Writing the Supplemental Essay # 1

The supplemental essay

 

The supplemental essay is typically required for the more “prestigious” schools. Since so many people are applying to these schools this is another way for the student to stand apart from others.

If you are applying to one of these, then it can have different dimensions – some of them such as Stanford will ask about “Intellectual vitality” and others like Princeton will ask you to write about your civic engagement and how you value diverse perspectives. Just about all of them will ask about why you want to come to their wonderful out-of-the-world college! When you write this essay, please don’t say “I want to come to Stanford to enjoy the weather and solve world hunger using Machine Learning”!

Most students apply to for more than ten colleges now and if you sweat over this too much then I am not sure how you can get through the senior year. Spending excessive time on the supplemental essay will not only make you neurotic it will also start impacting your health and your grades. Therefore, your goal is to be efficient and minimize the work and optimize the whole process.

What is the difference between the Common App essay and the supplemental essay? 

As the name implies the Common app essay is common to all the colleges and provides a specific and unique picture of you as an individual. Your interests are not exactly revealed but they can be hinted. The supplemental essay is looking for how your interests and values are a good fit for their specific college.

While the keyword in the Common Application is “Common” it is “Specificity” for the supplements.

The key to college admissions is integrating all the pieces of your application package and provide a coherent and consistent story. The ideal application is the one where students’ credentials and interests match their EC and are validated by the teacher’s recommendation and the essay. It will be great if you can provide connectivity from your common app essay to the college-specific essay. Though in reality, this is only possible if the student has finalized where and when she wants to apply.

 The most common supplemental essay topics are:

1.       Why do you want to major in this area/Why this college?

2.       What are your community engagements?

3.       What is the extra-curricular activity that you most enjoy?

4.       What can you say about leadership?

5.       Other topics

Your goal in writing the supplemental essay is to sell the notion that you are as wonderful as the college and the two of you are made for each other. Think of this like trying to sell yourself to your soul mate.  The more “prestigious” the soul mate is the more work that you need to impress.

Now we will take one topic by one and provide a road map of how to write this. We will begin with the why this college essay for now.

Why do you want to major in this area/Why this college?

When the colleges ask the “why us” question, they are actually asking the why us plus the “why you” question. Make sure you address both. We will first start by listing the “what not to do” list:

·         I want to come to ABZ university because it has great weather

·         I want to come to ABZ because it is great for economics

·         I like ABZ because it has great forms

·         The gender ratio is balanced!

·         ABZ is Highly ranked by US News and World Report

·         Do not quote from the school’s website

Now we will list what needs to be done:

Distribution of contents: The supplemental essay should be 50% about yourself and 50% about the college. You can go back and forth.

Selecting your major: This is a key step in writing this essay. You should at least have a rough idea of what you want to study. Granted, many students may not have a clear idea, one should start with narrowing down between STEM and non-STEM fields. If you do not like STEM, then one could conclude that one likes the non-STEM fields. If you also do not like the non-STEM field either, then that is a completely different problem! Once you have narrowed this down, then see which subject that you like – for example, both Psychology and Sociology are liberal arts. Which one excites you more? If you like STEM, then you should ask yourself whether you like pure sciences or engineering and go from there.

Once you have chosen the major, then write down what motivated you towards this major and how you prepared yourself. State the major in the same way the school states that (if you want to study Electrical Engineering and the school offers “Electrical and Computer Engineering”, then state exactly what the school states.

Alignment with your grades and EC: Once you have narrowed the major down, look at your courses and see if you have taken courses in your desired major.  As an example, if you like the STEM field, then ideally you should have taken Calculus and Physics at your school. The higher your grades the better, and the more competitive the school the better your grades should be.

Alignment with ECs: After grades, see if you can match your ECs with the major. If you like CS and if you have taught coding to students to motivate them then there is alignment between your EC and major that is great. Keep in mind that when you motivate you are also demonstrating leadership abilities and that is a plus. Another example is if you like Political Science and if you are in Model UN plus you have taken some advanced-level course in PS that is a big plus.

What the college offers: Find out more about the specific program that you are applying to. Get as many details as possible. For example, if you want to major in Finance and become an investment manager and are applying to a prestigious school then you need to find out more about the finance courses they offer and specifically list and integrate that information in your essay. An example would be “A successful investment manager needs a solid grounding in managing derivates and I can get this by enrolling in your Derivates for investment professionals’ course”. When you are listing the course do not list basic courses such as “Accounting 101”. There is nothing unique about accounting 101, just about any community college offers that. Your goal is to find the unique course the college offers and that way you can demonstrate your interest in the college and what specifically they offer.

Look outside your major: Remember an education in liberal arts is never complete without some exposure to STEM and vice versa. If you are planning to study finance, then you should consider the social impact of $$ and how you can address the inequity in the world and you can only get exposure by taking courses in sociology courses as an example. Another example is someone planning on majoring in CS should identify courses on ethics. Again, the key thing here is how do you integrate all the moving pieces to come up with one coherent image of yourself.

Make connection with the professor: If you can connect with the professor who would be teaching a specific course that you are interested in and show genuine interest in the subject, she will be teaching that would be wonderful. It is not always possible to get an answer from the professor, but if you do figure out a way to include that in your essay. If not, at least mention the professor’s name in the essay.

Connect with colleges’ culture: The best way to get a feel about the culture is to talk to someone who went there. Another resource is to look at the college website and look at the list of clubs there and find out about the active clubs and see if there is a match between what you are passionate about and what the club stands for.

Impact: Finally, figure out what impact you are going to have at the college. Remember impact here simply means how your background can enhance the culture of the campus.

Structure: In the first hundred-word list what is unique about the college. Then go back forth between your background and the college. Then Integrate your skills, passions, and EC with what the college offers.

Good luck with the Supplemental essay! In the next blog, I will discuss how to write community service and leadership essays.

 

 

I have based this blog based upon the following material:

“On Writing the College Application Essay” by Harry Bauld. This book is must-read

https://www.youtube.com/c/Collegeessayguy - Great videos on essays!