I want to know whether it is hard to compose college essays and how to get any help when stuck.
Depends on the kid. What might help you is look at the questions in advance and take a few days and brainstorm ideas. Write down everything that comes to mind.
For some an easy is a quick feat. For others it’s weeks of refinement. And for others they throw away and re start with different topics.
Ask a teacher to review. Some service will give you feedback for a small fee. Ours wasn’t worth a hoot. Parents/ friends can help foo althiugh they’re often not objective.
In the end, show yourself in the essay. Write as you are, not as you think they want to read. If you do it in summer, it’ll make your overall experience easier.
Also there are many schools that don’t require an essay.
Good luck.
@Petrov1 I sometimes help students here on CC. I can PM you if and when you want assistance.
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Personally, I think most students way over think it trying to craft the perfect essay which doesn’t exist. Try to write in a relaxed atmosphere and don’t over think it. Then rewrite it and get some input from teachers. Don’t wait to the last minute either.
I think it depends on the kind of person you are. If you are a STEM person who doesn’t like writing (about yourself!), it will probably be a somewhat painful process. But, at the end of the day, you will look back on your essays and hopefully be really proud of them.
I think the main thing to keep in mind is that you should write your essays early so that you have lots of time to edit and rework them because usually, your first draft won’t be your best draft.
And don’t write the essays that you think will “fit” with the college. Think about the essays that represent who you are and what you believe in. Reviewing essay is highly subjective (other than they have to be grammatically correct).
Spend a lot of time. I understand some higher level English classes at HS in my area actually incorporate writing personal statement for college as the main assignment in the course. If you have that kind of class, I suggest you take advantage of it so you are good approaching the summer. Spend your summer perfecting your personal statement because the college-specific essays usually don’t come out until August 1. If you want to do ED or EA, the deadline is usually October 31st or even earlier. So you want to make sure that you don’t have to worry about personal statement in the fall and can concentrate on college-specific essays.
I would discourage too much reworking. I have had to stop students from ruining a good essay by spending too much time on it!
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I have read some articles about not starting to early and some write better when the pressure is on… Not sure. Wish I could find the articles. But yes. Just had a student seem to make it much more difficult sorta ruining a perfectly good essay in this round.
It probably depends on personality! Of course when students are applying to more than 20 schools, last minute doesn’t work well. But they need to know when to stop writing and rewriting. Anxiety feeds into this, you are right.
I do the same thing in art class- I keep going when I should stop.
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