How long does it take to write the college application essays?

There are many variables with this…it can take one night, one weekend, one summer, etc…

Variables may include:

  • General writing abilities, grammar, getting thoughts on paper, etc…
  • Self-motivation - are these essays for schools they are passionate about attending? (But this passion/high interest can also create writers block if they think everything hinges on their essays. )
  • Ability to self-reflect, but also to rework essays about their interests or experiences for slightly different prompts.
  • Access to someone who can edit without taking away their voice and unique point of view. Over-editing can be worse than no editing.
3 Likes

I can only tell you what our kids did…and they both did the same thing. Each had a word document. When they thought of a good idea, they wrote about it in that one document. There were many different ideas there. This started when they were in 9th grade.

Near the end if their junior years in high school, they looked at that document more seriously and also at the college essay prompts. They chose their favorite idea and created an essay that was edited by them many many times before they even showed their “finished” product to me. Both had completed essays before their senior years started.

I will add…both of our kids are excellent writers, so really, once they got started, the task wasn’t as much of a drudge as for some kids. They enjoyed writing their essays. Both of their final main essays really captured them as people.

So…how long will it take? I think a lot depends on the student.

1 Like

Well, it’s hard to say. They were both recruited athletes so that muddies things. But all in all I expect their essays were better than they would have been if they didn’t have guidance and a structured process to follow (I didn’t read either essay).

I do think having a professional who understands college essays can be helpful thru the process, but sites like the college essay guy which I mentioned above, have many free resources to guide students, including many sample essays.

My kids would have never responded to me in brainstorming essay topics, or structuring or editing essays, so hiring a third party made sense for us. (And full disclosure I do some work as a college counselor)

1 Like

Yes, our kid liked the college essay guy exercises. They also have guides for the UCs and many individual colleges’ supplementals. The college essay guy materials were recommended by our HS.

I have tried to be hands off about the essay content because I know that my son is more comfortable that way. I have seen one draft of the main personal statement and I just told him I thought it was shaping up nicely. I haven’t yet seen drafts of his supplementals. I expect he will probably show them to me when he is closer to being ready to submit. I prefer having someone else help him, though, since I feel that he is likely to take my comments really personally. They have a drop-in center at school where they have volunteer essay readers (parents I think?)

1 Like

@Pathnottaken, I your handle name ; )

Access to someone who can edit without taking away their voice and unique point of view. Over-editing can be worse than no editing.

Exactly, how to find someone who can provide this type of editing?
My kid really doesn’t like to get any help from us. So most likely would be the college counselor who I’m not sure how much time she/he has to help.

@thumper1, wow! your kids had an early start at 9th grade. The first time I hear this.
I can tell they enjoy writing.

@Mwfan1921, I’ll check college essay guy. Same here, my kid does not respond well to us parents so a third party is easier.
Given the time constrains already, I really don’t know how busy the college counselor is. Maybe hiring someone to help with editing would be helpful.
Do you think the college counselor you hired kept your kids voice and style?

@tamagotchi, same here. Our kid doesn’t like to ask us for suggestions/help. I didn’t think of that before maybe kids take their parents feedback personally.

1 Like

IME, the time required expands to consume the time allotted.

2 Likes

To be clear…they did not write essays in 9th grade. They wrote down ideas. There is a huge difference.

My kids also kept track of all activities they did starting in 9th grade. That’s off topic to this discussion…but something everyone should consider doing.

1 Like

I’m a tutor who works professionally with students on application essays. I can tell you that, generally speaking, the supplemental essays can often be much more time consuming than the personal statement, simply because there are many, and because they need to be specific. For example, a big supplement, such as U Michigan’s two required supplemental essays, could easily take 8+ hours to write, assuming the student is doing a good job with researching writing, revising, etc… Even a short one, such as Ithaca’s 200 word supplement, requires a good amount of time, maybe 3+ hours including research.

The personal statement can also take many hours. From my perspective, a personal statement requires at least 6+ hours. There might be many drafts before the student manages to convey what they want the AO to know about them.

Of course, some kids bang out essays in minutes. That works for a few kids, but generally speaking, I do not recommend it, especially when it comes to supplements.

5 Likes

I agree with @Lindagaf

One of my kids did the honors college application for University of South Carolina. It was a doozie and required research, lots of information, and several different essays. That took a LONG time to complete.

4 Likes

Yes, a lot of students give no thought to honors college apps. They just think the personal statement will be fine, and are then freaked out when they suddenly have to write a couple of very compelling essays for a school they think is a safety.

I’ve got a glut of panicking students right now (just like every year) who are scrambling to write 10+ essays. I’ll digress a bit, but because students are applying to increasing numbers of highly selective colleges, they are simply unaware that these colleges all have their own essays. They think they can submit 20 apps via common app, but don’t consider how much time it will take to write those essays.

I “warn” students early on that they need to start these essays in the summer, before they head back to school. There’s an extra class called College Apps 101. You don’t get a grade, and it requires tons of work. There’s a reward at the end…or not. Devote your time to the schools you care most about, ensuring you do a good job on supplements for at least a couple of match and safety schools. If you run out of steam, at least you have put your best effort into a couple of schools you have a decent shot of getting into.

9 Likes

D23 just finished up her applications. Her common app essay took probably 20+ hours all in. She is a more methodical writer, one who writes all their ideas out and then edits to get to a completed work. it also took time because she writes on her computer, prints out a copy, reads it out loud while editing on paper and then runs that set of edits back on the computer. Lather, rinse, repeat. More than a dozen times.

The shorter essays were a bit quicker, probably 8-10 hours for each one. Essays that had short limits (150-250 words) I think can be the hardest ones to do well and can take more time than you think they will. Concision is a difficult skill, there is a famous quote about a writer apologizing for writing such a long letter to a friend…he says he just didn’t have the time to write a shorter one.

3 Likes

110% agree with this.

My D was completely caught off guard by the volume of additional school specific essays she had to complete. I’ve shared this multiple times over the years here on CC but it’s worth repeating that she wrote 19 unique essays for only 8 schools. That’s part of why I cringe when I see kids applying to 20 schools!

Tip for families with younger students - have your child take notes when you are doing your college visits. After each visit, our D would do a pros/cons list and note anything that stood out. Those notes helped her tremendously when composing the “why us” type essays.

6 Likes

100%!

I’ll refer people to this thread, which explains how to approach supplemental essays. Supplemental essay tips (plus the COVID question on the CA)

These essays are CRITICAL if a student wants to have the best chance of getting into colleges that care about interest, or are highly selective.

3 Likes

D20’s school offered a short essay workshop summer before senior year, taught by an English teacher. I think it involved brainstorming ideas and having the teacher read any drafts/ideas the students had. She hated all the suggested topics but the day after it ended woke up with an idea, wrote it in under an hour, and that was her common app essay. She found the school specific essays took more time because of the word count limits.

We never read her essays. I don’t know if she went back to her English teacher to proofread her essay or just her college counselor. I don’t think either would have suggested much editing to keep it authentic.

1 Like

Yes! The kids have to take notes! The short supplements that were the quick 15 minute ones (for a draft) were the ones where she had detailed notes, knows the school very well, has most of their programs and opportunities memorized. She started a doc over a year ago (on her own) with notes on every college tour and info session, plus anything else she thinks is important. So by the time she is writing, the research is already done.

4 Likes

My student spent time (off and on) the summer before senior year adapting an essay they’d written in a junior-year English class for the personal statement. It took a few drafts to refine it. I read it and provided some general notes about flow and grammar, and the college counselor at her school read it. My student also asked a trusted English teacher to look at it. Everyone maintained proper boundaries: my student’s voice, structure, and ideas carried through the drafts. (The starting point was strong — that essay got a very good grade when it was submitted as an English assignment.)

Of these steps and at this date, your student should ask a trusted teacher and college counselor to give the essay a look.

Your student should not rip through the college-specific supplements. A lot of kids write trite, generic responses to the “why us” prompt. (Do not, for example, tell Boston University that you like Boston and want to be in the city. You could write that for Northeastern, or Suffolk, or Emerson, etc. But if BU has a special program that leverages its location…that’s a different matter.)

For supplements, specifically the very common prompt of “why us,” my student kept a log from campus visits, used their friend network to talk to students at the colleges, researched their probable major and looked at the course catalog and the professors, and noted clubs, special programs and campus traditions.

Note that the “why us” essay is not for the student to simply repeat back the school’s marketing materials. It’s for the student to help the school understand how they will enthusiastically contribute and interact in that school’s community.

It’s work. I’m sorry not much of this is in the bank already, but with some effective time management, it can be done!

2 Likes

Yep, same for our student.

D21 had a previous English teacher at school help her with light editing. She never asked us to read them and we did not ask to. We did informally brainstorm a few times in the car about some of the extra questions.

Maybe your child can ask a previous teacher.

S19 willingly asked us to look them over and was not confident he had answered what they were asking about. He had, just needed some help expanding his thoughts, so we talked about it and he made a list of things he could possibly add. He also had a college counselor at school to look at drafts, but he did not care to use that.

Thank you all ! I got a lot of helpful info. I’ll have more questions about essays, but for now I have an unrelated question about common application essay and supplemental essays.

The common application requires one essay (one topic chosen from 7 different prompts)
Supplemental essays depend on the college.

Do selective and highly selective colleges usually require more than one supplemental essay? if so, how many ? of course, this is a general questions, but I’d like to have an idea about a range.

TIA

Your student should be managing their process. It’s mid-October. Your student should have a college list. Each school posts their application requirements on their website. Your student should know them by now. If your student has created a college list in the Common App, the requirements will also appear there.

We assume your student wants to go to college. College students need to manage a workload and a schedule independently. Your student’s ability to navigate the college application process is, in effect, a test of readiness for managing assignments and deadlines. I suppose you could look up the requirements of the schools, but your student needs to be driving the process. If not, there are deeper issues of readiness and motivation at play.

How many supplemental essays? It can be highly variable. Northeastern has none. Yale has eight, with a combination of short answers and longer responses. Expect the number to fall somewhere within that range.

1 Like