The Case for Fall Essay Writing

Junior year demands a lot from Lawrentians: Classes approach college-level rigor; students assume leadership roles in preparation for senior year; and, realistically, balance the constant cycle of athletic events, homework, tests, club meetings, performances, and standardized testing. As juniors approach the peak of high school commitment, a new threat looms ahead: college applications. 

Rising V Formers often find themselves wondering how they will manage this process when free time only becomes more scarce when school begins again next fall. The solution? Work ahead in the summer, as everyone claims. This advice, while persuasive, is far from realistic and practical. Essay prompts come out in late summer and earnest back-and-forth communication and feedback with college counselors is not feasible until students return to campus. During the summer, far-away deadlines and weighty decisions about our future feel abstract and overwhelming in early summer. 

The brunt of the college application process truly begins in the fall. The biggest hurdle to cross is the sheer number of essays that must be written, often numbering in the 20s. Managing the writing process on top of the variety of senior-year responsibilities is demoralizing and only makes procrastination all the more appealing. Keep in mind the fact that essays cannot be completed in bulk over a single weekend, either. When college admission officers try to glean  the entirety of a person's character, interests, and circumstances in the span of 250 characters, college essays require deep self-reflection and diligent crafting, both of which are hard to accomplish in the dead heat of Fall Term. In other words; Pure time and reflection to write is key, neither of which is abundant in senior fall. 

Carving out the time for college essays necessitates changing our homework load to reserve evening study times to use for college work. Every senior is wading through their college applications, and the faculty must be aware of this fact. Currently, seniors  make frequent trade-offs between adequately preparing for classes or crafting the most thorough and polished college applications. Our homework and studying burden must be lightened. Naturally, this opens up myriad questions and objections. How should classwork be divided in inter-form courses like Calculus BC or Advanced French? How can faculty members cover enough content if their V Form students are occupied with other stressors? 

One workable solution is extending the staple IV-Form spring Essay Writing course to V-Form fall. To maintain the literary analysis and written experimentation that IV-Form Essay Writing champions, the fall course could also provide practical guidance to the senior’s most pressing extracurricular tasks. Instead of summer reading, teachers should expect students to return from summer break with a list of fleshed out essay ideas in hand. Class time could explore integrating personal memories into narrative writing, balancing the academic with the personal, or common topics to avoid. A bulk of class and homework time would be dedicated to consistent work on our personal statement, where progress is monitored to ensure students meet their deadlines. This structure would bake essay writing into our frenzied schedules, keeping us accountable for progress in the same way regular homework assignments already do. Crucially, students could receive routine feedback from their teachers as well as college counselors. This invaluable feedback is often too last-minute for a true in-depth revision process with our current schedule.

Now, V-Formers engage in a variety of term-wide English electives which should continue in Winter and Spring Terms, but a form-wide English course for the fall would also make our college application system more equitable. A few English electives dedicate a small period of class to crafting personal statements, and even more teachers are willing to provide feedback. However, other English classes, preoccupied with completely different topics, offer no extra time to getting this kind of feedback. If all seniors had significant hours during the week devoted to college tasks, we could craft the strongest applications possible while still prioritizing our academics and overall wellbeing.

Several solutions could create more free time for seniors in the fall, ranging from a two-week introductory program focused on personal writing to shifting the essay writing course to this crucial period. Though much more experimental, the latter option would allow us to retain the core objectives of essay writing while better aligning the course with the college application timeline. While, yes, college essays frequently occupy their own literary genre—intrinsically artificial personal advertisements. However, writing strong college essays cultivate essential skills for college-level writing— personal reflection, integrating personal narratives with academic insights, and experimenting with literary devices—all of which align closely with the skills developed in traditional essay writing. By keeping the existing syllabus but incorporating additional workshops, we could enhance the reflection skills that students need as the fall term begins. Subtle shifts in class activities and adjustments to the timeline for assignments could significantly enhance the School's ability to meet seniors where they are in their college application journey.

As seniors at Lawrenceville, time is our most valuable resource. We need time for our classes, time for prefects duties, or time to effectively captain our sports teams. We need time to try and get into a college that will both challenge us and become nurturing second homes. Most importantly, we need the time to look after ourselves because without prioritizing health, none of our other responsibilities are possible. We need time to enjoy our final year at this school. To lighten one of these burdens, the heavy one of college applications, we can make small, mindful shifts to our academic schedule. Perhaps these changes will give us just the time we need to dedicate to our futures.