<p>Well, I don't know about anyone else out there, but we have become very cognizant of the calendar around here. Although D honestly started her applications early in the game (as evident by 2 rolling admits already), this last 7 days have seemed like an eternity. Others have spoken of the "essay fairy" and we've been wondering when she will swoop down and provide the inspiration necessary to complete the 8 essays necessary to complete her ED and EA applications. In all fairness, this includes the 2 Common App essays, so when this is done, her RD apps will be done, but for the supplements. I've been the kind of mom that sits back and says, "Don't worry, it'll flow eventually." Well, eventually is fast approaching and I find myself pushing more, and nagging even more than that. To her credit she has worked diligently to try and "make" it come...problem is those are not her best work. I think we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel though, as the 6 longer essays are done (and ,IMHO, quite good), but for the shouting (final grammatical and fluidity review) and only 2 very short answer essays remain. Each essay truly reflects her, and since this is our 3rd time through this process, we've stayed with what's worked before. I am a true believer that colleges want to see the real kid, writing about things or experiences that mean something to them. It's at times like this though that I envy the parents who employed college counselors to push their kids..those apps seem to have been submitted weeks ago in many cases. But, true to our beliefs, we have done it on our own..complete with shouting, nagging and even, when it works, some incredible smiles!
Like many on this board I can't tell you how incredibly proud I am of my D. She gives everything all she has, whether it plays to her strengths or not, and once she commits to something, she never gives up. This tenacity may not serve her well in this admissions game as she has pushed herself academically with not always stellar results, but there are things she believes one should be exposed to in life, and if a poor grade keeps her out of her dream school, well, that's life.
As the early deadlines fast approach I want to say "good-luck" to all the applicants and their supportive, loving families out there. In the end, whatever the results, those supportive, loving families will still provide the anchor for the rest of your lives.</p>
<p>We got the EA/rolling stuff in already (with only a little screaming and a few tears; I was emotionally disabled for only a couple of days). But at the rate my son has been going, and given the number of essays he has left to write, he can expect to complete his last application sometime in May. (Which of course would be a problem, since he doesn't have any deadlines later than January 2.)</p>
<p>Two huge problems: Maintaining focus and energy for that fifth (sixth, seventh) essay. Finding time to work on them. S was awake at home for about 150 minutes this weekend (and that includes shower time and meals). Except for a semi-social sleepover at a project site Saturday night, his time away included 0 socializing. The awake time at home was devoted entirely to school work, as it had to be. The school work has definitely been suffering from applicationitis.</p>
<p>I have a question about essays. Both of you have kids that are writing multiple essays -- it sounds like they are writing a separate essay for each school. Is that true? Why are they doing that? I understand that each application has separate short questions, but can't your kids' big essays be used for almost all of the schools?</p>
<p>I ask this because my older son basically wrote one essay over the summer before senior year. He adapted it as needed for other schools. For example, he just wrote his own prompt for the U of Chicago, for which his essay was a good response. The only additional long essays he wrote were for scholarship applications. He doesn't love to write, although he writes well, and I thought we were lucky to get one meaningful essay out of him.</p>
<p>I'm curious because I have a current Junior in HS, and I was hoping to help him simplify things next year.</p>
<p>My son applied to 9 schools and did three or four essays. Only one of his schools used the common application so that could have been part of the problem.</p>
<p>Good luck class of 2007 parents! I am soooo glad I'm done with the supportive/nagging Mom role and will not have to resume it until 2010!</p>
<p>"I have a question about essays. Both of you have kids that are writing multiple essays -- it sounds like they are writing a separate essay for each school. Is that true?"</p>
<p>It's more true than I expected it to be. My son plans to use his main SAT essay (how did your family/community/school make you you) for his main Common Ap essay. But he also had to write about something you do just for fun, and another (optional) about something you created. Stanford has three short questions that will have to be done from scratch. And the longer essay would probably need to be massaged. There's an extra essay on the Caltech one too - though I can't remember what the question is. I think Carnegie-Mellon also asked for additional questions.</p>
<p>I was wondering about this, too. My S, back a couple years ago, did have to write one long and two medium length essays for his first, rolling, application. Once they were done, they more or less fit the prompts of his ED school and all the RDs he would've also been applying to. Are schools all using unique, not easily transferable prompts now?</p>
<p>edit: Sorry, crossposted!</p>
<p>Different supplements have different essay prompts. I think by the time the dust clears, S will have written 6 long essays for 9 applications (including one he would not have had to write but for a merit scholarship application).</p>
<p>My daughter was much more thoughtful about this two years ago. She applied to 7 schools on only 2 long essays (she actually wrote a third and worked on it for weeks, but in the end decided not to use it, and to adapt her Chicago essay instead). But her list was a little less top-heavy than my son's, so she didn't have quite so many unique supplements, and she got an EA acceptance from one of her top choices before she had to complete too many applications, something S can't count on. And she knew what she was doing, something of a contrast to S.</p>
<p>EDIT: Just to be clear, S is applying to 9 schools. Seven of them take the common application (and he adapted his essay to one of the others as his common ap essay). But three of those ask for supplemental long essays, and the prompts aren't really interchangeable. So that's 5 long essays, plus a scholarship essay at one school. Plus about 14 separate narrative short answers, which do not come easily to him at all. If he had planned a little better, he probably could have cut the number of essays he's writing to 5.</p>
<p>It's true that my D's long essay for the Common App could be somewhat adapted for another application with it's own prompts, but we've found that even the "short" answer essays require a lot of thought and care in writing. Sometimes it's a lot easier to write 500+ words, than 300 or 150 or even 50.
Her EA app has 3 essays. A main long essay and 2 shorter, though no less important essays (and quite particular to the school) and her ED app has the Common App essays plus 3 additional responses. One is quite long and the others short, but again, those short essays sometimes take longer to craft than the longer ones. And once these are in she'll get to work on all the other supplemental essays for her RD apps. I just keep telling myself that January will be here soon!</p>
<p>I thought there was only one essay on the Common App. Am I wrong? One essay and one short answer?? And what are all these other essays? My son's schools mostly want a "why___ (this school) type of essay or short answer on the supplement. Is this what you're talking about, or am I missing something bigger? I know all spplements are a bit different.</p>
<p>Most colleges use just the general essays, & some add on "Why ____ college?" Other colleges add on some unique essays, e.g. Stanford. Caltech has one where the applicant is asked to fill in a blank box. It gives the person a chance to be creative.
My DS sent his applications in dec 31 or Jan 1. Fortunatey, the tension/angst recedes over time.</p>
<p>I don't think we're talking about anything different, but my D approaches the short answer and supplement questions as if they are full blown essays. She feels that the same "rules" apply and she has given them almost as much thought and time as her main long essays. May be just the way she approaches things. And, it may just take her longer. She's big on "inspiration" and it was a long time coming!!</p>
<p>I see I cross posted too. I'm going to go back to all the web sites to double check. So far, S has written one 500 word essay (for NMS, but plans to use it on CA, and one short answer about an EC (I agree these are just as important to do well). The supplemental things look mostly like short answer, but I guess we'd better check.</p>
<p>Well, Chicago has quirky, identifiable essay prompts. If you don't ignore them and do your own prompt, but still try to shoehorn your Chicago essay into one of the Common Ap prompts, it will still be pretty recognizable as a Chicago essay, which seems like kind of bad form. (And Michigan, which uses a separate application, has prompts that overlap with some but not all of the Common Ap prompts.)</p>
<p>Lots of schools ask what you want to study and why, but Penn, for instance, asks that you relate it to a specific faculty member and his or her work, so it's not just a question of cutting and pasting an answer from another application.</p>
<p>I think what happened for us is that my son wrote a long essay over the summer about a unique research opportunity, which then seemed to apply to the 13 schools on his list. He was WL at 2, and accepted at 11, so it worked well for him. I don't know if the same idea will work for S2, but it seemed pretty easy for S1 to answer the short questions because he already had his long essay.</p>
<p>JHS, S1 was accepted EA to Chicago with his one long essay. He's just not the type to respond to some of their prompts, so he created a prompt for which his essay was a great response. Actually, I think it took just as much creativity to come up with the right question!</p>
<p>Ack too late to edit, and I doubt anyone cares, but I meant to type main MIT essay not main SAT essay.</p>
<p>hmm ... I would be wary of not changing the style and habits of the student. At 48 if I wrote an essay supporting an application more than a week in advance there is absolutely NO WAY it would be my best work ... I work best late and with time pressure (and at least one of my kids is similar). For me, allowing enough time for a review cycle or two makes sense but I need to start close enough to the due date to feel some pressure. I can already hear Mom3togo and child #2 fighting over the essays ... that really should NOT be started until fairly late for this particular child.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>my D approaches the short answer and supplement questions as if they are full blown essays.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Good idea--schools are pretty savvy about the fact that the long essay is the one that is usually vetted by the English teacher, Mom, Auntie Anne, the neighbor down the street, etc. (I'm exaggerating, of course). The short answers often show more of the "kid."</p>
<p>Much as you'd like to send all those apps out the door, you may want to keep a hold of those RD apps till the end of December. After being unsuccessful on the EA round, D revisited her essays with fresh eyes and made some changes that made the essays better.</p>
<p>mathmom: I must admit I was impressed that your son thought his SAT essay was so great it belonged on his applications! :D</p>
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<p>I will add that NOT all kids are writing 6 or 7 or more essays! So, don't panic if your kid seems to have one good essay that is being sent everywhere. Some kids simply put a lot more effort into their applications than others, and, obviously, if they are vying for a spot in a highly competitive school they need to put more time/effort into those applications.</p>
<p>My son has done seven applications (with one main essay and a couple of different short answers) and has firmly declared that he is done -- no matter what. He will not discuss them, or any college stuff, at this point. There are a couple of applications that he was originally going to do but he's decided to drop them because he doesn't want to write anymore essays. I am quite certian there will be no "revisiting" the essay. ;)</p>
<p>While I think he should probably be applying to one or two more financial safeties, and one or two more merit aid possibilities, he does not agree and is apparently satisfied with his current list. </p>
<p>So, that's fine. I guess he's done.</p>
<p>JHS--interesting that you mentioned MIchigan. That was S's first application two years ago, and writing the essays for that is what gave him the basic material for everything else he was doing or planning to do. So starting with a quirky application gave him a headstart for the rest.</p>
<p>Well, Michican's application is not very quirky. I don't know why it doesn't use the Common Ap. Come to think of it, maybe it does, but my son chose to use the separate form to avoid setting his Common Ap in stone so early. (Good thing, too.)</p>