How many essays can I expect to write?

<p>I have written the generic "college essay" that is requested on the common app, but I know that many (most?) colleges have their own, additional essay prompt(s). I am probably going to apply to about 10 colleges, 15 at the most. About how many more essays would I be writing? I know that it varies by school, but I am just looking for a rough estimate.</p>

<p>i’m also planning to apply to around 10-15 schools</p>

<p>from what i know so far, most schools require the commonapp essay and another one asking “why this school?”
but some schools even give us specific topics and expect us to write an additional one</p>

<p>In that case, you’ll have to send 3 essays to a school
but usually, as i have said most require 2 only
so you have to write totally 1(common app essay) + 10-15(why this school) + 3-5(additional topics) = 15-20 essays :D</p>

<p>in my case, i’m intending to write 2 commonapp essays, so that i can choose to send 1 to some schools, 1 to other schools :)</p>

<p>I would say 5 at the most. I applied to eight schools and wrote 3 main essays: the common app essay, the “Why?” essay, and an essay for the University of Chicago about my interests and favorite books and things. Usually you can mold what you have in your common app essay to fit other prompts. They all kind of ask the same thing. If you do end up writing 5 essays, I don’t think they’ll all be 5 completely different essays. You probably would just change a few sentences or add a few more to fit the topic.</p>

<p>That few? Interesting. Wouldn’t it hurt an applicant if he or she sent two essays to a college (the common app essay and the college’s prompt) that were very similar? After all, isn’t that why a college creates its own prompt in the first place?</p>

<p>Yes, they should be different essays. But even then, it’s not very many, because the prompts that colleges ask will probably be quite similar.</p>

<p>I wrote a whopping 20 essays (1 common app, 11 “why us” essays, 5 supplemental (unique to each school), and 3 scholarship/honor’s program essays). X0. Not to mention the annoying paragraph-long questions for some schools.</p>

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<p>I’m looking at this many or more for seven applications. Most of the schools I am looking at have two or three supplemental essays and THEN the short answer questions. Even my safety, College Park (in state, more a financial safety than anything), requires a ridiculous number of essays. More the reason to get started right on July 1st.</p>

<p>for people who intend to apply ED or EA, i think ED/EA provides you with a good chance to put your essays on trial
since other stats (SAT, grades, activities…) are almost fixed by the time you apply, the only thing you can change is essay. If your ED/EA is rejected, so somehow it means your essays has not worked well enough —> better write some others :D</p>

<p>so not looking forward to the essays…</p>

<p>I wrote about 12-15 original essays. i’m not the kind of person that posts the same essay ten times. not unless the prompts are exactly the same. i did use my personal statement on every app though</p>

<p>I’m excited to write them, haha. Think of it as a challenge, not a chore!</p>