Three Ways to Stop Procrastinating on Your College Essay

If you’re applying to college this year, you may be worried that you’ll avoid working on your college essays until the last moment, when it’s too late to write something impactful. This is an affliction known as “college essay procrastination,” and it’s extremely common among high school seniors. We understand why! Writing is challenging in the best of circumstances, but now you have to come up with a compelling essay that will play a large part in determining where you go to college. It’s no wonder students get freaked out and have trouble getting started.

That’s why we’ve assembled three of the most effective tips we recommend for our students. Each one covers a different part of the college essay process.

Tip #1 for formulating your college essay topic: Get a friend or family member to interview you about yourself

Coming up with a topic for a college essay is the hardest part of the whole process. The reason for this is that you have no experience writing personal essays in high school. Sure, you may have written many essays about novels, poems, and historical events, but if you’re like most high schoolers, you’ve never written about yourself. It makes sense that it would be hard to sit down and start brainstorming your topic.

That’s why we recommend you do an informal interview with someone you trust. Get them to ask you as many questions as possible. They can start with basic questions, like: Have you encountered any unusual challenges? If not, what does make you unusual? What are you passionate about? Are there any episodes in your life that stand out, and what did you learn from them?

These questions should get you talking, but don’t stop there! Tell your interviewer that no question is off limits, and they should push you to reflect as deeply as possible about your life experience.

You may not come up with your exact topic after one of these interviews, but you will definitely get off to a good start! Take notes on the most important points you make, and use your notes as a springboard for future brainstorming.

Tip #2 for writing your college essay: Set a timer and force yourself to “write badly”

Some students have no problem coming up with their topic, but they freeze when it comes time to write. If you fall into this category, you’re probably a bit of a perfectionist, and you’re second guessing yourself when you should just be putting pen to paper.

The best way to counter this example of college essay procrastination is to give yourself permission to write badly. At this early stage of the college essay process, we often tell students that it isn’t beneficial for your writing to be highly polished; it’s in fact a much better sign if you just feel free to get your ideas out.

So as soon as you have your idea, start writing anything that comes to mind, and don’t worry about the quality of your work. Just get your thoughts out onto the page as quickly as possible. There will be plenty of time to revise your work later on.

And if you’re still having trouble, here’s another strategy we recommend: tell a friend or family member to set a timer for 5 minutes, and write as much as you can in that time. Then stop! If you know that you only have a short period of time to get your thoughts down, we guarantee you’ll stop procrastinating.

Tip #3 for revising your college essay: Print your draft on paper and edit it with a pen

There’s nothing worse than staring at a computer screen for hours on end when you’re trying to work on your college essay. You look at the same sentences over and over, and you waste time by browsing the internet. This is a classic example of college essay procrastination.

That’s why we recommend you print out a hard copy of your draft and edit it with a pen. This has many advantages: 1) You have the feeling you’re getting work done when you manually edit your writing on the page 2) You get a much better overview of your essay when you can see the whole thing on paper 3) You remain focused because you’re not looking at a computer screen.

If you print out a new copy of your essay every day and make your changes in pen, you’ll avoid procrastinating, and by the end of the week, you’ll have a much more polished college essay. Final hint: read your writing aloud at the end to catch any careless errors.

We totally understand why you might procrastinate when it comes to writing your college essay. But if you follow these techniques now, rather than at the end of the year, you’ll have a great advantage over the students who are still procrastinating.