As someone who attended UVA for graduate school, I’m a little biased in favor of the school. However, I do genuinely like all of the supplemental essay prompts for two reasons. The first is that they are short. A 250-word limit forces you to be really clear about what the take-home is for the reader because you don’t have any opportunity to lose focus and meander off topic. The second is the questions reflect UVA’s values, and the essay is an opportunity for students to show how they connect with those values. I will also say that UVA is one of those schools, like the University of California system, to be very open and transparent about what they are looking for in an essay. I’ve included a helpful link from their Associate Dean at the end of the blog. Right here, however, are my own tips for addressing the UVA essay prompts. You’ll be asked to choose just one of these questions:

What about being a student at _____ most excites you?

Why would you like to attend ______?

Or, my personal favorite and most succinct, Why _____?

As admissions officers wade through equally qualified applicants, they work to determine who is going to be the best fit with their institution. Who gets what they are all about? Who has done their research and understands “Why this College?” They ask it in a lot of different ways, with varying requirements when it comes to length, but they’re all trying to get at the same thing: Why do you want to be here, as opposed to one of the other wonderful schools on your list?

If you’ve been staring at a blank computer screen wondering how to craft an answer to the supplemental writing prompts for Johns Hopkins and UC Boulder, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll talk through appropriate approaches to all on today’s show. We’ll follow that by answering all of your burning college finance and admissions questions.

If you’re a high school senior who’s been diligently scouring the Common Application searching for college-specific essay questions, you may have come across this particular prompt:

Who in your life is depending on you? What are they depending on you for?

This question is brand new this year, and it was made available to all Common App member colleges as a “bank question” for use on their supplements. Barnard College, Harvey Mudd College, Marquette University, and the University of South Carolina have elected to include this prompt (as an optional question) on their 2019-20 applications.

It’s application season, and application season means supplemental essays! In this week’s show, we’ll dissect the supplemental questions for Vassar and University of Rochester. We’ll also answer your college admissions and finance questions in our Listener Q&A segment.

Your love of playing cello…

Your fascination with mountain biking…

Your desire to speak out against prejudice…

Your journey to become student body president…

A strong Common App essay can be written on virtually any topic.

Two of my colleagues and I recently appeared on Good Morning America in a segment in response to the college admission scandal. The piece explored a different and more common way that students try to game the admission process: using an essay they didn’t write themselves. The segment entailed the three of us, plus one additional college counselor, reviewing personal statements and trying to spot the “fake” essay, which proved to be a more nuanced task than I think the GMA producers had expected. We at College Coach thought it might be useful to do a “behind the scenes” account of why spotting the fake was a challenge, and why you still shouldn’t use a fake essay!

Over the course of the past 16 years, I have read thousands of college applications and the personal statements that accompany them. Some essays have remained fresh in my mind – often because the topics were inspiring, powerful, humorous, or beautifully written – but other essays stand out for all of the wrong reasons. Below are four of my most noteworthy observations about college application essays, including blunders students should avoid at all costs.

On the Valentine’s Day episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Ian Fisher has something for everyone as he and his guests offer advice on how to manage the rest of senior year, how to begin work on college essays (listen up, juniors), and how to negotiate merit scholarship offers from colleges.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Sally Ganga digs into the supplements for Barnard College and Washington University in St. Louis, the ins and outs of co-ops, and the financial implications of attending a college with a co-op program.