As we get ready to send our freshies off to their first year of college, it is also time to engage with our 2025 seniors. If you have not already done so, hop over to the Common Application website and review the essay questions for the 2024-2025 season. These questions remain unchanged from last year so if you drafted an essay or two over the summer, they will rollover on August 1, 2024.
If you have not started on your essays, now is the time! For my Indiana folks, school starts in early August so you may need to push the first few "suggestions" back a week or two.
Here are my suggestions for writing Common Application Essays for early admit:
First 2-3 weeks of August: brainstorm and do some free writing with the prompts. The purpose is to see what works best with your academic, extracurricular and personal interests.
End of August: have at least two draft essays and some notes available. Keep it messy! Nothing has to be formal or include intros, hooks and conclusions just yet.
First 2 weeks in September (keep in mind Labor Day weekend!): Complete a first draft of personal statement. Consider the answer to a Common App question from your personal attributes/perspective.
Weeks 2-3 of September: Complete a revision of the first essay. Focus on qualifyting statements. For example, "I am proficient..." may become "I have excelled in...through club/award/distinction." Be careful not to repeat the awards listed in other places of the application, but instead, seek to clarify and qualify what that means for your future achievements.
End of September: Complete third and fourth drafts of the same essay. Add detail! Remove excess words like "that." I find it beneficial to CTRL-F for "that" and read the sentence without the word. If it makes sense, delete. Also, read for passive voice and revise to active voice.
Beginning of October: Seek feedback and request reviews from teachers, advisors and especially people who do not know you or your story. A complete stranger will read and identify missing details where those who know you, may miss. Admissions advisors may be swamped with senior audits or other workload responsibilities so have grace when requesting a review.
Middle of October: Finalize your essay and prepare for submission. Take a week off from looking at it...come back and make minor revisions as necessary.
If your goal is a November 1 submission date, the schedule above works well. If you start later, just modify and shorten the time between to accomplish a strong revision period. I also encourage students to apply to schools with December and January deadlines. These are the most popular "regular decision" schools and round out a strong application portfolio.
Need help with your essay reviews? Schedule a consultation and get on my calendar! My schedule for fall 2024 is filling up quickly.
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