Honestly, some essays written the day before can actually turn out to be the most genuine. Sure, you can utilize all of the time that you have from when a prompt is released, but a lot of people that I’ve talked to said that they didn’t seek the need to aim for “perfection” by spending months on it. I’m not saying that I’m encouraging this, but the side of “waiting too long” can’t be abolished completely. It may work for the person on my left but not for the person on my right.
@ayyyyyyy I agree completely. I probably shouldn’t have, but I procrastinated on my short answers for REA, and I waited until the last weekend to do them (I totally don’t recommend doing it that way, by the way!). However, I found that under the pressure of finishing the application, I actually wrote without much thought of what admissions officers would think, and ended up writing short essays that best reflected the mostly-unfiltered (but grammatically correct!) me.
An excellent writer can work with any topic. An average or poor writer will find that certain topics, like those enumerated here, are like gingerbread houses in the woods: very tempting, but with a witch hidden inside who wants to eat you.
In my 30 years as a writing instructor, I’ve learned a lot about topics that virtually trap some students into doing a bad job. I no longer assign prompts that are likely to generate those topics. OP’s pity, survivor, and hero essays are totally on my list.
My point is simply this. Much of the original post can safely be ignored by excellent writers. But it’s probably sound advice for everyone else.
Sounds a bit like rationalization to me 
A couple of points:
- My son's essay did NOT follow "the rules," but when he showed it to me, I told him to not change a thing. It was his "voice" and he, as a person, came through loud and clear.
- By "unique," I most certainly did not mean a unique TOPIC, as some people have interpreted it. A lot of CC'ers have asked me to review their essays and, believe me, it seemed that - for many - I was reading the same essay over and over again. Students were gushing about the school, talking about being a learning sponge and how they were going to cure cancer and do all sorts of things. By unique, I mean that it should stand apart from what everyone elso is saying.
- Students many times forget what the purpose of the essay is: to make the college want them on campus. That's the simple, number one rule. And yet time after time after time, people try to do something else instead. Read your essay and ask yourself: Is this an essay that will make me wanted there?
- I have read many, many, many essays. I am NOT an admissions person. All of this is just my not-so-humble opinion. But, as I read essays, I ask myself if I'm enjoying reading it or am I skimming it hoping to get to the end. I would imagine that college readers would have the same response to those essays.
A post slipped in before my last one-- waiting till the last minute and then thinking the essay written is a “10”… Well… There are reasons why that isn’t likely. Not saying it isn’t good. But if everyone wrote their best work at the 11th hour… Well, everyone would do it. Ad hopefully that’s not the case. And it might have been better with a few extra drafts or tweaks.
@jym626 That’s definitely true, and that was my process with the Personal Statement, where I’d been working on it since this past summer. But for the short answers, which demanded more of my personality, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to believe that a more genuinely-crafted answer is more well-received than a refined-but-too-thought-out one. But then again, that depends heavily on one’s writing abilities and writing voice in question.
Of course one’s writing style and skill is a contributory factor. But I’ve read wonderful essays that had nothing to do with the prompt, had careless mistakes, problems with sentence structure. repetitions, spelling or grammar errors etc. It takes time to do it right
On the same boat as @IBscholar
I wrote my common app essay on being part of a sports fandom. I think it’s kind of risky, a sort of hit-or-miss piece, but it’s definitely in my voice and it’s something I’m passionate about soo I’m going with it.
Kids should understand this isn’t ordinary hs writing. You don’t have to follow the prompt exactly (as you might, for a hs assignment.) But you sure do need to convey what they’re looking for.
This thread needs to be repeated next September.