Rising Seniors: Applying to College & Essay Writing

Use the links included on this page as a timeline beginning in January of your junior year.

 
 

  • Common App: 2024-25 Essay Prompts

    CTK Blog: Writing the College Essay

    NYTimes: October 2022 Winning Essays

    College Essay Guy: 12 Essay Examples

  • Many schools require additional essays, either within the application or in a writing supplement post submission. Some schools have numerous prompts– Stanford has eight– and others have a more typical set of two or three.

    You may also find yourself writing essays for special circumstances: merit scholarships at individual colleges, honors college applications, and outside scholarships.

    Specifically, the University of California does not use the Common App or Coalition App. It has its own application, which requires four essays (drawn from eight prompts) of 350 words each.

    CTK Pro Tip: Hang onto all the ideas and stories you did not use for your Common App essay so you can draw on them for the additional essays.

    Colleges often change their supplemental prompts from year to year, so we advise waiting until after schools post their updated applications for the annual cycle on August 1 before beginning your writing.

    You can plan ahead by seeing what the previous year’s prompts were, and The College Essay Guy is an excellent source.

 
 
 

Reading Room

Below is a list of books and websites I regularly recommend to families with high school juniors and seniors.