Supplemental Essay Guides: College Admissions Questions

Supplemental essays are where many strong applications are won or lost. A school-specific prompt is not another personal statement: it asks a narrower question, in fewer words, and expects evidence that you understand the school and yourself. These guides walk through the current prompts for 20 highly selective colleges one at a time. Each one explains what the prompt is really testing, how to brainstorm a topic that belongs only to you, how to structure the response inside the word limit, and the mistakes that make otherwise good essays forgettable. Prompts change from year to year, so the guides focus on the thinking behind each question and point you to the school's own admissions page for the exact current wording. If your drafts are done and you want an experienced reader to mark them up line by line before you submit, the Submission-Ready Essay Intensive Review covers your Common App personal statement plus all supplements for one school.

20 questions in this category