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Common Application Essays - Part 3
Posted by on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 11:49 AM (PST)
School-specific Supplemental Essays
While it's true the Common App can save you a great deal of time, it's not quite the case that "one application works for all the schools." You'll only have to fill out one personal info section, one activities section, etc. But when it comes to essays, many schools want to see more than just the personal essay and the activity essay. Why? Well, it may be that they really think they need more information in order to make an informed admission decision, but I think it's equally likely that:
- They want to know that students are really interested in their school, and they're afraid that without additional requirements a bunch of students will apply just to see if they can get in, with no interest in attending - which will ultimately hurt their "yield."
- They want to give the impression of being a more competitive school.
To address this, many schools create a Common App supplement. Anything is fair game; some schools will include an extra form or something. Typically, however, the supplements consist primarily of additional essays and/or short answer questions. These questions might cover anything from "What would you like to tell your future roommate?" to "Our school values diversity; how will you contribute to the diversity of our student body?" A common question, and one for which you need to have a good answer, is "Why our school?" I'll address this in another post, but for now, suffice it to say that when colleges include questions like this, they want to see you show some love to their school. You've got to know why you're a good fit for them and vice versa, and your answer shouldn't be the same for every college. Do some research and be ready to talk about specific classes, programs, and resources. And whatever you do, DON'T turn in an essay for one school with another school's name in it. (Ugh, I once submitted an essay to Stanford telling them why I thought UC Berkeley was the perfect fit for me. Stanford apparently agreed.)
Content
- Whatever the question is, answer it! If you try to adapt an essay you've already written, be very, very careful. Sometimes students try to do this, and it looks forced. You don't want to make it look like you adapted an essay intended for another purpose, and you don't want the essay to end up coming across as convoluted and awkward. Be clear and direct.
- Pay careful attention to word limits and any special instructions.
- As you write, keep in mind the "brand" you developed in your personal essay. Whatever you write should be consistent with, and hopefully build upon, what you've already written. Perhaps it goes without saying, but you don't want to leave a college admission committee confused about who you are and what's important to you. For example, if you've written your personal essay about your passion for classical music and your desire to be a composer, your "Why our school?" essay probably shouldn't focus exclusively on the school's location, pottery club, and athletic teams. Instead, rave about the school's creative atmosphere, leading music composition program, music-related clubs, and a particular professor with whom you can't wait to study.
What happens if a supplemental question asks something already addressed in the personal essay?
This is a challenging one, and if you apply to enough schools, it's likely to happen. The best solution, if you can do it, is to answer the supplemental question in a way that is sufficiently different from, but complementary to, the personal essay. DO NOT submit the same essay twice or turn in a supplementary essay that is almost indistiguishable from the personal essay. What about changing the personal statement? Well, this is a little tricky, because you can't just change the personal essay for one school. If you change it for one college, you change it for all of them (except the ones that are already submitted), and this would only be a good idea if you decided the re-written essay were better at conveying your personal brand and vision than the original. There is, however, a work-around: you can create another application from scratch. If you really like your personal essay, but feel it's important that it be changed for just one school, you can create a separate verson to submit to that school. The downside is that you have to fill out the entire app again. For information on how to do this, log into commonapp.org, click "Instructions," and then click "Application Versions."
Next time: the "Additional Information" section!
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