The college essay is the bane of many high school seniors’ existence. Students belabor the essay prompts, writing draft after draft in pursuit of elusive perfection. Their essays are reviewed by friends, teachers, family, and others, often to the point that the original drafts (and voice) are unrecognizable.
Just when they are bringing their main college essay in for a landing, a bevy of supplemental essays may rear their nuanced heads. Unfortunately, these opportunities to shine are rarely given the attention and effort that they warrant. Frustrated young people eager to finish their applications perceive supplemental essays as an instruments of torture–more hoops to jump through in the gauntlet of college admission. Colleges, however, use their responses to gauge interest and match.
Supplemental essays have drawn increasing attention in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that effectively struck down race-conscious admission. Colleges are searching for ways to learn more about students’ backgrounds and experiences and the ruling allowed room for schools to use essay responses to do so. I asked college admission leaders to provide context for the intent of supplemental essays and advice for how applicants might approach them. Here is what they shared:
Jay Jacobs, Vice Provost For Enrollment Management, University Of Vermont
Context
“Supplemental essays give colleges one more opportunity to hear from the applicant directly. If you think about it, a lot of the college application is either impersonal and/or indirect feedback. Transcripts are simply marks received in courses over time, testing is performance on one (or more) Saturday mornings, extracurriculars are just a list of things students do, and letters of recommendation are third-party references. The essays are the only time a student has full control over their voice on their application.”
UVM added optional (yes, they are truly optional!) supplemental essays in 2018. Each year a committee reevaluates the prompts from the prior year and recommends new and/or additional prompts for the following cycle. Prompts that are considered “finalists” get shown to a number of campus constituencies (tour guides, admissions staff, faculty, etc.) to be vetted. We try to choose prompts that both showcase to applicants the University’s values and allow applicants to show us who they are.”
Advice
“I always advise students to be sure that they are sharing something that makes them who they are and provides that context in their own voice to the admissions committee. As applicants start to put personal statements and supplements together, they will see that they can really write about anything. The essays that stand out to me over the course of my career are essays that showcase a student’s individuality (i.e. what are their strengths, interests, passions, etc.) and how those align with the institution to which they are applying. This allows admissions officers to understand how a student will fit at our institution, will contribute to the community, and (bonus points for this last one!) how a student will grow (i.e. work on new talents, knowledge, etc.) at a specific school. This is why copying and pasting supplemental essays can almost always be detected – the “why” can’t be the same for any two institutions.”
Liz Kinsley, Associate Dean & Director of Undergraduate Admission, Northwestern University
Context
“Our writing supplements are designed to support students by helping them focus their responses on areas we consider most important to our holistic review: how their personal experiences have shaped various ways they see themselves engaging at Northwestern, and how their vision for college aligns with Northwestern’s institutional values, academic culture, and campus community.”
Advice
“As you work on supplements for us and other colleges, keep in mind that the college process is not merely an exercise in proving your achievements in high school—it can be so much more exciting (and you will be a more exciting applicant!) if you embrace its imaginative side, picturing who you may become in college and helping admissions committees see your potential for growth and contribution in that setting.”
Mike Drish, Executive Director Of Undergraduate Admissions At Vanderbilt University
Context
“I am glad these are framed in the Common App now, usually, as ‘Questions’ as opposed to a 'supplement.’ The term supplement implies the question is supplemental in the application review process when the questions individual universities ask are most often one of the most important parts of the application in the review process. The questions a university chooses to ask are also a terrific opportunity for an applicant to gain perspective on what matters to that university, and what it values. A lot of time and effort goes into developing the specific wording of university-specific questions on the member section of the Common App.
At Vanderbilt, we ask applicants to choose from one of two short prompts. One prompt is focused on allowing the student to elaborate on a work experience or activity that has influenced them. We ask about this to better understand the balance an applicant has between their academic and social experiences. Another prompt gives the student an opportunity to reflect on how a conversation with someone with a different viewpoint had an impact on the applicant. We ask about this because at Vanderbilt we strive to foster an atmosphere on campus where students can explore and freely discuss the most complex and challenging issues. The answers to this supplemental question provide some insight into an applicant’s experience with contrasting viewpoints.”
Advice
“When responding to a university-specific prompt, answer the question. Too often applicants will have something they want to say and will not fully – or at all – answer the question. That is a missed opportunity on a very important part of the application. There is a lot of time and attention placed on the Common App essay, and that is important, but students should spend an equal amount of time and focus on their answers to the university-specific prompts.”
Eric Maguire, Vice President For Enrollment, Wake Forest University
Context
“In our application review, we are looking for students who are intellectually curious and academically accomplished. We seek students who are as engaged in their communities as they are in the classroom. We want to enroll students who align with our Pro Humanitate motto and university mission. We review transcripts, resumes of activities, and other information commonly contained in the application. However, supplemental questions can fill in the blanks and reveal aspects of an applicant's candidacy that are important to our community and might not have otherwise come to light in the student's application. For quite some time, Wake Forest has invited students to create a top-10 list as one of our optional supplemental questions. The responses to this question show quite a bit of creativity and thoughtfulness.”
Advice
“Sometimes the top-10 list reiterates an important theme that is present in other parts of a student's application. However, many students view that question as an opportunity to share something new about their passions, personality, or perspective. The question has no right answer; it represents a blank slate for students to express themselves and gives us the opportunity to know them better. Our newest supplemental question, a slight reinterpretation of a question we've used in the past, asks students to connect an aspect of their lived experience to a quote of their choosing by former Wake Forest University professor, Dr. Maya Angelou. I look forward to seeing what quotes students choose to highlight and draw inspiration from. I also anticipate the question will solicit some powerful stories of determination, perseverance, and grace.”
Thyra L Briggs, Vice President For Admission & Financial Aid, Harvey Mudd College
Context
“There’s been a great deal of pressure for colleges to reduce the amount of additional questions they ask students, given how much work it is to apply to college. Indeed, it’s been proven that removing essay questions can increase a college’s application numbers in one fell swoop. That said, there are also demands on colleges to do more to differentiate themselves from one another and be more intentional in ensuring that students are getting a true sense of what a college cares about in their reading process. Our member questions help us signal to students two crucial aspects of Harvey Mudd - the value of how a student’s community shapes them and their research interests, as well as the central value of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts in our curriculum.”
Advice
“Hearing a student’s thoughts on both of these questions helps us to make better decisions in shaping our community. We don’t ask any question on our member page that we don’t read and consider carefully, and every year we review whether these questions are accomplishing what we hope. Last year we removed the “What about Harvey Mudd appeals to you” question, the answer to which had often become a laundry list of traits of which we were already well aware.”
James Nondorf, Vice President And Dean Of Admissions And Financial Aid, The University Of Chicago
Context
“Supplemental Essays are an important piece of college applications. While personal statements are about the student (the person applying to college), a college’s supplemental essays are about the college (their values and strengths) and how a particular applicant may fit at that college. In the case of UChicago, we ask open-ended and creative questions because we find that students who really thrive in a Liberal Arts curriculum like the Core are creative thinkers. They enjoy engaging with questions that don’t actually have answers. Our supplemental essay prompts are unique and reflective of our campus culture and curriculum. UChicago is a place for people who love to play with ideas—students who enjoy discussing, debating, and creating new ideas and ways of thinking.”
Advice
“Our prompts give students a space to engage with an idea and to have fun with it, too. With no definitive answer, students can write an essay that reflects their personality, their curiosity, and their intellect. New prompts are chosen each year and applicants can make their own prompt or respond to a previous year’s prompt, so every student has the chance to let their own voice and ideas shine through their application. Whether it’s our supplemental essays or someone else’s, the most important thing you can do is be yourself and write thoughtfully and passionately. When you’ve seen tens of thousands of responses over the years, the applicants who are genuinely having fun writing their essay and are putting a lot of care and effort into it stand out.”
Keep Perspective
It is important to acknowledge that essay anxiety is only relevant for students applying to a subset of the many colleges and universities in the country–the selective institutions where the stakes are perceived to be high. According to the Common App, an organization of over 1,000 colleges and universities, 58% of their member institutions do not require an essay at all. CEO, Jenny Rickard says, “28% of our members don’t require anything like SAT scores, an essay, a teacher recommendation, etc.” She adds that for the schools that do require them, “essays are only one factor of many that colleges consider when making admissions decisions.” Meanwhile, a recent report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) found that 56% of colleges attribute moderate to considerable importance to essays and writing samples in their application review, and 17% attribute no importance. If you are applying only to a school in that minority, you are off the hook. If not, heed the wisdom of these admission leaders above and get writing!
