Supplemental Essay Guides from College Essay Guy

Are you looking for some extra guidance on your supplemental essays? Look no further! In this blog post, we'll explore College Essay Guy's incredible (and free) Supplemental Essay Guides!

Whether you're applying to a West Coast liberal arts school, an East Coast STEM college, or any college in between, you'll love these supplemental essay guides. Our partners at College Essay Guy have created school-specific crash courses which include that school's prompts, tips for writing your best response, and detailed examples with analysis of each prompt.

Here's what you'll find in this blog post:

• What is a supplemental essay? 🤔
• Why are supplemental essays important?💡
• How do I write my supplemental essays? ✏️
• Looking for more college essay help? 📝

 
Check out the guides to 70+ popular colleges including Duke, Florida A&M, Howard, MIT, Penn State, Spelman College, and many more. Here is the link to access the free guides. You can also view them anytime in Scoir within the Help Center!

What is a supplemental essay? 🤔

As College Essay Guy explains, supplemental essays are "additional pieces of writing required by many highly-selective universities." These essays are different from your personal statement and focus on a prompt that is specific to that college.

For example, a college may ask how you would engage in their community if admitted or why you want to study at their college specifically.

Or they might ask you to share something that wouldn't be gleaned from the rest of your application: like sharing an unusual talent, a time you felt empowered or on top of the world, or what piece of technology you'd want to show a historical figure.

Why are supplemental essays important?💡

With college applications, making a personal connection is key. These supplemental essays help add personality and unique context to your application that can further the connection between you and a reader! 

Your response to prompts like those above can also allow colleges to see how you and the school fit together (and whether you've actually done your research to find out how and why you fit together), and also get a clearer sense of who you are and what you value.

Many colleges will encourage you to have fun with your supplemental essays and to use them as an opportunity to take a risk, be creative, or get a little vulnerable.

How do I write my supplemental essays? ✏️

CEG has you covered! Take a look at their Supplemental Essay Guides for a breakdown of 70+ colleges' prompts, each with examples from past students, tips and analysis for your own essays, and more!

Looking for more college essay help? 📝

Are you looking for that unique twist to make your college essay stand out? It might actually be in your niche laptop stickers or celeb fandom! 

In our podcast episode, "How The 'Little Things' Make Your College Essay Stand Out," we discuss how the little things in your life can be essay inspiration, and small tweaks to make your essay really stand out.

Our guest, Tom Campbell, is a Community Manager with the College Essay Guy Team. With years of admissions experience at Pomona College and College of the Holy Cross, Tom brings valuable experience and shares insider insights that could make a huge difference in your college essay!

Here is a preview of a few of the College Essay Guy resources we talk about in the episode:

Brainstorming Exercises

• The Values Exercise in the episode (at 12:06)
• Essence Objects Exercises in the episode (at 13:51)

• 27 Outstanding College Essay Examples
  • Includes the Laptop Sticker and iTaylor examples from the episode (at 15:17 and 20:58) 

How to Structure Your Essay

• YouTube: How to Structure & Outline Your College Essay
  
  • Overview of Narrative and Montage paths from the episode (at 23:20)

Social Resources

• Join the College Essay Guy Students-Only Discord
• Join the College Essay Guy Parent Community

For more advice on all things high school, college applications, and more, follow us on Instagram (@scoirinc)! See you next time for more college application advice! ☺️

The links included on this page are sponsored, and Scoir will receive a small commission if you choose to purchase.

This article was originally published on May 30, 2023. It was updated on June 25, 2024 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.