Masuk Free Press

As the first college application deadlines slowly creep towards the senior class of 2025, many of us are in different stages of the application process. Whether you are polishing off your application or just getting started, there is no way of avoiding the ever so daunting supplement essays.

Throughout junior year and the beginning of senior year, the personal essay is stressed to us, and it is a huge relief once you have finished that 650-word essay that is supposed to define you as a person. But the relief is short-lived when you encounter those cheesy “why us?” questions. 

While these essays are intended to provide admissions committees with a deeper understanding of the applicant, they can feel pointless.

“It was hard enough coming up with an idea for the personal essay,” said senior Kayla Roy. “Not everybody has had life-changing experiences or multiple turning points you can talk about.”

What’s even worse is that most of these supplementals have ridiculous word counts. You have to answer either incredibly shallow or extremely deep questions in 250 words or less. Trying to sound sophisticated, educated, and adding a hint of personality in 250 words is nearly impossible. 

“You’re encouraged to write in an essay that makes you stand out, but it’s impossible to stand out in 250 words,” said senior Kaela Christiano. 

Themes or question prompts often repeat themselves across multiple different schools and there are only so many “tell us about a challenge you face” or “describe your passion” prompts I can handle. This redundancy can turn the essay-writing process into a tedious task, where you are constantly rehashing the same stories (in 250 words or less). Often the prompts overlap with the ideas of your essay, and now you are back to square one trying to come up with another idea of how to make yourself stand out.

“The prompts are either really deep or thought-provoking with a limited amount of words, or very shallow questions where it’s hard to answer because there is not much to say,” said Roy.

The worst prompt of them all, “Why us?,” shifts the focus away from the character of the applicant to information that the college admissions committee should already know about their school. Being forced to appear as if you perfectly align with the school’s values or interests can feel disingenuous. While this prompt intends to gauge interest and commitment, it often prompts a superficial response in return. Most students resort to the school’s website to find appealing features rather than reflecting on how they would contribute to the school’s community. 

“For me the ‘why us’ prompts are always the hardest to answer,” said senior Isabela Lucca. “It is really hard to be unique and show your personality with those.”

And simply, the sheer number of supplement essays one has to write can lead to complete burnout and lack of motivation. One of the most frustrating aspects of these essays is the paradox of their “optional” designation. While no one in their right mind would agree to write five plus extra essays, there is nothing optional about supplement essays. Supplements are seen as something to enhance your application and can give off the wrong impression of you if you decide not to complete it. The underlying message is clear; to stand out in a sea of applicants, you must provide as much information as possible.

“It is always better to do it and show you are dedicated to the school,” said Christiano. “If you don’t it might give off the wrong impression and they might see you as lazy.”

With the challenges and pressure of the first semester of senior year already burning out the class of 2025, the last thing we need is extra stress on us. 

“I already have a lot of stress with deadlines coming up fast and school work piling up, the last thing I want to do is sit down and write essays,” said Lucca.

With the addition of having to write five-plus essays on top of school work and the rest of the college application process, it is easy to produce basic essays that do not reflect you as a person just to get the daunting task over with. And with the constraining word counts and less-than-ideal prompts, it is easy to fall into the hole of conformity and not individuality. There is no doubt that supplement essays suck, and are by far the hardest, most tedious part of the college application process.