<p>I'm interviewing tomorrow and Friday and I hear that some of the schools may require me to write an essay when I am there. What kind of essay questions do they typically ask? How long does it usually have to be? How much time do they give you? I usually take a loooooong time to write, so I'm kind of nervous.</p>
<p>St.Andrew's in Delaware has the student write a short essay while the parents are being interviewed. I heard that Middlesex does the same thing. I think the one at St. Andrew's was something like "tell us about your family". But I don't remember for sure.</p>
<p>My son did so at the first school we visited (Asheville School)...and we went there thinking it was just an information session and neither of us had any idea that the application process began that day. </p>
<p>There are a few upsides to this. First, it's clear that the essays are entirely the original work product of the applicant. Second, you're done with your essays!</p>
<p>FWIW, in a thread that discussed writing out the Exeter essay in longhand, I think I explained how P..A..I..N...F...U...L...L...Y S...L...O...W my son is when it comes to writing anything out by hand. I lived through the same thing again as I watched him write thank you notes after the holidays. But there was no pressure for the essays (four short essays of just a couple paragraphs each, I think...but can't say for sure). He wrote them while we had the parent interview. And he needed a few more minutes after we were done and that was fine.</p>
<p>There aren't a lot of schools that do the "write your essay during the interview" thing. A few. Of the 15 different schools that the Smile Pups considered, only 1 (Middlesex) asked for the essay then (in fact, Smile Pup 2 thought the guy was joking when he said "Okay, now you'll do your essay."..."I'm going to do WHAT? WHEN?!!?").</p>
<p>For those that do, first of all, they are flexible on how much time you get; second, they will give you a couple of different essay options to choose from; and, third, everyone is writing their essay under the same circumstances, so none of them will be quite as polished as those that have gone through multiple drafts, and the school knows that. </p>
<p>Just relax, say what you want to say, and know that, at least the school is comparing apples to apples, and not apples to kumquats.</p>