The essay rules may be changing on the Common Application, but that doesn’t change some basic rules about creative writing.

Anxious college applicants who are worried about their essay topics might feel relieved to know that Michael Winerip, our New York Times colleague, has written a piece on Booming in which he shares college essay advice that he’s given to his neighbors:

They come to me browbeaten and defeated. They ask if it really is true what the 19-year-old campus tour guide told them — that most people have a first draft by eighth grade. They are convinced their child’s future depends on this. They have blown up the essay until it’s as big as the complete works of Leo Tolstoy.

So much worry for 250 to 500 words about something important that has happened to them.

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