HS Juniors: Pro tip-write your college essay this summer
It’s June. And that means school’s out for the summer (it’s impossible for me to write that without singing it). It was not that long ago I, too, was a high school junior (about to be a senior). I know what it’s like. You’ve just completed what, for most, is the most rigorous, time consuming year of high school...and all you want to do is take the next 8 weeks to rest.
High school juniors--here is my recommendation: rest. Seriously. Take the next three entire weeks...and completely remove yourself from academics. Enjoy the early stages of your summer break. You deserve it.
But when the calendar hits July 1, here’s another tip: get started on your college essay. And by college essay, you should know what I mean at this point: the Common App Personal Statement.
Click here for the 7 Common App Personal Statement prompts.
We're not going to use this post to go into the nuances of how to write a winning college essay. After all, we utilize the elite 'College Essay Guy' structure to help do just that.
But what we are going to do is help you fast-forward your mind by a couple of months...all the way up to late-September of your senior year.
Late-September of senior year of high school:
You’ve been back in school for a month now and, as crazy as it sounds, Unit 1 Tests are coming up for all of your major subject areas. You need to study for them. 1st semester senior year is the single most important semester of your 8 high school semesters!
Oh and you have your 4th soccer game of the season tonight, against your rival school...that means you won’t even be home to eat dinner until 7:30pm...and then you’ll get down to studying.
And you have your final SAT this upcoming Saturday...you should probably complete a few more hours of studying for that as well…
And you are trying to finalize your school list...so you are hoping to complete a campus tour of your potential Early Decision school the following weekend...it’s a 6 hour drive away.
And your school list reminds you that you are only about ½ complete filling out your Common App (the actual application part)...that’s not something to be ignored either.
And your high school teachers have told you they are "just finishing up" your recommendation letters...you should probably check in on those…
The question to you:
Would you like to, in addition to all of that which I describe above, add the most important essay you’ll potentially write to that already lengthy list?
Or, alternatively, would you prefer to take a deep sigh of relief, knowing your essay is done, finalized, complete and uploaded in your Common App...and not just complete but, given you had an entire 8 weeks to write it over the summer, working on it for no more than 1 hour per day...it really wasn’t even that stressful of a task?
If you’d like to add "Write entire college essay" to that list of HS senior activities above, by all means, go for it--the vast majority of high school seniors do just that. Unfortunately, also, the vast majority of high school seniors scramble through senior fall in a state of unnecessary stress.
If asked, each of our CC.us students would tell you the following:
"There are deadlines...and there are CC.us deadlines. Real deadlines cause stress, CC.us deadlines are set up to eliminate it."
In our program, each of our students complete their college essay, start to finish, between July 1 and September 1 over the summer, before their senior year.
If you think your high schooler could benefit from some "CC.us deadlines" click here and we can chat about it (or pass the link onto another HS parent who could benefit!).
Cheers to a stress-free (and productive) summer.
To your college planning success,
Jack Delehey
Founder, CollegeConsulting.us
P.S. - Have a high-performing high schooler w/ a 3.7 GPA or higher? We'll help get them into at least one of their top 5 dream colleges...and if we don't get them into at least one of their top 5 dream colleges, you don't pay us a penny. Seriously. College admissions isn't rocket science...but it is a science. And we've cracked the code...year, after year, after year. You can learn more about our world renowned all-inclusive, start-to-finish college coaching here and to see if your family qualifies for an introductory call.
P.P.S - Our most common question is "When should we start?!" The answer is, if you truly care about giving your high schooler the best chance of college planning success, you should start NOW. 9th grade is not too early to start! 10th grade is certainly not too early to start! And 11th grade is far, far too late! (supporting data here to show just how much of an advantage you give your child by starting the process early).
