I have a few friends at ivy league schools that told me that the common app essay is suppose to mainly show your creativity and writing ability while the supplemental essays are suppose to be more cut-and-dry and focus more so on what you do in school/life.
To what extent is this true?
Fact or Fiction: Common App Essays are about creativity while supplemental essays are about content.
It depends on the supplemental prompt. A “Why College X” essay is generally going to be more cut and dried. They really want you to answer the question. Regarding the common app, it is a chance to show that you are interested and interesting. I don’t think “creative” is the right term. It isn’t about gimmicks.
I agree, it just depends on the supplemental prompt. My D had a prompt that wanted her to explain what makes her “cool”. That was a prompt in which being creative would be a plus. She had another prompt which was word association. That also allowed creativity. The “why this college” essay with the 150 word limit doesnt have much room for creativity though.
The CA essay is your best opportunity to let adcoms understsnd the person behind the stats. What should they know about you? They want to admit people they like, so be likeable. You want them to read the essay and think “I want this person at this college.”
In my (pretty extensive) experience, an app needs to do several things. It needs to show personal qualities, accomplishments and activities, intellect and intellectual passion, and goals or aspirations.
The way you spread those things out among the various essays doesn’t matter much, as long as you explore them all adequately, but the common way to do it is to make the Personal Statement more “personal” and emotional and use the supps to show the other stuff–that’s a pretty easy path to take and one that works very well.
I have seen students do it other ways, though, with fine success. The key, imo, is for your app “package” to show all this stuff one way or another–it really is a “package” that serves as a “marketing brochure” for which the product is you, after all!
Hope this helps, @guy1234