Metawampe, so eight essays (short & long) is the max. That’s so helpful. thank you.
I need to add that this info is for me only. My kid manages the whole process. I don’t get detailed updates other than “it’s going well”.
At the same time, I want to be knowledgable about the essays and all the college admission process.
Eight is an outlier, to be sure. Rule of thumb: it’s fairly common for schools to ask the “why us” prompt. If a university has more than one undergraduate school (business, engineering, arts and sciences, etc.) you can expect a question on why the student is applying for that school. Again, some selective schools don’t require any. As they say, “your results may vary.”
Metawampe, thank you for the additional info. It helps.
This will definitely depend a lot on how the student writes. Typically it takes my daughter awhile to come up with an idea but once she does she can write pretty quickly. But usually she writes too much and then needs to figure out how to cut it down to the appropriate length. So, the editing take significantly longer than the original draft.
She did the common app essay first and then started on the supplementals. The supplementals took longer than she anticipated and she got burned out and started crossing schools off her list just because she was tired of writing. Students think they will be able to reuse essays more than that can. Obviously the “why us” essay has to be unique to each school but a lot of schools have similar supplemental themes such as the “diversity” essay (we value diversity so tell us what you will bring to our campus, what makes you unique, etc.) but they are all different lengths or have slightly different focuses. It can be hard to get your point across in a short number of words.
I’ll just add…maybe ONE college has 8 essays…but keep in mind, the supplemental essays are not the same for every college. Your kid could end up writing a LOT more than 8 supplemental essays in total for all their applications.
Adding also, applications to honors colleges and scholarships require additional essays most of the time. And NO you can’t just use one you have already sent. My kid did ONE honors college application that had over 6 essays…plus some “short answer” questions that required some research.
Expect at least one supplemental essay per college, but there are so many exceptions to that it’s impossible to say.
The average student on CC, and this is a very inaccurate guess, should expect to spend a good 20+ hours writing essays for 10+ selective schools. The more selective colleges you apply to, the more essays you will write. And because kids are going nuts these days and applying to more and more colleges, those “optional” essays are not really optional, in my opinion. Even schools you deem a safety and a match will have essays that you ought to do.
If you’re talking about next application season, as I and others have stated, start early, before the end of summer. If you’re talking about now, get off CC and start writing. Seriously.
Thanks @prdmomto1 for sharing your kid’s writing experience. It helps.
My kid doesn’t share much about the process. And, it’s OK.
Still I want to know how the essay process works as I can imagine it demands lots of effort.
yes, thanks @thumper1, I learned it depends on the particular college(s). For sure, the essay writing demands time and effort. Good luck to your kid.
@lindagaf, that’s a good average number of hours to know. thank you. Just to clarify, I am not writing anything for my kid.
Right, eight is a number for one school (Yale, in this example).
@thumper1, how did your kids accomplish that? was the style of writing? or the type of info shared? or ? do you mind elaborating.
wow! @momofboiler1 that a significant number for only 8. Im guessing, your D mainly applied to highly selective schools?
Nope, she had a range of schools but had extra essays to write for honors colleges and then for some merit awards. .
My kids both wrote about things they did themselves. They both had a nice writing style that really was their voice speaking. I think the key thing was they were writing about something they had done that was very important to them. Nothing contrived. Just genuine information and their feelings came through.
Both had hand written comments about their essays on their acceptance letters (not by every college…but both had these comments).
I think the key to writing a good essay is writing about something that genuinely you own. I’ve unfortunately seen kids agonizing over this because they wanted something “unique” or something that wasn’t really them.
Be yourself!
My kid is approaching the essay revision phase. The college counselor reads essays for anyone who asks. We don’t know how fast the turnaround is.
Of course, my kid revises, proofreads, rewrites, etc. until a draft is ready for review.
(we’ll not be reading any drafts) If a third party and the college counselor provides feedback, would it be too confusing or would it make the process inefficient?
Any words of wisdom ?
@thumper1 that makes a lot of sense! “I think the key to writing a good essay is writing about something that genuinely you own” and “Be yourself!” totally agree. May I ask you if a college counselor/English teacher/or anyone reviewed your kid’s essays?
Yes that would be too confusing, same as if parents are also involved in the editing/revising process. Many independent counselors won’t work with students who are working with someone else on essays.
Got it. Thank you, Mwfan1921.