My son plans to apply for 13 colleges in the fall. Some schools are on common app and others aren’t. He wants me to read his essays. But there are quite a few of them, at least 10 or so. Why so many? Is it typical? How can you get done?
No it’s not typical to have to write essays for college admission. Your son is lying to you and obviously to just waste your time. You should punish him
Liken it to applying for a job. Your son is basically writing cover letters and interview replacements to 13 jobs.
Wouldn’t you expect this amount of work for such incredibly important jobs?
A lot of times the essays can be used at more than one school since the prompts can be very similar. Or at least part of one can be recycled with a change of a paragraph or two. Just be careful if you mention the school not to submit it to the wrong school.
Yes, it takes a lot of time. You either have to reduce the number of schools you apply to or spend a set amount of time each week working on it.
Yes, he has to be strategic about reusing or modifying. If he wants to pick so many that have differing requirements, then he should be sure to do the most important first, realistic schools that he can get in and afford. As I recall, mine had 3 state schools that take the same 2 essay. 4 privates on the common application using the same main essay as the state school. One private not on common essay but used same one. 2 supplements used same for each. So really just 3 essays.