I am a junior and I’ve heard a lot about the “college essay” since my freshman year. Everyone seems to be making a huge deal out of it, and since I’m applying to colleges in a few months (yikes!), could someone give me a general overview on what it entails? Does it need to answer a specific prompt question?
The college essay is your personal statement. It’s the essay you will likely send to almost all the schools you apply to if they have competitive admissions. Likely, most schools you are going to apply to will require the Common Application, which is an online application that you fill out once and can send to multiple schools.You can find the prompts here: https://www.commonapp.org/whats-appening/application-updates/common-application-announces-2016-2017-essay-prompts
Other non-common app schools (such as university of california) will have their own prompts. Some schools may also have supplemental essays that are shorter than the personal statement.
People make a big deal out of it because it is the one component of your application where you get to define yourself by something other than your GPA or test scores. At highly selective schools, it has the chance to really make or break your application.
@sophie9999 thanks!