Ben Nikpour- Week 2: The Infamous Common App Essay

    The common app essay is stressful, to say the least. This 650-word essay has a huge impact on our college admissions; an excellent essay can be the one thing that gets you into your dream school, while a bad essay will do the opposite. Knowing this, I spent a lot of time strategically preparing and thinking about what I was going to write about. I started planning out my essay towards the end of last school year and already had a solid start on it before the summer. At first, I had no clue what I was going to write. I had no idea where to start, and I felt that I had nothing interesting to talk about. I constantly freaked out at my parents, saying I couldn’t think of anything, and I wasn’t going to get into a school.     

    After calming down, I started by listing every major event or aspect of my life. Still, nothing stood out to me as a great topic, so I continued to write more things down and write notes on each topic. This allowed me to see these topics from a different perspective making it easier for me to choose which one was the most interesting. Once I felt like I had a solid plan, I just began writing. Knowing I wanted a crazy hook, I decided to skip the introduction paragraph and just begin writing my ideas down. Throughout the writing process, I realized that I could combine multiple ideas into one cohesive topic that would sound amazing. Finally, I wrote my first draft. My first draft was not anywhere near complete, though. I would estimate I rewrote my essay around 100 times to the point where my newest draft looks nothing like the original one. I also added a hook to my final draft which completed my common app essay. 

    While I am basically finished with my essay, it took months in the making. Each day I felt the pressure and stress of needing to complete the essay with perfection. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I started writing my essay later. Personally, I feel like the common app essay along with the college admissions process is too stressful, and I think most students in America would have to agree with me. 

    Overall, I am proud of my essay and my dedication to the writing process. Even though it was stressful and didn’t immediately come to me, I persevered and spent the time and effort to get my essay completed. I believe that everyone has a different way of approaching the common app essay, but if you are stressed about this piece of the application, just know that you will get through it, it just takes some time and it will all work out!