Colleges with best/worst applications

<p>Dartmouth was pretty smooth; I concur with JTKay
The only extra thing was basically the 5 words that describe you.</p>

<p>I wasn't a fan of Brown just because of the strict 1500 char limit on the first esssay.. that was tough
I liked Duke, Dartmouth, JHU because the supplements were simple
and I liked Upenn other than the dreaded WHY PENN</p>

<p>I agree with the OP and everybody about Columbia. The forms and character limits are so rigid. They dont' even ask you how long you've participated in various activies and such. I dont feel like they know who I am as well as my other colleges might.</p>

<p>It makes sense that the Uncommon Application turns off some people because UChicago's applicant pool is very self-selected. We have the Uncommon App partially to thank for UChi's high acceptance rate AND the high quality of the applicants. I liked the prompts so the first college essay I wrote was an Uncommon one, and then I tried to adapt that to my Commonapp schools.</p>

<p>Stanford's supplement is pretty neat with all the short answers.</p>

<p>Chicago was the best for me.</p>

<p>Stanford was the worst for me. I loved the short answers, but the three full-length essays they wanted was a bit much in my book. Plus, I don't like the roommate essay.</p>

<p>I thought Kenyon had a fantastic app. They had four options for you supplemental essay, and I thought that all were fantastic. They ranged from asking what you would carve if given a block of stone, to what discovery most excites you. I love questions like that because you can really let yourself shine through. Some college are so clearly asking for you to BS your way through.</p>

<p>Worst: Probably Bucknell. I always find optional essays to be irritating, and both of their questions were absurdly boring and pretty much identical.</p>

<p>Tufts was annoying because you had to rewrite a lot of info already stated on the Common App and the extra essays/short answers did intially cause me anguish, but in the end they were fun to do. I feel like I got to show the school more facets than my creativity and thought processes, which I assume is the point.</p>

<p>Sheed, I massively disagree. Chicago wants to see other parts of you besides the part you'd normally put on a college application -- they want to see the personality behind the application. That's what's important to them, and what makes their app so kickawesome.</p>

<p>BUCKNELL IS BY FAR THE WORST SUPPLEMENT OF ALL!
One essay is on why you wanna do your major which is whatever. Then there are THREE essays, each on something they should know about you. It’s really broad and they want three unique things, and I am having so much trouble coming up with them! I feel like they’ve seen everything already. Then there’s an optional essay about something you love to learn about whether it is inside or outside of school and it wasn’t easy but I managed it. God if this was not my first choice I would not bother applying!</p>

<p>This is such a subjective question lol. Some people like the “I can just prove with my credentials and Common App main essay” and love the no-to-minimal supplement. Click and pay, bam. </p>

<p>Others, like me, love schools that want to know as much about me as possible. Schools without supplemental essays feel so impersonal imo. They’re like, “Alright we got your numbers and ECs, just tell us about one thing you like and we know everything about you.” (I’m looking at you WUSTL) It really contradicts the alleged “holistic review”.</p>

<p>Anyways, to contribute:</p>

<p>BEST: Either Yale or Stanford. The essays are broad enough to allow some freedom but there are questions that ask specifics too.</p>

<p>WORST: Any school that doesn’t grant enough freedom of speech.</p>