How To Answer UPenn's 2024/25 Supplemental Essays: Tips & Insights
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What Is Supplemental Essay?
How to Write Supplemental Essays
Supplemental Essay Questions
Mistakes to Avoid
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Besides the Coalition App or Common App essay, universities generally ask for supplemental essays specific to that university. These supplemental essays are crucial for a stand-out application, and you'll want yours to be impressive.
So, what is a supplemental essay? Why is it important? And more importantly, how do you go about writing one? Let's dive deep into these questions and explore everything you need to know about supplemental essays!
A supplemental essay is an additional written response required by many colleges and universities as part of the application process, in addition to the Coalition App or Common App essay.
Generally, colleges will have their own prompts that applicants answer to create multiple short essays.
These essays are submitted in addition to the main essay with your Coalition or Common Application. The purpose of these essays is to provide the admissions committee with more insight into your personality, interests, and suitability for their student body and campus.
While different universities might have different criteria or might look for different things in your essay, there are common guidelines to follow when writing a supplemental essay.
If you still can’t decide on an angle, consider asking others what they think makes you stand out or what’s unique about your personality or interests. That might spark a new idea or, at a minimum, get you thinking about the topics with a fresh perspective.
If you’re still unsure how to start writing your college essay, just start writing. Don’t think, just write. It doesn’t even have to be the first draft. You’re just dumping ideas on a page, hoping a brilliant thought will jump off. Some of the best work starts this way!
Generally, there’s no right or wrong way to format your college application essay, but there are common tried and true practices. Review your target university’s requirements and essay examples to see how successful applicants formatted their essays.
You’ve written plenty of papers over the years. Think about your writing process. How did you start those essays? Did you create an outline or just start writing? Did you start with a hook or write it at the end?
College essays have been around for decades. Choosing a unique topic is not only intimidating but extremely difficult. Instead of selecting a unique topic, pick one that excites you. As you read a topic, are you forming the essay in your head? Does a specific experience or hobby come to mind? Then, that’s your topic!
Many applicants who think they have to choose a unique topic will miss the opportunity to showcase how they think and what they value because they are trying to write too “outside the box.” Your essay should be thoughtful and tell the reader more about YOU.
Use an authentic, conversational voice in your college application essay rather than using the academic voice you used on many of your high school papers.
Don’t try to impress the admissions officers with big words and avoid derogatory words and cliche phrases. Be you. That’s what they want to read.
Some applicants feel like they need to use every word available. Others struggle to meet the minimum word count requirements. Most experts agree that the best college essays are about 500 words.
If you’re close to that number and satisfied with your essay, stop writing. Admissions officers can tell if you’re adding fluff to fill space or giving minimal effort to your essay.
Every word counts when you only have 250-600 words. It’s important to be concise, coherent, and honest in your writing. That doesn’t always happen in the first draft.
Once you’re confident with your essay, try to find an expert to edit it. Ask a teacher, school counselor, or someone with an advanced degree to review the piece. Have someone check it first for content. They should make sure the essay doesn’t confuse them and they don’t have questions.
A great way to perfect your essay is by having an expert take a look at it. Former admissions officers of top universities work with Crimson to ensure our students submit stand-out essays.
Broadly speaking, there are eight main supplemental essay types. Below we explore these types AND offer some Top Tips on how to answer them!
For a "why us" prompt, your focus should be on
The college is asking you: “Why are you choosing us?” For a "why you" essay, your focus should be on:
The ‘Why us’ / ‘Why you’ questions are two sides of the same coin, but the order in which you present the items, and the amount of the essay you spend on them is reversed for each.
Ultimately, your goal with this essay should be to sincerely, authentically, and excitedly tell admissions committees what you will get out of going to their school in particular, and what you will contribute to their school as a student there.
Which specific opportunities will you take advantage of? How will you bring your skills and past experiences to bear as a leader and collaborator on their campus?
Top 3 "Why This School?" Essay Tips
These essays ask you to explain your intended choice of major, or if you don’t have one, your academic interests in general. They are typically short answer questions — with universities often asking for responses in 150–250 words.
When answering this prompt you must address three questions:
You don’t need to know exactly what you plan to do in the future, but it’ll make your essay a lot stronger to have a few ideas and try to develop those ideas with a bit of detail!
Tell us about an extracurricular activity you’re involved in and how it has shaped you. Once again these questions normally ask for a 150–250 word response. In these essays you explore one of your extracurriculars in greater depth.
In this essay, it’s more important to talk about something that matters to you than it is to talk about something that is impressive. With this question, admissions officers want to know
Colleges may word these questions somewhat like this: “Our college campus is all about community and valuing a diverse group of people. In what ways do you value community? How have you contributed to communities in the past? What would you bring to our community?”
As you can see, in this case you need to narrow it down to what you would bring to this specific university’s community.
In asking this question, admissions officers are trying to find out: What in particular does our school have to offer that you’d like to get involved in as a future student? And what will you contribute or bring to the table as a student on our campus?
In answering these questions you must show how your past experience as part of a community informs what you’ll contribute.
My Brown Supplemental Essay
These essays can vary in content just like the Common App essay, and they are similar in length (500-650 words). They might ask you to write about
This supplemental essay type typically asks you to write a 500–650 word piece using a usually broad prompt to guide your answer. Writing this essay is like writing a second Common App essay — but you must be sure to pick a new topic that explores a new area of your past, interests, personality or attributes.
Some colleges ask you to provide brief descriptions of yourself or things you like in 100 words or less — sometimes without even using complete sentences. They might ask for
These short answer questions can be hard to tackle! Top tips include: answer the question, but don’t repeat it, consider the underlying message you are sending, explain your answer and be specific!
This prompt is pretty self-explanatory, with the aim of it being for admissions officers to gauge what you will bring to campus as an enthusiastic, passionate, intellectual and empathetic member of the college community.
They can be creative, humorous, reflective, inspirational — whatever theme and style reflects your personality best.
These questions provide a great opportunity to show what you will bring to campus on a micro level. Will you be the ball of energy that exudes positivity, or the reflective listener who is always there to lend a helping hand?
This question must be handled with honesty and reflect a side of yourself that will provide a true insight into to who you are beyond the classroom.
These are the creative or otherwise unusual prompts:
They typically vary in length and style. While not common, they can be great fun for applicants to respond to!
These questions vary, but some basic tips include: be personal (go deep!), be humble (no bragging!), be intellectually curious (show your love of learning), and be genuine (no platitudes or clichés).
You’ve already told admissions officers about your grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, and awards. Give them new information.
Tell them something they don’t already know. They want to see what kind of student you will be and how you will contribute to their campus community.
If you start your essay by explaining what it will be about, you’ve already lost your audience. The first sentence is the best opportunity to grab the reader’s attention. Jump right in! They’ll be excited to be part of the journey.
The real you isn’t perfect, so why would the person in your essay be perfect? Your essay is about a complicated person who makes mistakes and overcomes adversity. Colleges want to see the authentic, flawed, hopeful, and determined YOU!
To learn more about each university’s Supplemental Essay prompts and how to answer them, check out our blogs, providing you with expert tips and strategies on how to answer them!
These tips are the foundation for writing great supplemental essays that enhance your college applications. However, these essays are only one piece of the package you’ll deliver when you click "‘submit." To learn how Crimson can help you tick all the boxes for a strong college application, click the link below and schedule a free one-hour consultation with one of our academic advisors.
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