Are Fewer Supplemental Essays a Good or Bad Thing?
If you’re a family with a high school senior in the college search process you have probably learned that popular schools have dropped supplemental essays. In the past these essays were optional or required depending on the school.
I understand some of the reasons why schools dropped supplemental essays.
- There were suspicions that admissions officers were not really learning anything about a student from these essays. I can understand this when a supplement essay is about a book that a student once read (University of Georgia). I can also understand why a flagship state university might not want to use a “Why this school?” question to in-state applicants. However, I felt that “Why this school?” had more meaning at an ultra-selective private school.
- Costs for hiring and training outside readers were likely to rise as the numbers of applications rose. Even if a school hired the same number of readers, a large volume of applications would mean that a reader would have less time to read each one.
- College administrations have become more sensitive to actions by politicians as well as interest groups such as Students for Fair Admissions. There are debates over whether admissions should be based on measures of merit (academic performance, rigor and test scores) versus potential and desires to have a diverse student community. Supplemental essays have allowed students to provide context that has influenced admissions decisions. Sometimes schools have used these as a “tie breaker” when considering a student whose grades or test scores were in the lower end of the applicant pool.
Fewer supplemental essays might be a blessing for applicants.
This does make it easier for students to apply to more schools, as long as a Common App essay prompt can cover all bases. However, the choice of prompt becomes more important. Students need to choose the prompt where they can:
- Write in their strongest possible voice. The Common App essay becomes the only essay. So, there fore there’s more pressure to write well.
- Possibly inform an admissions office about strengths that cannot be covered in the Activities list. Those who can tell stories that show intellectual growth and possible academic and/or career direction have an advantage. This essay might be the best place for an admissions office to know how their school will help a student on their academic and career journey.
However, the supplemental essays have also been an opportunity.
My view is that if a student really likes a school they should take advantage of every opportunity to show that they really like it. The students who really succeed in selective admissions have used these supplemental essays to provide additional positive information or demonstrate how well they think. If someone is in love with a school that requires supplemental essays they should look at these essays as an additional opportunity to state why they fit.
On the other hand, using the space to praise the school without providing information to help an admissions officer to recommend your acceptance is a waste of time and space. The goal of any student going into an admissions process is to persuade admissions officers to say yes.
How should applicants approach the cycle given some schools have supplementals and others don’t?
It depends.
Those who are applying to the University of California system (UCs)have a choice of Personal Insight Questions (PIQs). They must answer four, with no more than 350 words per answer. Those who are applying to UCs might want to work on these first. The answers to these questions could form the basis for answering a Common App prompt. However, it’s possible that a student will need to figure out how to cut a 1,400 word story down to 650 words or less. But it’s also possible that answering the PIQs might help in handling the Common App essay and the supplemental questions.
But what about students who are not applying to the UCs, or don’t like this idea? What should they do?
My suggestion, if any schools have supplemental essays, is determine whether each school is going to be a likely, target or reach. If a reach school has supplemental essays and it’s a top choice, take care of that school first. It might be your Early Decision school or an Early Action school with a similar deadline. Then cover the Early Action schools that have no supplemental essays. If nothing else, a student should devote more time to a school they really want that asks more questions.
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