<p>Oh, I don’t know. It reminds me of the Yale supplement the year I was applying. They had questions like “Describe your perfect afternoon in 25 words or less.” I said something about biking through the crunchy leaves on the city green. I’m really not sure what sort of insight they are going to gain from asking those questions. Everyone is unique and have different ideas of what is fun or makes them proud. For example, maybe you invented something awesome and could make that your Common App essay. Or maybe you haven’t done anything that exciting in your life, but you really like baking cookies because your grandmother gave you a secret recipe. Students are going to feel pushed to do something awesome or amazing when they may not have the means or the desire to do so. I think this supplement actually speaks to how arbitrary the process is, and, if anything, it will only help weed out people who are applying because “it can’t hurt.”</p>
<p>I think that the first two questions are fine (good questions, in fact). Why School X should be the focus of the application because, ultimately, the students who should be admitted to the school are the ones with the compelling reasons to go. I also think “Why are you going to college” is an excellent question, but answers like “It will help me get a job” should be accepted. For many people, it’s the truth.</p>
<p>My high school college counselor used to work as an admissions officer/reader at two different Ivies. She said they spend a maximum of 15 minutes on all the documents in the file (recs, essays, etc.) because they don’t have time to read through everything thoroughly. And that was BEFORE I applied in 2008.</p>
<p>I wonder what else is left for them to know? After the Common App, its much exhausting to look at the 4-page supplement when you have other schools to apply in the short time interval of the Admission cycle after the Dec SAT.</p>
<p>Hey guys! So I’m looking over the supplement (applying this year!) and I am a bit confused. For the part which says complete one of the following prompts, do you have to restate the prompt (i.e. If I could do something with no risk of failing, I would go parasailing or i would go parasailing) or can you just write your answer!</p>
<p>I love the questions, I feel like it gives you alot of room to be unique and express yourself. What I don’t like, though is these word/character limits. They really hinder what I really want to say, and I feel like I’m not fully expressing myself. :/</p>
<p>At first, I thought that this was going to take a REALLY long time to fill out, but I did 6 of the questions in one day, and edited them the next day, so I’m pretty excited that it’s coming along so fast :).</p>
<p>I think some of the questions are a little out there (if you’ve lived in the same place all of your life like I have, it’s hard to sound interesting on that one question). And the one with the no risk of failing/felt like you belonged is a little silly simply because of the character count: you can only write about a sentence! xD</p>
<p>It’s asking you to answer life-defining questions in interesting, creative ways and in under (in some cases) 125 characters. For people who already know the answers to those questions and are bizarrely good at answering them in a single sentence, maybe this isn’t terrible, but for everyone else this would qualify as “a lot of work”.
I’ve been working on the supplement on and off for the past month and still haven’t answered half of the questions.</p>
<p>for the architect of your own education essay Im talking about how I can focus on the subjects I like and not have to take any I hate…
does that seem too close minded? I dont know if they wanna hear something like “I can take any class and experience everything” or " I can take the classes I want to take without having to waste my time in other areas" HELP?</p>
<p>@thefunnything your post made me wonder, if they only spend 15 mins max on each applicant, i feel like it would just be more of a skimming than reading isn’t it? and i always thought there should be more than one admissions people reading each applicant.</p>
<p>Wow, the Brown supplement is definitely the longest of everywhere I’m applying. Though the questions are quite good, I am a little frustrated that I have to do it now (my counselor wants to see it before we go on winter break), even though I probably won’t apply if I get into Princeton SCEA.</p>
Hope you guys are doing well with your supps!</p>