How to Write Stand-Out Supplemental Essays

Webinar Transcription

08.12.2026 – How to Write Stand-Out Supplemental Essays

Anesha: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone, and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I’m a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor, and I will be your moderator today. Today’s webinar is how to write standout supplemental essays, which is very timely, um, at this point in the college admissions year. Uh, to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we will take a quick poll just to see who all is in the room with us, share a presentation on today’s topic, and then we will open up the floor to a live Q&A.

On the sidebar, you can start submitting your questions under the Q&A tab, and the slides are available under the Handouts tab. But first, let’s meet our presenter for today, Samuel Day. Hey, Samuel, how are you?

Sam: Doing all right. Uh, how are you, how are you doing?

Anesha: I’m good. I’m good. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background before we let you get started.

Sam: Sounds good. Um, first off, hello, everyone in the audience. Uh, my name’s Sam Day. I am a, the former assistant director of international admissions at Purdue University and the current lead program spe- uh, specialist in global programs and partnerships for [00:01:00] Purdue Engineering. Um, and this is my second year with CollegeAdvisor as a former, uh, admissions officer.

Uh, during my time in admissions, I was reading applications for pretty much every major that Purdue offers, from fermentation sciences to engineering, um, professional flight to computer science. Really the entire gambit of the majors that Purdue had, and I read about 8,000-ish applications. Then last year I joined the honors college reading team as well.

So I’ve spent plenty of time around applications, and I always love getting to talk about my favorite topic, which will be one of the things we talk about in today’s, uh, presentation.

Anesha: Awesome. I’m glad to know you did honors college as we might come back to that. Um, but all right, we’ll, uh, first take our poll.

Uh, so if you are in the room, go ahead and let us know what grade level you are in. If you have not started the school year yet, what grade will you be entering in the fall? If you’re a parent or teacher, we welcome you. You can go ahead and select other. Um, as we’re waiting for folks’ responses to come in, I’m curious, uh, what, what has been the [00:02:00] most interesting pool to read from engineering to honors colleges to traditional undergrad as far as essays, I guess?

Sam: Oh, that… It’s hard to pick just one because every pool has… There’s similar things that pop up. Um, you know, if you’re writing an engineering essay, you’re probably gonna be writing about Legos. Uh

Anesha: About Legos? Oh, that’s funny. Okay.

Sam: If you’re writing a kinesiology essay, you’re writing that hardship essay about the broken bone you had.

Uh , you know, there are these different topics that you start- Sure … uh, get used to seeing.

Anesha: Okay.

Sam: Um, and every pool has just like… It’s always fun to get to read essays, ’cause it’s the first time you really get to hear the student’s voice in the application.

Anesha: Yeah.

Sam: And there’s no one defining factor that makes them so, make, make them special.

They’re all just kind of awesome. Um, which is totally a horrible answer to that question. You know?

Anesha: It’s a hard question [00:03:00] to answer, I think. Well, I think… Well, you’ll talk more about what to… how students can help themselves stand out, but it, I think it’s good advice in the sense of like the topic you pick, we’re gonna have read before.

It’s more about the thing you do, the ways you work to stand out in the essay that helps make it more special.

Sam: Ab- absolutely. There is nothing cooler than getting to hear a student’s authentic voice. Um, realistically, students aren’t going to have brand-new experiences for us to talk about in these essays, but they will have brand-new experiences because they’ll be unique to them, and their thoughts- Yeah

that they share, and that is by far my favorite part of the entire process, is getting to know the students through this essay process.

Anesha: I mean, on the, on my side as an advisor, and you probably have experienced this, like that is also great, getting to know the students as they are thinking about those essays and putting them together.

Um, but yeah. Okay. Totally. We’ll go ahead and close our poll, and just so you know for context in the room, we have 67%, uh, 12th graders, which makes absolute sense. Um, we have one very [00:04:00] ambitious ninth grader. We have three ahead of the game 10th graders, and then 17, uh, working on it 11th graders- Mm … and about 26 parents and teachers with us.

But the biggest majority of folks with us are 12th graders, which is great, um, and right on time. All right, I will stop talking, hand it over to you, and be back a little bit later for our Q&A.

Sam: Sounds good. All right, everyone. Uh, before we dive specifically into supplemental essays, I always like to start the presentation talking a little bit about the components of an application so that we can get a context of what the essays are actually doing in your application portfolio.

Colleges love to talk about holistic review, particularly colleges that do have essays. Um, but holistic review in my experience is something that’s a little bit more vague and can be a little bit hard to narrow down. Um, you know, holistic review refers to everything that you are talking about in an application package, but everything is a lot to think about at one time.

So I [00:05:00] like to break it down into three key components because it’s a little bit more approachable. When we’re talking about an essay, we are… Or an application, we’re talking about the components from an academic perspective, a community perspective, and a personal or individual perspective. Because these represent the different ways you’ll be engaging with the college as you consider joining them.

From an academic perspective, that’s where we’re looking at your grades and your test scores, because this is going to be giving us an idea of how you might perform in our classrooms. From a community perspective, that is where activities and letters of recommendation come in. Y- excuse me. Where leadership might be involved, because it’s going to give us an idea of how you’re gonna be engaging on our campus community, and as a member of the community that we’re inviting you to join if we do admit you.

Then we get to the personal component, which is going to be the most unique component. Kinda like I mentioned earlier, essays are the only chance where we get to truly hear your voice directly, and it is typically the most unique portion of the essay[00:06:00]

Uh, of the application, because that is where we actually get to hear your individual thoughts, which are gonna be unique to you. You may even have the same thoughts as someone else, but your way of expressing that, if you’re doing it yourself and, you know, reflecting on these questions, is going to be unique to the way that you choose to approach these essays.

Now, supplemental essays, which is the topic of today’s ess- uh, conversation, are going to be different from your main Common App essay. The main Common App essay really serves a narrative purpose, and we typically recommend that you shouldn’t be tailoring your Common App essay to a specific college or a specific major, because it’ll be different at every school.

Supplemental essays are school-specific, so they are drastically different, and do sort of fit more into that argumentative or nar- or sort of, I like to describe them as narrative persuasive essays. Um, or tiny essays. They’re really more short answers, typically. I like to break them down into the four [00:07:00] key Ws as the main categories of what we’re talking about.

Those typically fall into why university. So you can see some examples here on the screen. How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests both in and outside of the classroom? What about being a student at Boston University excites you the most? Or how do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?

Really tying that in to the experiences that you’re going to be having on the campus, not just in the classroom. Now, the Harvard education one, for example, that could potentially also count as the next t- type of category. But it also gives you the opportunity to talk about things like the first year retreat at Harvard, or the fact that Boston University’s campus is integrated into the city, and so you don’t necessarily have a traditional campus, and instead have the opportunity to join one of their 500 clubs, with Boston itself being your campus.

Or at Purdue, they might expect you to talk about some of the research opportunities, or the first year, um, experience. They do, uh, Boiler Gold Rush. There are so [00:08:00] many different ways that you can approach that why university topic, because it allows you to sort of imagine yourself in different clubs, um, in different societies.

You know, remember that a university is going to be your home for the next four years, not just academically, but also as a person, and this gives you the opportunity to talk about more than just what you’re gonna be doing in the classroom. One of my favorite things, for example, for a why university that I ever read, was someone talking about inner tube water polo as a club that they were excited about joining.

So again, it doesn’t have to be something that is purely academic. Something like why university should not be, “I like that you have campus, because campus is what I want in a college.” Now, you may laugh, but I’ve read things that are pretty generic like that. You do wanna be tailoring them to the university individually.

The next topic that we would look at is why major. [00:09:00] What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? Briefly discuss your reasons for choosing your major and your interest in studying at this campus location, Indianapolis or West Lafayette from Purdue. Um, say that I’ve read many, many times.

Um, or describe the unique qualities that attract you to this specific undergraduate college or school, including preferred admission or dual degree programs to which you’re applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? This is where you get to really tie in that why major component of I’m choosing this major for a specific reason, um, because that is going to be the thing that I am trying to apply to.

It’s a very specific, um, you know, are there classes that you’re interested in taking, labs that you wanna get involved in, professors who research excites you? Diving in a little bit more to the professional side of what you’re hoping to get out of that university, but there may be social aspects to that major as well that you wanna talk about.

This would be a great opportunity to [00:10:00] sort of dive into that Some universities look at why our culture, because the university is particularly proud of a certain fact of, or facet of how they approach things. And so I like to break that down into, um, how I described a why our culture. Things like Notre Dame’s undergraduate excellence is characterized by a collective sense of care for every person.

How do you foster service to others in your community? Caltech students bring more than academic ability to the communities they join. What is something that you would be excited to do, share, teach, make, start, or contribute as a part of the Caltech community? Or American University students identify as change-makers and describe themselves as passionate.

Describe a belief, hobby, idea, issue, or topic, um, that you’re excited about. It gives you that opportunity to connect with the idea of the university or that core tenet that they want to represent in that essay a little bit more directly, and also gives you the opportunity to dive a little bit deeper into a facet of yourself that you may have not been able to represent in another part of your essay.[00:11:00]

All of these are designed to sort of further the narrative, not just of you as a candidate, but you as an individual applying to that university. But these are typically a little bit more focused towards your candidacy in a specific major or a specific program

The final category, however, is a little bit less like that, and they are honestly my favorite to read. They’re a lot of fun, and working with CollegeAdvisor, I love getting to work with students who do these essays. And I call them the wildcard category because they’re kind of out there. Things like, if you could teach any college course, write a book, and create an original piece of art of any kind, what would it be?

Name the top three things you think your roommate might want to know about you. Or, who is someone you admire, whether you know them personally or look up to them from afar, and tell us why. All of these are going to give you an opportunity to still connect with why a university, why major, and why our culture, but in a much more out there sense that really pushes you to embrace your [00:12:00] creativity just as much as the research that you’ve done into the university.

Because you’re still connecting with that core idea or pretenent that the university is trying to get at through these essays, while still getting the chance to have a little bit of fun with it as well and answer things in sort of a non-traditional approach or topic

Some will also have a combination of all of the above. You might have a why university that also opens up to talking about your why major, or why your culture tied into the why university. The wild card may represent one of all three. Um, I’ve also seen, for example, within that wild card category where they actually give you an opportunity to talk about a struggle or a hardship that you’ve overcome.

I saw that with William & Mary this year, where they gave the opportunity basically to repeat prompt number two, which is that hardship or difficulty that you’ve overcome, but with a much smaller word count. That’s the other thing with supplemental essays is that they are typically much smaller. Um, you know, they are…

I- typically I’ve seen about 250 to [00:13:00] 500. I think the longest I’ve seen is a 500, um, this year at the very least. I’m definitely noticing that they’re trending smaller, um, you know, compared to that 650 Common App essay that you would have. The… W- with the how should I structure my essays, I get this question all the time of how do I approach a standard why, you know, one of the first three Ws, um, in the four W categories?

And I always recommend, you know, use con- concrete examples that prove that you’ve done your research. One of the hard parts about doing this job and, you know, reading these applications day in and day out is it is really easy for students to be very vague and copy these essays time in and time out, um, or time and time again.

You know, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen students write things like, “I’m glad that you have a campus,” which would be really awkward at Boston University, where the [00:14:00] university is the campus and they don’t have a traditional campus. Or, “I really like that you’re integrated into the city,” in a place like Indiana University, which is definitely not integrated into the city and is really a, you know, con- enclosed campus.

But they forget that these are not going to be recyclable. Um, you know, I saw one of the questions in the Q&A was asking, “Do you mean that for the Common App, all of our colleges are basically getting the Common App essay?” And the answer is yeah. Um, pretty much, uh, if they choose to accept the Common App essay, you’re probably gonna be submitting that same essay to all of those universities.

But with these supplemental essays, you really do need to tailor them because they’re designed to be individual To the point that we can still categorize them into archetypes. What I find instead is that the structures that you approach these essays with are gonna be more familiar and more similar, but they’re not going to be repeatable in the same sense that you’ll be recycling sentences.

You might be recycling ideas of, “I’m excited that you have an XYZ lab,” or, “I’m really excited to work with [00:15:00] this professor who does research into a topic I’m interested in.” Or, “Your first year experience to make sure that k- students have a good, uh, transition into college life seems really interesting.”

Naming specific examples. They’re going to be similar structurally, but not necessarily, um, the same individual words that you might pick if you’re doing them well. Take advantage of those archetypes that we talked about. You know, I mentioned all of the whys. Ask yourself why, “Why is this meaningful for me?”

And approach it that way. You know, if you’re going in as an undecided major, for example, y- which makes it hard to answer that question of, “Why major?” If you ask yourself, “Why major for me?” And you’re going in as undecided in a curriculum that gives you a lot of flexibility and the opportunity to figure out what you’re interested in studying, that can be just as much a plus as something that has a concrete program where you know exactly what you’re going to be studying.

It gives you that opportunity to, [00:16:00] um, dive in a little bit deeper and have fun with the individual questions that you’re going to be working on, again, tailored to you. Add that why me to each of these questions, as… Or each of these archetypes, and you’ll be able to start figuring things that work well for you.

Again, this also needs to be tied to research to the university, so don’t forget to actually dive into what the university offers for students in the major that you’re interested in or the programs that you’re considering

I also think it’s always important to remember that when you are going to be a student, you’re applying for, you know, not necessarily a job for four years, but you’re applying for an experience for four years. But if you do college successfully, college ends, and we need to be thinking a little… You know, you don’t need to be thinking about it right now, but as you’re in college, you’re gonna be thinking about what comes next.

If you already have future goals, such as what do you wanna be when you grow up, be that a student in grad school aiming for a master’s or a PhD, or if there’s a dream job that you’re [00:17:00] hoping to get and that’s why you’ve chosen this major, connect the opportunities that you’ll be taking advantage of to those actual future pathways as well.

Bring life to the university and the experiences that you’re going to be having there, not just in the time that you’ll be spending there, but how you’ll be taking advantage of that down the line. Also remember, you have very limited word count. You know, some of those, uh, wildcard essays are as short as 35 words.

Now, that is very different from the 500-word essays that I’ve seen, s- but they can run that entire gambit, and you’re gonna have to be very mindful of the word count that you take up

What are some common mistakes that I’ve seen in my essays? In case you can’t tell, I’m gonna be harping on this point a lot, but you need to be specific and actually have examples of the things that you’re excited about. Prove to the university that you care about them as much as you want them to care about you through your application The example that I [00:18:00] give is, “I like that you have a campus,” and that sounds really funny, but I’ve read it more times than I’d like to count.

It’s a lot different from something that is very specific and detailed about the things at my campus that you’re really excited about I’ve also seen students not check the prompt and answer something that is completely wrong, or they’ve misunderstood the major that they’re applying to if they’re doing a Y major.

This was actually particularly relevant for the university I worked at, where you can do a BS or a BA, a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science, in both AI and economics. I was in charge of reading the liberal arts essays for a couple of years for the international students at the very least, and I cannot tell you how many times I saw students applying to the Bachelor of Arts in AI when they wanted the Bachelor of Science.

It may sound like a small difference, but the Bachelor of Arts is a philosophy degree. It isn’t actually an AI degree or a CS degree. And so I would have these students talk in depth about their coding experience and their excitement for the engaging, [00:19:00] engagement that they’ll be having with the computers.

And don’t get me wrong, that AI degree does have a coding component, but it’s about 50/50 when it comes to the philosophy courses, and they would completely forget to talk about that. I would also have students talk about the, you know, in-depth quantitative courses or even being a part of the College of Business when that wasn’t even where they were applying.

I’ve heard horror stories from friends at universities with multiple locations where students will write impassioned essays to a place that they’re not applying, ’cause they didn’t reread the application to make sure that they were checking their fin- you know, fine-tuning their, uh, their choices. It was really common during the first year that Purdue split into or, um, IUPY split and Purdue a- adopted Purdue Indianapolis, that I would read essays that were entirely about West Lafayette when they were applying to a program that was only available in Indianapolis or vice versa.

It… You really need to double-check your details and make sure that you’re doing things the way that you think you’re doing them. [00:20:00] Finally, uh, if there are optional essays, you should take advantage of those. AOs want to hear your voice. Right? We get into this job because we like people typically, and so this is the most human part of the application.

Taking advantage of those optional essays to let your voice be heard is always something that I recommend, because it makes the application process more fun for the people reading these e- essays. It also shows that you’re a little bit more dedicated to the application than someone who doesn’t, because you’re taking the time to do the extra work.

When in doubt, go the extra mile. I definitely think that’s a really good thing to take away. If you only take away a couple of things, go the extra mile and do your research would be the two takeaways I’d recommend

Now, on those wildcard essays, um, they’re fun, for lack of a better way to put it. You know, keep in mind that you’re still trying to address some of those underlying ideas of [00:21:00] the culture or the goals of the university being represented in a non-standard way. But at the same time, we want, you know, we want you to be honest.

It’s a chance for your admission officers to get to know you in a slightly less, I don’t wanna say less polished, but in a slightly less formal atmosphere. Because remember, these need to be good, well-written ideas and essays, but they don’t necessarily have the same gravitas as a, you know, formally fun- formally standardized essay.

There is no right answer, there’s only the answer that you write. I’m only just now realizing that that r- that that, uh, sounds, uh… H- I only just am realizing how that sounds, having written this sl- uh, slide. Which I think it is a very, but I think it’s a very good point of there is no right answer because at the end of the day, the answer that you write is going to be right for you.

Don’t tell us just what you think you want us to hear. Do tell us [00:22:00] what you actually want us to know. I once had a student who I was working with tell me ab- how they were going to write about how they had, like, 37 different categories for socks or something. Um, and it was a really interesting thing for them to let their future roommate know about.

Um, I had another student talk about how they stress cook, and so the s- uh, they wanted their roommate to know that there will always be something in the fridge for them to take. Both of those are right answers because they wrote about them in a way that was interesting, engaging, and connected to something larger in their overall application Finally, have fun with these.

You know, it is a wild card for a reason, and I think that that mean, you know, that opens the door for you to have fun with the answers that you choose to give. Don’t be silly unless there’s a reason for it. [00:23:00] You know, be intentional in everything that you do in the application process. You only have so many words to represent yourself.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with the process as well. I know that we as AOs definitely do

Now, how can I make my writing strong and unique? Include that personal identity and growth. Connect it to you. Be personal in your essays. Don’t be overly personal, and remember that you’re sharing to an audience, so be ready to have what you’re writing be read. Um, but frame that essay around your perspective, your goals, and your experience, not just, um, what you think others will want to hear.

Prove that you care, because at the end of the day, y- your AOs will be reading a lot of essays from students who don’t necessarily realize what they are actually, um… how personal and how connected these essays have to be. I’m sorry if there’s a beeping [00:24:00] sound, I have no clue what that is. Um, what I would say though is that, you know, prove that you’ve…

Prove that you care. The number of students that do not even do the cursory Google, um, really can be disheartening for AOs. And so when we read an essay that directly ties to something that our university offers in a way that we’re excited about or that we talk about in our presentations, it makes it more fun for us, and it makes it feel like the student that is c- cares a little bit more.

We know that you’re not all or nothing at our university, most likely, but we do wanna know why you made your list. And so, you know, have those concrete examples. One of the assignments I always give students that I work with is I want you to write out, before the, uh, supplemental essays are even announced, I ask students to write out their why for every school that they’re considering.

A, it can help you with your college list, but it also serves as a really great list of things to pull from when you end up having to do these [00:25:00] essays. Finally, authenticity matters, but not what is most unique. With essays in general, it can be really hard to have a unique topic because as high schoolers, the experiences that you have are limited to what’s available to you.

A lot of students choose a school because of the academic culture, or the athletic culture, or the extracurriculars that they’re involved in, or a variety of reasons. Because they have already been exposed to various levels of academics, or sports, or research, or any other thing that drives students

And the things that AOs read can be surprising in how frequent things can pop up. You know, I once had a student talk about how they wanted to do biomedical engineering, uh, and their reason for it was that they had built a prosthetic limb for their friend and it had given them the experience of working in biomedical engineering in a rudimentary fashion.

And then I read it again [00:26:00] and again, to the point that I can now list it as an example in a speech like this without it being an identifying feature for an individual student. It’s kinda crazy. What matters here is the authenticity that you approach sharing those experiences in, not just having a unique story.

It’s hard to be truly unique, but your authen- your uniqueness will come in the authenticity that you bring to the essays that you share, and that’s what’s enjoyable to read about these.

Similar to the wildcard essays, there’s no one right answer. There’s only the essay that you write. Now, how do you actually start the writing process with an essay like the supplemental essays? Well, it can be hard to have one set of guidelines for every type of supplemental essay because they can be so varied.

But I typically recommend starting with these approaches. One, ask yourself what appeals to you about a given [00:27:00] university. If I were to ask you why this university, you should be able to tell me a reason It may not be the reason that you ultimately end up writing down. For example, you never wanna write down that the prestige of the university is why you’re applying.

Have a more personal, personal and more in-depth reason than that, because prestige is something that you could put for multiple schools. You want to avoid that level of generic, uh, superficial comment. Instead, once you have those whys, and that’s where those superficial ideas can be useful, is research the specific opportunities that excite you.

Find new information and take note of what excites you as you’re learning about it. A, this is really helpful because as you get ready to go to campus, it will give you a list of things to look into and see if you wanna get involved in once you’re actually there. But it also gives you answers to these types of questions of why this university, why this major, or why is our particular culture interesting to you?[00:28:00]

You also wanna be able to sort of imagine yourself looking back at the essays that you write, and think about the type of experiences that you will want to be able to look back and reflect on as an alum. You know, you may know that you want to be a lawyer, so you from day one are planning on joining the pre-law society, and imagine yourself reflecting back on the benefits of joining a specific university’s pre-law society as they prepared you for your future career.

You may have chosen a university for the research opportunities, and as you’re imagining yourself 10 years down the line as a successful researcher finishing up your PhD, you can reflect back on the experiences that you had in undergrad. All of these are going to be examples of how that program fits into your longer term plans.

And so it requires a little bit of foresight, but it also doesn’t require you to know exactly what you’re going to do. Remember, this is talking about you as you currently are, not talking about [00:29:00] you as you will be, even though we’re talking about the future. This is not a promise to the university. You don’t have to fulfill these pro- these, uh, goals if you say that you wanna get involved in these opportunities.

In fact, the majority of students that I engage with didn’t actually do most of the things that they wrote about, but it shows that you can, and that’s going to be, you know, the easiest way to start that writing process, is ask yourself why do you care? Now, for my seniors in the room, this is gonna be a question that I imagine you have thought about you have thought about a little bit.

Um, what is a good timeline for writing? The answer is right now. Ask yourself about the meaningful values and experiences that each university will offer. They may not be unique, but they will have meaning to you for some reason, and so reflect on what those traits and characteristics that matter to you are.

In August, so right now, brainstorm, draft, and revise at least once a week. The majority of these [00:30:00] essays are not going to be one and done essays. In fact, you’re going to be spending a fair bit of time thinking about what each of these essays is actually going to look like.

Take the opportunity to free write, draft ideas, do multiple rounds of research to make sure that the ideas that you’re interested in are actually going to match the topics that you have. And then start to expand your writing to fit the word count, the prompt, um, or the overall ideas that you’re hoping to share before you really worry too much about grammar.

This is not gonna be a revised once and finalized type of essay typically, but it also doesn’t have to be a ton of super extended research into, um, or super extended drafts. Because these are going to be slightly cl- more similar to the types of essays that you’re used to in high school, I do find that students find these a little bit easier.

At the end of the day, this is, you know, a personalized research essay, but it’s still closer to a research essay than that narrative style that we typically discuss with the Common App essay. In September and [00:31:00] October, I would recommend that you revise and start to finalize some of these essays. I always tell students that Halloween is a scary enough night without having to worry about college advi- uh, college applications, and so you should aim to be done before then.

If you do decide to go past October, then keep in mind that you might start running into deadlines like early action or early decision, which can be a bit of a challenge. In general, I always think it’s better for students to be done early, and frankly, if you’re on a webinar like this, then you’re probably already thinking about how do you get things done in the most effective timeline.

So my advice would be to aim early. If you did decide to wait until later, then you might be able to take advantage of the fact that there are going to be a couple of different, um, schools that may have fallen into your safety category, for example, if you don’t get the results that you’re hoping from the earlier pool.

When in doubt, though, go early

Now to what I think is probably the most controversial topic, uh, in any of [00:32:00] the essay speeches that you’ve heard if you’ve come to other, uh, other presentations that I’ve given on essays. AI technology and the application process. AI is not, and likely never will be, the only e- evaluator of your writing Many admissions officers have talked about using it as a tool, but never a substitute.

There are people on the other side of those screens who are excited to learn about you. That’s why we get into this job, is we like people These essays are the most human component of the application, and so it can be hard, A, to have AI write a successful essay, but also to have AI judge an essay successfully.

You know, one of the things that I’ve tried to harp on in this presentation is that this should be unique to you and, you know, authentic to your own experiences. With [00:33:00] AI, i- it is trained on a general corpus that does not have your individual life as a part of that body of work that it’s trained off of.

And so it will not be able to answer what excites you specifically about the essays that you’re looking at or considering, the topics that, you know, bring, uh, bring a spark to your eye when you’re, uh… or light up your e- give, give you a reason to have your eyes light up when we’re talking about these programs.

That is not something that AI can replicate. So that is why you should not be using AI, but it’s also not something that AI can properly judge from an application perspective We can typically guess, and we absolutely will guess, when an A- essay is AI-generated. It is incredibly easy for us to recognize when an essay lacks depth or emotional reflection, or one of the issues with AI is really outdated.

You are unique for a reason, and that is not something that AI has been trained on, [00:34:00] like I just said. And it is a powerful tool, but it is not a replacement for your critical thinking. Now, AI in the review process does differ because the human component of review is incredibly important. As long as students are applying to universities, I imagine that there will probably still be at least someone in this type of role reviewing these applications and getting excited about the students that we’re welcoming to our community.

And that, I think, is the ultimate reason that AI is, has a such a hard time finding a home within the admissions offices is because an AI can help us calculate GPA. It can help us look at, you know, leadership and activities, but it cannot tell us who the individual that we’re inviting into our homes and our campus is.

Just like you should not be using it to write all of your essays, it can be a great editing tool. It can be a great sort of, um brainstorming platform, but it should never be the only way that you’re getting [00:35:00] your ideas. Many admissions offices feel very similarly about how we should be using it in the review process.

I also want to acknowledge that this year I have seen a decline in the number of supplemental essays. Part of that I do think is because AI is making it easier for students to crank these essays out, and frankly, the quality is going down. Um, you know, I was reviewing for three years, and in that time I definitely noticed a rise in the more generic essays that weren’t necessarily connecting with the audience the way that they- students probably thought they would, because students were trying to take the easy way out.

That, as a result, harmed the overall process, and so I have definitely seen fewer schools opting into having a supplemental essay this year. With supplemental essays specifically, AI can help you generate lists of things that you sh- could talk about, but at the end of the day, it should be you actually talking about why you’re interested in this university, this major, or [00:36:00] the culture.

Um, but I do want to acknowledge that I have seen a, you know, a decrease in the total number of supplemental essays that I’ve been seeing, um, working with students here at CollegeAdvisor and talking with a bunch of my colleagues as I, uh, traveled the world and sat in on different discussions about AI.

Now, let’s go to the final advice Be kind to yourself. This is something that I think is important throughout the application process, not just the essays, but is something that I always wanna harp on and make sure that students know that they should be thinking about. The genres that you’re writing in for an application are typically not the types of genres that you have been doing since elementary school, because they are so incredibly personal, even if they do rely on facts for most of the supplemental essays.

They’re not meant to be quick, they’re not meant to be rushed, and it’s okay to get stuck. Coming back after a day of rest or taking time away from these essays can be really helpful. [00:37:00] You should be connecting with your emotions and using descriptive words and first-person language to talk about each of these essays, because at the end of the day, it’s all about you.

You’re the main character of your essay, each of the essays that you write. When you’re finished, be finished. You’re done. Try your hardest not to nitpick these essays and revisit your writing repeatedly. They are only one of the many elements of your application, like we talked about with the holistic review process.

And finally, remember that there are people who are excited to read these. My favorite part of working in the admissions office, and actually what was the hardest part to give up, was the human component, and the most human component of the entire application is going to be your essays. They are so exciting to read when they are done ge- genuinely, and it can be really hard when we have something that is so clearly AI-generated [00:38:00] or generic, because it kind of takes the fun out of the entire process.

You want your AOs to be excited about your application, because your… And your AOs want you to be excited about your school. Take advantage of these types of essays to showcase that, and I know that that will land well with the AOs that are sitting on the other side of the table With that, I am definitely, I think, hitting close to my 35-minute mark, uh, 40-minute mark, so I’m going to say that that is the end of my presentation.

If you have any takeaways, be nice to yourself. Don’t, you know, spend forever stressing over these, and please don’t use AI to write them. They make my life harder.

Anesha: Awesome. Thank you so much, Sam. Um, we- that is the end of the presentation. As stated, we will now open up for the live Q&A. The way that it will work, I will read through the questions that you submitted in the Q&A tab, share them in the public chat so that others can see them, and then read them aloud to give Sam an opportunity to give you an answer.

Um, if your Q&A tab is not [00:39:00] letting you submit questions, just know that you should log in through the link that you received in your email and not through the CollegeAdvisor Webinar landing page. You might have to log out and log back in in order to be able to submit your questions. If that does not work, just remember that the session is being recorded and will be available, um, for later viewing at the website that is at the top, uh, right corner of your screen.

Okay, uh, the first question that I have for you, Sam, is… Where did I put it? Oh, someone said– Well, you addressed this, but just because, um, it’s at the top, someone said: “Should we approach this the same as the main essay, given the very small limit, um, given the limit of words? Um, should you spend time trying to hook the AO or get right to the point?”

Sam: I would say no. Um, you know, dive straight into the answer that you’re hoping to give. Don’t feel like you need to have a hook. Um, you know, these are typically closer to one paragraph than they are, you know, a multi-paragraph essay. Um, I also, just as a [00:40:00] general comment, think that hooks are a little overrated because at the end of the day we’re reading a story, not just a first sentence, and we have to read the entire application.

That’s the whole point of holistic review. Um, and how many books have you read where you remember the first line? There might be one or two that really stand out, but I find most people remember the overall plot rather than the first words that were on that first page. Uh, that’s definitely true in these essays, and especially with the supplemental essays, you do not have the room to be fancy.

Anesha: Uh, I appreciate you saying that about hooks. Sometimes I think students get really caught up on, like, “What, I have to get the hook right?” And it’s like, write the rest of the essay. We can come back to the hook. If we’re stuck on the first sentence, we can’t get through. Um, okay, I’m gonna ask a few, few questions related to majors.

So someone said, “How do I address the why major parts of the supplemental if I’m undecided or between multiple majors?”

Sam: I love that question. I kind of tried to answer it during the, um, presentation [00:41:00] a little bit, ’cause I saw it pop up and I’m like, ooh, I’m excited about this one. Um, be excited about the exploratory process.

Um, the… It is possible to be excited about a university without knowing, and answer that why major question without knowing your specific major, by being excited about the process of finding your major. So many of these universities have different pathways to discover what you’ll actually end up studying, and that is perfect fodder for these types of essays.

A, it showcases that you’ve done the research, but B, gives you an idea of what your experience might be like as an undecided student. And so I think it is totally fine to not know what major you’re going into. Talk about the process that the university will have for helping you find your major. In that, in that case, your major is adventure.

Have fun.

Anesha: Um- That was a- … similar major or a different major question, but, um, someone has said that they are applying as a computer science major, but they love aviation, and if they have a… If they talk about aviation in their essays, does that [00:42:00] blur what their application is trying to say? Would you ask why is a student, is a student actually interested in CS if they’re talking so much about aviation?

Sam: Absolutely. Um, your why major essay is about the major that you are going to be studying. If you are applying to CS, it needs to be tailored to CS. If your university has the opportunity for aviation as an addition Then that is a perfect example of something to include in a why major, or in a why university essay.

In fact, I’ve actually read a lot of CS essays. The university that I worked at has an airport and a flight school that is associated with the university, not just a major at the university. So I’ve seen tons of students talk about how they’re excited to get their private pilot license on top of being a CS student.

But if you were talking about it from the academic perspective, you should not be writing about aviation. You should be writing about CS, because that’s the major you’re applying to. Remember, these do need to be tailored to the actual [00:43:00] application, and you’ll find that with a why major essay, they’re asking why are you picking this individual major.

That kind of goes back to that, um, pitfall of not sp- you know, not reading the act question super clearly. Um, they’re not interested in your general interests in a why major essay. They’re interested in the specific interest you’re telling them you have. Um, so I would say it’s fine to include it if the prompt is as open-ended as of, you know, why university, but if it’s something as specific as why major, then you’re missing the point if you’re not inclu- if you’re not honing in on the major you’re actually applying to.

Anesha: So aviation might be a better topic for, like, your wildcard essay, um, or some other kind of general interest essay.

Sam: Exactly. Or your common app essay. Um, you know, a lot of students think that the common app essay has to be super tied to their major, and that’s why we have supplemental essays, is for you to have those major specific essays, whereas the common app essay can be a lot more sort of open-ended and

Anesha: general.

Um, someone asked, “Do you have any structural tips?” I’m not gonna [00:44:00] say for this specific thing, but, um, for, like, a very short, short, um, answer question. So 35 words, 50 words. Are there tips on how students can approach those very short answers?

Sam: Mindfulness. Um, with every essay there should be a key takeaway that you’re hoping your AO has, and for those of you who don’t know what AO means, uh, admissions officer.

Um, every answer should get to something, and there should be a reason for every word that you… Or word or sentence that you include. With something as short as a 35-word essay, you have maybe two sentences that you can use. Um, and so start from the key takeaway, um, or… And with, you know, a why university essay, that would be something as broad as your reason for being excited, but for a wildcard essay it could be, you know, a specific, uh, tie to your favorite song, uh, I’ve seen.

Um, answer it honestly, but [00:45:00] also, you know, have something that you’re hoping that they walk away with, and move backwards from there.

Anesha: Okay, I’m gonna ask two, I guess, short s- fast fire questions so I can get to the pitch. But, um, so is it good to constantly use personal and possessive nouns such as I, my, mine, et cetera, in your supplemental essays?

Sam: Yes, as long as you’re also talking about the major and the university that you’re interested in. Um, they’re, but these need to have a personal component because they’re asking typically why this university, and they’re asking about, about you individually in that context.

Anesha: Should we try to use the entire word count or is it better for our essays to remain a bit shorter?

Sam: Definitely go closer to the word count in my experience. Uh, it is much harder to overargue. Once you start repeating your sentences and repeating yourself, that’s where you’ve probably gone too far. But it is typically to your detriment to write too little, and it is much easier to write too little than it is to write too [00:46:00] much with most of these essays.

Anesha: Okay. Uh, I’m gonna switch over and talk a little bit about CollegeAdvisor for folks who are not currently working with us. We wanted to just tell you about a couple of students who have found success in the program. The first one is DJ, who grew up wanting to be a physician. He was active in relevant extracurriculars and sought out challenging coursework.

As a scientist, writing narratively was challenging, so the essay st- the college essay style did not come naturally to him. He signed up to work with CollegeAdvisor and was accepted to five colleges, including Johns Hopkins, where he received an institutional scholarship of around $61,000 a year.

Another student, Abby, reached out because she was an aspiring first-generation college student. Her immigrant parents had no experience applying to the, to US colleges, and she wasn’t receiving much support from her teachers or school counselors, so she felt alone in the process. She was thinking ahead and connected with CollegeAdvisor in her sophomore year. She ended up applying early decision to Cornell, where she was accepted and received full financial aid.

These are just two examples of students out of our 10,000 clients, um, [00:47:00] that CollegeAdvisor has guided through the application process. Our team of over 300 former admissions officers, like Sam, and admissions experts is, are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process through one-on-one advising and essay editing.

To learn more, you can get started with CollegeAdvisor by scanning the QR code that is on the screen for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team. During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial premium packages, um, and recommendations on how you can stand out.

Um, CollegeAdvisor is here for the entire process. Okay, I will leave that QR code up and get back to our questions. My next question for you, someone asked… Um, I’ll let you finish that question. I see you typing. Uh, um, have you ever seen poetry in an essay, was the question.

Sam: I have. I have not seen it done well.

Um.

Anesha: Okay. I wasn’t expecting that. Okay.

Sam: Um- Same here. These essays have a genre. [00:48:00] Um, and the times that I have seen students reject that genre have not typically gone well, because they get lost in the experimentation- Mm-hmm … and lose themselves to the artistry and forget the individual topics that they’re writing about.

With supplemental essays specifically, no. I’m, I’m just gonna say no, don’t do poetry. Um, it… These are targeted questions typically asking specific things. Treat them like a short answer on a test. Uh, if you would not write a poetry in, uh, you know, a poetry piece for, like, a history exam, then I wouldn’t recommend it for your, uh, your ex- supplemental essays unless it is a wildcard essay asking for poetry.

Anesha: Which I ha- I’ve yet to see. Also, I will say for wildcard, I’m surprised you did not bring up, uh, UChicago, which I think usually has the most wildcard-

Sam: Oh, they have s- … prompts … they’re so, so much fun.

Anesha: Um, but yeah, that, that’s a separate [00:49:00] conversation. Um, but yes, lots of wildcards with UChicago if you’re think- considering that school.

Um, some more around editing, um, and drafting questions. So someone asked, “How many drafts should I have before I actually submit my essay?”

Sam: That is a question of individual comfort. Um, I’ve seen students do it in two, I’ve seen students do it in 10. Mm-hmm. Your individual writing experiences are going to be yours, and I would shoot for comfort, not an individual goal.

Um, that’s where it’s great to have people like CollegeAdvisor who can help give you an external insight. I saw that there was a question- Yeah … um, uh, if you do, do you recommend help with writing the essays from a third-party counselor or tutor? Can you tell if applicants had help? Y’all, what do you think CollegeAdvisor’s here for?

Um, I, i- if you think it will be helpful, I know that I have, you know, [00:50:00] witnessed students have breakthroughs through working with groups like CollegeAdvisor. Um, can we tell if applicants had help? If the rest of your essay isn’t super polished and one specific part super is, yeah, it’s super obvious that that might be a little bit more externally, uh, influenced.

But at the end of the day, we do not know you the way that your high school knows you. Um, and so as long as your application package is coherent, um, that will be the way that you present yourself

Anesha: I think also we could tell if you had help if the essay is very generic. Like, I find, like, sometimes advisors edit it to the point of, like, it, it could really be about anybody, and it doesn’t really say anything specific about a student, too.

So I think to your earlier point, specificity is really, really important, um, to make it more personal. Um, gonna ask a structural question. Someone asked, “What’s the difference between these supplemental essays and the additional information section, which can be essays in the Common App?”

Sam: I am so glad [00:51:00] someone asked that, because when I saw that, I thought I needed to have a slide on that.

Additional information is not something that most students should use, in my experience. Additional information is for the highs and lows of life that have had an impact on your application, typically. Typically. Uh, typically, additional information is for the additional sort of experiences that you don’t have a space for in the application.

For example, I’ve seen things like, “My house burned down.” I have seen things like, “COVID drastically changed the way that my school ran forever.” Um, I’ve seen things like, uh, “I had a life-altering experience that has resulted in me wanting to do this major,” that didn’t necessarily fit into any of the other options.

Most of the time, though, I have seen students use that to beef up their, um, activity list, for lack of a better way to put it. Most of the time, if it is something that fits into an additional essay prompt, it is probably where you should be putting that information. Um, I [00:52:00] have found that particularly at schools that get a high number of applications, it can be hard to use the additional information section in a way that boosts your application, because it can sometimes…

The line between reasoning and excuse can be a little bit hard to balance. Um, and that is where I often find if it’s something that is truly, truly a massive factor in your application that doesn’t exist in the writing section. So for example, you know, I’ve had students share that they lost a parent. Um, that is…

And they had a dip in their grades. That can be a really meaningful time to include that in the additional information section, but that’s because it also doesn’t fit into the existing prompts elsewhere. Um- Treat additional information and generally, again, the, you know, talk to the schools that you’re interested in as well, ’cause they may have different opinions.

But generally, in my experience, additional information is the necessary information that does not [00:53:00] fit into any of the other prompts or spaces in the Common App. It is not the type of question that the additional… that the supplemental essays are asking.

Anesha: Um, someone I feel like wasn’t kind to themselves in this question, but I will, I will ask it.

If a school has been your dream school, uh, for almost your entire life, how can you express that to ALs without sounding desperate or like a chattering child?

Sam: I, A, to the person that asked this question, I want you to be nice to yourself, ’cause we love it.

Anesha: Agreed.

Sam: Like, pro- promise me that you will be nicer to yourself.

That, that… If I can go back to the one slide, I think I had an entire final point on being nice to yourself. I am speaking directly to you here, my friend. Um, why isn’t it your top school? That would be my question. You have an entire space to get to, like, info dump on what excites you about this school.

Take advantage of it. You’re not gonna be blabbering. We love it.

Anesha: Yeah.

Sam: Um, h- you know, what I would say is to you, have an outline. Make sure that you’re approaching this with intention. [00:54:00] But don’t underestimate the, uh, the excitement that we get when students are excited. Um, I saw one student ask, how many, how many applications do we read or what is the average time that we spend?

Mm-hmm. Um, again, it will depend school f- school from school. Um, I can only speak from my personal experience and the experience of others that I’ve talked to. In general, I was reading 50 to 100 applications a day and spending anywhere from, I’d say five to 15 minutes on an application, and the 15 minutes ones were definitely the longer ones.

Um, and definitely outliers. Yeah. We don’t have a ton of time to spend on these because, you know, for many of these larger schools, we’re getting no small amount of applications. My final year, we were… We… My office received 80,000 applications and had a very limited number of people reading those. Um, so just, you know- Be mindful, um, [00:55:00] and be intentional Yeah.

Anesha: Yeah, and think about ways to express that passion. I think sometimes students have a dream school, but they haven’t gotten in on the details of the dream of prestige more than the dream of that specific campus. Um, at least it’s been my… Some of my experience. But, um, to that end, uh, regarding supplemental essays and talking about why school, one student asked, “What resources can we use to research more about a

Sam: school?”

AOs. We love talking about things like this. Um, I would say your AOs would be a great resource here. I would also say that the university websites. Um, I often found that newsletters would talk about some of the cool things that the university liked to brag about, which would often give students insight into different things that they might wanna talk about.

Anesha: Mm-hmm.

Sam: Um, it would also sometimes give students access to information that they otherwise wouldn’t have. Uh, this professor just won a big prize, uh, and is now a big name in their field, and you might n- not even have known that that field existed at the university.

Anesha: Yeah.

Sam: [00:56:00] Um, that’s how I found out that Purdue had a top five food science program in the world.

Mm-hmm. I learned we had food science in part because of the first update that I got when I first started working there. Uh, and so that’s a great example of something that can be a really useful tool that you might not have thought about, is just the info, the news pages that the universities have.

Anesha: I have also been telling one of my students who’s been struggling with, um, college list research because she’s like, “All the schools describe themselves in the exact same way.”

Which is, which I think is fair. Which I think is fair. Um, but I’ve been, uh, telling her to go look for, like, student testimonials, read it with care, um, just looking for more specific stories- Mm-hmm … as well about schools in order to understand other people’s real-life experiences at those institutions, even though it could be good or bad or biased in some way.

Sam: Absolutely. Tours can be a great way for that because you’ll have the opportunity to have student tour guides. Mm-hmm. Yes, do vet our tour guides. Um, but tour guides also are honest in a way that, um- [00:57:00] Students, you know, they, they are students themselves and they are talking about the things that are honest to them most of the time, and so I think that can also be a really useful tool.

Either virtual tours or if you have the opportunity to visit the school in person, that can be a really meaningful way as well.

Anesha: Yeah. Um, you mentioned outlines before. Someone asked, “Is there an outline we should follow when writing the essay?”

Sam: I generally recommend students have fact, impact of fact. Um-

Anesha: Mm

Sam: which is less an outline and more just a general structure. You should have facts, and those facts should mean something. You should not have facts that don’t have any meaning, and you should not have meaning that you can’t back up with something about the university, because that’s how you get the specificity that works for this type of essay

Anesha: Um, do you have context on UC PIQs for California?

Have you seen those?

Sam: I have. Those, I think, would be a great separate section, um, because they are a mix between the Common App and the, um- [00:58:00] Supplement … they, they sort of fall into that mix of sup- supplemental and Common App. But I think a lot of the advice that we’ve given on the d- the different essay seminars, um, which if you’re on this webinar I think they have access to the recording, ’cause I know that that’s the pin.

Um, that general ethos still applies in that you are sharing either a bit of yourself, um, with the UI… With those specifically I would treat them more similarly to the Common App because they, if I remember right, they go to all of the UCs, and the UCs don’t typically have those individual questions. This is going to be specific to individual universities.

And so, uh- Yeah … that would be a great example of check the general, um, essay presentation that I gave last week, uh, for- Yeah … more approach that way.

Anesha: I’ll also say there’s also a UC PIQ webinar, um, somewhere in the CollegeAdvisor webinar library back there. Um, um, all right, I’m gonna end with this question ’cause I think it’s relevant even though it’s not explicitly about writing.

But someone said, “Are AOs the ones actually deciding if you make it into a university? How does [00:59:00] that process even work?”

Sam: Oh gosh, that’s a fun question.

AOs, uh, are often a part of the process, but that process can look different at every different university. Um, AOs can be making recommendations. They can be making the exact decision. They can be, um, providing notes for a panel to be making a decision. Every school is going to have a different review process.

Um, excuse me. And so it’s a little hard to answer that definitively- Yeah … because AOs exist in the decision-making ecosystem, but that ecosystem will look different at every school because every school will have their own approach to the conversation. What I can say is that your regional AO is typically not…

Depending on the school, your regional AO might not be the one writing or [01:00:00] reviewing your application. Um, a lot of the really big schools I’ve seen students talk about, like, “Oh, I need to connect with my AO.” That may be the AO that has your travel territory, not your application in their hand when they were doing the application review.

Mm. Um, it’ll depend. Every school is different. Yeah. And I never wanna speak too definitively on this topic because it is so varied. Um-

Anesha: Yeah

Sam: And so, yeah, that, that is again a non-answer. I-

Anesha: Yeah …

Sam: I love that question and I hate that question because I can’t- Yeah, fair … answer it definitively. A, because some universities won’t tell you. Um-

Anesha: Sure …

Sam: it’s… That they… There is a bit of mystery to that process, but I can say that in general we like to be as transparent as we can, because we know that this process is hard, and we wanna make it easier for you if we can.

Anesha: All right. Yeah. I wanted to end on a, a stronger note than that, but that’s where we’re [01:01:00] gonna leave it. We’re over time. Um, I think the best note to end on is that it depends on the university. The more you know about the specific university, uh, the more you can tailor your essays to that institution. Um, but thank you everyone, uh, for coming out tonight.

Absolutely. And thank you, Sam. Say, say it again.

Sam: Could I actually… I saw a question that I think might be a better final answer if that’s okay.

Anesha: Sure, go for it.

Sam: Uh, I saw a student ask if a student wants to be authentic, why is it problematic to say they’re a huge fan of the school- Oh, man … and have gone to games their whole life, have grown up on campus, wanna be a part of the community.

It’s not problematic to start there.

Anesha: Mm.

Sam: But that cannot be the only reason that you’re excited about the university, because remember, this is gonna be your home, not just for the past 18 years, but for the next four years. And so your life as a student and your life around the university has been drastically different going from a townie to someone on campus.

Mm. And I say this having grown up as a townie in the university that I now work at and many of my friends went to. Every single one of them has said, [01:02:00] “Life on university looked different because I didn’t realize just how much there was.”

Anesha: Yeah.

Sam: That is why it is great to start with that excitement. It’s not problematic at all, but it becomes a problem if you don’t do extra research and start to picture yourself not just as what you have been doing- Mm-hmm

but what you will be doing. You won’t be going to family tailgates most likely. You won’t be going to the high school group b- to the football game.

Anesha: Yeah.

Sam: But you might find new groups.

Anesha: Yeah.

Sam: What are those groups going to be? That is where you can sort of enhance and build off of that. Okay. Think of this as a celebration of the next four years.

Anesha: All right. We will leave it there. Thank you for finding that, that stronger question at the end. Um, thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Thank you, Sam, so much, uh, for your time. We hope that you gained, uh, some tips and strategies for strengthening and starting your supplemental essays for your college applications.

We hope that you’ll join us for our future webinars, but until next time, take care, and have a great evening, everybody.

Sam: Thank you, [01:03:00] everybody.