The Common App Essay
The college application season is in full swing, and my students have been hard at work, organizing their ideas, writing first drafts, and polishing their finished products. For some of them, it’s been months, if we began the process in June.
Then the task was long and languorous. We met during the day, we had energy, and lots of ideas flowed. If we started in the fall, we had school schedules and exhaustion to contend with. Either way, these students are dedicated to writing the best personal statements they can, utilizing a four-step method: Prewriting, Drafting, Editing, and Proofreading.
In Prewriting, the student and I review the six Common App prompts, and they choose three possibilities, eventually narrowing them down to one. In Drafting, we outline the three ideas they’ll want to cover, in addition to their introduction and conclusion. Sentence construction does not begin until the student has a solid outline. Editing takes place after the first draft has been written and it is ready to be polished into a final product. A final Proofread makes sure all spelling, grammar, and punctuation is correct.
The collaborative nature of this work is crucial in order to make sure the student has organized their thoughts before sentence construction begins. Why? Because we are on a time frame, deadlines need to be met, and students who struggle with writing often draft without a plan, which is like baking a cake without a recipe. Without the all-important steps, the final product may not turn out right. Another reason a plan is effective is that it prevents a laborious editing phase, which takes tremendous time.
Some of the most challenging prompts are the Supplementals, where each college asks their own Why-Do-You-Want-to-Attend ___? question which is broad in nature, and best answered with specifics. This isn’t always easy, and sometimes students can’t say why a certain school is on their list. Conversations take place and, once more, I make sure the student knows exactly what they’ll discuss before they begin sentence construction. Other applications I’ve worked on this fall are the U.S. Fulbright, which limits answers to 6,000 characters, or approximately 1,000 words, a challenge that requires students to plan carefully.
Ultimately, these student collaborations are delightful, leading to rich conversations, that produce the best personal statements possible.