<p>..if applying to, say, 25 schools?</p>
<p>I know that many are generic and can basically be copied over to another college's app.</p>
<p>Just want to gain some perspective as I will be applying to schools in the fall.</p>
<p>I’m going to be applying to schools in the fall as well, and I have been told that you should have at least one unique essay for each school. That being said, your unique essay can be a free choice in which you can submit to all 25 of your schools. </p>
<p>I know I’m going to write 5-10 essays this summer so I can get a head start on the entire process and be able to have time to edit and revise them… also that way I have options.</p>
<p>Same here, pokadot!</p>
<p>Uchicago released its supplements to those on its mailing list this past week. I plan to start on those in the coming weeks…</p>
<p>You should at least be prepared to write two types of essays: </p>
<p>[ul]
[li] A personal statement (that’s the one with several choices on the Common App that need to be less than 500 words). All of the choices are sort of asking the same thing: Who are YOU? ONE essay will suffice for all of the Common App schools, and the one you’ve prepared can even be used for many non-Common-App schools as well (sometimes with just a little tinkering). There is all kinds of advice out there to help with that. Heck, I even wrote a book on it and have given a lot of that advice on CC, even with sample essays.</p>[/li]
<p>[li] Each school will also have an essay specifically for that school (sometimes shorter than the Common one. Many times, this will take the form of “Why our school?” There is good advice available in books and here in this forum (if you look) on how to write these kinds of essays.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Many other schools may ask off-the-wall questions, like, “Our school motto is 'scientia, veritas et amicitia.’ Tell us how that would apply to your four years with us.” You aren’t going to do this kind of thing in advance, so don’t worry about it now. But you CAN get started on the first, above, and you can start crafting a strategy for the second and even practice on some schools you know you will be applying to. Just never, ever start an essay by repeating the prompt: “I want to go to Harvard because…” Ooops - boring already in the first half of the first sentence.</p>
<p>Thanks Digmedia! </p>
<p>You seem to know a lot about this stuff. So I would probably end up with 25 supplements along with the longer common app essay(s)?</p>
<p>How many schools are you applying to? 25 is not only waaaay too many, it would be expensive and the teachers writing your recommendation letters would quickly get tired of doing them.</p>
<p>^ unless there’s common app to help you.</p>
<p>OP, I don’t think it’s wise spreading your seeds everywhere. I’m sure there are schools that will please you the most according to culture and location. Apply only to those schools.</p>
<p>I may not apply to all of the schools on my list but I do want to maximize my chances of admission in to a good school… </p>
<p>And why would my teacher’s get tired of recs? Don’t they just have to write one that I send to all the colleges?</p>