Essays have been a cornerstone of college applications for so long that picturing the process without them feels almost impossible. Yet a handful of schools are now trimming their supplemental essays to fight what admissions offices call “application inflation.” So — are supplementals dead?
The honest answer from the people who watch this closely: not dead, but on life support — and, importantly, the practical rule for your student hasn’t changed at all.
The Landscape
The pendulum is swinging — both ways
Some schools are dropping supplementals. The University of Georgia points to low utility, student stress, and reader fatigue from application inflation. Tulane cites AI use and the prevalence of paid consultants. When the University of Virginia dropped its supplements, applications jumped roughly 27% — which tells you exactly why a school drowning in files might do it.
Others are adding them. USC is introducing an essay about having your viewpoints challenged; the University of Arizona added an “optional” essay — and in admissions, “optional” almost always means do it. A few schools, including Cornell, WashU, and Miami, have dropped identity and community prompts; some observers speculate this is legal caution after the Students for Fair Admissions ruling, though no school has confirmed it.
The Shift, By the Numbers
Chaos is the new normal
Post-pandemic admissions stays volatile, and supplemental-essay policy is now part of the churn:
jump in UVA applications after it dropped supplementals
Why schools do it
notable schools cutting essays: UGA, UVA, Tulane
Dropping
leaning back in: USC and the University of Arizona
Adding
rule that still holds: if an essay exists, write it well
For your student
The rule that hasn’t changed
If a supplemental essay exists, a school made a conscious choice to ask for it. That choice is your signal to answer it — and to answer it well.
The episode’s bottom line
Why They Matter
What a supplemental is really for
In a sea of similar transcripts and scores, the supplemental is where a student stops being a data point and becomes a person. The most common prompts each do a specific job:
“Why us?” and “Why this major?” reward understanding, not flattery. Name the specific programs, courses, and opportunities you’d actually use — not the pretty campus or the football team. A strong “Why us?” is one of the clearest signals of genuine interest, and schools that watch their yield notice it.
“What will you contribute?” reminds everyone that fit runs two ways — not just what a school offers you, but what you bring to it.
Creative prompts (the University of Vermont once asked applicants to design a Ben & Jerry’s flavor) exist to reveal personality and how a student thinks. They’re an invitation, not a trap.
The AI Trap
Don’t let a robot write the one thing that sounds like you
Here is the irony worth sitting with. Schools cite AI as a reason to drop essays — and yet using AI to write your essay is a self-defeating move. The supplemental is the one place in the whole application where a student gets to sound like themselves. Hand that to a chatbot and you erase the exact thing that was supposed to help you stand out, and you skip the reflection that makes the essay worth writing in the first place.
What To Do
The playbook for applicants
1 Complete every required supplemental. Its presence is the school telling you what it wants to know.
2 Answer the “optional” ones whenever you have something additive to say — skip only when it’s truly not applicable.
3 Use them to show genuine interest and real fit — specific resources you’d use, and specific things you’d contribute.
4 Write them yourself. AI can help you brainstorm or tighten, but the thinking and the voice have to be yours.
5 Don’t generalize. One school dropping its essays says nothing about how much the next school values its own.
For Students
- Treat every included prompt as important. If a school kept it, the school wants that answer.
- Do the research before you write “Why us?” Name the class, lab, or program you’d actually walk into — not the campus tour highlights.
- Sound like you. The essay is your one shot to be a person, not a profile. Don’t outsource it.
For Families
- Expect volatility. Which essays exist — and whether they’re “optional” — can shift by school and by year.
- “Optional” usually isn’t. If your student has something to say, that essay is part of the application.
- Start early. Thoughtful, specific supplementals take time — the good ones can’t be produced the night before.
Where Corngold Prep Stands
The essay is where a student gets to be human
Everything we believe about test prep applies here too: tools can sharpen the work, but they can’t do the thinking for you. A supplemental written to sound like a committee, or like a chatbot, defeats its own purpose. The better path is the harder one — researching a school honestly, finding the specific and true reason it fits, and saying it in your own voice.
The policies will keep shifting. The advice underneath them won’t: when a school asks, answer — thoughtfully, specifically, and as yourself.
When a school asks, answer — in your own voice.
From Corngold Prep
We keep our families a step ahead
Admissions keeps shifting — we track what matters so parents and students don’t have to. For focused SAT and ACT preparation, we’re always glad to talk.