My kids both drafted their personal statements over the summer but continued to do significant work on them through early fall. My dd completely scrapped her original personal statement and never used any of that draft material again (which was fine because she had also been drafting supplements). My ds wrote a very long original draft that was kind of all over the place - he ended zeroing in on one part of it, then used the leftover material in supps. It worked out really well. My advice is never throw away anything you write for college admissions - save it in a doc that you go to for supp ideas.

I am glad they were writing and revising in the fall - they had both matured a lot, were taking new interesting classes, and just overall had a better idea of how they wanted to present themselves to colleges.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone edits their statement.

Except my kid who wrote it the night it was due.

I realize that DC’s experience may be an outlier, but here it is anyway.

First version of personal statement was done at school in May. Second (completely different) version was completed in June. DC showed the essay to a few (3-4) people and incorporate (minor edits) in early July. The supplemental essays were done in July too. Total time spend on essays: 5-6 hours.

Submitted ED application in late August and got accepted in September.

my kid was finished in august with the main essay.

there are kids in their class who use the essay they wrote in spring of junior year during a high school class. why not?

these dont always get better.

My kid was done in August and never made changes after that.

Anonymous wrote:I feel as though if your kid writes it in August and submits that version that’s a win.

But if they write it in August, and then write a second one that incorporates the lessons from the first and so is presumably better? That’s a win too.

In neither case was the first one wasted time.

This.

It’s a long process. If you start early and finish early, great, less to worry about later. If you start early and then rework and revise and edit far into the fall, great, you needed plenty of time so it’s fortunate you didn’t wait to start.

I feel as though if your kid writes it in August and submits that version that’s a win.

But if they write it in August, and then write a second one that incorporates the lessons from the first and so is presumably better? That’s a win too.

In neither case was the first one wasted time.

Plenty of people stop revising in August or September, especially those who are applying to 20 schools, list of which have supplementals essays. And plenty of kids revise until the last minute.

Of course, you edit and refine!
Both of mine did all the way through October.

Ivy/T10 results in RD.

Everyone edits their statement.

Looking back, I am just realizing that my kid’s summer version (used successfully for a rolling admission school) was completely scrapped and a new one was written and painstakingly revised during the fall.

Since conventional wisdom is to do it over the summer, I was wondering if the kids who do this mostly are redoing it anyway.