Talking about college-specific questions in supplemental essays

Hi I’m writing my supplemental essays and I had a quick question. Should I talk about wanting to be involved with college-specific opportunities in my supplemental essays that are NOT the “Why Us” essay? So for example, should I include sentences like “At X college, I hope to immerse myself in X opportunity…” in an essay with the prompt “Tell us something meaningful to you”? My concern was that including them in my essays might make it sound repetitive and like an annoying sales pitch. But on the other hand, I was concerned that not including them might make my essays sound too broad and not tailored enough for the college — as though I have not done my research on the college’s opportunities. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks!

It depends on what the essay prompt is. If college-specific opportunities answers the prompt, include it. If not, don’t.

If it’s something meaningful to you, explain what that is. If in summary, you can tie it to the college in a sentence, it’s fine.

If it’s a picture your grandfather gave you, you can describe it but you can’t tie to a college. That’s fine.

Answer the question honestly and authentically.

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Supplemental essays are an important venue to demonstrate your “fit” for that specific college. Mentioning college-specific opportunities is just one of many possible ways to do that. It shows that you’re excited by the opportunities that college provides and that you’ve done your research, but essays that elaborate on your personality/experiences/interests/background can also be effective if those things align with what the college is looking for.

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What are the prompts for the essays you are asking about?

The optional supplementary essay should cover things that aren’t covered elsewhere in the application.