<p>oh just kidding tasp is over by then</p>
<p>...i'll be in dc for all of tasp
unless we go like next week</p>
<p>oh okay nvm then. i'll figure out a different way to go.</p>
<p>op, check with someone on this but i think the essays stay fairly constant from year to year, so if i were you i'd try to at least start thinking about them pretty soon if you really want to go. they are the main basis for admission, and constitute a considerable amount of writing. in my case, i had never heard of tasp until i got the application in about mid december. the time between when i got the app and when it was due ended up being one of the busiest times i've ever had in my life, and i didn't write my essays until the weekend before the monday when the app needed to be postmarked. needless to say, i didn't get in. as was earlier mentioned, the essays can likely be adequately completed in a well focused month, but it never hurts to be proactive. good luck.</p>
<p>Ah, I wrote mine the night before it was due (well, I wrote one during the day, then pulled a semi-all nighter - one hour of sleep - to finish the other 5). </p>
<p>I think it depends on what kind of writer you are, though. If I were to describe my writing, I'd say it's very...raw. I told my interviewer that I write the way I talk - which is slightly incorrect; what I meant was that I write the way I talk in my head, haha. Forgot that part. But anyway: Needless to say, I didn't edit them much (in fact, I didn't edit three of my essays at all, except for a quick cursory 3 minute grammatical scan). When I reread them a few months later, there really wasn't much I felt needed editing because to edit them would be...contiminating the "pureness" of them.</p>
<p>But that's me, haha. Maybe you're the kind of person who edits 123019750x times, in which case go ahead and start because yes, the essays stay pretty constant.</p>
<p>i disagree with the poster above tako. i really don't think you need to start thinking about your essays now; i didn't even know about TASP until i got the brochure in the mail in december, and i fared fine. a month and a half is more than enough to write five essays (and the sixth one is a list); i worked on three of them sporadically during january and the last three i finished right AS i was running out the door before the post office closed. looking back on them, there were minor errors speckled throughout all of my essays, but the content is mainly what they're looking for. a typo here or there won't kill you. the summer before my junior year was one of personal growth for me, perhaps more so than any other summer. i don't want to go ahead and call it "life-changing," but i did write one of my essays based on an event (if you can call it that) that happened sometime during mid-july, so take it as you will. you'll be a different person in december than the person you are now. </p>
<p>i don't suggest writing all of them the night before they're due, even though it has been done (an 06 TASPer finished her essays by dictating her critical analysis on the phone to her sister while she was on a noisy bus, and i am still am awed by that), and tako's essays were nothing short of amazing (i still can't process the fact she wrote them all in one night). i suggest you work on them periodically and take a couple of drafts. this goes for anyone applying next year; it's a lot less stressful not to have to finish your essays at 3:49pm when the post office closes at 4 o'clock. those were some fun nights. ;-)</p>
<p>For what it's worth, if you apply online you get an extra week to hand in your essays! All you have to do is send in your rec. letter and transcript a couple of weeks ahead of time.</p>
<p>About the typos, I almost killed myself when I realized that microsoft word spell check had changed indie rock to indy rock. I also misspelled the names of two authors on my booklist. But seriously, I doubt telluride cared. It’s not about having a spotless essay; it’s about having an essay that tells TA you are capable of thinking. Don’t stress out about this, but make sure you have other summer plans in case things don’t work out.</p>
<p>i'd still suggest being proactive. especially with the critical analysis, as there is no life experience involved in that. i really can't see how thinking about them early could ever hurt you, and you never know what might come your way around december. now may be a little early to think about them, but i would certainly suggest doing so before december. and roamorse, i don't disagree that in a typical month-and-a-half you could easily crank out the five essays, but you never know what that month and a half will be like between the application reciept and the postmark date. i find it hard to advise against thinking about them at least sort of early. and tako is right, it depends on what kind of writer you are. i'm a slow, perfectionist type, so my last-minute writing really sealed my fate.</p>
<p>pssht
i wrote mine all the night they were due (from like 7pm to 3 am)</p>
<p>then again i didn't exactly make it through the second round....heh</p>
<p>anyway tasp isn't awesome, just the people
i'd say apply but don't go :-P</p>