My top tip for managing college essays

College application season is upon us again, and if youre a rising senior or the parent of a rising senior just starting to pull a final list of colleges together, you might be starting to notice that the whole process is, well, a little bit complicated. Everyone talks about the famous college essay, but  in reality that should be essays, plural. And potentially lots of them. There is of course the main Common App personal statement, but what you might not realize until you actually sit down and begin adding schools is that many  colleges  have  institution-specific supplements that include additional essay questions. Most of these questions require  around 150-250 words, but some can be just as long as the main personal statement. If you are applying to specialized programs in engineering, health sciences, businesses, or architecture, you will almost certainly need  to write multiple essays for  some schools.   Since the Common App makes it so easy to add colleges with the click of the button, and since students are applying to increasing numbers of schools  as a way to hedge against dropping acceptance rates and unpredictable financial aid packages, its easy to end up with a whole lot of essays to write.   Now, if you (or your child) is the sort of hyper-organized type-A student who has known your first-choice college since sophomore year  and started your  applications sometimes last spring,  this might not  pose too much of a problem. This post is for the rest of you. Although it might sound like nothing more than straightforward common sense, I cannot stress how important the following is for keeping the number of essays you need to write from becoming overwhelming. When I did admissions counseling, it was the absolute first thing I had every single single student do.   Go to the Common App and click on the supplement for every school you are planning to apply to. Find the essay questions for each college, and copy and paste all of them into an Excel document, divided by school.   Make sure to include the character minimum/limit for each question. For maximum clarity, put this information in a separate column. When you have  compiled all of the essay questions, go through the document and see which topics repeat in multiple schools. Although  the  phrasing may change slightly from school to school,  there should be a significant amount of overlap. Even schools that go out of their way to ask quirky questions (ahem, UChicago) typically  also include at least one relatively general option designed to give you some leeway. Provided that you  do not completely detest the topics/themes that  recur most frequently across schools, think of an   experience/interest/personality trait that you can in some way connect  to the most common topic, and make it your primary supplement essay. Remember that it is not necessary to answer every question  to the letter: as long as the connection is reasonably clear, youll be fine. The prompts are mostly  there to induce you to write essays  that  will not put admissions committee members to sleep.   Start with the  school with the longest essay, usually about 500 words. Then, pare it back for schools with similar questions but progressively shorter character counts. Its a lot  easier to get rid of words than it is to add them. For schools whose questions do not quite fit, you may also be able to rewrite short sections  of your essay to give it a slightly different slant. The point is to recycle  material whenever you can, albeit in a way that doesnt feel artificial. This will take a little practice, but most people get the hang of it after the first few schools.  Ã‚   Also: almost every school with a supplement will have a why this school? question. Again,  write the essay with highest character count first: this is your template. For each subsequent school, research the same set of features: departments, classes (find ones in your areas of interest that look particularly interesting), professors, clubs, internship opportunities, etc. Then, you can plug in with just a few alterations to account for different schools quirks and particularities. Just dont forget to change the name of the school. You do not want to proclaim your undying affection for the University of North Carolina  on the essay youre submitting to Duke.   And finally: writing college essays is like any other skill: the more you do it, the better you get. If possible, wait until youve done a few apps to work on those for your top choices. Your essays may continue to evolve, and you want to leave yourself some room to grow before working on the schools that matter most to you.