No Fear Finishing Strong

No Fear: Finishing Strong

What’s scarier—a haunted house or a crashed application portal? No question, I know.

I’m pretty sure high-school seniors don’t trick-or-treat, but I do know they’re not working on their college applications on Halloween. Despite a November 1 deadline and the magic of instantaneous online submission, I have almost never worked the night of October 31. Whether it’s social opportunities or fear of the Common App crashing if they wait until the last minute, no one wants to be submitting that night. This tells me that kids CAN meet deadlines if they want it enough.

If you’re planning on enjoying tomorrow, you’re going to have to buckle down today. Many people tell themselves they do their best work under pressure, but that’s rarely true. Especially if you’re attempting to finish up in time to go out, you’re going to be thinking more about your upcoming event and less about what you’re writing. Your internal timekeeper will keep a constant refrain of, Write faster!—which of course just distracts you from the work at hand.

But let’s say that you’ve worked diligently and you’re actually finishing up today. Congratulations! Still, before you put your feet up, let’s finish strong.

First, don’t leave your final proofreading until you’re tired. Even when you’re fresh, your brain has a surprising ability to read past typos, adding in short words like “to” or “the” that were forgotten, or ignoring dropped letters in the middle of words. When you’re reading other people’s work, this ability to subconsciously correct mistakes aids in comprehension. When you’re reading your own work, it makes it more difficult to catch embarrassing mistakes. One easy trick is to read the essay BACKWARD, word by word. This short-circuits what the brain expects to read and forces it to actually process what’s on the screen, instead of just what it expects to find.

Don’t worry about a title. It’s not required, and uses up some of your precious 650 words. Being a good writer is an important skill for colleges to evaluate—being clever in short form (as in title writing) is not.

Don’t worry about formatting. You’re more likely than not applying via a portal that is not going to offer you any options. You won’t be able to submit it double-spaced, or worry about what font or size. Most likely, it will not recognize an indent (or “tab”), so mark your paragraphs by skipping a line (as I’ve done here). Definitely double-check after copy-pasting the essay into the form that you haven’t been cut off at the end.

After you celebrate finishing your essay, give the rest of the app a once-over. Spelling counts everywhere, not just in the essay! You didn’t leave your activities list to finish later, did you? You didn’t miss any supplemental essays?

When you’ve given everything a final read and you know you’ve done the best you can, go ahead and hit SUBMIT. I know, it feels so final! But it’s ready. Wish it luck and let it go!

(Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash)