Beyond "Why us?" Crafting essay prompts that matter
College admission offices do not have an easy charge. The pressure to recruit, admit, and yield a diverse and compelling class is challenging and the current landscape, including the Supreme Court’s recent rollback of race-conscious admission, does not make it any easier. As colleges contend with grade-inflation, test-optional policies, and changing application numbers, admission officers are having to consistently make more inferences with evolving or limited information.
Amidst the chaos, centering an applicant’s non-academic traits, character, and social-emotional skills in the application process can help admission officers better contextualize a student’s potential contributions to a thriving campus environment. However, this rests upon two necessary conditions. First, admission offices need to create space within the application for students to share their values, skills, and character. Subsequently, admission offices must adequately direct their applicants to share the information they hope to read. Without clear instructions, reviewing (and writing) applications can feel like detective work. (If this sounds like your office’s reading experience, consider checking out our ‘Definitions’ resources as well.) Not only does this ambiguity invite admission readers’ bias to shape inferences on students’ non-academic traits, it creates an inequitable landscape, favoring applicants with counseling resources to ‘read between the lines’ of application prompts.
Supplemental application essays are a great way to communicate your schools’ values to potential applicants while simultaneously and directly ensuring applicants showcase their social-emotional skills and character traits. Some supplemental questions may feel perfunctory, such as the prescribed “Why Our University?” However, if this is the extent of your supplemental question, you may be missing a valuable opportunity to catch students’ eyes. Consider reframing this question to showcase your school’s culture and engage students in a more critical assessment of their potential fit. The University of Chicago asks students to consider which unwritten rules ought to be broken, asking “what is an unwritten rule that you wish didn’t exist?” In doing so, the University lays space for students to display their personal values system and how their perspectives may fit (or resist) the social or cultural norms around them.
“...centering an applicant’s non-academic traits, character, and social-emotional skills in the application process can help admission officers better contextualize a student’s potential contributions to a thriving campus environment. ”
Making Caring Common has compiled examples of character-focused essay questions from a range of colleges. It’s important to note that this resource was compiled in 2020 and may not reflect current prompts. However, it still offers valuable examples of schools showcasing their values and inviting students to do the same. If you find that your applicants struggle to effectively articulate their fit, it’s possible that your prompt is not offering clear instructions on how to approach their response. Pitzer College takes a direct approach, reminding applicants that their college’s five core values include “social responsibility, intercultural understanding, interdisciplinary learning, student engagement and environmental sustainability…Reflecting on your involvement throughout high school or within the community, how have you engaged with one of Pitzer’s core values?” As this question aptly demonstrates, there is no reason for an opaque supplemental essay question if there’s specific content you wish to elicit. The more direct you frame your prompt, the more likely students can offer you the information you wish to learn.
“Supplemental essays are one of many factors that get taken into account when reviewing applications and can play a unique role in highlighting the characteristics and qualities that you value in your campus community. ”
Finally, it’s important to remember that just because you’ve made an applicant’s shortlist, they are still assessing the institution throughout the application process and gauging the fit of their future home. Every year, a sizable share of applications never make their way to submission because they are too arduous, vague, or alienating to the applicant. While you want your supplements to reflect your institution, opportunities for levity, brevity, or quirkiness may stimulate a newfound interest from your applicants. Occidental College asks students to share, in 20 words or less, “What is the first song you would play for your Oxy roommate on move-in day?” The University of Vermont informs applicants that “Ben & Jerry’s, established in Burlington, VT, is synonymous with both ice cream and social change. If you worked alongside Ben & Jerry, what charitable flavor would develop and why?” Wake Forest University goes out on a limb and asks students to “Give us your Top Ten list. (The choice of theme is yours.).” If you don’t look forward to reading your applicants’ responses, it’s likely that they’re not looking forward to writing them.
Supplemental essays are one of many factors that get taken into account when reviewing applications and can play a unique role in highlighting the characteristics and qualities that you value in your campus community. Having a prompt that showcases your school’s identity and clearly articulates the information you hope to gather about who a student is, what skills they bring, and what they value ensures that students are equipped to demonstrate their compatibility. Just because a student has added your school to their list doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good fit, nor does it mean you’re top on their list. Your supplemental essays can help students feel excited, and stay excited, about joining your institution. In doing so, you can make sure that your team is gathering the necessary information to admit students who are likely to thrive.
Posted by Julius DiLorenzo, College Admission Program Coordinator
