Do You Have A College Essay Procrastinator On Your Hands?

Parents, do you have a college essay procrastinator on your hands? Fear not. Once upon a time, I myself was sweating over my college essays just weeks before it was due. While I do not endorse this last-minute approach, having since learned that it can often leads to high blood pressure and much stress for both you and your parents, I also understand that some students will inevitably find themselves in this final-hour scenario. 

As a holiday time gift to all the dilly-dalliers out there, I came up with a list of Top Ten Tips for College Essay Procrastinators. Might I suggest you pass these on to your favorite procrastinator and suggest he/she read them now, not later?

Ten College Essay Tips For Procrastinators:

1. Don’t panic. I know this seems like an obvious one, but it’s also easier said than done. Perhaps it will help to hear that some of the finest essays I've ever consulted on have been written in the final hour. You still have plenty of time to get a winning essay on the page. You just need to take a deep breath, and make up your mind to get down to it.

2. Make an unbreakable date with your computer. You have been doing many things over the past few months and none of those things involved hanging out with your new best buddy, the college admissions essay. Now is the time to make a date with the computer. Pick a night to get started. How about tonight? Forget what’s on TV and who is hanging out at the mall after school. You’re officially busy.

3. Disconnect yourself. Say goodbye to the internet. Turn off your phone. Make yourself wholly unreachable by man or microchip for a few solid hours. You will be amazed how much you can get accomplished when your various devices cease to buzz and beep for your attention. For those of you who will have trouble summoning the willpower to stay in the No Internet Zone while on the computer, try using a program like Freedom, which locks your access to the Internet for a pre-selected period of time. You can resume checking for your friends’ new Facebook selfies after an hour or two, we promise.

4. Start with the behemoth. It may be tempting to being working on one of the shorter and less creatively demanding supplemental essays first, but trust me on this one: getting the Common Application essay out of the way is the largest source of stress relief for every student we work with. Additionally, since the Common App essay can be submitted to a large percentage of the schools students apply to, it is helpful to know what subject will already be covered in this essay before thinking about topics for other, more narrowly-focused pieces. In essence, you want to use your best, most widely applicable idea for the Common App, and it’s helpful to isolate that topic before starting on other essays.

5. Say “I do” to your topic. I'm sure you’ve been kicking around some essay ideas at the dinner table and English class over the past few months. Maybe you even have a few rough drafts that ultimately ended up going nowhere. Now’s the time to weigh all of your ideas together and commit to just one. The beauty of the college admission essay is that an infinite number of concepts can be expanded into essays that communicate something interesting to admissions. The hardest part is choosing one idea and sticking with it. Right now, there is no time left for second-guessing. Go with your gut and set that topic in cement.

6. Get it all down. I mean all of it. This is the step that really sets you up for essay success. Consider the topic you have just chosen for your Common Application essay. Ask yourself, “What are the things the reader will really want to know about this topic? What am I trying to say about myself?” Think about what elements you might need to include to give your reader a real sense of story. Then, write down everything. Travel with every tangent. Record every tiny detail that comes to mind. Trash the filter and just get it all on the page. The more you write, the more you will have to consider when you pull together your more final drafts. As I tell all of my students, it’s always easier to edit down than it is to add to an essay after it’s been written.

7. Sculpt, edit, proofread. It’s pretty self explanatory, but this part of the process is where the story is engineered, the language is finessed and the details are checked for accuracy. Don’t underestimate the power of a word processor’s spellcheck feature and the Internet as a resource for fact confirmation. When in doubt, look it up. Make sure to recruit at least one reader you trust for a second opinion, but don’t recruit too many outside viewpoints; too much feedback can be confusing, especially in an arena that is fairly subjective to begin with. In the end, go with your gut on all big decisions, and run your essay by mom, dad or another trusted adult for one final proofread before submission.

8. Start those pesky supplements. To begin, organize. Make a comprehensive list of every school you’re applying to and the essays associated with each school’s supplement. Essay subjects from different schools have a tendency to overlap with each other, so make sure to compare prompts and identify where things overlap before you start writing. After that, it’s all about discipline. Create a schedule for yourself and map out which supplements you are going to attack each day. Then, sit down and get to work! Check out my guide to writing supplemental essays for more in-depth tips and tricks on writing these influential essays.

9. Don’t trust technology (completely). I love technology almost as much as I love my grandmother. That said, technology is not infallible as the Common Application has proven time and time again over the course of this current application season. I have already heard many stories of frustration regarding essays that don’t keep their formatting and paragraphs that won’t separate. Be diligent in checking your essays in Print Preview before shipping them off to the schools of your choice. If you don’t know how to access the “Print Preview” feature, consult my handy step-by-step guide to achieving proper formatting using the Common App. Perhaps most importantly, plan to submit at least a full day or two in advance of the actual deadline just in case the Common Application experiences additional hiccups, which is almost a certainty during these high-traffic submission periods.

10. When in doubt, call the experts. This is why I'm here. If, after all of your efforts, you are still not sure whether your essay will live up to the task of securing your admission to the school of your dreams, ask someone who has been helping students craft winning college admissions essays for the past decade (that’s me!) how you might be able to improve your submission. If you are confused or stuck at any point in the above process, contact me through the College Essay Advisors website, or pick up the phone and give me a call at 347-927-9CEA (9232). If it’s not midnight on the night before the admission deadline, it’s probably not too late to get a little advice from an essay expert.

For more information on how to approach the college admissions essay, or for answers to your last-minute college essay conundrums, contact Stacey Brook at CollegeEssayAdvisors.com or call 347-927-9CEA (9232).