<p>How long should a student expect to spend writing and editing an Ivy-caliber application essay?</p>
<p>Most adults that I know who write for a living keep revising their magazine or newspaper articles right up until it has to go to press. So, your college admissions essays are never really finished until you press the submit button – and even then, I’m sure a revision will come to you AFTER you’ve pressed the button. That’s just the way writing works.</p>
<p>That said, most students spend more time on test-prep than they do on writing essays . . . when it should be the other way around. </p>
<p>Both my kids, who are attending ivies, spent about 3 to 4 months (off and on) working on their essays – and not just on one topic. They each wrote on 5 or 6 different topics, before coming to the realization that one topic was better than the others. They’d write a draft of one essay, put it away for a week, and start work on another one. The, they’d pull out the first essay and make revisions and put it away for another week. I imagine that no two people will have the same writing process. It’s whatever works best for you.</p>