Ah, supplemental essays. Some schools have none, some schools have one or two, and some schools have, like, seven. But, in the chaos of supplemental essays, a few standard questions rise above the rest. As you may have noticed as you work through the schools on your list, a lot of schools are asking the same questions. Maybe they have a little twist to them, or are more narrow than others, or ask you to connect to something unique, but the fundamental questions they’re asking are the same. In this post, we’re going to break down how to answer four of the most common supplemental questions we see every year.
We’re big proponents of working smarter, not harder. You do not need to write a brand new essay for every school that asks one of these standard questions. While you should review the essay each time and answer their specific questions, having templates or frameworks for these prompts will save you a lot of time, stress, and extra brain power that you probably need to spend on all your senior year stuff. Let’s jump in!
Common Question 1: The Why Essay
If there is one essay you will encounter more than others, it’s the why essay. Even for schools that don’t have supplements, we recommend writing an email that’s still basically a why essay (think Bates or Northeastern). Why essays allow you to plead your case to the school, explaining why what they offer you is better than any other school out there. It’s a place for you to convince them that they’re your soul school and you’ve done your research and know your facts.
Schools of various tiers and specialties ask this question, and if you’re applying to an honors college, they might ask this question too, but specifically about the honors college! Sometimes these questions ask about all aspects of the college experience (Duke or ٲٳdzܳٳ’s 100-word one), some ask solely about academics (Columbia or UT Austin), and some even ask about how their school will help you in the future (Harvard). Some are long, some are short, but they should all follow our formula.
Origin Story
Briefly, tell them why you’re excited about what you want to major in. This could be a story about being obsessed with categorizing plants and bugs in your backyard for a bio major, learning something in class, or seeing a documentary that sparked a love of history or philosophy.
Declare your Major
Yes, you need to have a major picked out. No, you’re not legally mandated to remain in that major if you change your mind later. If you’re at a total loss, look at what you’ve already done in high school and find a major that connects the dots between your extracurriculars.
Find Classes
The rest of this essay is all about research, kids. You want to provide them with evidence that you a) know what the school offers and b) how you can benefit from it. If you want to major in International Politics and focus on Japanese politics and the school doesn’t have a lot of classes that fit those criteria, maybe that’s not the right fit for either you or the school.
Head into the course catalog and find 1-2 upper level classes that look interesting to you and fit the narrative you’re trying to sell. If you’re a business major who’s done a lot of community service work, it might be prudent to write about impact investing or business ethics courses. Also, we say upper level because everyone can take an intro class. Generally, this is the 250+ course level, but always check the description to see if the course requires pre-recs. Also, some freshman seminars are also okay to write about here if they’re very unique and fit into your niche perfectly. Now, write about why these classes are interesting to you, what you can learn from them, or how they can help you accomplish your goals.
Pick Professors
Next up on the research plate, professors. Click on over to the faculty page for the department you’re applying to and look through the professors. This may take some time, clicking, and hunting. Most schools have little bios attached to each professor that say what they research, so similar to the courses, find a professor or two doing research in your interest area.
Write about how you want them to be your mentor or how you want to do research with them, and make sure to actually explain why they look cool and why you want to work with them, instead of just going off of their vibes.
Extracurriculars
You guessed it, time to look up some clubs! This can be harder to find, and some schools (cough, Harvard, cough) make it impossible to see their clubs. Googling (school) clubs is an easy way to find the listings, or check Reddit (*shudder*) to see if anyone’s talking about what’s happening on campus.
If the essay has an academic focus, write about academic extracurriculars, like the Historical Society or a special science lab you’d want to join. If it’s about the school broadly, you might want to talk about an academic extracurricular and something more social. Just make sure it makes sense with what you’ve already done in high school.
Common Question 2: Community Essay
The second most common supplemental essay you will encounter is the community essay. For some of you, this will overlap with the diversity essay question, which we will get to in a sec. This question is trying to learn a little more about you and your values, and while the word “community” is usually present, it also might have buzzwords like background, lived experiences, etc.
Community can be anything, and we always advise our clients to avoid the obvious: sports teams, clubs, and community service. But, you can still write a good essay if you do write about something like a club or community service (seriously, skip sports, so many kids are writing about sports). We’ve had students write about family, friend groups, neighbors, really unique volunteering experiences, the people they see every day on their commutes, and so much more.
But, whatever you write about, you need to tell them a story. Dazzle them with words!! So many students are writing generally about their community and usually about something cliche, so you need to write this in a way that will stand out. Vivid stories are a great way to do that. And they need to have the key elements of a story: a beginning, a middle, and an end. So, let’s dissect how to do that!
Beginning
This is where you want to set the scene of your story. Let’s say you’re writing about the group of guys you play pickup basketball with at the park – they’re unique because it’s a truly random group of guys that you became friends with by chance, and now you’ve forged these bonds with people of all ages and backgrounds. Bring us into the park with you; what can you hear, see, smell, touch, or even taste? Introduce our characters, and maybe throw in some dialogue! Using vivid language helps set the scene and brings the reader into the story with you.
Middle
Introduce our conflict, tension, plot point, etc. Maybe this story is just about you learning something new about one of your impromptu teammates, hearing a new perspective you hadn’t even considered before. Maybe there are hijinx! A kid has stolen your ball, and you must retrieve it in some sort of quest! This section needs to set up something that will be able to be resolved or addressed positively in your ending. Make sure to keep up the vivid details to keep the reader hooked.
Ending
This is where you will tie everything together and resolve your story. It should have a positive ending. Maybe you thank your friend for his time and think about how excited you are about more of these conversations, or you get the ball back, or you score the goal, which means your team wins for the first time in months.
Now, if the community essay asks about how you will contribute to the community at the school, you need to take what you wrote and find a club or activity at that college that fits in nicely. For our example story, maybe it’s joining intramurals or volunteering with an organization that runs afterschool sports in the town. Just make sure it makes sense with your story and your experiences; don’t go out of left field with it.
Common Question 3: Diversity Essay
A question we’ve seen before that’s rising in prominence this year, the diversity question seems to be schools’ answer to getting around the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. This question has always tripped students up, and we generally advise students in the past to answer this like a community essay. Lots of schools ask this question, from Harvard to Michigan to Pitzer.
If you are straight, white, able-bodied, cis, financially well-off, etc. this prompt is not a place for you to talk about any of those parts of your identity. In fact, the guide to the community essay we wrote up top? That’s what you should write. Diversity can be a lot of different things, like race or gender or sexuality, but it can also be diversity of thought, religion, class, etc. You just gotta be careful, like you can talk about engaging in new cultural practices with a friend from that culture, but maybe don’t write about your vacation or mission trip. If you are from a privileged background, you need to be mindful of how you answer this question so as to not alienate the admissions officer reading it – so writing about something like how hard it is to be a straight white guy these days isn’t gonna fly. Remember, the goal here is to be widely likeable, so writing something that takes some grand stand or is controversial will not help you.
Now, as a student with a diverse background, especially when it pertains to race or ethnicity, you will want to approach this essay still like a community essay, but the community you’re talking about is connected to that aspect of your identity. We recommend telling stories that show, rather than tell, this part of you. Maybe you want to tell a story about cooking a traditional meal with your family, or how you invited a friend from a different culture to participate in your cultural practices. You might have a specific tradition you partake in that you want to highlight! We just want to make sure you write it like a story – don’t write generally about your culture or identity. Instead, bring the reader into the moment with you. Be vivid and descriptive.
Also, you don’t have to write about a marginalized identity if you don’t want to – you can approach this like a standard community essay or talk about your family or neighbors. Also, you may feel pressured to write about something heavy or negative you’ve dealt with, and we want you to know you absolutely do not need to write your essays about something traumatic if you don’t want to.
As for the essay itself, you should follow our steps to writing a community essay. The story should have a distinct beginning, middle, and end, use a lot of descriptive detail, and if the prompt calls for it, connect to something similar at that school.
Common Question 4: Disagreement Essay
This question has popped up this year as the hot new it girl of college essay questions. And we kind of hate it, and it’s confusing, and we don’t blame you if you’re stuck on it! Schools like Dartmouth, Duke, and Barnard are all asking some iteration of this question, and while some schools have this as one of the like, “here are three prompts pick one!” options so you can avoid it, but some schools require it, so we do have to talk about it.
What kinds of disagreements should you write about? We strongly advise leaning away from anything incredibly controversial that might make an admissions officer uncomfortable. Avoid those hot-button political issues! Instead, think about disagreements you might have about a value system, or even a lighthearted disagreement among siblings. In the past, we’ve had students write about a spirited debate between them and a mentor over theology, stories about clothing disagreements with siblings, and differences in approaching school work between a student and their first-gen parent. Maybe it’s you learning about something you’d never considered before! Being open minded to a new experience or food! Remember, you can disagree on almost anything. You can have a strong opinion about almost anything. Lean on that as you think of your topic!
This, like the two essays preceding it, needs to be told in a story format. Pick a small moment in time, a singular conversation or experience, and write about that. Don’t write broadly about disagreements or how you and your grandma are always going at it. By focusing on a smaller moment, the story will be more powerful and it will grab attention better.
When you write your story, make sure it has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Use a lot of sensory details to bring us into the physical setting with you. Maybe it’s suuuuper hot outside and you and your brother are arguing about how to build the French drain. Maybe you’re in a cold classroom with flickering fluorescents disagreeing with a classmate on an interpretation of a text. The more descriptive you are, the more interesting your hook. As you continue on, build on the tension and the conflict, and your ending needs to be relatively positive. You don’t need to change your mind, or change the other party’s mind, but something about open mindedness, or how you’re able to agree to disagree, or how you understand their side of the story works well here.
These are the most common questions you’ll encounter as you work on your supplements, but they aren’t all encompassing. We have guides on how to write the supplements for tons of colleges on our website, especially those that might be a little different. Best of luck!
If you are struggling with one, or all, of these prompts, reach out to us today.