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How Many Common App Essays Are Required?

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Can you write multiple common app essays, how many college essays will you write, how to reduce the amount of writing you’ll need to do, common app essay resources.

The essay is perhaps one of the most intimidating aspects of your college applications. Unlike your grades, test scores, and activities, they aren’t something you’ve already done — you have to craft work that is entirely new. 

Just how many essays are required for the Common Application — the system most schools use to streamline the college process for students? Let’s take a look.

You only need to write one essay for the Common App, although you can change it and submit different versions to different schools. 

However, bear in mind that the very purpose of the Common App is to reduce the amount of work you need to do to apply to multiple colleges. Therefore, you should be selective about making changes and only do so when it’s truly necessary. For example, perhaps you want to share an anecdote that’s more aligned to X school’s values than Y’s. Or, perhaps something has changed since you submitted your last version.

While you only need to write one Common App essay, most colleges require one to two shorter supplements, too. That means that if you apply to ten schools, you should expect to write 11-31 essays in addition to the main Common App essay.

Some schools don’t actually require supplements . Examples include:

• Colby College
• Northeastern University
• Michigan State University
• Middlebury College
• Oberlin College
• Seton Hall University
• Spelman College
• University of Connecticut
• Wesleyan University

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There are some essays you shouldn’t recycle, such as the “Why this college?” themed supplement. This is highly school-specific.

However, you can reuse or rework essays for multiple schools with similar prompts that are not specific to the particular school. 

For example, Yale and UPenn have two prompts centering on community:

Reflect on a community to which you feel connected. Why is it meaningful to you?  You may define community however you like.

At Penn, learning and growth happen outside of the classrooms, too. How will you explore the community at Penn? Consider how this community will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community.

While you obviously can’t reuse the same essay, with some alterations, you could repurpose some content for both essays.

Also, remember that you can shorten essays to accommodate different word counts. It’s usually far easier to write the longer version first and then shorter it as needed.

Looking for help writing your Common App essays and supplements? Try our free Peer Essay review or brand-new expert essay review services . It’s important to get feedback on your essays to ensure they’re the strongest they can be.

Plus, check out these resources:

• How to Write the Common Application Essays 2021-2022 (With Examples)
• 19 Stellar Common App Essay Examples to Inspire Your College Essay

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College Essay Coaching & Admissions Consulting

How Many College Essays Do You Have to Write?

This is a great question students never ask:

“How many essays do I need to write when applying to college?”

The answer is more than you think.

On average, students write at least 20 college essays!

Why is this?

Almost all colleges require one personal statement essay and several supplemental essays on unique topics (like why you want to attend our school).

Most students apply to 10-15 schools. That’s actually closer to 30 essays!

As your essay coach , here’s how I help:

• Generate tons of unique ideas for your essays.
• Strategize when to repurpose content and when not to.
• Project manage the massive workload for you.

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Kate is a highly regarded college application coach, renowned for her ability to transform students' essays into compelling narratives that reflect their unique identities. She excels at fostering a motivating and encouraging environment where students gain confidence and overcome challenges like writing anxiety.

Her personalized approach tailors each session to the student's specific needs, whether it's structuring the essay writing process, brainstorming ideas, or providing guidance. Parents have praised her for helping their children improve their abilities and self-assurance, making her not just a coach but a trusted mentor and friend throughout the college application journey.

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How to Write College Application Essays

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

College Application Essay Fundamentals 

How to prepare to write your essay , how to approach different essay types, how to structure your essay , how to revise your essay, how to find essay writing help , resources for teaching students how to write a college essay, additional resources (further reading).

Of all the materials in a college application, the essay provides the greatest opportunity for you to set yourself apart. Unlike the transcript or resume, the essay is creative and expressive; in it, you can show the admissions counselors who you are and what you can do (that is, how well you can write!). A good application essay should have a memorable main idea, a cohesive structure, and a strong introduction and conclusion. Although essay topics can vary by college, the most common prompts deal with personal experiences and aspirations for the future. This guide   contains a diverse set of resources to help you orient yourself to the college application essay and, ultimately, to write the most competitive essay possible. 

The college application essay is a requirement for admission to almost all institutions of higher learning. Though in some ways it resembles essays you've written in class or on standardized tests, in other ways it's a unique writing exercises with its own particular requirements. Use the resources below to help you understand how the essay should be structured and what kind of content to include. 

"How Long Should College Application Essays Be?" (Learn.org)

This webpage guides you through some basic tips on writing the college essay—including essay length, sticking to the prompt, and maintaining an original tone. 

"College Application Essay" (College Board)

This webpage from the College Board discusses the different types of application essays, what length you should aim for, and most importantly, why colleges value this aspect of the application so much. 

"College Essays, College Applications" (College Board) 

The College Board's website is a great resource for any student looking to apply to college. This webpage contains several links to helpful resources, including sample essays and genuine student interviews. 

"Timeline for College Applications" (College Essay Guy)

This colorful, one-page guide from a college application specialist offers an illustrated timeline for high school students looking to apply for college. 

Before putting your ideas down on paper, it's important to conceptualize your essay, to craft strategically your tone and style, and,  crucially, to choose a topic that suits you and the school to which you're applying. The resources in this section include writing tips, lists of common mistakes you should avoid, and guides dedicated to the college application essay.

How to Plan Your Essay

"3 Common College Essay Mistakes to Avoid" (CNBC)  

This article from CNBC broadly outlines the most common mistakes students make when writing their college application essays. Although these mistakes may seem obvious, even the most experienced writers can fall into these common traps.

"7 Effective Application Tips" (Peterson's)

This article from Peterson's (a company providing academic materials for test prep, application help, and more) lists seven pieces of advice designed to make your writing pop. 

"The Secret to Show, Don't Tell" ( The Write Practice Blog)  

You've heard it before: show, don't tell. This is a great writing tip, but how do you pull it off? Here, the writing blog  The Write Practice  outlines how you can make your writing more descriptive and effective. 

"Passive Voice" (University of North Carolina)  

Avoiding passive construction is a subtle yet effective way to upgrade any piece of writing. Check out this webpage from a university writing center for some tips on recognizing and avoiding passive voice. 

"Using Appropriate Words in an Academic Essay" (National University of Singapore)

There are many ways to upgrade your vocabulary. Often, words can be replaced with more impressive substitutes, phrases can be shortened or lengthened depending on context, and transitions can be used for a smoother flow. The link above expands on these strategies and offers several others. 

How to Brainstorm Topic Ideas

"Bad College Essays: 10 Mistakes to Avoid" (PrepScholar)

This article from a well-known tutoring service and test prep program describes what to avoid when writing your essay. Essays that are too graphic, too personal, or too overconfident are all problematic, and this article explains why. 

"5 Tricks for Choosing Your College Essay Topic" (CollegeXpress)

Lost on how to choose a topic? This webpage from CollegeXpress outlines five sources of inspiration you can mine for ideas as you're getting started.

"The College Admission Essay: Finding a Topic" (The Choice Blog)

This article from New York Times  blog The Choice  breaks down three essential questions to ask yourself when choosing a topic for your college essay. 

"COLLEGE ESSAY GUIDE: Choosing a Prompt for the Common Application" (YouTube)

In this five-minute video, a Yale student discusses how to choose a college essay prompt and how to approach the essay writing process. His channel is filled with original videos on the college application process. 

"Where to Begin? 3 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises" ( CollegeVine Blog)

Approaching the Common App essay prompts can be difficult. This blog post explains several tactics you can use to narrow down your options, such as writing down a list of your greatest convictions.

"Using First Person in an Academic Essay: When Is It Okay?" (WritingCommons.org)

Most high school students are told to avoid using the first person point of view; this can be confusing when writing college essays, which typically ask what  you  think. This article breaks down when (and why) it's acceptable to write in the first person. 

Although all college essays serve the same purpose - articulating why you should get into a college - they come in different kinds. While topics on the Common Application are relatively consistent from year to year, personal statements and so-called "supplemental essays" vary by institution. Each of these essays requires a slightly different approach. The resources in this section will prepare you to answer the various types of essay prompts you're likely to encounter. 

Common Application Essays

CommonApp.org

The Common Application's official website is the best place to start getting acquainted with the service to which the majority of US colleges and universities now subscribe - a service which allows you to streamline your application process and minimize duplication of materials.

"What's App-enning" Blog (Common App)  

The Common App runs a blog with a wealth of information on common application-related news, including periodic updates on common application essay prompts for each application cycle. You can practice brainstorming with old prompts, or even start preparing your application by looking at this year's prompts.

125 College Essay Examples (PrepScholar Blog)

Here, PrepScholar provides a variety of Common App essays that got their respective applicants into their desired schools. Along with the body text of the essays, the website provides analysis on  what  makes the essays so great. 

A Few Essays That Worked (And a Few That Didn't) (NYTimes Blog)

This article analyzes unsuccessful essays, illuminating the ways in which they fell short. Although you should exercise caution and adjust your approach to your specific school, it's always good to pick up on general things to avoid. 

Personal Statements

What Is a Personal Statement? (PrepScholar Blog)

Although personal statements and Common App essays are similar, not all personal statement essays are administered through the Common App. This article from PrepScholar's blog will provide you with everything you need to know about writing a personal statement.

Examples of Successful Statements (Purdue OWL)

The Purdue OWL online writing lab collate links on this page to several successful personal statement. It can be useful to read successful statements and to consider how and why the statements made an impact on their readers. 

Past Threads on Advice for Writing Your College Essay (Reddit Post)

Although not about the personal statement  per se , this Reddit post has links to several past threads that may be of use to any prospective college applicant. 

What 10 Things Should Your Personal Statement Include? (Which University UK)  

This site outlines ten things to consider when writing a personal statement, including outlining what you will bring to the course, not what the course will bring to you. 

Supplemental Essays

How to Write Great Supplemental College Essays (IvyWise Newsletter)

Supplemental essays can often be challenging, asking a range of questions from the mundane to the oddly specific. This article from college application site IvyWise will break down example prompts to make them more approachable. 

Write Your Supplemental Essays (College Essay Guy)

Looking for a comprehensive guide to supplemental essays? Look no further than this page provided by the "College Essay Guy," who breaks down how to write supplemental essays that ask different kinds of questions. 

An Awesome Guide to the UChicago Supplement (Dyad)

Dyad, a college mentoring service, walks you through how to approach UChicago's supplemental essay question. Although the article is specific to UChicago, it contains general tips that are helpful to any college applicant. 

Reading My Yale Supplement Essay (YouTube)

Josh Beasley is back in this short YouTube video, where he reads the supplemental essay that got him into Yale and extrapolates advice for current and prospective applicants. 

A college application essay (like any academic essay) should have an introduction, a conclusion, and body paragraphs. Additionally, it should have overall coherence (that is, it should make a point) and cohesion (that is, it should flow well from paragraph to paragraph). We've collected the most relevant resources here to help you structure your college essay correctly and efficiently. 

How to Make Your Essay Stand Out 

College Essays That Stand Out From the Crowd (NYTimes)

This NYTimes article includes links to several recent essays that caught the eyes of the admissions readers by taking risks. You can even listen to an essay being read aloud by a current Princeton student.

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays (Gen / Kelly Tanabe)  

If you have some time on your hands, this hefty PDF document contains 50 essays from successful Ivy League applicants. After reading these essays, consider what they have in common and how they might be a model for your own essay.

Make Your Application Essay Stand Out (CampusExplorer.com)

In this article from CampusExplorer, you'll find general tips on how to make your essay more appealing to the admissions readers. The writers include general writing tips as well as more targeted advice for the tone and audience of the application essay.

How to Write a College Application Essay that Stands Out (Boston University)

This short video from BU's own admissions department touches briefly on what impresses their admissions readers, including risk-taking, memorable stories, and honesty. 

Essay Structure (Monash University)

This chart from Monash University visually demonstrates how your content should be organized in order to keep your argument or story on track. 

How to Write an Introduction

How to Start a Personal Statement: The Killer Opening (Which University UK)  

Any good introduction both forecasts what your essay will be about and catches the reader's attention. This page will give you some helpful advice on starting your essay with a bang. 

How to Start a College Essay Perfectly (PrepScholar Blog)

This article from PrepScholar shows you how to "hook" your reader at the start of your application essay with colorful language, a vivid story, and an "insightful pivot" to your main point.

Let Me Introduce Myself (Stanford University)

This article from Stanford U's alumni page details the first-line openings of the essays for some current Stanford undergrads. 

Five Ways to NOT Start Your College Application Essays (PowerScore)

In this article, you'll learn five techniques to avoid, as they typically land a college application essay in the "reject" pile; these include beginning with dictionary definitions or famous quotations. 

How to Write a Conclusion 

Ending the Essay: Conclusions (Harvard University)

Harvard's writing center suggests bringing closure to your essay (that is, wrapping up your argument) while still expanding outward to broader applications or insights in your final paragraph.

Concluding Paragraph (Easybib)  

Although you may have used Easybib to make a bibliography before, did you know they have many resources on how to write a good essay? Check out this page for succinct advice on what your conclusion should entail. 

5 Ways to Powerfully End Your College Essay (College Greenlight)

This blog post instructs you to end with action (that is, a story or anecdote) rather than summary, giving you five ways to do this effectively, including addressing the college directly.

How to Write the Best Conclusion for a College Application Essay and Supplement (Koppelman Group)

The Koppelman Group, a college application consulting firm, warns you, above all, not to end "in conclusion" or "to conclude." They also provide targeted advice for the Common App and Supplement essays, respectively. 

No essay is perfect in its first-draft form; college application essays in particular are limited by word counts that can be difficult to meet. Once you've communicated your ideas, you'll want to edit your essay in order to make sure it's the best it can be. You'll also need to cut or add words to make sure it's within the specifications set by the institution. The resources in this section include tips and tricks for revising your college application essay. 

3 Ways to Increase Word Count (WikiHow)

Complete with illustrations, this WikiHow page outlines several ways you might go about substantively expanding your essay. These tips include clarifying points, reworking your introduction and conclusion, adding new viewpoints and examples, and connecting loose threads. 

Admissions 101: What an Essay Word Limit Really Means (Veritas Prep) 

In this blog post, Veritas Prep's college preparation tutors assure you that being a little over or under the limit is acceptable, recommending ways you can think about the word limit's purpose.

College Essay Word Limit - Going Under? (College Confidential) 

In this College Confidential discussion forum, students discuss the possible ramifications of writing under the word limit for a college essay. 

How to Increase Your Essay Word Count (WordCounter)

This article from WordCounter outlines different ways you might go about meeting word count, including addressing different viewpoints, adding examples, and clarifying statements. 

Hitting the Target Word Count in Your College Admissions Essay (Dummies.com)

This article details how to hit the target word count. Scroll down to the middle of the article for advice on where you should cut words from to meet word count. 

Some Tricks to Reduce Word Count (EastAsiaStudent.net)

This article recommends simplifying your style, deleting adverbs, deleting prepositions, and revisiting connectives and adjectives to reduce word count. 

Advice on Whittling Your Admissions Essay (NYTimes) 

In this New York Times article, Andrew Gelb discusses how to go about cutting down your admissions essay in order to meet the requisite word limit.

How to Shorten an Essay Without Ruining the Content (Quora) 

This Quora post from a concerned student yielded useful community responses on how to effectively shorten an essay without losing the original message. 

Feel like you've hit a wall revising your essay on your own? You're not alone, and there are plentiful resources on the web through which you can connect with fellow college applicants and/or professional tutors. The links in this section will take you to free services for improving your college application essay, as well as two of the top paid writing tutor services.

College Confidential Forums 

College Confidential is a free, public forum in which you can post your essay and receive feedback from current college students, current college applicants, and even teachers or other experienced users. 

/r/CollegeEssays (Reddit)

This subreddit is a great place to look for crowdsourced help on your essay, ask questions about college essays, or even find a private tutor. 

Essayforum.com

Essayforum.com provides another platform for students to share their application essays. Although this link takes you to the site's forum for applicants to undergraduate degree programs, you can submit and review essays in other categories as well.  Varsity Tutors

Varisty Tutors offers tutoring services from freelance tutors based on location. Prices and services vary, but their site is easy to use and there are many tutors available to choose from.

Princeton Review

Princeton Review, one of the largest providers of college preparation tutoring (ranging from standardized test preparation to essay help) offers online essay tutoring services with a free trial period. 

Using in-class time to prepare your students to write college application essays is, of course, rewarding, but can also be challenging. If you're a teacher looking to incorporate the college essay into your curriculum but you're not sure where to start, take a look at the useful resources below.

TeachersPayTeachers

College Essay Writing

This product includes material for more than one full lesson plan, including powerpoint presentations, assessments, and homework on the topic of college essays. 

Narrative Writing Ideas and Prompts

Appealing to students 9th grade and up, this product includes lesson plans, handouts, and homework for developing narrative writing for the college essay process. 

College Essay: Comprehensive 7-Session Workshop Series

This PDF includes entire courses, manuals, and handouts designed to teach students the ins and outs of the college essay process, either in an individual or group setting. 

College Essay Revision Forms & Rubrics

These PDFs provide students with visual organizers and rubrics to assess their own writing and learn how to become better college essay writers. 

Free Resources

Teaching the College Essay (Edutopia) 

Teaching your students about writing the college essay can be incredibly intimidating -- as a teacher, how should you approach the process? This article from Edutopia outlines how to go about introducing the college essay to your students. 

Essay Lesson Plan Ideas for College Applications (EssayHell)

If you're a teacher looking for a concrete lesson plan on college essays, this guide recommends using the first day to discuss the importance of the essay, the second day for brainstorming, and so on. Click on the link above to examine their full guide. 

Help Your Students Write a Killer College Essay (EdWeek Blog)

This blog post goes over various techniques designed to help your students choose an appropriate topic and write their essay with passion. 

The Biggest College Essay Mistakes & How to Fix Them (Talks With Teachers)

Looking to help your students avoid the minefield of mistakes in the college essay field? Check out this post from Talks With Teachers, a journal that shares "inspiring ideas for English teachers." 

Curious to read more about college application essays, or to see fun and unusual examples of what students have written? The articles, blog posts, and books in this section are a good place to start surveying the field.

One Over-the-Top Admissions Essay (Huffington Post)

This piece from the Huffington Post talks about a humorous response to a Stanford supplemental essay topic, the so-called "letter to my future roommate."

College & University - Statistics and Facts (Statista.com) 

In the process of writing your college essay, you may find yourself wondering who exactly goes to college, how many colleges there are in the United States, etc. This site gives the up-to-date statistics for various US demographics, both in aggregate and by university, as well as other information.

Who Made That College Application? (NYTimes)

This piece from the NYTimes outlines the history of the college essay from its origins in the 1800s, to the first "modern" college application, produced by Columbia University in 1919, to the present.  

How They Got Into Harvard (Staff of the Harvard Crimson)

This highly-rated collection of successful Harvard application essays, available on Amazon, is both an entertaining read and an instructive resource for anyone looking for exemplary essays to use as models. 

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How Many College Admissions Essays Will I Have to Write?

by Venkates Swaminathan | Mar 8, 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE:  A version of this article appeared on the Edmodo blog at  this link .

As the number of colleges students apply to continues to grow, the number of college admissions essays students have to write goes up as well. If you’re a sophomore or junior (or the parent of one) starting to think about college applications, you might be wondering: “How many college admissions essays will I have to write?”

The answer, it turns out, is much higher than you might expect. As one counselor says, “My students are probably up to 20 or so essays between Honors colleges, the Common App, colleges using college-specific application platforms, scholarship essays, and specific program essays.” And in our experience, it’s common now for students to have to write 12-20 essays as part of their process.

Why so many essays? There are many reasons:

• According to  the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles , the number of students applying to seven or more colleges is about 35%. When you narrow it down to students applying to more competitive institutions, the number grows to well over ten college applications per student.
• More universities have added supplementary essays or questions to their applications, even if they use the Common App or the Coalition Application. They require these additional essays in part because supplemental essays serve as a measure of a student’s “ demonstrated interest ” in a college: enabling the college to gauge the likelihood that you’ll accept their offer of admission.
• Many universities – such as the Universities of California or Texas – use college-specific application systems instead of the Common App or Coalition Application. Using different application systems usually creates the need for additional essays.
• Colleges often add required essays for applications to honors programs or programs in the arts or engineering.
• Many scholarships require essays, which also adds to the total number of essays a student will have to write.

Do These Essays Matter?

In a word, yes. Essays matter because they serve as a way for students to demonstrate passion, purpose, and character: all things that institutions seek. All other things being roughly equal, a college will prefer an applicant whose essays demonstrate a clear vision for their life, strength of character, and resilience. These qualities indicate they will be useful members of the college community, and they show how a student will make the most of their opportunities.

What Does This Mean to You?

There are several tips for students and families as the number of essays grow:

• Start early:  Writing college essays often means  forgetting a lot of what you learned in high school English class , so it takes many revisions to write a great essay.
• Get Help:  It might be a family member, teacher, or mentor, or you may want to  hire a professional coach . But get some help with brainstorming, editing, and revising your essay.
• Develop a Plan:  Create a spreadsheet to track every essay for every college. Use that to create a calendar that works. 

The college admissions process is becoming more stressful and complicated each year. And the number of essays is reflective of this complexity. But with a little planning, you can write thoughtful, personal, authentic responses to each question and essay prompt.

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College Nut

How Many College Essays Do I Have to Write?

Understanding college essay requirements.

Before diving into the number of college essays you will have to write, let’s first understand what is expected of you. College essays are a crucial component of the application process. Admissions officers use these essays to get to know you as an individual beyond your grades and test scores. They want to learn about your personality, passions, and experiences.

Different Types of College Essays

There are typically two types of college essays that you will have to write. The first is the personal statement, which is a general essay that allows you to showcase who you are as an individual. The second type is the supplemental essay, which is specific to each college you are applying to.

Importance of College Essays

College essays are a chance for you to stand out in a sea of applicants. They give you the opportunity to share your unique story and demonstrate why you are a good fit for the college. Admissions officers want to see that you can write well, think critically, and express yourself articulately.

How Many College Essays Do You Have to Write?

The number of college essays you will have to write varies depending on the colleges you are applying to. Some colleges require only one essay, while others may require multiple essays. The Common Application, which is used by over 800 colleges and universities, requires one personal statement essay and then supplemental essays specific to each college.

Common Application Essay Requirements

The Common Application essay is a 650-word essay that is required by most colleges. It is your chance to showcase who you are as an individual and what makes you unique. This essay is sent to all of the colleges you apply to that use the Common Application.

Supplemental Essay Requirements

Supplemental essays are specific to each college and are used to learn more about why you are interested in attending that school. These essays can range from short answer questions to longer essays. The number of supplemental essays required varies by college. Some colleges may require only one essay, while others may require multiple essays.

Tips for Writing College Essays

Now that you know how many college essays you will have to write, here are some tips to help you write successful essays.

Start Early

The college application process can be overwhelming, so it’s important to start early. Begin brainstorming essay topics and drafting essays well before the application deadline.

Be Yourself

College essays are a chance for you to showcase who you are as an individual. Be authentic and share your unique story. Admissions officers want to learn about the real you, not a persona you think they want to see.

Follow the Prompt

Make sure you read and understand the essay prompt. Answer the prompt directly and don’t go off on tangents. Be sure to address all parts of the prompt in your essay.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Take the time to proofread and edit your essays. Have someone else read your essays as well to provide feedback. Make sure your essays are free of spelling and grammar errors.

College essays are a crucial component of the application process. The number of essays you will have to write varies depending on the colleges you are applying to. Remember to start early, be yourself, follow the prompt, and edit your essays carefully. With these tips, you will be able to write successful college essays that showcase who you are as an individual.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, getting college essay help: important do's and don’ts.

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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July 8, 2023

College Essay Length: Go to the Maximum Word Count

Previously Published on September 24, 2017:

College applicants should use the real estate offered in college essays to make their case — all of it! If the maximum word count for a college admissions essay is 650 words, applicants should not write 500 words. They should write 650 words — or pretty close to it.

When you’re a real estate developer in Manhattan, and you’re allowed to build twenty-five stories, you don’t construct ten stories and dedicate the rest of the space for the native pigeons of Manhattan. You build up —twenty-five levels. The pigeons have the skies.

And yet even though it seems only logical that college applicants should use all of the allotted real estate to make their case in essays, to tell their stories, to distinguish themselves in super competitive applicant pools, it never ceases to amaze us how many students write essays that don’t come anywhere near the maximum word count. Instead, they leave the space on the table to the disservice of their candidacies.

Students Should Go to the Word Limit in Every College Essay

It’s not as though students only make the mistake of leaving words on the table in their Common Application Personal Statement . They also often do so in their equally as critical supplemental essays.

If Brown University asks applicants to write a 200-250-word essay on how students would take advantage of the Open Curriculum, as the Ivy League school does on its 2022-2023 application, students should not offer them 200 words. College applicants are not interior designers — blank space does not look lovely. They should submit 250-word essays. 

When Brown admissions officers come across an essay that doesn’t come close to the school’s maximum word count, they’re likely to think, “This student doesn’t love our school enough to put in the work to write an essay just for us. She probably wants to go elsewhere.”

And if that thought crosses the mind of an admissions officer, the odds are strong that the same admissions officer is unlikely to offer that student a spot in the incoming class. And, of course, this doesn’t just apply to Brown — it applies to every highly selective institution in America.

Students Should Use the Maximum Word or Character Count in Short Answers Too

We can’t stress enough the importance of taking advantage of the real estate an applicant is afforded in essays to make their case. But don’t be fooled that an essay only means boxes on The Common Application that allow students to include 100 words or more.

After all, many top schools pose short answer questions too. Maybe they’re called short-takes. On the 2022-2023 application, the University of Southern California , for instance, asks applicants to name their favorite movie of all time, their dream job, favorite trip, and favorite snack, among others.

Students should go up to the maximum character count in these opportunities too — and  opportunities  is the apropos word because they’re opportunities to wow admissions officers, present a window into a student’s world and distinguish themselves from other talented applicants. In short, students should not just name their favorite movie — they should say why concisely.

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How Much Writing Will You Do in College?

by Jack Tai | Mar 5, 2020 | Articles

Writing is a necessary part of college.

There’s no getting around it.

However, rather than jumping in without preparation, you can learn a little more about what to expect.

How much writing will you do in college?

Let’s review the essential details about college classes, including how much writing you’ll do in college and what types of writing you’ll be assigned.

How Much Writing Will You Do in College? Here’s What to Expect

English classes or writing courses will have the most essay writing assignments.

In these language-focused classes, there will be about five to six essays per semester.

Many other types of classes have less essay writing.

Your class syllabus will explain the components of your grade.

This commonly includes a variety of formats, including reading assignments, exams, group projects, and other types of homework assignments.

How Are College Papers Different Than High School?

You’ll need to show original thought, ideas, and analysis.

Simply putting words on a page won’t be enough to get by.

As a college student, the academic writing you do will need to have a strong argument that’s well supported.

College writing assignments should be  well-researched and documented .

There’s a reason your college library is so big; college instructors expect you to use it.

Plus, higher education libraries usually give students online access to the latest industry journals and research.

This provides the latest resources to use in your writing assignment .

Plus, college writing assignments are usually  longer than high school writing assignments .

In high school, the norm is for writing assignments to be one to three pages long.

For college freshmen and sophomores, a typical writing assignment is usually five to seven pages long, or about 1,500 to 2,000 words.

Writing expectations become further advanced as students progress from freshmen to seniors.

Upper-level students will face even longer writing assignments that need to include more in-depth analysis and thought leadership.

How Much Writing Will You Do for a Senior Thesis?

This is the most challenging writing assignment undergraduates face.

For your senior thesis, you’ll work directly with a faculty advisor who will oversee your project and your writing process.

Many advisors note that a longer thesis isn’t always better.

A tightly-crafted paper can be more effective than one that rambles.

While there are no hard rules for the length of your thesis, it’s usually long and well-researched.

Excluding references, science and engineering majors usually have a senior thesis that’s about 20 to 40 pages long (double-spaced).

Humanities majors usually have senior thesis papers that are 50+ pages long.

Your school may offer you the ability to take college credits just to work on your senior thesis.

There may also be research grants available to help you fund your writing project.

Which College Majors Have the Most Writing?

College majors with the most writing assignments include:

• English/Literature
• Journalism/Communications
• Marketing/PR

These college majors all have strong writing components .

By learning effective writing skills in these subjects, you’ll become skilled at building and framing an argument.

This is helpful to professions that involve negotiation, law, politics, or advertising.

Students in these majors also improve communication skills, which are essential in all areas of business.

Plus, graduates gain a strong command over the English language, a helpful ability for many careers.

Which College Majors Have the Least Writing?

How much writing will you do for college depending on your major?

For students who don’t enjoy writing, choosing a technical major can help you minimize how much you’ll have to write.

College majors with the fewest writing assignments include:

• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Business/Accounting
• Engineering

While many STEM subjects tend to have less writing, you’ll still have to write papers to graduate.

A degree usually requires at least one introductory writing class and several other required humanities courses.

Plus, there will also be writing assignments within your major, such as lab reports and essays.

Even though there will still be required writing for technical majors, the quantity of writing will be lower, and the style of writing will be easier.

The kind of writing required for STEM majors, for the most part, is considered technical writing.

Your essays will need to be clear and accurate.

However, you won’t necessarily need the narratives, descriptors, or adjectives that are common among English majors.

This writing style is recurring at the professional level of these fields.

For example, white papers, stock analysis, and scientific research papers are known for their dry, just-the-facts approach.

What Is the Standard Formatting of College Papers?

Your professor will likely specify their preferred style guide, such as AP, MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style.

This will determine comma usage, capitalization, and other formatting choices.

Guidelines are available for each style guide.

While using the wrong style may not be detrimental, it could mean you lose a few points off your grade.

A good rule of thumb is that  social science students  majoring in sociology, psychology, or biology will use APA style (American Psychological Association).

For  humanities students  majoring in English, history, or philosophy, use MLA style (Modern Language Association).

For the text of a college essay, use a  legible serif font. 

The standard is Times New Roman in 12-point. Another good option is Georgia or Garamond.

These serif fonts are preferred because the slight curls on the end, called serifs, are designed by typographers to make the text easier to read.

How is College Writing Graded?

The following criteria are usually considered in the grade of your writing assignment:

• Does it address the topic?
• Is it accurate?
• Do you have a strong, unified thesis?
• Is it logically organized with a clear structure?
• How is the grammar?
• Are references cited appropriately?

In a writing class, expect grammar and punctuation to be heavily weighted.

In a theory or subject-focused class, your concepts, analysis, and framing influence your grade.

If you’re surprised about the grade you received on a paper, don’t be afraid to ask your professor for more insight.

Student writing classes aren’t always easy As.

Teachers can help you understand what went wrong and how you can improve.

Writing courses can help you build the writing skills that will help you succeed when writing essays for your other courses.

If you’re struggling with your writing assignments, your on-campus writing center may offer academic support.

What Other Ways Can You Improve Your College Grades?

Online grammar apps like  Grammarly  give you free tools to check your own writing.

It can help you catch punctuation problems, spelling mistakes, and other common errors.

When you use Grammarly before submitting your writing assignments, your teacher may find fewer grammar problems, and your grade could improve.

Another excellent college app to use is  OneClass .

The shared note-taking platform gives you access to helpful notes and study guides that have been uploaded by your classmates.

Whether you missed a class or are struggling with the course material, the shared resources can help you get up to speed.

Millions of users have found that using shared notes has helped them learn more efficiently.

If you’re about to start college soon, it’s good to know how much and what kind of writing you will be doing.

Does the information here line up with your expectations, and answer your questions about “How much writing will you do in college?”

And do you feel more prepared and informed after reading this?

Let’s chat in the comments!

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Education from the Heart

• Aug 12, 2020

How many essays do I need to write?

Updated: Aug 13, 2020

Everyone is aware that college applications require students to write a college application essay. But just how many essays will you have to prepare for your college applications? To find out, let’s follow the journey of our sample student - Timmy Veritas.

Timmy wants to apply to these nine schools:

UC Berkeley

UNC Chapel Hill

The University of Virginia

Virginia Tech

So how many essays does he have to write? Well, he will have to write:

1 Common App Personal Essay (650 word limit)

2 School-specific supplementary essays (400 words or more)

20 School-specific short-answer essay responses (300 words or less)

4 UC-specific essay prompts (350 words each)

2 Optional personal statements (~500 words each)

In total, for these 9 schools, Timmy would have to write 29 essays and a maximum of 7530 words. That’s about 30 pages of essay writing! And although Timmy will hopefully be able to re-use some of his material, he can’t do it too much. For the essays outside of the Common App required essay, schools want to see that students have done their homework in researching the university and its program - they don’t want boilerplate responses. So Timmy will likely have to write much of those 7530 words from scratch for his college applications.

One reason students don’t realize just how much writing is involved in applying to college is how short some of the essays can be. But as we can see above, those 20 short essays really add up! In fact, writing a short essay can often take just as long as writing a longer one. Getting your point across in 500 words is easier - you can take your time and explain what it is you’d like to express - Expressing the same thing in 50 to 150 words is much more difficult. So even though you may spend less time writing, you will need to spend more time cutting, editing, and rewording if you want that short response to have its intended effect.

That’s why it’s important that students start early - before the school year starts and they get bogged down in their homework, tests, and extracurriculars - and result in a strong college application. This why having an experienced counselor is important because they help students understand their own strengths and, more importantly, explain these strengths to their colleges of choice. Students will craft essays not only to show why the school is a good fit for their educational needs, but also why the student will be a good fit for the school and become a contributing member of the student body.

We are offering our College Essay Application Boot Camp. In this 25-hour course, our students will work with two experienced instructors to craft 3-7 college application essays that show their individual strengths in interesting ways. This is the final call to sign up for these classes, which begin Friday, 8/14 at 12:30PM. So head over to our website and spend the end of the summer getting a head start on your applications.

https://www.uscecc.org/infosummer2020

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Issues For College And Finding Success

How Much Writing Will You Do As A College Undergrad?

One element considered by the National Survey of Student Engagement , an annual survey done at 1,300 4-year colleges every year, looks at the type of work that college freshmen and seniors do.

The recent survey found that first-year students, on average, wrote 92 pages during the academic year, while seniors wrote 146 pages. For freshmen, the majority of these papers were around 5 to 10 pages, with some first-year students writing papers 20 pages or more. When considering majors, students in the social sciences, arts, and humanities wrote much more than other students, such as those majoring in physical or biological sciences.

The upside of all this writing? Students who wrote more were more achieved higher levels of deep learning, student-faculty interaction, and were otherwise more “engaged” in their own learning process. Student “engagement” is associated with higher levels of satisfaction as a student, and therefore increases a student’s odds of continuing his or her education.

From working with students directly for many years at large and small colleges, as well as public and private ones, I can give you a better idea of what to expect beyond the report.

College Writing is a universally required course at colleges in the U.S. Whether they call it Writing and Rhetoric, Freshman Writing, or College Composition, it’s all the same course. Some colleges require only a first level of college writing for all students, but some actually require two levels. You won’t make it through college in the U.S. without taking at least one college level writing course. Expect to write several smaller essays, 4 to 5 pages, or even one longer paper depending on how the Professor structures the course. Other English classes usually have writing, even literature classes, so expect to write analyses, critiques, responses, and in other formats.

Biology And Other Sciences

Biology, Chemistry, and other natural sciences typically have a lot of reading, homework, lab work, and problem sets yet very little writing. However, if you are taking a lab with the lecture, you may have to write lab reports or pre-lab/post-lab reports. This kind of writing is very concrete and specific, and usually will include writing about the methods or procedures used for an experiment, the results of various levels of lab testing, as well as to state the results of a lab experiment. Some lab reports may actually be in a lab notebook, so rather than typing them on the computer, you may need to hand write them if they are a worksheet.

Psychology And Behavioral Sciences

Formats for Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, and other behavioral sciences classes are usually straight forward. Readings, lecture, multiple choice exams, or even quizzes are the standard, but also common are research papers. Some Professors assign a classic “term paper,” which is due at the end of the term, that requires a student to delve deeply in to a subject. On average, expect these papers to be 10 to 15 pages, with 7-12 references needed, and due either near finals or during that week. The trick with these kinds of research papers is to ask about the details early since choosing a topic and finding academic journal references can take much longer than most think.

History, Philosophy, And Humanities Courses

In contrast to the science-based writing that natural and behavioral sciences may require, writing for the humanities may be somewhat “softer” in that they may require a more subtle interpretation of the material. Identifying themes, describing historical events, examining different theorists, or other tasks are common in writing for History, Philosophy, and similar classes. Expect to write compare and contrast essays, position papers, reaction papers, and in other formats for such classes.

Art History

Art History classes are usually wonderful, enjoyable classes to take, but they often surprise students by the huge volumes of information that come with them. What fits perfectly with such a class is a term paper, in which students delve deeply in to a topic (only in this case a non-science one). The architecture of the pyramids, Greek and Roman style use, or a timeline of the works of Picasso are all probable topics for a paper in Art History. Again, expect 10 to 15 pages long, with 5 to 10 references needed, and due at the end of the term.

Courses Without Writing

Thankfully, for those who do not like writing, there are courses that by design have no writing. Mathematics courses such as College Algebra, classes like Microeconomics or Macroeconomics, and Computer Science usually mean no writing. Unfortunately, Professors make up for this by assigning tons of homework, usually in the form of problem sets. Some of these classes may have end of term projects (vs. papers), especially Computer Science, so you won’t quite escape those end of term deadlines even though there is no writing.

Writing Intensive Requirements

Some colleges have a subset of their overall graduation requirements or curriculum that requires a number of writing intensive courses. While it is not universal for schools across the U.S., some will specify that the student must take two to four writing intensive classes before they can graduate. These need not be all English classes, and classes in humanities, behavioral science, or other areas may be designated as writing intensive. The school’s website or your Advisor can provide you with a list of these classes that are designated as writing intensive, and they are often indicated as such when you register for classes.

For students in the U.S. it’s hard to get away from doing writing if you want to go to college. The amount and types of writing can vary by class, and some majors should expect to do more writing than others. If you are an English, History, or Philosophy major, expect writing to be the core of what you do for classes, but certainly not if you choose Computer Science, Mathematics, or Economics. If you don’t like writing be thankful that you’re going to school in the U.S., since Canadian and European systems can have so much writing that they say they “wrote” their midterms and finals. Some students would rather take a good old fashioned quiz or test any day over that.

If you have questions feel free to use the contact form to ask us.

Jeffrey Ludovici, M.A., is a national-level higher education consultant based in Pittsburgh. He has worked with students, families, colleges, and other professionals for more than 10 years. He specializes in understanding why students can end up doing poorly in college, as well as what can be done to address the issues.

How many Common App essays should I write

This summer, I’m drafting college essays. I’m done with the UC essays but Common App got me confused. Here are the colleges in my list that accept Common App;

I would like to know how many essays do you have to write? I looked at the My Colleges tab in CommonApp.org under Stanford University and I saw that you have to do ALL QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMON APP? I was a bit shocked so I looked at their website and it said that you should pick an essay prompt that you want and said that the essay prompts have word limit of 250 and 650 but it didn’t specify which one is which.

Thank you for your responses

@akirakun - There is one essay that is used by all schools on the Common App (this essay should answer to ONE of the several prompts on the Common Application and should be between 250 and 650 words). For many schools, this will be all that you will have to write. For some schools, however – and certainly for the two that you mentioned – there are school-specific supplemental essays – that ask you to write short answers and/or shorter essays to specific prompts.

Stanford, for example, has three short essays (100-250 words in answer to prompts on 1) intellectual vitality; 2) write a letter to your roommate; and 3) What matters to you and why. There is also a series of prompts requiring shorter answers (e.g., five words to describe yourself; favorite books/authors/websites/events; how did you spend your last 2 summers).

USC asks you to write a 250 word essay selecting one of several prompts and also has a series of short questions (e.g., three words to describe yourself; best movie, dream job).

Exactly what @LoveTheBard said. Plus, When it comes to the college app, there is no such thing as “optional”. If the application says you can answer up to 3 questions in supplemental essays, answer 3 questions. An additional thing to think of is to create a zeemee 2 minute video and profile. Many colleges now have a place to attach your link.

@Materof2 woah wait what. A 2 minute video and profile? How does this work? This is news to me

To the best of my knowledge, colleges like Stanford and USC will accept an arts portfolio and/or offer an audition for a musicians, dancers, performing artists, actors, etc.

I wouldn’t worry about creating a 2 minute video. I hate to sound cynical, but I seriously doubt that Adcoms are going to bother watching it.

(“Zoomee” is something that the Common Application has set up to provide similar functionality to the “Storage Locker” that she Coalition App offers). Given that Adcoms probably spend about 5 minutes reviewing your application, they probably aren’t going to waste it on watching a video). My daughter got into HYPS and got full tuition merit scholarships at a number of universities – including USC – without creating a video).

Just put your best effort into writing strong and thoughtful essays.

woah, props for your daughter.

@akirakun yes, and zeemee accounts are actually gaining more traction. It wasn’t on the actual Common App, however in our personal experience, one Common App college had a field to attach a zeemee link, and two top state schools who use their own App, had a specific field as well for an optional zeemee link. The video can’t be more than 1:59 seconds. Anything goes on that video. It’s supposed to show who you are. Be creative. I’ve heard of a short 30 seconds of a tennis player making a clever quip, to a full 1:59 second semi scripted piece.

https://youtu.be/uQixNV71Fi4

And yes, I agree with @LoveTheBard in that a college may not even look at your video. And for those HYPS folks, it won’t make a difference. Seriously, that’s a different universe.

Fairly, the colleges where you are applying may not even have a zeemee field.

A Zeemee profile is “optional” on many college apps, and since my rule is “there’s no such thing as optional”, it’s worth a shot.

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How I Know You Wrote Your Kid’s College Essay

The paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don’t know what a college essay is really about.

By JM Farkas

Henceforth.

It was right there in the last sentence of the first paragraph of Mikey’s college essay. I was supposed to believe this typical high school senior, who had inhabited this planet for a slight 17 years, chose to use the word “henceforth.” Mikey was a good kid. He worked hard in school. He loved basketball and girls and math.

He had a certain way with words, but “henceforth” wasn’t one of his words.

When I circled it, Mikey met my raised eyebrows with his signature closed-mouth smile: “O.K., so maybe my mom wrote that part.”

No kidding, Mikey.

The paradox of the overzealous editing of the college essay by many helicopter parents is that they don’t know what a college essay is really about. Unlike the other parts of the application, where high grade point averages and SAT scores reign supreme, the essay is less about being impressive than it is about being authentic.

It can take some convincing for many kids and parents to believe that when it comes to writing the essays, in particular, college admissions officers care about who students are. The essays should reveal their personalities, passions, dreams, weird talents, favorite foods, sickest playlists, inexplicable loves and undeniable quirks.

Do you like to eat the marshmallows before the milk in your Lucky Charms? A tiny but specific detail like this will probably be more vivid than an entirely forced and forgettable essay on community service.

The college essay is about the true things students want the colleges to know about them that can’t be seen via grades and standardized tests. Are you kind? Resilient? Curious? Creative? Are you any fun? And contrary to popular belief, it’s not about unattainable standards or curing cancer. In fact, a good test of a college essay is: Can the writer convince the reader that she would make a great roommate?

So the good news is: The college essay is the purest part of the application.

The bad news: Parents, when you mess with your kids’ pure voices, you’re actually co-writing terrible college essays. And far more egregious and dangerous: You’re teaching your children that when the stakes are high enough, it’s O.K. to be unethical and possibly a plagiarist.

So aside from ridiculously lofty vocabulary or an overly mature perspective, how do I know when a parent or another adult is likely to have written a kid’s essay?

The secret is practically invisible.

When I learned how to type in high school, the definitive rule was to leave two spaces after a period.

Today, kids are taught to use one .

As a former high school teacher, I have worked with hundreds of students on their college essays. Later, as a private college essay consultant, I worked with students and parents at some top private schools before I became an admissions counselor for a small liberal arts college.

Over the years, I’ve noticed this pattern. Often the first draft of an essay has sentences with one space after the periods, but the next draft changes to two. Or, an essay might start off with single spaces after periods, but by the end, suddenly the sentences have two spaces after periods. Or, a final draft might include a wild mishmash of alternating spacing after periods: sometimes one, sometimes two.

So to well-intended adults: in those extra spaces, you are leaving incriminating fingerprints on your student’s show of authenticity. And in trying to make the essay polished enough to prove to an admissions officer that your student is ready for the responsibilities of college, you are showing that you are not so sure.

Henceforth, back off.

JM Farkas is a college essay consultant, teacher, poet and author of “ Be Brave: An Unlikely Manual for Erasing Heartbreak .”

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Do You Have to Write Papers In Nursing School?

Writing an essay or research paper in school usually comes under one of those “you love it or hate it” categories.

Many nursing students hate writing papers in nursing school, while others may find it enjoyable (or even preferred) compared to other activities such as group projects.

But will you have to write a lot of papers in nursing school? If so, how many papers will you have to write? These are all great questions for anyone interested in possibly enrolling in a nursing school program.

Writing Papers In Nursing School

Generally speaking, yes, you will most likely have to write a few papers before graduating nursing school. The good news is that you probably won’t have to write A LOT of papers. But it is almost guaranteed that you will have to write SOME papers.

How many papers you write will often depend on how long you attend (example: 4 year degree vs. 2 year degree),  the specific curriculum your nursing school uses,  as well as the individual teacher’s course requirements or preferences.

All of these variables can really make the number of papers you write hard to determine with any precision.

How Many Papers Will Your Write with a 4 Year BSN Degree?

In my general education college program, I had to take 2 standard English classes (Critical Reading and Writing, and Argumentation and Debate). These required papers throughout the entire semester. I also had to take a literature class, which did require a bit of writing. I also had to write the occasional paper for classes such as sociology, and a couple of other general classes, but these were relatively rare.

Once I was into the actual nursing program, the number of papers I had to write diminished quite a bit. I do recall writing a handful of papers though. One paper was for a nursing community class. There were also a few group projects where we were required to write a paper together, or a presentation.

Writing Papers in an ADN (2 Year) Degree Program

Since most ADN programs go straight into the nursing classes, I would imagine that you won’t have as many papers to write.

You will still probably have the occasional group project or be required to write up your opinion or do a research paper or essay on something in the healthcare profession. But these will not be the norm for the bulk of your classes, and it isn’t that bad to write the occasional paper.

The good news about writing papers in nursing school is this: Since most teachers specialized in science or health, they won’t be “experts” on the English language. In my own experience, teachers in the nursing program were much more laid-back, and didn’t grade the papers as stringently as you might expect a teacher from the English department would.

This is good news for those of you who struggle with writing (or for those students who may not speak English as their first language).

Writing Papers in a Master’s Program

I also have a friend going back to school to get her Master’s Degree in Nursing Education. She just started this fall, and recently commented about the number of papers she will have to write this semester. In addition, most Master Degree programs do require a very lengthy “thesis” or “research paper” at the end of the program to qualify for graduation. Therefore, you should keep in mind if you ever plan on pursuing a Master’s degree in Nursing, you will be writing a lot more papers.

Thinking about going to Nursing School?

Are you contemplating going to nursing school, or are you actually in nursing school right now? Nursing school can be challenging, especially if you do not know what to expect. Here is a great guide by S. L. Page BSN, RN called “ How to Pass Nursing School “. This book gives you detailed information about how to pass nursing school from beginning to end. S.L. Page, the creator of this website, complied all the information students what to know about nursing school into one easy to read guide. She gives in depth information on how to succeed in nursing school.

S.L. Page graduated from nursing school with honors and passed the NCLEX-RN on her first try. In this ebook, she reveals the strategies she used to help her succeed.

Here is what the book looks like:

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