@CCMThreeTimes yes! Exactly! None of those bland “Tell me about yourself” prompts or “What question do you want to answer?”. I full enjoyed writing essays for UChicago and although I got deferred, am still hoping for a acceptance in the upcoming months.
I thought Wake Forest looked fantastic, but they had a ridiculous number of supplements. I already had 30+ others, so it wasn’t worth it.
I also didn’t do Elon because it was the only school on my list that wasn’t on the Common App, and I really didn’t feel like filling out all of that information over again
A couple of schools fell by the wayside because in the moment, the extra supplements were just one more thing. That said, I think that was a good thing, discouraging one half-hearted application and one unrealistic one. I’m honestly surprised by the schools that don’t require a supplement at all, especially the selective ones. You’d think they’d want kids to at least demonstrate enough interest to squeeze out a couple hundred specific words.
Yes. Didn’t apply to Smith because of the ‘remember the last time you laughed’ question…
One of my friends who got accepted to UChicago told me that the essays are quite infamous there. She said that the essay is everything there, and that creativity earns acceptances.
I find that schools (and employers) that have particularly annoying application processes have a diminished respect for the applicant’s time (“you should be honored to have the privilege of spending your time applying here”) and that that tends to translate into how you are treated as a student (or employee).
I’ve done this plenty and I can’t say I regret ever having done so. I expect places to which I apply to be respectful of the time of their applicants.
Lol by the end (of 16 apps) I ended up crossing off a few schools regardless of essay length. Georgetown was first off the list
Ah dropped Penn for that very reason – application fatigue. It was really high on my list and maybe number one after getting rejected from my dream school ea. It’s also worth noting that it was my new number one because of one of its dual-degree programs which, after A LOT of thought, I decided not to apply for. So without the dualdegree to motivate me, I couldn’t bring myself to write it.
Now that I don’t have application fatigue, I regret not applying to it nonetheless. Right now I feel application fatigue was my was just an excuse, but it seemed very real back during app season.
I didn’t apply to Barnard even though it’s one of my dream schools, partially because of the essays. I doubt I’d have gotten accepted anyways, and the essays were just too much work for me. I’d already written dozens of essays by the time I looked at Barnard’s application and I just had to say “enough.” Application fatigue at its finest. Hey, if I decide I need to go there, I can always apply as a transfer.
I have no regrets, since that time and energy was put toward more important things.
Edited for profanity. - FC
I dropped USC because of their “enter your whole transcript course by course” nonsense…
But for my top choice schools, including my range of mid, safety and high, it changed nothing.
Yes, supplements can be annoying. I added three schools because they didn’t require supps, but in the end I’m the more nervous about those schools when compared to, say, Stanford (10 short/long supplements.) It seems like the no-supp schools have so little to judge by.
I’d rather write more supplements, really. It seems then they’d be making the decision based on me and my actions.
It is. Totally stupid.
UChicago’s zany/vague/bonkers prompts, on the other hand, work as a great filter–those who are good fits for Chicago tend to love them; those who don’t love them may not be such good fits.
Weird. USC requires official transcripts as well, unlike some other schools where applicants enter their courses and grades into the application and only submit official transcripts at matriculation.
Tufts.
Removed Trinity College due to its essay.
I mostly applied to schools that didn’t have supplemental essays. I’ve been in college for two years and I probably still couldn’t write a compelling essay about why I want to go to my school.
I actually tried to avoid colleges with no supplementals although I did apply to a few that I thought would still be a good match. Colleges without supplementals made me question why they were trying so hard to increase their application numbers (was it because they wanted to be ranked higher? or is it because they’re having financial troubles?)
I didn’t apply to Wake Forest because of the hashtag question. I thought about it for months and couldn’t come up with anything compelling. It’s a great school, but it would have been a reach and probably not a great fit for me anyway.
I also didn’t apply to Indiana University because the application was literally giving me a headache - the screen would flash every time I tried to enter my basic information.
I really disliked questions along the lines of Why X Univiersity. Either I couldn’t think of anything to write (or a way to write it cohesively) or I had too much to write and ran out of room.
@OHMomof2 I actually really liked the Tufts supplements for some reason
Again with UChicago: their essays made me interested in applying, but at the tail end of the application process I was so tired of apps that I didn’t feel like writing a completely original essay (aka, one that I could make from modified scraps of other essays). So I didn’t apply.
Dropped Georgetown from my list of EA schools early in the process. Four essays, one of them with a suggested length of 1 page. Topics that could have been taken from a Buzzfeed article entitled “10 college essays everyone hates writing.” Was a little leery of going to a school where plotting to find a job in DC would make me one of about a thousand.
I also wasn’t that interested in the school, and ended up getting into several EA schools I’d choose over Georgetown, so I’m exactly the type of applicant these essays are designed to filter out.
I can see why some people wouldn’t like the UChicago essays - although personally I loved them - but am a little surprised the Tufts prompts would be so poorly regarded. I ultimately didn’t apply, but was tempted to do so even knowing I wouldn’t attend, simply because I was so fond of those essays.
As a general rule, I liked the short essays. Hard to stray off topic when you’re only given 200-300 words. With no word count my Chicago essays, while seeminly adequate, were rambling.