Supplement Essays: What They Are and How to Write Them

What is a supplement essay?

A supplement essay is an extra essay a college asks you to write on top of your Common App personal essay. Your personal essay is the same for every college on your list, but each college sets its own supplement questions and its own word limits. Some answers are 150 words or fewer.

Common types of supplement essays

These are the types of supplement question you will see most often, and what each one needs.

Why this college

This question asks why you want to go to that college in particular. A strong answer includes:

• A named professor, the course they teach or the research they do, and how it connects to your own interests
• A specific course or programme you couldn't take everywhere, and why it matters for your goals
• A named club, society or research opportunity, and what you would do there, not just that you would join
• A reason that wouldn't apply just as well to similar colleges

What doesn't count: rankings, reputation, location on its own, descriptions taken from the college's website, and phrases like “a diverse campus community” or “world-class facilities”.

Why this major

This question asks why you want to study your chosen subject.

• Start from a specific moment or question that made you interested, not a general love of the subject
• Explain how you got from that moment to the subject, step by step, so the reader can follow your logic
• If you name a specific area within the subject, say why that area. “To help the world”, “there are good jobs” and “my parents work in it” don't count as reasons

How will you contribute to your community, or how has it shaped you?

Don't just narrate a story about volunteering or being involved in a local community. Ideally, write about one of two kinds of community:

• A community that exists as an institution, such as a religious group or a sports team, where you have a meaningful role. Focus on one event that shows your strengths within that community. For example, you might be the youngest volunteer translator at your church, interpreting the Sunday service for elderly members who speak Tamil, and write about the week the regular translator was ill and you had to translate a funeral.
• A community that didn't exist until you created it. If you're into something niche that others don't appreciate, and you've brought people together around it, that's a community too, especially if it contributes to the wellbeing of the people around you. For example, you might restore old radios, a hobby nobody at your school cared about, and have started a Saturday stall at your local market where you and a few friends repair neighbours' radios and fans for free.

The “shaped by” version should follow similar stories, but focus more on how the community has affected you. The key is to show the reader rather than tell them. If you want to say you became more empathetic, don't just write “I became more empathetic”. Recount an incident as a story, so the reader can see it for themselves.

If you write about community service, avoid framing it as “I got to interact with people from different walks of life”. It can read as condescending.

Tell us more about one of your activities

This question asks you to expand on one activity from your application. Don't summarise it, because your activities list already does that. Instead:

• Pick one specific moment from the activity and write about that
• Take the lesson two levels deep. Don't stop at “I learned the difference between theory and practice”. Name the specific difference, then say how it will change the way you study at university
• Show the skill rather than naming it. Instead of “this developed my leadership”, describe the moment so the reader can see it

Common questions