How to Stand Out and Save Time on Supplemental Essays
One of the scariest things about applying to college is the sheer number of essays you have to write.
If you’re applying to 12 schools, and each school has one to three (or more) supplemental essays, you’d have to respond to approximately 30-ish essay prompts. And that is after you finish your personal statement for your Common App.
This is a daunting task, but don’t put this on your backburner. Why?
Many students save the supplemental essays as the very last thing they do on their college application (procrastination, anyone?), but those supplemental essays are important. In fact, some would even argue that they are just as important as your personal statement. A stand-out personal statement followed by less-than-mediocre supplemental essays can raise red flags and hurt your chances of admission.
Now that I’ve scared you into fight (not flight) mode, I want to give you some good news: You really don’t have to write 30 essays. Why?
Many colleges are looking for similar things, which is to learn more about you, if you’re interested in attending, how you might contribute, and whether you can write. That said, many of the prompts can overlap, and with a bit of research and brainstorming, you can come up with a topic that answers multiple prompts.
Let’s get started.
Step 1 - Collect all your supplemental essay prompts
Don’t just assume you remember all those prompts. I strongly recommend going through your Common App account (after August 1st, please), sifting through all the tabs under each college you plan to apply to, and copy-and-pasting the prompts into a single spreadsheet. It might look impressively ugly when you’re done. Like this:
I counted 13 supplemental essays just from the list of six schools above for the 2024-2025 cycle. If you’re planning to apply for more than 15 schools, well, you do the math.
Step 2 - Whip out your activities list and choose your top five achievements
As a general rule, choose something you’ve spent a lot of time doing. If the activity is really impressive or interesting, put it down. If it’s something you haven’t written in your personal statement and would like colleges to know about, again, put it down.
The topic range can be really broad. Some examples of topics that might work include robotics club, teaching advanced economics to college students, hip-hop, improv comedy, volunteering and fundraising for local dog shelters, car detailing and car wash, internship at a local university, starting a band, organizing book clubs, among other things. You get the idea.
Step 3 - Put down topics that might work for which prompts in the spreadsheet
If you decided on “starting a band” because you’ve spent over 10 years singing and making music, this topic might work for all of the following supplemental essay prompts:
Our community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning.
Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests, and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate on our campus.
Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of our community.
Think of all the activities, both in and outside of school, that you have been involved with during high school. Which one are you most proud of and why?
We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it.
How did you manage a situation or challenge that you didn’t expect? What did you learn from it?
What do you personally want to emphasize about your application? Highlight something that’s important to you or something you haven’t had a chance to share.
The creativity, inventiveness, and innovation of our students, faculty, and researchers have won prizes and put rovers of Mars. How have you been a creator, inventor, or innovator in your own life?
Step 4 - Brainstorm and write an outline that answers all the identified prompts
If you’re having trouble brainstorming or don’t know where to start, I highly recommend spending at least 15 minutes filling out the extracurricular chart (see below).
While you’re filling out the chart, you might be wondering whether writing one essay that answers multiple prompts is really a good idea. And I want to assure you that it is. The best part about using this strategy is that the essay you eventually write will not only answer the prompts, but also reveals more about yourself (because you’ve incorporated other parts about yourself to make sure you answered each prompt). And guess what? Getting to know more about you is the whole point of asking you to write supplemental essays.
After you finish filling out the chart, you should have enough content for a pretty good supplemental essay. If not, spend some more time brainstorming.
Step 5 - Write a first draft and make sure that you clearly answers each prompt
If you’re writing a draft for more than three prompts, I’d recommend copy-and-pasting all the prompts in the beginning of your working document, followed by your outline. Once you’ve made sure that your outline makes sense AND answers all the prompts, that’s when you set the timer for 30 minutes and start writing.
Why the timer, you ask?
Well, because it’s really hard to write a perfect first draft. It has happened before, but it’s a unicorn. That said, the best way to have a polished essay is through revisions. And if you plan to go through multiple drafts, taking too long writing any one draft is just wasted time. Set a timer, write, and revise, revise, revise.
Final words
While it may be fun to see how many prompts you can answer with just one essay, you might wonder “am I stretching this too far?” at some point. I agree that having interesting connections are fine, but make sure that the connection to each prompt is super clear. If the connection is not clear, re-read each prompt and adjust a few sentences to make the connection super, super clear.
It’s obvious that you won’t be able to write one essay for all your supplemental essays, but finding one that works for several is a win in my book.
Anything is better than writing 30 essays, right?