Most Junior English courses will cover the College Essay as one of the last assignments of the year, in late May or early June.
What you will need to write for admission purposes:
Two year schools: an essay is usually not required, but you might need one for scholarship applications, honors programs, etc.
Four year schools: you will need at least one "main" essay (generally the thing you will write in class) that you will use for most of your applications. Some schools, like UT Austin and the Univ of California schools, don't use these essays - they have their own topics (I have resources to help with those). Some (but not all) of your schools will also require supplemental (additional) essays.
The absolute, hands-down, best resources out there for essay work are those provided by the College Essay Guy. I like to start with his some or all of his 5 exercises, which are listed in his College Application Hub under Application Pre-Work.
I recommend that you start with one of these topics (updates are usually made in February/March):
Click here to view the Common App Essay Topics (2021-22 topics)
Click here to view the Coalition App Essay Topics (2021-22 topics)
The college essay is not the time to think about what you think the reader wants to hear - it’s about answering the prompt and telling your story in an authentic way. One college representative provides the following insight:
Every day, you eat lunch with the same 8-10 friends. These are people that know you fairly well, your best buds. One day, you leave your college essay behind on the table, but it doesn’t have your name on top. One of the others at the table picks it up, and starts to read it. If your essay is about you and sounds like you - and it's about something that’s truly important to you - a really good friend should be able to return it to you. If they can’t, consider whether you’ve really told your story (or if maybe they aren’t a really good friend!).
Sure, you want it to be grammatically correct and show off your personal writing skills - but what you say is just as important. It can’t be something that your classmate would write; it needs to be unique to your experience.
These are essays that are specific essays requested by a particular school. It's important that these are highly personalized and highly customized. These are some of the best indicators of a student's "fit" (and sincere interest) in the school. Most schools max out at around 300 words for these, but sometimes they are much shorter - 150 words (a few sentences!) or even 150 characters!
Common topics for longer supplements: The "Why Us?" essay, The "Extracurricular" essay, The "Why this major/career" essay.
These essay topics can change each year. New topics are not usually available until early August.
Some interesting examples of supplemental essay prompts:
Life is a collection of moments, some random, some significant. Right now, you are applying to Babson College. What moment led you here? We invite you to submit your answer in either essay OR video format. If you choose to submit a video, please limit your response to a 1-minute video, which can be submitted via a shared link to YouTube or another video hosting website. (Babson College)
Most students choose their intended major or area of study based on a passion or inspiration that’s developed over time – what passion or inspiration led you to choose this area of study? (Carnegie Mellon University)
If there’s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden (along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Explain this using any method of analysis you wish—physics, biology, economics, history, theology… the options, as you can tell, are endless. (UChicago)
You may live in one of the busiest cities in all the world or come from a small town with just one traffic light. The place that you call home has probably shaped who you are in some way. Tell us about where you are from and what, from there, you will bring to Villanova. (Villanova)
Your favorite word. (Princeton)
We would like to know more about your interest in NYU. What motivated you to apply to NYU? Why have you applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please also tell us why you are interested in these additional areas of study or campuses. We want to understand - Why NYU? (NYU)
On some applications, including the Common App, there is a place for students to write about other things that are important for the admission committee to know, that may not be disclosed elsewhere. This should only be included if necessary and is not a place for fluff or filler. It's also not another essay - it is a place for "information" only.
Some common items to include here:
important details about activities that wouldn't fit in the activities list
health stuff
any red flags (like a grade that is way off of your typical grades, why you dropped activities that you appeared to be committed to, why you are missing a subject that would be expected)
circumstances that made it difficult to be involved in extracurriculars (e.g. I am a caregiver for someone else, or I work 25 hours a week to contribute to my family )
physical or learning disabilities or differences (if you want to disclose)
The Common App will provide students who need it with a dedicated space to elaborate on the impact of the pandemic, both personally and academically.
How to Write About COVID-19 (or not)