How to tell if there are supplemental essays?

Applying to College
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Hello,

I am helping my S23 with a longish list (to be pared down later) and making a spreadsheet to have similar info in one place. One factor that I think is helpful in planning is whether the school has supplemental essays. On some college sites I can’t find anything about it. Does that likely mean they don’t have one? Is the school’s website the best place to look? Example: For Wesleyan I don’t see anything, but for Tufts they do show what the prompts were this year (on top of common App essay).

Has anyone done this before and is there any faster way to find this out? Thanks

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You can create a common app account now and you can select the colleges you are interested in. You can see the whole application and see what essays need to be done.

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Just a heads up that for some schools, there will be a separate application for honors college. My D thought she was totally done with essays and then got some invites later.

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Jumping in here to ask: But are those essays sure to be the same next cycle? Common App and individual school essays?

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That they could change would be a possibility. Mostly I am trying to estimate the number of essays he’d have to write for Early Action which comes up fast. He isn’t going to start on them soon so it’s just a Yes or No on the spreadsheet. He’d be more likely to add a couple more likely and target schools if they don’t have onerous essays.

I will see if he wants to open a Common app account now to look.

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Common app essays are the same for 2022-23: https://www.commonapp.org/blog/2022-2023-common-app-essay-prompts

Individual school supplements may still change, but going to the common app now should still give a reasonable approximation of the number of supplements at each school.

@chardonMN make sure to look in the common app writing section for each school, but also all the other sections. For example, Tulane had a 250 word essay in the Activities section this past cycle (in addition to two essays in the writing section). All three say ‘optional’, but they are not optional (which I think you know!) You could also just create a practice applicant common app account to check essays.

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There are also some that have you add additional statements or videos in their portal after the common app, but that should be clear on their website.

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