So, how did you come up with your topic? What was your first draft(s) like compared to your final draft? How long did it take you?
I’m mostly thinking about the main common app essay, but was the process similar for your supplement essays?
I wrote my CommonApp essay last Friday, because it’s a graded English class assignment that was due that day. I started the night before and finished during free period/lunch. Total time spent writing typing: 3 hours. Total time thinking about it: 2-3 months.
At an info session at a college I visited, an admissions officer told us that if we did not learn something about ourselves by writing our essay, then we didn’t do it correctly. For this reason, I made it a point to not let myself decide on an actual “topic” until I sat down to write it. I had ideas and a general concept which got me started, but to zoom in in the way that I needed to for this essay I just sort of wrote. You just have to start and see what comes out. Now I’m obviously in the process of revising.
This was my process, which may not necessarily be yours. I am a frequent creative writer anyway so I used my usual writing process for this, relying on spontaneity. Depending on who you are you might benefit from outlining, etc. I have one piece of universal advice, however: do your best to ignore the gravity of this essay while you draft. Just write it almost like a diary entry, expecting to show it to no one but yourself once you finish. This way, you end up with honest, personal, pure writing in your own voice. Then you can tailor it to something you would be comfortable showing other people. Ignore the other people for now.
blueWednesday,
That was a very good piece of advice, thank you,
I went through about 6 drafts in order to find my topic and actually get started on my essay. I had to work through a lot of things but just trying to write everything out before getting my actual beginning. Then I went through about 10 drafts by editing it myself and having others edit it, stopping there so I didn’t lose too much of my voice.
My son attended a workshop on essay writing for the common ap and the instructor had them take all the topics and write short notes as if you were going to write on that topic, what would you write on. Then she had them narrow down to 3 ideas of things that were significant in your life and write one page quick drafts of how you might write on that topic. She critiqued each one and guided the student on which of the three they would be able to write about more successfully. My son produced a great essay that really represented him.
I think by narrowing down his options it made it easier to focus.
For undergrad I think I tried the cheesy I was a kid that liked whatever story to start. Then I looked it over and picked feelings & thoughts that inspired me and then focused more on highschool. I had a few people revise it and offer advice. I was accepted so yay.
For grad school I reflected about research I helped along during undergrad and wrote (almost exclusively) on that and tutoring I did. I failed to address the crucial questions of why I would be a fit into the program and what I wanted to do with the knowledge. Because of this I had a professor rip me apart ahead of time (you call that trash a draft?!). So I reflected again on what about the research topics interested me and how its the same as the professors at the school focus. I then had a grad student friend read it. Now I hope for the best.
For both essays I wrote some idea way ahead of time but I didn’t get any serious work done until it was near my personal deadline. I would write, play video games/watch cute animal Youtube then write some more etc until I felt done. Later I’d repeat the process but with look over the draft in place of writing.
sit down. make stuff up. write it down. press send.
Current college freshman here. Last year during the app process, I just addressed the essay prompts and wrote about stuff I thought was interesting. That way, I really knew what I was talking about. One was about a high school project I thought was really interesting and relevant to my life, one was about the fact that I identify with modern British culture, one was about my favorite song and why I think it’s important, etc… I usually just typed them up the day they were due. I can think of one that was fun and unique but obviously a bit rushed, and another that was probably the best paper I’ve ever written. I’d consider most of them to be pretty good by my standards.
Just come up with a central idea that you can write a lot about and let the words flow out. Then read it over and edit here and there if need be. I stress the fact that it needs to be something YOU find interesting. It’ll make the paper a whole lot more fun to write, and there’s less of a risk of writer’s block. Besides, if you don’t care about your subject, how do you expect anyone else to care?
If there’s any doubt, I’ll mention that this seemed to work for me last year - I got accepted everywhere I applied.