Reflections on The College Application Process

By Aruna G.

December 17, 2021

It was the summer of junior year, at the start of my college application journey. I was talking with a recent high school graduate friend. She had been very successful, now going to a Top 10 college, and I wanted to know what she’d done with those all-important essays. She laughed looking chagrined, “well I don’t think my approach is the best to imitate, I actually rewrote my common application essay only two weeks before it was due!” I naively laughed with her, thinking of course that wasn’t going to happen to me… 

Cut to October 10th, five days before my deadline and I’m sitting outside during goal time, frantically rewriting my common app. The summer had been a disaster for my applications and I’d written three versions (all on completely different subjects), but not one I was happy with.  It kept getting more and more frustrating and now, with the intense pressure of my upcoming deadline, I tried writing completely new ones. I cannot explain how, but at 12 am, as the morning of the deadline dawned, I finished the last edits of my common application personal statement. 

DO NOT imitate my approach.

That being said, I’m going to take this short article to lament my mistakes and reflect on the essay writing process. 

Everyone at this point has heard “top colleges aren’t everything,” but it honestly doesn’t mean anything until you really delve into college research. In the summer of junior year, I knew the names: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton... the UCs… Uh. That was about it. When asked if I knew any besides IVY’s, I said something like “Weresleyon” (I think I meant Wesleyan). I don’t really regret this misconception though, rather I think it was part of the process, something that changes once you get a chance to research and understand the variety of colleges. 

My biggest and most prevalent regret is not working harder on pacing out my supplemental writing, something which is about to really hurt me as December break approaches and I have yet to finalize many of my essays. Essay writing is not only about the time spent actually doing the writing, but also the time in between thinking about the ideas I want to convey. Spending five hours over two weeks is much more effective than spending that same amount in one day. It takes the stress off both coming up with ideas and writing creatively and professionally about them in one sitting.

The college writing process is definitely tough. Of course it's a good learning opportunity, a time to reflect and critically think about your future. However, under so much pressure, I found some of the genuineness of those reflections diminished. If I were to give any advice (however unqualified I am), it’d be to find any way to relieve that pressure so you can do your best work. That’s what I’m going to be trying over the next couple weeks!