School just ended today and I will be a senior next year (I can’t freakin believe it!). I started inputting basic information into the Common App and now I am wondering how I should go about with the essays.
To those who have gone through this before: when did you start and finish your essays? How many revisions did it take to perfect them? How many distinct essays did you write in total? Do you have any tips for me - a very intimidated and anxious student right now?
Right now I am thinking about starting a blog so I can create a mess of ideas that I can somehow incorporate into my essays. Would this be a good idea?
Thanks for your time! Enjoy your summer ~
Not sure why you need to blog to generate ideas. But brainstorming a list of ideas is a good plan. A few thoughts:
- Remember the purpose of the essay – to make them want you on campus.
- Show, don’t tell. Sweeping generalizations aren’t helpful. Specific stories are.
- A great essay can turn on a small thing. Something that shows your personality or quirks (without scaring them off
) is good.
- Some topics are overdone – death of grandparent or pet, service to low income areas that make you thankful – snoozers for admissions people.
- Avoid mental health issues.
My kids generated a few ideas, but wrote one common app essay. I’d guess they maybe put in 10 hours on their common app essay, but it was spread out. You want a trusted adult to review it, too. But your colleges may want more supplemental essays, which will be available in the common app once they open up next fall’s app process. Some scholarships have essays, too.
Don’t be intimidated! The colleges want to get to know you, and the best essays share something unique about yourself. My son was in jazz band for years, and got good enough to play with a professional group. Because my son isn’t a very spontaneous person, he had a terrible time learning to improvise. Learning to trust his instincts without his scientific type of mind “overthinking” things was a real challenge. His essay was amusing and gave real insight into his personality. Two universities included a handwritten note on his acceptance letter that they loved his essay.
Does your school make the essay a class assignment? I know my son’s English teacher really helped with formatting and cleaning up the structure.
@Yomama12 Your son’s college essay sounds SO familiar! Was it by any chance posted somewhere online as an example?
Not to my knowledge! And as he worked on it he read the different stages to me, so I know it was original. But, he did get asked to share it with his friends after the comments he got, so perhaps it ended up somewhere?
Or, it’s just coincidence that it was similar to another well know essay. Students are so worried that they have to come up with something very unique and different to interest the application reader. They don’t realize that retelling something familiar (learning to improvise, cooking with my grandmother, volunteering in a nursing home, why I love Harry Potter, etc.) are great essay topics if they let the students personality come through.
@intparent I had just always wanted to start a blog so I thought it would kill two birds with one stone 
If mental health issues really affected my junior year, should I say anything in the additional information section? Or should I just ignore the fact and highlight my (hopeful) improvement in senior year? Thanks for your help!
@Yomama12 My school unfortunately does not make the essay an assignment, but I will be sure to ask my English teacher for feedback next year. Do you know how much time your son probably took to write his essay?
I really don’t know the total time he put into his essays (he wrote two main UC essays and some shorter ones for some private school applications). I would think that a good essay would be a few hours of work. Perfect to start in the summer!
Writing tip. After you finish a rough first draft, put it down and reread it after a day or two. It will really help polish the final version. Procrastinating and having to send in something hastily written down generally shows.
Yomama’s son’s essay sounds great. In addition to sharing some insights, sounds like he came across as self aware and open to change. I’m guessing he did the “show, not just tell,” as well.
Don’t post your essay online, either. It opens you up to plagerusm, and they might think you are the one who took it.
If you got treatment for your mental health issues, you can ask your GC to mention “health issues” in their recommendation. Otherwise I’d leave it out. Colleges are reluctant to admit students with past mental health issues.
I agree about writing a drsft, then returning to it. Weeks can be better than a couple of days.