Hey friends, welcome back to the channel. So, supplements essays are those essays you’ll need to write besides your personal statement, particularly for selective colleges and universities. They are using them to differentiate you from other students with similar grades and activities. Now, typically they’ll range from 200 to 650 words. But what the heck do you put in them? What are colleges actually looking for? And how do you save yourself like 20 plus hours in this process? That’s what I’ll talk about in this video, starting now.
Why Do Colleges Use Supplemental Essays?
Different colleges and universities are going to use supplemental essays for different reasons. And like I said, selective colleges are in some cases going to care a little bit more about what you write in your supplements. But some specific things that they’re looking for are:
Assessing Fit to Major and Campus Community
- If they accept you onto their campus, are you going to take advantage of the resources specific to your major?
- If you’ve indicated one, and second, are you going to fit in with the campus culture, with the campus vibe?
- Second, they’re tracking for demonstrated interest, which is to say, have you really done your research on why this school is a great fit for you?
- And if they accept you, are you likely to then enroll, because that connects to their yield?
Institutional Priorities Fit
- They’re looking for institutional priorities fit, so institutional priorities are broadly speaking the things that they’re looking for that particular year based on their strategic plan.
- Often, now, if those last two seemed really too jargoned and heavy, there’s a separate video on demonstrated interest and institutional priorities that you’ll find on our YouTube channel. Just search College S Guy.
Can Supplemental Essays be a Difference Maker?
Could they be the difference maker? Kind of depends on the school, and kind of depends on the essay, but I’ve heard different admission officers tell me that they are definitely a difference maker. So, they’re definitely worth your time.
Saving Time in the Process
Speaking of time, how do you save yourself 20 plus hours in this process? I want to advocate for writing what I call a super essay.
What is a Super Essay?
- So, what is a super essay? Well, let’s say you’re getting ready to go through this college application process, and you’re starting to put together a list of schools.
- One of the things I’m going to recommend to save yourself time is something called our essay tracker, which I’ll link below this video.
- What it is, is it’s a simple spreadsheet where you’ll put all the schools you’re applying to, and then all the supplemental essays that you’re going to need to write for those schools.
- Now, let’s say you’re applying to 12 schools, and let’s say there’s an average of two to three essays per school. Well, that could mean that you’re writing 24 to 36 supplemental essays.
- But hold it, don’t actually jump in and start writing 24 to 36 different supplemental essays. I want you to use this simple strategy: take a look at the different prompts, and start to group them by category.
- So, it could be that you’ve got a whole bunch of prompts that are all about the “Why Us” essay. It could be that others are asking you to write about a particular activity that’s meaningful to you.
- Because you don’t have to write separate essays for every single prompt on your list, here’s what I want you to do: let’s say you’ve got a prompt, for example, that asks you about a particular activity that’s meaningful to you. Great, in your mind, you’re like, maybe I could write about my involvement in improv theater.
- Okay, let’s say you’ve got a separate essay that’s asking you to talk about a community that’s important to you. Well, couldn’t you write the same essay talking about an activity that’s important to you, in improv theater, and how it’s been basically a community that you’ve been a part of?
- So, the Venn diagram overlap there is going to help you write a better essay for both schools.
Tips for Common Supplemental Essays
The Why This College Essay
- The biggest mistake students make, I think, in this essay is they’re too general in their essay.
- Another mistake students make is students think that they’ve already got in their heads all of the things that they want to say about the school, but chances are you don’t.
- Quick tips for the “Why This” essay: it’s a research essay, so go on to the school website, click deep, find lots and lots of specific clubs, professors, classes you want to take, and every time that you mention a club, a class
- The Why This College Essay (continued)
- …and every time that you mention a club, a class, or professor, connect it back to you, so that you’re weaving back and forth between awesome thing the school has to offer, and awesome thing that you want to say about yourself, because you’re still making the case for why you’re going to be a good candidate to get into this school, and you’re weaving back and forth between you, the school, you, the school.
- You’ll find a whole guide to this, linked below this video.
- The Why Major Essay
- This is like broadly speaking, why do you want to study what you want to study?
- Two mistakes that I see students make: number one is that they start way too early, and they got interested in the thing that they want to study, so they’re talking about when they were 3 years old.
- I would say devote most of this essay to stuff you’ve done in the past, I want to say 3 to 5 years.
- The next mistake students make is they think that they have to absolutely declare their major, and say, “I’m definitely going to do this for the rest of my life,” but the fact is, most students change their major.
- So, it is possible to talk about different things that you’re interested in, without 100% declaring, “I definitely want to study this thing,” and if you’re curious how to do that, you’ll find more in the guide linked below. Is Chicken Tenders a Food Analog?
The Diversity Essay
- Now, a big mistake students make here is that they think that diversity only means race, and while diversity can mean race and cultural background, there are also many different ways that students can bring their identities in a broad sense to a college campus community.
- But the advice here that I want to give you is similar to the “Why Us” advice, where I want you to do research on lots of specific things that the college campus has to offer, and come up with three to five specific things that you want to contribute to, and three to five specific ways that you hope to contribute.
- So, what are the skills, qualities, values? If the essay is a little longer, I could see you going 7 to 10 specific things for the school, and 7 to 10 specific ways that you hope to contribute. You can contact us here.
Conclusion
I hope you found this useful. You’ll find another guide to that particular question about how to write the diversity essay linked below as well. If you’re interested in one-on-one support, we do that at College S Guy. We’d love to support you, and we can do it even if you don’t have a budget. We’ve got spots to help students for free. So, we’d love to connect. Like, subscribe, smash that everything button, and we’ll see you soon. Bye.
