Supplemental Essays: What They Are and How to Write Them Successfully

For many students, the college essay process begins and ends with the personal statement. But for applicants to selective colleges and universities, that's often just the beginning. Supplemental essays provide admissions officers with a deeper look into who you are, what matters to you, and how you might contribute to their campus community.

Whether you're responding to a classic "Why This School?" prompt, reflecting on your identity and experiences, or tackling a more creative question, supplemental essays offer an opportunity to distinguish yourself from thousands of other applicants. While they may be shorter than the personal statement, these essays often carry significant weight in the admissions process.

In this guide, we'll break down what supplemental essays are, why they matter, and how to approach them strategically—from organizing prompts and conducting research to drafting, revising, and submitting your strongest work.

What Are Supplemental Essays?

As though crafting a 650-word personal statement isn’t hard enough, some schools will ask you to write school-specific supplemental essays. These essays often center around a question or questions that relate to one or more of the following topics and are anywhere from 25 to 500 words in length:

• Why do you want to attend this particular college or university?
• Why this major or academic program?
• Your background, identity, or diversity.
• Leadership experiences and impact.
• Unconventional prompts that are off the cuff and quirky (think a playlist of your favorite songs)

These essays allow colleges to evaluate your fit for their institution beyond grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities.

Why Are Supplemental Essays Important?

While the personal statement matters, if a school asks to know more about you through a required and/or optional supplemental essay, that means they place value on your writing and want to understand how you will fit into their university.

Even when an essay is labeled “optional”, students should strongly consider submitting it–you should always share more about yourself when given the opportunity to do so. The sheer act of writing one (or more) of these essays well shows you are passionate about going to that school.

All applicants will have a personal statement, a transcript to share, and test scores; however, these supplemental essays are what can help you stand out to an admissions reader.

Strong supplemental essays can:

• Show admission officers who you are and help them envision you as part of their community. Admissions officers want to know how you are going to contribute and fit in at their school.
• Demonstrate interest in the specific school.
• Highlight qualities not covered elsewhere in your application.

And every once in a while, you might enjoy writing one or discover a piece about yourself through the writing process! 

How to Organize Supplemental Essays

Begin by identifying what prompts you have to complete and when they are due. College Kickstart and Maia Learning (two platforms we use with our students starting junior year) are immensely helpful in organizing supplemental essays, but if you do not have access to them, you can still make your own table that lists the following information:

• School Name
• Number of supplemental essays
• Specific prompt topic
• Deadline for essays
• Maximum word count

Organizing prompts helps identify common themes and overlapping essay topics, allowing you to reuse ideas strategically while tailoring responses to each institution, which can make your work more efficient. 

How to Research Colleges Before Writing Supplemental Essays

Now that you can visualize how much or how little you have to write, you need to be strategic in how you get started. If an essay is asking about a value of the institution, for example, you need to research that value and understand how it permeates the campus. This is part of the “doing your homework” phase and is essential to crafting a response that shows you understand the school and why you believe in a specific program or aspect of the campus.

Topics to research:

• Academic programs of interest
• Faculty members
• Student organizations
• Campus traditions
• Service opportunities
• Study abroad or signature programs
• Institutional values

Maybe you’re writing about your volunteer work in your local community and can tie in the volunteer work you see that college doing, and mention how you want to get involved in a specific club. One sentence that specifically references existing groups on a campus or a class you really want to take can go a long way in showing an admissions officer that you truly care about their school and will be a valuable member of the community if admitted. 

How to Write a Strong Supplemental Essay

The process does not need to feel perfect; in fact, the start of writing often feels messy. I often encourage students to take the weight off of a “perfect” first sentence that hooks a reader, and instead, start writing at any point of what they want to share. We can tackle that first sentence later on. And if that feels too heavy, try using bullet points to get your ideas down or even voice-to-text while you sit with a friend and share your ideas.

Worried about how to get it down to X number of words? Forget about it! We can always cut things out, but if we don’t have anything to cut from, then we can never get started on the revision process. 

Key takeaways for the writing process:

• Start ANYWHERE in your story
• Use bullet points to brainstorm, then transform those into sentences with transitions
• Focus on substance before style
• Talk it through with a friend
• Forget about word count initially
• Be open to revisions (plant that seed in your brain now)

Strong supplemental essays feel personal, specific, and connected to the college's mission or community.

How to Revise a Supplemental Essay

This could feel good, painful, or somewhere in between; however, it must be done–you must read what you wrote. It is going to be messy, most likely, and very rough. This is the entire reason that writing requires a drafting process full of revisions.

After completing a draft, ask yourself:

Did I answer the prompt? 

• Yes: great, what is my answer?
• No, so what did I answer? 
  • Is this related? Can I use this? Or do I need to start over?

Does this essay reveal something about me? 

• What is the impression of me?
• Is this what I meant to convey?

Did I connect my response to this school? 

• Note that this is important for prompts that have overlap/are the same at multiple schools. You will need to revise your writing to fit each school, but you will not be rewriting the entire supplemental essay. 
• We want the reader to think, “Yes, I can see you here.”
• Are my ideas connected? What gaps exist, and where do I need to add transitions?

Final Proofreading Tips for Supplemental Essays

After you make revisions based upon your answers to the above questions, read your essay out loud.

• Check grammar and spelling.
• Does it sound like you?
• What words do you stumble over? For the latter, these are spots you will want to consider revising as the wording and/or syntax is likely clumsy (nothing to feel bad about, but it is very important to identify).
• Even better–read it out loud to a friend who can let you know what doesn’t make sense to them.

And yes, this means you likely have another round or two of revisions because you will now check your word count. 

A few notes on word count:

• Yes, you want to be close to the word count; however, do not add meaningless words to be exactly at the word count. That will take away from your writing and the message you are trying to share. Plus, it’s obvious to the reader and not something they will view favorably.
• If you are over the word count and freaking out, get strategic:
  • Look for a spot where a contraction will suffice (example: don’t instead of do not)
  • Where are you repeating yourself? Delete it. The reader doesn’t need a summary or re-cap. 
  • Any words that are typically hyphenated and you forgot to do so?
  • Eliminate transition words like “therefore” and “however” 
  • Replace a verbose phrase with a concise one. Example: replace “was able to” with “did”

Submit Your Supplemental Essay

Once you’re done, make sure you save your writing somewhere besides in the Common Application. You can then edit it for other schools, should you have identified it as having an overlapping prompt! Just make sure you truly edit and revise so that the supplemental essay is tailored to each institution, as you need to be genuine in this process.

Remember that at the end of the day, real people are reading your story–they want to know you and know why you want to be at their school. Be you, be real, and then let go after you click “submit.” 

Frequently Asked Questions About Supplemental Essays

Are optional supplemental essays really optional?

In most cases, not if you want to improve your chances of acceptance. Completing optional essays demonstrates interest and gives admissions officers additional information about your candidacy.

Can I reuse supplemental essays for multiple schools?

Yes, when prompts overlap. However, every essay should be customized to reflect the specific school and its opportunities.

How long should supplemental essays be?

Most supplemental essays range from 25 to 500 words, depending on the institution and prompt.

What makes a supplemental essay stand out?

Strong essays are authentic, specific, reflective, and clearly connected to the college's community and values.

Key Takeaways

• Supplemental essays help colleges understand your fit for their community.
• Organization and early planning make the process more manageable.
• Research is essential for writing relevant responses.
• Specific examples demonstrate genuine interest.
• Multiple rounds of revision improve clarity and impact.
• Optional essays are rarely optional if you want to submit the strongest application possible.

Ultimately, supplemental essays are an opportunity to tell colleges more about who you are and why you belong there. Be authentic, be specific, and trust the process. Once you've submitted your application, take a deep breath—you've done the work.

About the Author

Meghan Aronson
Assistant Director of College Counseling

Prior to coming to Holderness, Meghan spent eight years at New Hampton School as an AP and IB English teacher, advisor, dorm parent, yoga instructor, and director of their writing center. Prior to that, Meghan spent seven years in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis University, working in academic affairs.

Meghan loves being able to combine her background in teaching, boarding school, and higher education in her role as the Assistant Director of College Counseling and as a member of the English Faculty at Holderness. Meghan also leads the Holderness yoga team, using her 200-hour training and speciality certifications to enhance the student experience on campus.

Meghan lives off campus in Holderness with her husband, Seth (class of '04), and their two children, Ellie and Noah, and their dog, Fenny.