College applications have been one of the biggest stressors of senior year since the dawn of time. From transcripts to recommendations, there are countless things that need to be gathered and inputted before you can finally hit submit. The most time-consuming of these things is the essays, including both the Personal Statement and the supplementals. Depending on the school, there can range from one to seven essays that need to be done. Here is my personal ranking of the essays I have completed so far.

10. Coming in last is a UT Austin essay: What would you do if you didn’t go to college? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike this essay topic. But when I first read this, I was taken aback. What would I do if I didn’t go to college? This uncertainty is what led me to rank this essay number 10.

9. For me, the Georgia essay about what book helps you transition from middle to high school was number 9. With my bookshelves filled with cheesy rom-com or mystery novels, I felt that I had not read a book that would be impressive enough for this essay. In the end, I got past these feelings and chose a book I love, preferring to express my personality rather than trying to impress the readers with a fancy book.

8. This next essay was a question I don’t even like to answer in interviews: The ability to learn from our small failures is essential to our personal growth and development. Reflect on a time when you faced a small failure. How did you navigate through it, and what did you learn about yourself and your approach to challenges? First of all, it is hard to admit to something as big and scary as college applications that I have failed at anything. Secondly, I found it hard to find a loophole to turn a failure into a success. I am still very wary about my answer to this question.

7. Now, on the other hand, this next essay allows you to speak of one of your successes. It asks, When was the last time you took a risk? Why did you do what you did? What did you learn about yourself as a result? Writing this essay felt like a redemption compared to number 8.

6. THE WHY ESSAY: this essay is one that you will find on nearly every college application. From why are you choosing our college to why are you applying to this major, this essay is a chance for you to show how much you have looked into their college. But beyond these obvious why essays, I have also found some hidden ones too. For example, the UNC-Chapel Hill essay: Discuss an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college. Why does this topic interest you? Topics could be a specific course of study, research interests, or any other area related to your academic experience in college.

5. The essays that were in the middle for me were the ones that were about quotes. One thing I like about this essay is that it sets clear parameters for what to write. It gives you a topic, a quote or a motto, and gives you any area of learning to relate it to. Some of these include the one for UT Austin regarding the entrance to Old Main which reads, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” or the one for Wake Forest which asks you to choose a quote from their former professor, Dr. Maya Angelou.

4. This next essay prompt took me a while to decide on, but only because I had so many ideas. It asked me to describe one non-academic goal I had for my senior year. To me, there were two ways one could interpret this essay: one being the goal to make memories and enjoy your last year, and the other being a more project-oriented goal that would help you make one final impact on your community.

3. Another pretty open-ended question that I was faced with was: What didn’t we ask you that you would like to tell us about yourself? This essay let me show my personality on my college application, rather than just regurgitate my resumé. The one thing I wanted to be able to say about my essays when I was done was that the readers would be able to get to know me as a person after they read it.

2. Now for the essay that is really going to show your personality, the Personal Statement. As many other high school seniors did, I chose the prompt that allowed me to write about whatever I wanted. In this essay, I was able to give my readers a taste of who I am and what it would be like to have me in their college. This essay was one of the most fun ones I have written so far.

1. And finally my absolute favorite essay… My favorite question I got to answer on my college applications was Wake Forest’s list of your Top Ten Anything and their list of your Top Ten Favorite Books. These “essays” were such a refreshing break from the 300 and 600-word essays I was writing. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, this was such an amazing way to express myself and not just retype my resumé on my application.

Now I know college essays may seem like a daunting task, but I hope after this essay you can understand that some of them will be fun!