Essays - Common App. vs. specific Colleges'

lspf72
Sun, 09 Jul 2006 23:56:35 +0000

This may be a foolish question, but we are still new to this.
HS jr S. Was looking at the Common Application and the essay choices. He would like to write about his EC/volunteer job, of which he has enough knowledge to write a pretty in-depth essay. My question is–
Since the essay for the common application is supposed to be fairly short (250-500 words), should he “save” his EC essay for a specific college’s application instead? He plans to apply ED to his first choice school. Are Colleges’ own essay questions usually very specific, or do they encourage students to choose their own subject?
Thanks