<p>I have three different word documents titled “Common App Essay” -___-
How cliche is it to write about how living down South compares to living in Jersey? I’ve moved around a lot and I wrote about how you can’t ever completely shed the “new kid” status you acquire once you go to a new school.</p>
<p>i think its good to list a bunch of ideas
and then whenever you have time, jot some things down that relate to these ideas</p>
<p>I wrote my essay about a week ago and revised it several times, but I’m not bringing it under 900 words. I understand the concern many people have that this is too long of a word count, but if you feel that you’re limiting yourself on your essay because of this then you shouldn’t stop. A word count shouldn’t make you hamper your full potential. Of course, get additional opinions to see if you should actually cut down or not before you feel you’re through.</p>
<p>I’m so uninteresting!
There is almost NOTHING unique and outstanding about me! Where on earth can I find topics.
In fact the ONLY thing I can think of is my ex-tennis career.
The reason I don’t want to write about that is basically because it’s my EX-tennis career. And I’m not too sure they look at quitting very nicely.</p>
<p>I feel the same way. I am not an exciting person. It’s tough to write about myself when given so much freedom. I like essay topics that are more rigid, but I guess freedom is what the common app essay is all about.</p>
<p>I know. I’ve pretty much lived in quiet, suburban towns my whole life, save three years in New York which I have no recollection of. I haven’t done anything particularily extraordinary and most of my academic achievements were made in elementary school, none of which I remember clearly enough to write an essay about.</p>
<p>Such is the life of a rising senior.</p>
<p>“Quote:
I’m doing alternate versions of the common app, and sending different essays to different colleges.
The 2010-2011 version of the common application does not allow for this.”</p>
<p>Are you sure? I’m pretty sure that one can do alternate versions…</p>
<p>I think they stopped it beginning with last year.</p>
<p>I basically finished the essay. I started a week or two ago and just kept thinking and thinking until I found a topic I could use. It really does take a while. Don’t be afraid to throw away a topic, because you never know what better ones you can come up with.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten a few people to look it over so far and for the most part people say it’s good and there’s only a few small things to change, so I’m very happy :D</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone else!</p>
<p>I sure hope that alternate versions are acceptable. I wanted to do a few “riskier” essays for my reach reach schools. I’ll throw them out of the running. I have two essays that I love, and I don’t know how to choose between them now.</p>
<p>@nattilee thanks that cleared a lot of doubts indeed. I am sure going to have to get right on these essays, because once senior year starts I know time will be all jammed.</p>
<p>I’m also having major paranoia about writing my college essay! I’ve been thinking of things to write about since like the 8th grade but now that the time is finally here I don’t like any of the ideas anymore! I’m stressing about this so much!! I just open Microsoft word, stare at it for a few minutes and then turn it off! Good luck to everyone else writing there essays!</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/959566-2-important-questions-about-common-app-essay.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/959566-2-important-questions-about-common-app-essay.html</a></p>
<p>Read post #5 and the accompanying link. It says that this is not allowed.</p>
<p>Is it possible for the common app essays to change? I’m scared b/c they haven’t released the app yet.</p>
<p>There is the preview, on which the questions are identical to last year’s…and there’s always the o’l loophole of topic of your choice.</p>
<p>@natashashah81, I know how you feel! Ever since I found out I have been thinking about it before I sleep in bed haha keeping me awake way too long. It’s funny because the best ideas come to my mind when I am ready to sleep and then my mind starts racing at 100000 miles per hour and it gets harder to ‘shut it up’.
What I did is sit for a while and keep joting down anything that I could possibly write in the essay, in the end I ended up choosing a specific thing which seemed to be the best choice.
I know it sounds impossible but just start thinking about it and things will just start popping up in your head!
You should also google or see the forums for college essays because you might get inspired by some elses essay and remember something.</p>
<p>You need to ask yourself: why do you need alternate versions of the CommonApp? Is it because you want to send different CommonApp essays to different colleges? If so … don’t. This probably means you’re changing your topic to fit the school and trying to guess what a college wants is never going to work for you. Be genuine. If you’re being genuine there’s no need for you to change anything.</p>
<p>^ Agreed. Most essays aren’t academic and may not be looking for a specific personality (the 2 top reasons why a student would change their essays. What kind of college would it be if EVERYONE is the same?). You’re much better off with a general essay.</p>
<p>I am being genuine in both essays that I wanted to send. I just didn’t want to have to choose. I have chosen, however. The essays I wrote simply show two different sides: one is about my love of history and the other is about something more personal. I did not write either essay to fit a specific school. I just did not know which one was better and I thought I’d take my chances splitting the difference. Can you understand more now, YeloPen?</p>
<p>^ But how would you decide between schools? The best way to decide would be to get people to read both essays and tell you which is better. I’m glad you made a decision, though. I think college admissions is too important to risk getting your application thrown out completely and need to reapply next year.</p>
<p>Yeah, there’s no possible way that I would go against the rules and submit different essays. I just wanted to make sure those are the rules. And I’m really really happy - I looked at the Yale supplement and I can use the common app essay that I’m not using for the supplement. I’m glad that it won’t be totally trashed. I’ll need to shorten it, of course, but I’m happy that I’ll be able to use my essays. See, my English teacher had us write 7 college application essays. Then, I had an idea and wrote my own without a prompt and I am using that for the common app. I still want to use some of the others for supplements if I can.</p>