Don’t sleep on supplementals
Everyone forgets about supplemental essays. When you think “college essay,” the focus tends to be on the big one, the main, open-ended prompt. But, many schools — especially the most selective — add additional essays that, while shorter, can add up to more work than the primary essay, especially if you’re applying to a high volume of schools.
Here are some things to know about supplemental essays:
They aren’t released until August 1 (or a bit later).
They tend to fit into similar themes across schools (with a few outliers).
They need to work in tandem with your main essay (i.e., they can’t make you seem like two separate people).
Luckily, there are resources to help with these, too. The biggest advantage is that they tend to fit into common buckets, so while every school has its unique spin, you can often make minimal tweaks and reuse the same essay.
Here are some common buckets:
Extracurricular activities
Career/major interest
What you bring to the community
Why are you applying here?
Thinking in-depth about some of your passions and bigger leadership roles will often identify topics you can use for multiple supplemental essays. The bigger challenge is the essays that need to be school-specific. Even then, you can usually use the same theme since you were likely drawn to the schools on your list for a similar reason. Then it becomes more about personalization while still connecting the same traits and desires in you to the school in question.
The good news is that there are plenty of resources online to help with supplemental essays, too. I like those from The College Essay Guy and College Essay Advisors. Don’t forget that your college essay coach can give you feedback and brainstorming help with supplemental essays, too. Sometimes a question stumps you, or you want to put extra resources toward your top-choice school. Or you might need help getting it to fit within the word count.
Supplemental essays can be a lot. Make sure you are ready for them (hint: already have your main essay done!), but don’t let yourself become overwhelmed. With a solid plan and some upfront thought, you can make quicker work of them than you might think.
