<p>^^agree. Jumper, please have the best English teacher you know read all of your essays before you submit them. They need to be clean of all spelling and grammar errors, and checked for overuse or duplication of common adjectives: “fun”, “hard-working”, “interesting” and so on. Otherwise, it doesn’t have to be the best set of essays they’ve ever seen, but should be heart-felt and cogent.</p>
<p>^ Sounds like great advice.
Most students are juggling 5-6 APs and sport etc…so Oct is ridiculus…
I should think Sherpa and Riverrunner make good points–Good essays, clean etc help. If they are lousy…it could damage the app</p>
<p>Yep, August thru October is absolutely ridiculous but November and December can be BLISS if Likely Letter or Early Decision is in your son/daughters future. You’re almost there if this is your S or D’s college acceptance goal. Good luck!</p>
<p>Jumper</p>
<p>My daughter had a huge meltdown last night. Just the sheer amount of work on top of the applications and practices almost every day … it’s insane. Hoping for a quick and favorable outcome for everyone! She also has five APs, gets five hours of sleep, etc etc …</p>
<p>She is also working with an English teacher at school (not the one she has, but the one she learned the most from) to tweak the essay. I think as long as you dot your i’s and cross your t’s you should be fine … if your academics are that strong I doubt your essay will be substandard as long as you put a bit of thought into it …)</p>
<p>Hang in there!</p>
<p>jumper, depends on the school. I can tell you out here in California if you’re a recruited athlete to say UCLA then the essay just needs to be OK, but if you’re being recruited by Harvard or similar, it best be excellent.</p>
<p>^^And there are some LAC’s for which the essay is the deal-breaker! For Ivies, though, its mainly the AI.</p>
<p>fenway south ^^^ yes, this month feels absolutely RIDICULOUS, and the bliss of November/December feels like a fantasy right now…sigh… Trying to remember that we are very fortunate to have the stress we feel right now - hard to keep perspective sometimes!</p>
<p>I’m pulling for all of you-nothing to add but good wishes-my freshman son is happy where he landed(Midd ED)His sport season is winter, so not much there yet, just optional work outs, and no pressure.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies! I will definitely have teachers read my essays and give me feedback. My 20 page paper took most of my time for the past 2 weeks and so I haven’t been able to write my application essay. And scholarship essays as well…</p>
<p>“Harvard or similar” Like top 10 schools in the nation? Or do you mean, just the HYPSM?</p>