I am currently working on my supplemental essays for some schools I am applying to. Some of the essay prompts delve into topics I have already covered in other essays for the same application. How should I deal with overlapping, possibly redundant information in my essays? Should I say stuff like “As mentioned in my other essay…”? Should I just pretend that they are completely separate entities and not reference them? Keep in mind, the content in each of the essays will be different, but I’m a bit confused as to if I should acknowledge how I have already touched on the topic.
Hey there! This is definitely an important question. First things first: all the essays for that school will be looked at together, but that said, each essay should make sense on its own, so saying anything like “as I mentioned in my other essay…” is totally out.
But one more (very important) note: “overlapping topics” can be a slippery slope, my friend. What do you mean by a “topic,” as opposed to “content”? Are you drawing a similar conclusion in two separate essays? Or are you talking about the same experience in two different essays? If the answer was “yes” to either of those questions, it might be time to find a fresh story to mix it up, so you don’t have to worry about ANY redundant info. The supplemental essay prompts are your golden opportunity to share even MORE of your ideas and experiences you’ve gained throughout your high school experience, giving the admissions committee a 360-degree view of who you are!
I wouldn’t assume that the same people would be reading both. You don’t really know.
For the last school I applied to, I used the same topic in my supplement as the common app - sort of. I had a really cool summer experience, and I mentioned it in my common app essay and wrote about it in depth (from another perspective) in the supplement.
Thanks for all the responses! I guess I’ll just go into more detail about exactly what I’m trying to write about. One supplemental essay asks something along the lines of “Why do you want to go to (school)?”. One of the points that I emphasize is the excellent undergraduate research opportunities that are available at that school. In another supplemental essay for the same school, I am asked something along the lines of “If you could only continue one of your listed extracurricular, which would it be and why?”. I plan to write about my research experience, but I feel like it might be a little redundant. The main difference between the two essays would be that in the first essay, I would talk about the research opportunities at the school, whereas in the second essay I would talk about why research has been a valuable experience to me. Also, just throwing it out there that I’m a transfer applicant, not a high school student.