Students typically come to me with their initial list of schools and say, “Will you help me with my essays?”
All of that work that we just went through needs to happen before we start on the essays. There's just as much work on the essays as there is on the rest of this process.
On average, my students will spend anywhere from 5 to 10 hours on the essays for each of their schools. Do the math: a student who has 8 highly selective colleges or universities on their list might be able to repurpose an essay here or there, but for the most part, that’s going to be a tremendous amount of time and work to write those essays for those schools. Highly-selective colleges and universities are looking for very specific answers to their common “Why Us?” essay prompts, and those specific essays are difficult to repurpose.
The timing can also be tricky for students. The Common App prompts are usually available in June, but many colleges and universities don’t publish their supplemental essay prompts until August 1st — and some high schools start classes the first week in August! This means that if students have eight highly selective colleges or universities on their list and they spend anywhere from five to ten hours on each one of those essays, well, you do the math. It’s a lot of work in addition to senior year.
Just something for students to think about as they build their lists.
Two more things that most IECs will point out as many students and parents don’t consider:
Applying to more highly-selective schools does not increase a student’s chances of getting in — the numbers don’t work that way! The numbers don’t use the lower number of acceptance rates for these calculations but rather the higher number of applicants who were denied admission — from that particular talent pool in that particular year. It’s complicated math but even an English major can understand that a 4 percent acceptance rate does not equal a 4 percent chance of admission for every student applicant across the board. Holistic admissions processes consider numerous factors, many of which students are unaware of in the process (not the least of which is the qualifications of other students in the larger pool.) Even if you know a few bits and pieces of data about a student who was or was not admitted at a particular college, that doesn't tell you everything the admission officers knew and considered when they made their decision. (See “So-and-So got in.”
It doesn’t make sense for most students to have more than one Ivy on their list. “The Ivies” are eight distinct universities and colleges within the Ivy League. Each has its own personality and academic specialties. One may be a good fit for a particular student, but it’s very unlikely that the student would find all of them a good fit, or be a good fit for all of them.
Being intentional with list-building gives students the time to properly vet schools and craft the thoughtful answers to essay prompts that make students stand out in the application process.
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