I think it would be helpful to gather a list of schools that have “hidden” supplemental essays, I.e., they appear to have no supplemental essays when you apply with the Common App, but then once you apply, there are either optional or required essay prompts in the student’s application portal.
I’ve heard that Colgate does this. Others? Spoiler alert: I think this is a slimy practice designed to increase application numbers.
Union College (NY) has extra optional essays on their portal.
TCNJ (The College of New Jersey) has four short answer questions that are “optional” on their portal after the application’s submitted.
Every single school my D applied to ended up having extra supplements - honors college, merit awards, music scholarships, etc….. Some “invitations” came as late as January!
Lehigh was the late February surprise (for the music scholarship). If Lehigh was a top contender, she would have written the supplement and sent in a recording.
We had a friend who had just been through the process who “warned” us to expect extra supplements so we weren’t blindsided by most.
D applied to 8 schools and wrote 19 unique essays. That’s why I’m always worried when I hear about kids applying to 20+ schools.
Oh, almost forgot that Rutgers-Newark moved their honors college essay to a separate application. It used to be displayed on the Common App, but now you get a link to apply to the honors college after your admission. We originally thought they had gotten rid of the essay altogether or maybe they’d use the same Rutgers-New Brunswick essay. Apparently not! So totally separate process for it.
My take is a bit different. It’s a way for a college that cares about yield to gauge applicant interest.
They’re often quirky questions that no other college has asked. If you love a school you’ll take the time to write and rewrite the essay until it’s as good as your Common App essays. If you are less enthused you won’t put a lot of time into it and it will show. And some will have so little interest they won’t bother even writing the essay if optional.
The only issue I have with this is that the questions themselves aren’t published on their website, so you don’t really know what you have to answer until you’ve submitted your application. Then, you have a limited amount of time to actually answer them.
Then why don’t they just include the supplemental essays up front? Why hide them until the person has already applied? I don’t have an issue with supplemental essays; I have an issue with them being hidden from applicants until after they submit.
I remember this from my older child 3 years ago, but I will say that Colgate said there were “optional.”
But I think any college counselor will tell you that “optional” doesn’t mean optional if you really want to get into the school.
Yes, agreed.
A few years ago, Grinnell sent a “why us” essay after submitting the Common App.
Many of the schools that allowed music supplements had essays embedded in the supplement that were not clear until you started the application. The one I remember most clearly is Northeastern.
Good to know; that one’s on my D26’s RD list, so I’ll warn her that may happen.
Yes, that happened when my daughter went to submit her dance supplement to Dartmouth; they required her to write two short essays.
I’m wondering if those who don’t bother completing the applications after the initial submission are still counted in their stats as “applied”.
Isn’t that a different situation? Most of the music / art / performing arts supplements require additional work and essays, but students submitting them can expect this… it’s a given. Same thing with honors programs and big scholarships.
I thought the thread was about additional “why us” or other general essays showing up on the portal after applying through the common app?
I agree that art students expect to submit supplements. Generally this includes a portfolio and SOMETIMES includes an artist statement. As someone currently going through the process, I would expect supplemental requirements to be clearly explained up front. Two of the schools my artist is applying to had “hidden” supplemental writing requirements that are not listed anywhere or described until after you submit what you assume is a complete application:
1.) UT Austin requires an artist statement that is not visible until after you submit the application. Interestingly, as part of the common app they also have a general requirement for everyone to write a supplemental about why they chose their major. So having a non-specific artist statement requirement (i.e. there is not a separate prompt…it just says “artist statement”) was unexpected since she already wrote about why she wanted to study art.
2.) NEU has an artist statement that pops up in the portfolio site after you submit your application. In addition, there are multiple free-entry questions about your coursework and art experience. There is not a very specific or clear prompt so it is somewhat confusing as to whether they want you to write an essay or list/describe things in resume format. But the interface doesn’t allow you to upload a file for these short answers nor see any of the formatting very well, so it’s awkward. They also do not use SlideRoom (the standard for most schools) and their portfolio website does not allow you to save your work, which makes the process much more cumbersome. Overall the NEU application for the College of Arts Media and Design is a pain.
Yes, my D26 is also submitting supplements (in her case, music composition) to all the schools that allow them, and most of them have had unexpected short essays in addition to variations in portfolio requirements. (Some want several pieces, others want one. Some want recordings, others don’t. Some use slideroom, some have their own upload system, some expect her to put everything online somewhere and give them URLs.) It’s a pain, but she expected this with arts supplements.
For my D’s supplements almost all the schools spell them out very clearly before you apply. Some require direct observation, some don’t. Some suggest process work, others discourage it, etc. All this is spelled out in advance for every school she applied to except the two I mentioned. There is no reason for the schools not to list their specific supplemental requirements in advance of applying - they should all do it.