Has your senior reviewed all the major parts of their college application? Finished the main personal statement? Check. Transcript requested? Check. Letter of recommendation? Ready to go. Supplemental essays? Maybe. Many colleges, though not all, require these additional essays.
While students applying to colleges using the Common Application will write a personal statement, colleges can require an additional supplemental essay, or more! These tend to be shorter than the 650-word main essay, often requesting a response in 50 to 250 words.
However, whether colleges require supplemental essays changes from year to year. Earlier this summer, there was lots of discussion about colleges dropping their supplemental essays. Why would a college do this? There are many reasons: removing barriers to submit an application, reducing the burden on application readers, and increasing their application pool. Regardless of why these decisions were made, they do impact admissions. As an example, the University of Virginia removed their supplemental essays this past year, and their application pool increased 27%. This is unsurprising, since supplemental essays call for a lot of time and effort. Even so, keep in mind that more applications lead to a lower admit rate.
For the 2026-2027 application cycle, a number of schools joined UVA in dropping their supplemental essays, including Tulane University, University of Georgia, University of Miami, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. David Graves, director of admissions at The University of Georgia, wrote on their admissions blog that they hope their removing the extra essay will reduce the stress for families. He also noted though that they require test scores, unlike UVA, so they don’t anticipate having a huge swell of applications.
For the colleges that do still have supplemental essays, there are a few common themes and example prompts:
Activity essays ask students to write about a significant or meaningful commitment.
Harvard University: Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are. (150 words)
University of Florida: Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity. (250 words)
Why major or academic interest essays ask students to describe what they are interested in and how they might pursue those interests at the university.
University of Notre Dame: “Briefly share what draws you to the area(s) of study you listed. (100 words)
University of Southern California: Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. (250 words)
Why us essays ask students to detail why they are interested in that particular school and how they anticipate engaging with the opportunities, both academic and non-academic, at the institution.
Dartmouth College: As you seek admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2031, what aspects of the college’s academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you? (100 words)
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Tell us why you would like to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided, please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (650 words)
Community or background essays ask students to talk about important communities they are members of, their lived experiences, and how they’ve been shaped by these things.
Brown University: Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (250 words)
University of Michigan: At the University of Michigan, we are focused on developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. In your essay, share with us how you are prepared to contribute to these goals. This could include the people, places, experiences, or aspirations that have shaped your journey and future plans. (300 words)
While students will encounter most of these supplemental essays in the college-specific sections of the Common Application, some schools include their supplemental essay only in the applicant portal. This means that a student might not come across the essay until after they’ve submitted their application. Doing so makes it seem like the college doesn’t require an additional essay, which attracts applicants and allows them to demonstrate their interest in the college by completing this “optional” (but strongly recommended) piece of the application. This year, students applying to Santa Clara will find this essay prompt in their applicant portal:
At Santa Clara University, we encourage our students to be creative, embrace challenges, and become changemakers. Think about an issue you care about and believe is important to address. This can be something happening in your local community or more globally. How can an SCU education help you prepare for and address this challenge? (300 words)
Regardless of the essay topic or length, it’s important to approach each of these responses with intention. Line each essay up for an institution and consider what the full application is conveying to the reader. Don’t repeat information or stories in essays for a specific university; every essay should include a new perspective or insight into who the student is and how they engage with the world around them. However, we do encourage students to reuse material for different colleges. It’s easy to add to or trim an essay to make it fit two different institutions’ length requirements.
As with the main personal statement, it’s important that students draft these supplemental essays and spend time revising, revising, revising. They are shorter in length, but that doesn’t mean they are less important; in fact, this makes them harder to perfect. Writing a shorter essay forces students to think carefully about each word and what they are sharing about themselves.