About Those Supplemental Essays
If the purpose of the personal statement is to serve as a substitute for an admissions interview, why do many colleges ask for "optional" supplemental essays?
(Side bar: let's stipulate that "optional" means "mandatory.")
The main reasons why colleges feature supplemental essays include promoting diversity, showing a different, perhaps fun side of the applicant, and proving to the admissions committee that the applicant has thought carefully about why that college is a good fit for him.
Let's focus on number three.
Interest
There's a good chance that you've heard the term "demonstrated interest," but because my email list has 16,992 lucky guys and gals at various stages of the college "journey," I'll describe it in case you're not familiar with this phrase.
Background. Colleges don't want to admit a bunch of students who decide not to matriculate. The ratio of admitted students versus matriculated ones is known as the Yield.
The higher the Yield, the better things are for the college. Yield indirectly affects a college's rank, and directly impacts it financially, when it goes to the capital markets for borrow to build the next dorm, aquatic center, football stadium, whatever.
One of the ways to protect Yield is to "test" students' interest. This isn't done by happenstance, it's done through sophisticated algorithms used by highly compensated enrollment management consultants.
Demonstration of Interest. You can demonstrate interest by visiting and touring, opening emails from colleges, clicking on the links in the emails and other trackable behaviors.
Another way to show that you're interested: by responding CORRECTLY to a supplemental essay prompt that asks, "Why are you applying here?"
What admissions officers are really asking is "Are you serious about our college, or using us as a Safety School?"
Here's how NOT to write to this prompt:
Generically.
Rule of thumb: if your essay is so high level that it could apply to dozens of other colleges, if not hundreds, it won't work.
Instead, the way to address this prompt is by being SPECIFIC.
The more specific reasons you give for applying to THAT school, the more persuasive you'll be.
But if you phone it in, you'll probably be disappointed when acceptances and rejections come out.
Offer
If you want expert help for your 2025 kid that will help her essays -- and her -- stand out against the competition, time is running out.
We're shutting down the College Essay Lab at the end of the month. We have room for three 2025 kids, max.
Save $500
Use coupon code ESSAY-2025 for the 1-pay version, ESSAY-2025EZ for the 3 pay.
Here's where to go:
Speak soon,
- Andy Lockwood
P.S. "Why should we pick you out of a crowd?"
Can your son or daughter answer that?
Probably not, because nobody in high school taught them how to write persuasively.
The college essay is your last, best shot at convincing the admissions committee why you're The One to be invited beyond the velvet ropes.
Now is a great time to learn the valuable skill of persuasion.