Tigerway: An in-depth analysis about supplemental essays - Example provided
Supplemental essays are another vital part of perfecting the college application. Learn how to approach these essays with a high-impact example provided.
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Example of a highly-effective supplemental essay
Prompt from the University of Pennsylvania: At Penn, learning and growth happen outside of the classrooms, too. How will you explore the community at Penn? Consider how this community will help you shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community. (150-200 words)
Key Opinions from Jasmine on this supplemental essay: This supplemental essay provides a unique and highly-effective approach to showcasing how their identity and interests apply to the community at Penn. They explicitly state their interests with excitement and curiosity and correlate them to the university’s features. This portrays that the student clearly did research on the university’s programs, environment, and community. Doing research is important because it shows that the student knows what they want and it allows admissions officers to see the student’s potential and how they may be involved on campus.
Along with the college essay, some universities require extra writing pieces to know more about a student. These are called supplemental essays. Supplemental essays are another essential part of the college application, especially for competitive schools. Each school may have different types of essays but most rely on the same theme of questions.
Some common supplemental essay questions:
Why do you want to attend this university?
Why do you want to do this major?
What does diversity mean to you?
How are you involved in your community?
Did you experience any challenges within your academics that you want to mention?
Personal statement about you, your identity, passions, and values
Creative writing pieces
While thinking about these supplemental essay topics, we can see that colleges are giving you the chance to further express yourself aside from your academics and Common App essay. These supplemental essays allow students to be more creative with their writing while telling the universities more about themselves.
How do we approach these supplemental essays?
Like the Common App essay, make sure you have a common theme throughout your essay.
Create a story or a timeline for questions like “Why this major” and mention experiences that have shaped you into who you are today.
Establish your identity by talking about your goals, passions, and values and how they apply to the college’s programs and community.
Think about how you see yourself involved in that college’s community and talk about it. Mention what your short-term and long-term goals are at this college.
Research the colleges and their programs for “Why this school” questions. What are they known for? How are the major programs? How is the community? When applying to any place, make sure you have a clear motive to tell to the admissions officers.
When writing your supplemental essay, you are building the foundation to help colleges know even more about who you are. These questions were designed to allow students to showcase more of the impact they can make on the college’s community. College admission officers love to predict where you may stand within their college. Like the sample supplemental essay above, students should take this chance to show their growth and how they can integrate their identity with their dream college’s features.
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