What exactly is so time-consuming about college apps.

notanengineer
Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:08:10 +0000

I agree that the time investment that college apps necessitate is slightly overblown.

Essay-writing does take a while, but I’d say the intellectual aspect is more daunting than the time. Just sitting down and writing a common app essay isn’t so simple. You can write a draft, revise it a bit, and then find that the topic doesn’t work out. You could be hoping to write a funny essay that just doesn’t turn out funny. The solution isn’t just to invest more time into your essay (unlike most people can do with academic papers etc.). Also, it can be tougher to cover a topic in 500 words than 1000 (although the end result will probably be better if it’s more concise).

And I need two common app essays for Yale, basically. Sigh.