Like someone else said, depends on the college (and probably how important the school is to the student.) It does seem to me that there is an excessive number of these opportunities at the moment, thanks to Covid and Zoom!! The times for many just don’t work out for my daughter. She does what she can.
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I don’t think it necessarily needs to be something academic that fills the time. At this point in the year though, I would not stress about changing things. What is done is done, and it may well work out just fine.
His experience playing basketball in different places does sound interesting.
Editing, because I just read that he is working in his own landscaping business. That is a fantastic and educational way to use the time.
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Hi - D22 is planning to apply to University of Michigan Ross school of business . Quick question - apart from the common app main essay, how many supplemental essays are needed? On common app, Umich page , D22 has seen only two prompts ( what makes you unique/plac ein community and why us/major type). However UMich Ross says 4 essays. Wondering which one we should plan for. I posted this on UMich EA thread as well and just wanted to share on this thread as well in case there are pointers.
Thanks in advance
There are two supplements for all UM colleges, and Ross has additional ones. They are pretty significant - they refer to a ‘portfolio’. If I recall, one is a business analysis. https://michiganross.umich.edu/undergraduate/bba/admissions/first-year-applicants
Thank you so much.
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UMich has a home school and then Ross school as a subsequent selection. Is there a way to figure if the students study Ross school curriculum or start with home school curriculum and then in year 2 or 3 go to Ross courses? Thanks in advance
The process is that students have to first get admitted to a home school, such as LSA. After being admitted, they are then considered for Ross. It is quite competitive, so many students will be admitted to LSA (or Engineering, etc…), but not get admitted to Ross. Then they have to decide if LSA/Eng. will work for them (see Electives, Minors & Opportunities for all U-M Students | Michigan Ross). For students admitted to Ross, they start the BBA curriculum in their first semester, and it is a 4-yr program.
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S22 finished revising his Common App essay. DW and I think it’s really excellent. He has a throughline of the ways in which basketball helped to shape his identity through our various international moves, ending with saying his identity is now less dependent on basketball than ever but he carries with him all the past lessons and experiences. Done more artfully than I’m portraying it – we were really impressed. He completely cured the problem from his initial draft of reaching for big words that didn’t sound like him. While the three of us were going over minor edits, he rejected one suggested word change with “I would never say that.” A relief to have it done.
Now he has the “why NYU?” and “why Fordham?” essays to do, and he seems to have his thoughts in order at least on the NYU one. Reviewed the other Common App entries with him and they’re in good shape. Exciting to be coming down to submission!
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S22 is in full essay mode down here. With 14 applications and most including separate honors or scholarship essays, he figured out he has 40 essays total, with 36 more to go. Luckily, due dates are staggered. Of course, some of these are 100 words or less, and some can be reused for others with slight adjustments.
He got back his last SAT score over the weekend, and scored a 1570. Happy he is done testing and has a score he’s excited about! Hopefully it will help with some of the merit scholarships he’s pursuing.
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100 words or less does not count as an essay. Don’t make it worse than it is. If I didn’t miscount your two short paragraph post is 95 words.
Congrats to your son on his excellent SAT score.
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I’ll remind him when he bellyaches about his essays, lol.
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My kiddo is tired of all these essay supplements and wonders if they are even being read….obsessing over every word and feeling like it won’t even matter. Any words of encouragement a parent can give that you have found actually helps?
I paraphrased Shakespeare “Nothing comes from nothing”….didn’t help 
The essays are tough because it’s the last element that seems to be in the student’s “control.” No, we don’t know how much a college emphasizes essays and some probably care more than others. I would say that in highly selective holistic admissions, when kids are all quite superior, it really could come down to the voice/personality/vibe the AO gets through the essay. So yes, it’s a false sense of control, but it is encouraging to think that likability or kindness or empathy or curiosity could shine through in an essay and help admissions 
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Congrats on the score! It’s exciting when the puzzle pieces fall into place.
Hopefully there is some overlap in the 40 essays? S22 is applying to 20 schools and he’s been able to reuse some essays in their entirety and tweak others.
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We found that with essays there is only so far a particular kid can go before they shut down with “essay fatigue.” Only you and you kiddo will know when that point comes. With my older kids, there were a few schools with later app deadlines that just did not get completed. It became too much, they had a few early acceptances by then, and they were done. My advice is if there is a college or scholarship you want your child to apply for, that they are not particularly interested in completing, now is the time to try and cajole it out of them. It probably won’t happen later.
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I can only speak from personal experience. I don’t know if it will help.
One of my children applied to a school with several supplements, was accepted and asked to interview for a scholarship. At the interview they were looking for whether the student had the same voice as their writing and could validate/expand upon what they wrote about in their supplements. So yes, they were read. 
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We were explicitly told by one college we toured (UNC-Asheville) that the essay was the most important part of the application because they knew EC’s suffered with COVID.
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Of course that 150-word supplement was some of the toughest writing my S did over the weekend.
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Your kids’ essays will be read :). Hang in there. I would not tell them to dump everything from their mind once they’re done. When we thought my S21 was done, there came the scholarship invites requiring more essays.
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There should be new psychiatric diagnostic codes for parents of students applying to college:
010121 - Temporary insanity due to the college admissions process
1101 - ED due to ED 
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