Writing Strong Supplemental Essays

Webinar Transcription

2024-10-02 – Writing Strong Supplemental Essays

Anesha: Hi, everyone, and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor, and I will be your moderator today. Today’s webinar is, “Writing Strong Supplemental Essays.” Before we get started, just to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we will start with a presentation, and then we will open up to answer your questions in a live Q& A.

On the sidebar, you can download our slides under the handouts tab, and you can start submitting questions in the Q& A tab. But let’s get started by meeting our panelists, Aya Waller-Bey. Hi, Aya, how are you doing?

Aya: Hi, Anesha. Hi, everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are in this world.

I am Aya Waller-Bey, former admissions officer for Georgetown University, and tonight I’ll get to talk to you about writing supplemental essays. But before we do that, I want to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about who I am. So I am a proud Detroiter born and raised and that’s also where I live now.

I studied sociology at Georgetown University and after graduating became an admissions officer and coordinator of multicultural recruitment. After my tenure in admissions, I moved to England or across the pond to get my master’s at the University of Cambridge where I studied education and also became an alumni interviewer for Georgetown.

I am now finishing my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan. Go blue where I study the college admissions essay. So you are in great company. Uh, I love writing essays. I love thinking about essays. I love supporting students in the essay writing process. And I’m looking forward to answering your questions later tonight.

Anesha: Awesome. Great intro. I think they are definitely in for a treat. I enjoy going through your essay talks. Um, but we’re going to get started first by doing a quick little poll. So please let us know what grade level you are in. If you are a parent or a teacher, we welcome you. You can go ahead and select other And as we’re waiting, uh, do you remember a supplemental essay that you were excited to write or that was easy to write?

Aya: Yeah, I, so the supplemental essays that I just, the question I found easier was like why you wanted to study a specific major. So when I applied to college 200 years ago, I really thought I wanted to Like being communications and mass media, I was always toad. I was really well spoken. I thought I wanted to be on the news.

I wanted to be Oprah. Um, so I applied to like Syracuse and some other school Northwestern that are known for good journalism and communications programs. So I was able to articulate. I felt like the why, like what motivated me. quite easily. So it felt like an easier essay than some of the idiosyncratic, you know, random essay topics that we see now.

So I feel like though, the why, like, why do you want to study this major? Essays always felt pretty natural for me.

Anesha: I like that answer. Um, also I think everybody, every black girl born in the late 1900s wanted to be Oprah. I wanted to be Oprah. Still kind of want to. All right. Well, thank you for sharing that.

We’ll go ahead and close our So we have a small group today. We have 25 percent are in the ninth grade, 20, and then 50 percent in the 12th grade, and then 25 percent other. So we have mostly seniors, which makes sense. Um, but glad that other folks are here as well, and hopefully can leave with some good context for, um, yourself and for your students.

All right, I will stop talking. I will hand it over to you and be back a little bit later.

Aya: Fantastic. All right, folks. So we get to dive in. Um, first, what are supplemental essays, right? So we often hear about the personal statement. That’s the essay that gets all the praise. That’s the one you hear most about in the media.

But there are also these beautiful essays called supplemental essays. So supplemental essays are essays that really invite students to write about a variety of topics. And they’re often, um, school specific, right? So unlike that personal statement, the supplemental essays are required by only some colleges, universities, and they’re also used to highlight fit.

Essays should tell the college something that they don’t already know about you, and they give deeper insights into who you are and just how you think about approaching problems. These essays also tend to be a lot shorter than the personal statement. Not always, some are just as long, if not longer than a personal statement, but they tend to be shorter.

So as far as the purpose of this particular essay or these essays, the supplemental essay is an opportunity to highlight why a student or why, why you might be a good fit for university. And that’s based on your academic interests, your social and cultural interests, and your postgraduate interests. So maybe this school is known for producing Graduates who go on to this particular role or job or career, and that is motivating, you know, why you’re interested in.

So again, those supplemental essays are helping to decide fit so they can emphasize your why, right? Your desire to attend a specific university, you know, why do you want to go to Georgetown, right? Why do you want to attend Georgetown? That could be a supplemental essay. They also give opportunity to to be creative and show some more personality.

And they also emphasize your ability to write clearly and concisely. And that’s incredibly important when you have an essay prompt that’s only 100 or 150 words. So as I said earlier, our supplemental essays require a college application. Not all universities require them. If a school lists a supplemental essay prompt on their application, even if it’s you.

optional, you should always respond to it. Okay. Again, not all universities ask for supplementals. There’s been a shift over the past few years about schools trying to simplify. And in some cases, schools have been trying to dwindle. So there’s, it’s been interesting to see how supplementals have been added and removed from some institutions.

So, and thinking about what kinds of questions that are asked, they vary widely, okay? And they’re often corresponding to the culture and the quirks of the colleges and universities. So, they can be the why school, so why do you want to attend this school? They can be, talk about one of the activities or extracurricular that you love.

They can talk about, What does community mean to you? Why do you want to belong in community? They can be idiosyncratic. There’s an example later that we’ll discuss that’s often quite funny. So, you know, what would you tell? Well, if you were the left shoe, what would you tell the right shoe? They could be a challenge essay.

So tell us about a challenge you had to overcome or they can be very short answers. You know, what are your favorite three movies? That can be a supplemental question.

So when should you start working on your essay? Well, if you are a senior, right now, you should be writing and working on those essays, unless you’re already finished, which will be rare in a lot of cases. But unless you’re already finished, you should be working on your supplemental essays right now. If you are a high school senior, uh, and that’s if your schools on your list require them and that you’ve already made headway, if not, you know, completed your personal statement, right, it’s always good to get that personal statement out the way.

So you can then turn your attention to those supplements. So again, you should consider, does your schools require it? Not all, all of them require it. Confirm your application deadline. So we know November 1st is now less than a month away. It is already October 2nd. So we know that you really need to know if you’re applying EA or ED, which is early action or early decision today, right?

You need to kind of figure that out because that helps you space and time your writing. Or you might be waiting to write for regular decision, which happens usually in January or in some schools. February. So knowing when you’re submitting also can tell you what where you should be in your writing process.

I often say complete that personal statement first, right? Prioritizing completing that draft, get that out the way. It allows you to feel accomplished and it allows you to, you know, get get the nerves out, get a full draft that you can be proud of. And then you can decide how to focus your attention. And again, It’s already October 2nd, but check common application portals to make sure you are working on updated essay prompts.

I’ve actually seen recently some parents in some spaces that I’m a part of asking, you know, does the school still use the supplemental essay? The website looks different from Common App, so make sure you’re verifying via the school’s website and Common App to make sure you have the up to date applications for the schools on your list.

All righty,

so we have a poll here. Um, Anesha, are you here?

The Anesha. So we will move on. Awesome. Okay. So in thinking about tips for crafting a strong why school essay, so the why school essay, uh, I often give this advice, consider people and place. So are there faculty teaching courses, conducting research, overseeing programs or units that align with your interest?

So consider that when you’re writing the why essay. So for example, given my interest in criminal justice reform, I look forward to joining professor Johnson’s law and society course and legal community service program inside local prisons. Right. So you’re identifying, you know, what is happening. Is there a professor that you’re interested in?

You’re also talking about your professional goals and you’re identifying that you’ve done a little bit of homework and research to be able to say, you know, what is happening in Professor Johnson’s Law Society class, right? So you’re considering people and then also considering place, you know, is the school located in an area or community with school specific connections or relationships?

For an example, Penn State’s partnership with farmers in rural Pennsylvania Will enable me farming program and farming but then attracts a lot of people interested in the political space the legal why a, uh, Supplemental question. It’s a why school essay. Why this particular school? So tips for crafting a strong why school essay. Very important. Have you spent the time understanding the ethos and values of the campus program and community? So first and foremost, you’ve got to do your research, right?

So doing research means perusing the website. It means following the schools on their social media pages. It means talking to maybe your school at your high school, their alum from your high school that has 10 in a particular conversation. So asking them and if you have the means and resources visiting the schools, right?

So demonstrate that you’ve researched the school extensively and not just relied on its reputation. So it’s not good enough to say this school is ranked number one in this, you know, or You know, this school has study abroad. Most universities have study abroad opportunities, right? I can double major at this school.

You can double major at most institutions. This school has this club. A lot of schools have similar clubs. So you want to be sure you’re talking specifically about the school. And again, show that you’ve thought substantially about how you would fit in on campus. So also given your research in this or given your interest in this, or maybe you started this particular dance team and The school doesn’t have that dance team and you want to bring it to campus or maybe you’ve been leading a particular non profit and you want to bring that non profit work to the school’s campus.

You also just want to talk about how you will be a student on that campus to make that connection for a compelling why. And again, crafting a strong why school essay, you need to research academics including majors, faculty, community based learning opportunities. School location and geographic environment.

Location, location, location. It matters, right? For a lot of us, location was paramount to me. Wherever I decided, I know I needed to be in a city or like suburban. No, I just knew I couldn’t do rural. Okay. I’m a city girl. I knew I couldn’t do rural. You also want to look at traditions and values, right? And also extracurricular activities, sports and service related experiences that align with your interests.

So the second essay we’ll chat about is that

Anesha: I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry to throw you off. I know I missed a bit earlier. Um, so I’m just going to go back really quickly. Can you hear me?

Aya: I can hear you.

Anesha: Okay. Sorry. Okay. I’m so sorry, folks. Having some technical difficulties on this side. Um, apologies. Gonna do another quick one. We’re just curious about who is helping you edit your essays. So please let us know, I guess, how you are getting your essay support out there, um, in a quick minute.

And apologies again for my wonky system today.

All right.

Okay, cool. All right. Sorry about that. We’re going to go ahead and close it. But we got some useful information. I’m glad that there are a lot of folks who are using the CollegeAdvisor, um, as the editing team. And so folks who are reaching out to teachers and guidance counselors for that one person who, um.

No, it’s the Daniels Tech E Reader. Let us know. Reach out to us at Deafly Resources within CollegeAdvisor to help you with getting feedback and support on your essays. Apologies about that. I’ll let you get back to it, Aya.

Aya: No worries. It happens. Okay, so we were talking about the extracurricular essay. So we’ve talked about the Y School essay, now extracurricular.

So, tips for crafting this one. An example? We often see in the wild is please briefly explain or elaborate rather on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. So, in this case, you want to illustrate why and how you devoted time to a specific activity. You want to demonstrate the impact you’ve made participating in the activity.

You want to reflect what you learned about yourself and, if relevant, explain how you would continue to participate in the activity while on campus. I do put if relevant because not all students want to continue. You know, if you were playing on your high school’s golf team, you may not want to do that in college.

So that’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to continue it. But you really want to talk about what you’ve learned and the impact that you made. That’s what they’re trying to solicit in that particular question. We then have the community essay. An example of that is how will you add to the diversity of the school?

Very popular question. I will even argue increasingly popular as universities try to navigate last year’s decision on affirmative action. So diversity is defined in. A variety of ways, right? So students can discuss racial, ethnic diversity. They can also talk about geographic, socioeconomic, ideological, also experiences or identities that they believe they can bring to a campus community.

You also can discuss how your lived experiences and identities inform the person you are and the type of student, classmate, roommate. You will be on campus. So you’re thinking about what do you bring to the table? Why will your presence make the university community a better place? And I’m assuming that we are going into environments to add value and make them a better place, right?

That is the goal. So you just want to talk about who you are and what you hope to contribute. You can talk about the dance troupe. The cultural dance troupe you perform with, you can talk about some of the work you’ve done in the community, you can talk about your racial and ethnic identity and how that’s important.

So they’re just seeing how you play well with others, how will you learn with others, how will you contribute to this thoughtful, diverse community. So then you have the infamous idiosyncratic essays, right? An example of this is, You know, UChicago supplement they used to have, maybe they still have it.

What advice would a wisdom tooth have? Right? So, if you still have your wisdom teeth, maybe you can ask them, but I don’t have any more. Um, but you know, lean into creativity, embrace the topic. Right? Sometimes students see a question like this and they panic. Oh my God, I’ve never been a wisdom tooth. How can I know?

And they’re not asking literally, right? They just want to hear from you. Be original. Share something that may be unknown to universities about yourself, about your community, about your background, right? So if they want you to play, play with them. Okay? Don’t overthink it. Don’t take it too seriously. Lean into the creativity, embrace the weirdness of it all.

Then we have the challenge essay, right? So what is the challenge you faced and how did you overcome it? You know, always be honest. And when I’m thinking about crafting a strong challenge essay, you want to define a challenge also in your own word. What do challenges look like in your life? I put that in here because I think that’s really, really important.

For some reason, the challenge essay above all other essays really freak people out because they are so concerned about how they make sense. Of challenge in their own lives in comparison to their peers, their friends, what they read, what they see on TikTok, et cetera, and challenges look different from from everybody.

Right? Person to person. We all experience challenges, even if we live a life of privilege. So sometimes students really just panic about this. And I, again, define challenge. And how it looks in your life. Okay. Also reflect on experiences where you’ve had personal growth. Um, think about moments where you just really, you saw growth in yourself, something that really edified you.

Um, also detail what you learned about yourself and others and share responsibly. So detail what you learned about yourself and others. Again, all of these essays, no matter what they’re asking, they’re often looking for a student to talk about what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown, okay? Um, and learn from themselves, learn from others in these interactions or these particular moments.

I put this share responsibly piece because I think it is critical in thinking about identifying challenges. In my own research, I study trauma narratives. I study how students feel like they must disclose trauma. So when I say share responsibly, I’m asking you to make sure that you are sharing stories, that you’re telling stories, that you’re disclosing stories, that you feel comfortable sharing, that you want to share, that you don’t necessarily, you know, I don’t want you to feel pressured, coerced.

force to disclose intimate moments, painful moments that you don’t want to share. Um, and think about who’s reading these essays on the other side as well, right? There are admissions officers, there are humans that look like you and I on the other side. So just share responsibly. And then also we have the short answer essay.

So I think I gave an example earlier. An example is what is your favorite song, your book, your artist, Be specific and concise show how you approach questions how you think show your personality But more importantly answer the question again, sometimes students see these and they’re like, oh I gotta do this I gotta do this, you know, it might say in one sentence It might say list.

Okay, so don’t overthink it. Just answer the question. What is your favorite song, book, or artist? Right? Whoever comes to mind. Now, some students are like, I just want to stand out and I’m going to say Duke Ellington, you know, or Ella Fitzgerald. Just that might be your favorite, your favorite artist. But again, Just answer the question.

And then we have the additional information essay. And it’s really important that this is here because sometimes, um, students think the additional information essay is a space where they say Common App only lets me use 10, let me, uh, list 10 activities, but I have 15. So I’m going to use additional information essay to list the five.

That is not what this this question or this prompt is for. So Additional, uh, information essay usually says please use this space if you have additional information, materials, or writing samples you would like us to consider. So this is an opportunity to discuss unforeseen circumstances or challenges that admissions officers should consider when reviewing your application.

They can include dips in grades or school changes. They can, they can include, uh, limited access to resources. They can include time out of the classroom, which could be medical death of a loved one, relocation, et cetera. This is where you, you want to start. Something I mean, I’ve had students disclose and again, this is disclosure is all case specific is what you want to, you know, what you feel comfortable doing, but I’ve had students disclose about health issues or other things that may have, uh, they wanted to flag right in their profile.

Um, also. I need to triple check on this, but definitely in the past several years, there’s been a COVID impact essay where all the colleges on the Common App, they were asking students to talk about the impact COVID had on them, which it impacted all of us. No matter where you were in the world, you were affected by COVID, right?

Um, there was a specific question on the Common App about COVID, and I’m not 100 percent sure that question is still on there. So let me double check that. Um, but again, That is what this question is inviting you to do. It is not a place where you can just start ratting off accomplishments. That’s not what it’s for.

So can I reuse an essay? Very, very popular question. So the supplemental essay should correspond with specific institutions, right? If they’re too vague, they won’t demonstrate that you’ve done your homework or know why you’re applying. So again, if you’re saying why And we’re applying to a wide Georgetown question.

Georgetown being in D.C. is very different than, say, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Very different schools culturally. One is more basketball culture. One is more football. One is suburban. One is city. You know, one is, um, kind of a closed campus, distinct. One is a little bit more spread out. One has 6, 400 undergrads.

One has 30, 000 undergrads. So, different, right? However, you know, supplemental questions tend to be similar, so you can certainly utilize some copy and paste. Usually your why major, like why do you want to study computer science? Oftentimes, you know, there are specific motivations that you can repeat for sure.

Like, try not to start from scratch every single time. You really want to be able to, you know, cut down on time and work smarter, not harder, right? You know, colleges won’t read your applications to other schools. So that’s something to think about. Like, You know, the people at Harvard are not reading your essay to U.C. Berkeley, but you should not reuse essays for progress within the same schools. So if there was a way where you apply to like the School of Engineering at Duke and also the College of Arts and Sciences, you know, you should not reuse essays for, you know, within the same school. However, again, anecdotes and specific moments about you can easily lend themselves to a variety of props.

So we really want you to be able to draw from essays that you’ve written. That’s okay, right? But it is a faux pas if you’re applying to the University of Michigan and you write, and for these reasons, I want to attend Michigan State University. Different school, different city, different colors. Um, so you just really want to, to be mindful about that as well.

So as we wrap this portion of our conversation, you know, before I start taking questions, um, my final advice is research, research, research. Research, right? You always want to do your homework and research and writing and specifics is key to answering any of these prompts. You want to keep a log. Like, this is really important.

I know I have some students who during spring breaks, whether usually they’re junior year. Sophomore, even, uh, sophomore or summer before their senior year, they’re visiting colleges. Um, and then details like the difference between Tufts and BC and, and, and they, they start to blur, right? It’s like, wait, was that be you when it happened?

So if you can keep a log, whether it’s in the apps in your notes app or in a spreadsheet, which I recommend on Google docs, where you can say, okay, after you visit Tufts, just kind of go through and highlight the different, right? Um, schools or different features like, okay, Tufts had this, or we stood in the chapel and et cetera, just so you can like log and remind yourself when you start writing these essays, because some of the best essays I feel like I see is when students can describe what it felt like being on that campus or what they learned about that campus.

So the more details you have, the better. Uh, I also encourage students to follow schools on social media now I know some students are like wait social media then, you know, they’re going to see my TikTok whatever, you know do this with caution, right? But you you can just look at their so you don’t have to follow them Actually, just look at their social media pages their student takeovers Uh, just see how they’re framing their their narratives and stories online when I was in college 100 years ago That was really not a thing.

I mean, social media existed, Instagram existed, uh, but universities weren’t allowing students to take over their Instagram pages or TikTok pages like they do now. So you can learn quite a bit about culture, uh, culture and school spirit and pride and values and ethos from social media. You also in these essays be thoughtful and be Honest, you know integrity integrity integrity.

It’s so important and always proofread, right? You want to make sure you are not sending your Michigan State application. I’m, sorry essays to University of Michigan Um, and you just want to make sure that you are being authentic and that you’re catching anything that might Misrepresent what you’re trying to say.

So I often recommend the read aloud feature on Microsoft Word There might be a plug in for Google Docs, but you want to capture correctly spelled words the wrong way You also want to have others look at your essays, right? You want to make sure Oh, wait, just kidding. You want to others look at it. You want to make sure that You get a second pair of eyes, which means you should not procrastinate.

So early action is around the corner. Early decision is around the corner. So make sure you give yourself some wiggle room so you can finish your essays, walk away for a day, or maybe even two before taking a look at it. Share with counselors, teachers, trusted friends, colleagues, so they can also take a look at your essays as well.

Anesha: Okay, awesome. Um, thank you so much. I have for a great presentation. I wanted to follow with two things that you said. Um, Covid essays, I think happened sparingly. I think they’re not as consistent as they want to where I’ve seen them maybe once or twice. Honestly, out of like, maybe 50 schools that I’ve been looking at this year.

And then I also just to the research point wanted to add for students, especially pre med students, making sure you’re you’re referencing resources at the undergraduate institution. And not talking about the grant, like medical school. I have a lot of students who are writing about things. They’re going to do a medical school.

And it’s like, talk about college first. So I just wanted to add that in the research portion.

Aya: That’s fantastic. That’s great advice.

Anesha: Okay, we are going to move on to the Q&A portion of our session tonight. So remember, you can download the slides under the handouts tab. The way that our Q&A will work.

You can go ahead and submit a question under the Q and a tab. I will read it aloud so that I will have a chance to read it and then paste it into the public chat. So that others can see it. If you are having any challenges with submitting your Q and a. Know that you might have to log back out, log back in, and make sure you are logging in through the custom link you received in your email and not through CollegeAdvisor’s webinar page.

All right, so we’re going to go ahead and get started. My first question for you, um, is around this research question of, uh, someone asked, like, how to research deeply for colleges?

Aya: Research deeply for colleges. Yeah, there are a number of ways to do it. I mean first I think creating a system Uh, it’s really important.

So if you are a junior Uh or senior I think making sure you have first a email account I recommend gmail, but they’re not paying me to say that. Um having a gmail account I’m, just more familiar with that so you can utilize the google suite so you can have your google docs You can have your google spreadsheets all of that in one place You You also want to make sure you have an age appropriate professional for email address.

First name dot last name is pretty standard. You might have to have an add a number if your last name is like John Johns or something. So first, start there. Right, create the system. Make sure you have that. And then, In a spreadsheet, you know, list, you know, five to ten schools that you’re interested in applying, right, list them there, and then begin to go to their website.

When I was researching for, or looking up information, I had those, those college books, those very thick ones, and I literally was flipping through the pages and reading about their popular majors, reading about their graduation rates, reading about, um, Like the different opportunities that they had reading about internship opportunities, reading about locations, reading about racial and ethnic diversity in school demographics.

That’s how that’s what I looked at. So you want to think about what factors are important to you and begin to seek that information out again. First, start with the website. That’s where you’re going to get the most fact based. True and true information. If you can have the resources, visit the school, you know, have a campus visit, go to a formal information session.

That is where you’re going to get all the pertinent information about how to apply, what they look for, and basic information about the university’s average class sizes, most popular major, things of that nature. And then, You want to start thinking about, okay, I got this institutional perspective. I went on campus.

I got campus. I walked around and saw the tour. I got to see the university. Let me see what they’re saying on their social media. Okay, I see students are really civically engaged. That’s important to me. So you begin to take notes of all of these things that you’re seeing, that you’re reading in that spreadsheet that I mentioned earlier.

Look at, okay, what’s the average. Test scores. Okay. Do they look at weighted GPA? Okay. Do I apply directly into the school of engineering or the entire university? So you just begin to ask her, you know, think about questions that are important to you, things that are important to you and begin to document it in one place.

So by the time you actually started applying, you have the basic information right there. So I say create a process. To make it easier. So you’re not scrambling. Um, those are some of my recommendations. Great recommendations.

Anesha: Absolutely. Just organizing your research, thinking about questions you want to ask along the way.

Um, I appreciate that. The next question I had, I think it’s in, it’s coming from perspective of the. Supplemental essays in contrast to the personal statement and it’s how important is storytelling in supplemental essays and how can I be sure I’m incorporating it effectively?

Aya: This is a great question and it’s something that I’m navigating now with my students at CollegeAdvisor.

I always say this for the supplements, the most important Piece of it is answering the question with any essay answer the question, right? So if your essay is only if they say max 100 words Which mean they’re going to cut you off if you try to write 101 words You don’t have a lot of time sometimes to set the stage.

You don’t have time to talk about the mood and You really just need to answer the question. So storytelling is a part of the college admissions process, but storytelling doesn’t mean you need to add a whole bunch of fluff. So the most important part is answering the question. You know, so often in supplements, students bury the lead.

If a question asks you, why do you wanna study your, your selected major? I should be able to read that in the first two sentences, what your major is. It shouldn’t be at the end of the essay. For these reasons, I want to study biochemical engineering. No, say that at the top. Answer their question and then go into why.

So that is always my motto. Answer the question. You often don’t have a lot of space.

Anesha: Um, I have a question. This is a personal question. So I’m just going to go off the top of my head. But I had a student struggling with the idea of the Based on their lived experience and background, how were they meant to describe their lived experience and background?

So, I guess, do you have tips for students on how to think through those types of questions when they have a vague understanding of the life you’ve lived?

Aya: Yeah, I mean, I think one thing I encourage students to do is think about what they, I think about the senses. So, I often tell students, you know, on the day to day, what do they see?

On the day to day, what they, what do they smell on the day to day, what they taste on the day to day, what they feel. And when I see, when I say what they see, maybe you live on a street that is incredibly busy. Right. So all, you know, there’s a lot of traffic. So you’re seeing so many different people every day.

What do you smell? Maybe you live next to the guy who grows oranges. So you smell oranges all the time. Um, what do you taste? Maybe your family, uh, your mom or your dad cooks every night the best Italian food. So you’re eating the best Italian food. So think about those senses. When you talk about your lived experiences, and I, and it doesn’t necessarily, I think sometimes also students see those types of questions and immediately think they’re, they’re, they’re deficit based, like, they’re asking you to talk about play even ways that you’ve been, you know, experienced discrimination or like your lived experiences have, you know, led you to have to overcome particular obstacles.

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be that either. So your lived experiences is like. Yeah. What does it mean to be you right? Maybe you’re a twin and you’re like being living. My lived experience is not just my own. It’s also my to my twin sister or twin brother. So just think about what it means to be you.

And just again, I always say activate the senses, see, hear, smell, just the senses. Use that to kind of get the juices flowing.

Anesha: Yeah, I appreciate that. Um, to start from something basic and then build out from there. Um, or something like immediate.

Aya: Mm hmm.

Anesha: Okay, my next question for you is, um, I think you addressed it a little bit, but just to rehash it, how specific should I be in addressing a school’s program or resources when I’m asked about that in a, in a supplemental essay?

Aya: You want to be as specific as possible, um, because Frankly, a lot of schools have a lot of similar things, right? So and for that reason as I said as we tried to emphasize you can reuse information, but when it comes to Specific programs. I mean the faculty at universities are different locations tend to be different in most cases Um different cultures reputations Brand everything so you really want to be specific show that you’ve done your homework show that you’ve put some effort in Again, you do not have to You You know, write an entire, you know, history of the institution or do biographical analyses on the professors.

No, I’m not asking you to do that, but you just want to show that you’ve done a little bit of homework that can make that helps you make the argument, you know, why this school as opposed to the school one town over. Right? So that’s, that’s what we mean. Um, you want to be specific, uh, as possible.

Anesha: Oh, okay.

Back to, I think, a bit of a research component. One student asked, What tips do you suggest for someone who has already run out of time, like not having time to research deeply and all the other basic stuff?

Aya: What does it mean to run out of time?

Anesha: Yeah, I’m assuming they feel like they’re just kind of getting started. They’re looking at the deadlines coming and feeling like they don’t have enough time to be as thoughtful in the research and trying to figure out if there’s a shortcut to it. That’s my, that’s my assessment of this question, but I

Aya: mean, the shortcut is, I mean, how many schools are your list?

Right? So, are you applying to 100 schools? Are you applying to 10? If time is of the essence, you know, choose your schools wisely. Um, also. It’s it’s still early October. So in some cases, some schools are doing like October 15th. That’s sometimes a date for like some Georgia schools, maybe some of the U. T.

Um, but you still have time. So I’ll say that is what? I mean, I think coming to this webinar is great. I don’t know what time is on your end. But once you log off, You know, start looking like it’s something that you could still do and something you still have control over. So the tips I would be, I would use again, go to the school’s website, start cruising, what course offerings to have?

What is your major? Um, what is it, you know, go to the department programs that could take 30 minutes, right? So it is something that you need to be disciplined about, um, and start doing it now, also. As we continue to think about what AI could, could help us with and support our endeavors, I do think AI could be a potential resource in this regard.

So I could have seen you, you know, saying chat QBT, prompting it to say, you know, I have a school list of these 10 schools. Can you create a spreadsheet or chart for me that has this basic information, um, that I could use, um, and supplemental assays? I think that that would be an appropriate use of, uh, a reef AI resource.

However, you do need to fact check. I have ran so many prompts on chat GPT and other platforms just to test out the validity. Um, and sometimes it’s wrong. Things are outdated, et cetera, but I think that could be. As far as kind of expediting, just getting some information collected, I think that could be a way to utilize that tool to help with the data collection in that regard.

Anesha: So I love the idea of trying to be creative about how to use, um, AI. The other suggestion that I want to just throw in there as you were talking was thinking about what do you. aligning your extracurricular. So what are you currently doing that you could be doing at that college? If you are in Poetry Club, does that college have a Poetry Club?

You can just put in the name of the school plus whatever extracurricular you have. And that way you can draw these parallels between what you’re currently doing and how the institution can help you to continue doing that throughout college or deepen your interest in it as well. So maybe using your own resume as a template for what to look for, um, as you go through the college as well.

Um, okay, uh, the next question for you, um, is how do I show fit with the school’s culture through a supplemental essay?

Aya: Uh, so first, you want to make sure you’re answering the question. So I’m not sure, most times the question will be, How do you fit our culture? It’s often not as explicit as that, right? Um, but demonstrating fit, they’re asking about alignment, right?

They’re asking about if a school is, you know, for an example, my alma mater, Georgetown, service oriented. Here a person Dallas, we care for the whole person. It’s a Jesuit Institute institution committed to being men where men and women for others. So service is very much a part of the culture, right? So to Anesha’s point, if you’re already doing a lot of community service, Mentorship, leadership, kind of engagement in your community, you can write about that because you’re showing alignment.

We can say this school’s, uh, you know, has a proud, um, legacy of service and I have, you know, been committed to service in my own way. And my community in Pittsburgh. And these are the ways how this is what I hope to contribute to this campus. This is how I want to continue the legacy of service on this campus.

So again, start with you. Like, what are you doing already? And then make that connection. That’s how you demonstrate fit. Um,

Anesha: this is a big question and a difficult one, but I’ll ask it. Um, how can I stand out in supplemental essays, especially?

Aya: Standing out is not important in that regard. I think it’s, um, I think the best question is how do you just be authentic?

I think it’s just important that you are answering the question and you’re talking about who you are. I think you as an individual will always be different from anyone else. So worry less about standing out. Cause to me, that means I’m concerned about what they are doing. And I want you to worry about what you are doing.

So, um, standing out is writing a thoughtful essay that responds to the question.

Anesha: This person that yeah, all right, I’m going to come back to that question. We do have a question, but I just want to take a brief break to talk about CollegeAdvisor for those in the room who we know how overwhelming that admissions process can be. I’m glad that there are a bunch of people who are already using CollegeAdvisor as a review team, but just so, you know, we have.

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We will go ahead and leave that QR code up on the screen for folks who are interested in it and get back to the questions to move forward. Someone said, is there a correct way to articulate your answer in a supplemental essay? I guess to the person who wrote this, if you could add a little bit more detail to that, I’m assuming, I’m assuming it’s building off of what you’re saying of, like, answer the question directly.

Um, and is there a right way to answer the question directly?

Aya: Are you asking me that? Or are you asking? Sorry.

Anesha: Sorry. I’m asking you, I’m asking you if you have, I was, sorry, I apologize. I was trying to do both. I was asking the person to clarify and then also trying to clarify it for you in the sense that I think this person is asking about, Should you, when you’re answering the question, is it appropriate to directly answer the question at the start of the essay?

Aya: Yeah, and also I think what I’m seeing too is, for an example, again, person who asked that question, please do a follow up if I’m not answering it correctly. Like, would it be appropriate to answer the question in a poem? You know, like would it be appropriate to answer the question and like something like that.

I think with supplements again, you don’t Answering the question directly is very important again. I’ve seen students say say you get 200 words to say why Dartmouth And I’m passing to say, you know, when I visited Dartmouth, you know, my older brother went there when I visited him, the green grass and the fields really, you know, made me excited, uh, to to be a member of that campus and et cetera.

So they did add a little flavor and color to that. I say they were still within the word count. They still answer the question, but they also set the scene to show that they’ve actually visited the campus to also kind of flag that they are really interested. Um, so you can add color. To your essay. So answering the question directly doesn’t mean you don’t add any kind of color to it.

You just want to make sure you’re within the word limit. And that while talking about the times you saw the rolling grass in the hills that you’re also answering like how people in place how that campus. It’s a place where you see yourself, how that camp, what about that campus resonates with you? Um, I wouldn’t recommend a student like writing it in a home or unless it was like a performing arts.

Maybe someone wants to write a song or something, but generally I would stay away from those types that style and that froze for the purpose of the college admissions essay and just, you know, focus on a more traditional format. It doesn’t have to be You know, basic. But again, you just want to make sure you’re responding to the question and that the reader does not walk away feeling like you’re a very descriptive, colorful writer, but not knowing like how why Dartmouth is a good fit.

Anesha: Thank you for I apologize. I thank you for struggling through that question. A full response to it. Um, the next question is, how do I effectively convey my passion for a specific academic subject when I haven’t had many opportunities to explore it deeply? The example being aerospace engineering.

Aya: That’s a great question, because, you know, I mean, I don’t know how many aerospace engineers there are, but I don’t think people generally have access to them just walking around.

So, I think 1 way to demonstrate your interest is to show what you’ve learned through your own kind of research, right? You know, what motivate this is when you really lean into motivation, right? So there is a reason why you want to be an aerospace engineer. Right? So start there. Like, why? Was it, you know, when you were on the plane, was it something about curiosity about how planes fly, like what prompted that motivation?

I think that’s a great place. And then also, um, if you haven’t had opportunities to intern and et cetera, um, think about all of the self learning and self study you can do, whether it’s taking advantage of like YouTube, taking advantage of like even TikToks, um, I think there’s a way to show that you’ve like expressed interest and that you’re curious about something, um, without actually living it because in a lot of ways, and I say this, I forgot to say this in my intro.

I’m a proud first generation college student. I didn’t know any aerospace engineers for, I didn’t really know any engineers growing up, um, or computer scientists or, I mean, even accountants and things. So I couldn’t really lean into that, my parental network to do those, like gain access to those people, to have conversations.

But what I did, what I did know is like why I wanted to, like, why, like from where my motivation stemmed. It was the conversation I had, it was the interview Oprah had, it was like all of these different moments that flagged to me that this was something I was interested in. And then I allowed my curiosity to help me learn about it through research, through going online, through YouTube, through watching videos, through practicing on my own.

And I think showing that you’ve done some of the homework, that you’ve done a little bit of digging, I think it’s really, it’s a really great way to show your interest in the area. Also showing that look at the university. I always tell students that when you look at majors, they often outline the courses you need to take and the classes to graduate that major.

So even looking at, okay, aerospace engineers need to take chemistry, whatever, look at those classes. Have you taken any of those classes in high school level, or you can express about taking those classes while you’re there. Look at the professors at that university and what they’re researching or studying or their professional careers.

Just kind of demonstrate that given the resources that you have, that you’ve done a little bit of homework.

Anesha: The next question for you is, um, how do I balance being authentic and strategic when trying to answer supplemental essay questions?

Aya: Well, I don’t think, uh, strategic should come at the expense of authenticity.

I think authenticity is just paramount. It’s just who you are, period. Period. So you shouldn’t have to sacrifice that. So I, I don’t want them to seem, it feels like a false choice for me, you can, it’s a yes and, you’re, you’re both, you know, you don’t have to be like, and you can be strategic and still be yourself, strategic for me is just word choice because you only have 50 words, so you are like strategically using your words so you don’t, you know, Instead of writing in passive voice, you write in active voice, that’s strategic to me, uh, strategic, uh, as implied in the question sounds a bit nefarious, and I don’t think I don’t want to suggest that to what that’s what you’re saying.

Um, so you can do both. I don’t think there should be a compromise there. Um, Strategic is just like your strategy. It’s like navigating the questions, but you want to be who you are. You also want to remember your audience. That is something important. And we talk about this a bit like code switching or how students feel like they need to write what type of style they need to write in.

That they feel is appropriate for the college admissions offices. Um, we can still be you, you can still, um, you know, right in your style appropriately, of course, this is for a college admission, so you want it to be aware of your audience, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to sacrifice who you are or your authenticity to be strategic in the admission process.

Anesha: I appreciate that, those comments of that. You can be both, you can be both authentic, authentic and strategic. Um, uh, I think students think every question has a. a right answer to it sometimes. Um, uh, how should I approach quirky or unconventional supplemental essay prompts?

Aya: Yeah, I talked a little bit about this in the, on the presentation.

Um, you know, we use the word idiosyncratic to describe some of those quirky, um, essay, uh, prompts. Again, UChicago is notorious for some of their quirky points. I tell students just to lean in. Sometimes we take it too seriously, and I think it’s an opportunity to be fun, um, and just be creative. Um, and sometimes I think the, those essays, the responses to those essays, like, Things that are like really literal could be a little funny sometimes too, but I, I don’t want students to overthink it, um, just, just kind of lean in, just embrace the weirdness because I think so many of the questions are like, what do you want to do in your life for the next 20?

Like, we don’t know, you know, life is just, you know, climate change is here. We don’t know how long we have. So we, I really just want you to kind of lean in and take advantage of just, yeah. Being being funny. Um, so, you know, whatever comes to mind just like let it flow. I don’t, I don’t think there is like a some people might argue that there’s a particular strategy for some of those really quirky essay, but I think the quirky it’s just like Embrace it and respond, you know, respond, you know, in a way that feels comfortable to you, but also it answers the question.

Anesha: Can I ask, um, this is a question there’s a question I was having. I’m struggling with the student on with around these, like, idiosyncratic essays or quirky essays. Should it be? Should they be taking a narrative approach or an academic kind of like. Um, like in the way that they write it, are they writing from first person or are they writing that like omnipotent academic speak?

Aya: I think it depends on what the response is because I can see both being used. You know, like for an example, the UChicago prompt about what was a wisdom to say. When I’m hearing wisdom, I’m hearing like academic voice. At least that’s how I interpret the question, right? So I can see a student writing that way.

But maybe you’re a wisdom tooth who might need to be extracted that’s on his last leg. So then that wisdom tooth takes a very different tone, right? So I also just think about those questions also are asking or seeing how you approach them. So like, you’re going to take the I’m wise, I’m wisdom, I’m going to speak like this, or I’m a wisdom tooth that’s fighting for my life.

So I’m going to be, you know, jovial and various and just really excitable, then take that approach. So I also think that in fact, it, The style depends on how you choose to approach the question. And I think that’s part of the exercise.

Anesha: Yeah, I think, I think that’s very true. Thank you for that. I appreciate that, um, that perspective.

What should I do if I just do not understand the prompt and I don’t know how to connect with it?

Aya: If you don’t understand the prompt, I would go to the website. So sometimes colleges and universities have examples of, um, uh, of supplementals. And I see that I’ve seen that before, especially with some of those idiosyncratic, uh, websites where they have like people in the past have answered it this way.

Um, also ask people around you. So remember, the college admissions process, um, should be a village process, right? So it should be a process that you’re going through with people around you. So whether it’s with us at CollegeAdvisor, or whether it is, you know, A teacher, a counselor, a parent, I will ask, ask your teacher, ask your counselor, ask your advisor.

What do you think they’re asking here? I’m struggling with that. This is when you lean on community. This is when you tap into their resources. Visit their website. Did you see any advice that they have? Sometimes colleges will provide advice. Or how to address different, um, you know, questions and responses, et cetera.

So that’s what I would say. If you don’t understand it, I would add someone in your networking, um, to help you kind of brainstorm it and make sense of it.

Anesha: I love that, that it’s a village process. I think my only pushback would be like, not everybody needs to be in the village when it comes to especially editing.

Um, but yeah, I love, I love that idea. I love that approach. Um, okay. I think we’ve gone through a ton of questions and I, I don’t know that we’re getting a ton more, so I might go ahead and end us there unless last call for any questions that folks might have before we wrap up today. Give a pause.

All right. Okay. Um, well, thank you so much, Aya. Thank you to everyone for coming out and asking those questions. Um, that will be the end of our webinar. We hope you gained some strategies and tips for editing those essays. Also, we hope that you’ll join us in the future for our future webinars, but until next time, take care and have a good evening.

Bye everyone. Thank you. Best of luck in your process.