I'm in the Process of Writing my Supplement...

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>I'm in the Process of Writing my Supplement and I'm wondering how many of you guys who have already written your supplement essay took a creative approach and how many of you took a more straightforward approach. My essay is very straightforward and I wonder if this is a bad thing. </p>

<p>Also, how many "communities" did you talk about in your essay. I have a long list of activities and "communities" that I have researched and I'm interested in but I'm not sure if I should go into detail with a few or talk about a bunch. It would be great to hear what others did. Also, in your opinion, can a community simply be an activity? Like can I talk about certain club sports I might want to get involved in or certain clubs or community service initiatives I'd like to join? I feel like in my essay I talk mainly about activities and I am hoping that this is what the the question is asking for. I also describe why I want to get involved using some of my experiences in high school. Do you think this is a good thing because I am really showing that I do want to get involved and showing valid reasons why, or do you think I should focus on myself in college and not talk about high school in this essay.</p>

<p>I'm having a really hard time. I understand that different people will take different approaches and that there is no formula or certain type of essay that they are looking for... but do you think my approach sounds like a decent way of answering the question? I feel like its a really tough question to answer and a strangely worded question. When I talked to the admissions officers last time I visited they stressed really researching before writing the essay. I've done this, but now putting it all together is proving to be difficult.</p>

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<p>i personally would focus on writing about yourself in college because the question is asking how you will contribute to their school–then you can draw upon your experiences in high school to support those statements
but thats just a suggestion! (: goodluck</p>

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<p>i took a pretty straightforward approach…i talked about one academic and one social community id like to be part of and how id contribute and i used past experiences to support it…i would not talk about a lot of communities you’d like to join b/c 1 page goes by pretty quickly…</p>

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<p>I agree. Thanks for the input. By one academic and one social community do you mean one academic activity or club and one social activity or club? I just want to make sure that I’m not off base talking about clubs and activities. I can’t imagine what else the question could be implying–but I’m just double checking. : )</p>

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<p>I only talked about one activity I want to be a part of…and gave extensive reasoning with my background as to why I wish to be a part of it.</p>

<p>I think because the question asks “how will you contribute”, you definitely need to draw on your experiences as a high school student to support that</p>

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<p>yeah. i talked about wharton’s dzine2show group and some ideas i had and talked about helping to unite the campus and then one of the sororities and how i have a personal tie to the philanthropic group they help out–again with different ideas i had and how to unite the campus…im not sure if i did it completely right, but there’s not really a right and wrong answer. i just made sure it had a comparable tone to my common app essay (:</p>