my son’s, but they represent him well. (And I am talking about the supplemental essays; the main personal statement was a much more arduous process.)
Either I or my mom (college prof with a background in journalism) proofread each of his essays. We looked for errors, self-critical language (something he does a lot 
), and anything that just didn’t make sense. It was mild proofreading. We tried really hard to not recommend any significant changes.
Neither I nor my SO read any of my DS’s applications. He had one question about either the awards section.
That is probably the average. It did not seem to matter if it was one essay or 5. She would hem and haw over them. I guess my username IS appropriate! 
@MAmomto4, well said “I am sure there are people with much stronger essays than my son’s, but they represent him well.” I will keep this in mind for my kid essays.
“We looked for errors, self-critical language (something he does a lot ), and anything that just didn’t make sense. It was mild proofreading. We tried really hard to not recommend any significant changes.” This sound like a great strategy - supportive but not overshadowing your son writing.
This really depends on the kid as well as the length of the essay. In general, start early, especially if their college list is going to result in 25+ essays. Both of mine are excellent creative writers, and like to write, though the deadlines of college apps create more pressure than ideal. They worked on their common app main essay summer before senior year, one of them completing it early August. The actual writing was an hour or two, with more time revising later, but the ideas percolated for months before that writing. Supplementals can be 15minutes or 2 hours depending on the length and topic. You should find out if your school college counselor will proofread, or if not have the student ask an English teacher. Per our school, the parent role is to support the process but not edit, and only proofread for obvious errors if asked(which I often am not). For schools that do not provide proofreading (or brainstorming in English class), the parents may have to be more of a guide/editor. Just be careful not to change the voice or the content of the essays. I am very glad I do not have to do any editing.
@2Devils, agree with you about not changing the voice/content.
“The actual writing was an hour or two, with more time revising later, but the ideas percolated for months before that writing.”
How did the ideas percolated? was it particular strategy that your kid follow?
At my kid’s school, they had help from the counselors, it was part of my kid’s English class (AP English LANG), at least, and the school had essay writing workshops for students.
This is highly variable as others have said.
For common app essay, Start with two hours of brainstorming to uncover potential topics (good exercises on college essay guy’s website).
From there a good essay can take anywhere from 4 hours to many more.
Supplemental essays can be hard/esoteric like UChicago’s, or shorter like Why us essays but those require research to properly do. Research includes doing virtual/live admissions sessions, looking at majors on website, identifying classes the student would take, profs to do research with, and/or clubs/orgs the student would participate in.
The more research and essays that can be completed in the summer before senior year the better.
My two kids used a college counselor to help with apps, including brainstorming/editing essays.
Mwolf, how helpful were the essay writing workshops? at my kid’s hs they have workshops too. Im not sure how helpful it is since it is for the whole graduating class and cannot be specific.
@Mwfan1921, thanks for the tips. Do you think the college counselor you got helped your kids to have better chances to get admitted and write better essays?
Their school discusses the essay spring of junior year and they brainstorm ideas then do some rough drafts of 2 different ideas. The parents don’t see any of that. Both kids started the thinking process there. I was not involved until after the final draft was turned in to the counselor for review, so I think they each thought about it for months in their heads.