College Application Essay Tracker
Finishing your personal statement in the Common Application, that 250-to-650-word essay that goes to nearly every college on your application, is a major accomplishment. Celebrate!
However, as you further research colleges of interest, you’ll likely discover that many require supplemental essays to respond to prompts like Why This College? or Describe a Meaningful Extracurricular Activity. The problem is, you won’t always know the prompts until after the Common App rolls over on August 1 – or later! – when the colleges’ own pages are updated with their additional essay requirements. A savvy student may sift through social media posts and admissions blogs to find this essay prompts, but this isn’t always convenient. We’re big believers in making the most out of the summer break when it comes to college applications, especially the essays, which is why we’ve done the work for you: As colleges release their supplemental essay prompts, we’ll add them to our College Application Essay Tracker. Just click on a college name and find the current year’s prompts. Make good use of your summer months to conquer this most time-consuming part of your college applications.
Assuming a college has shared its supplemental essay(s) with Common App by August 1 (some schools share them later), you can choose to wait until August 1 to begin working on them – but not what we would advise.
Find the prompts in Common App in two ways:
Add a college to your list using the College Search feature and then find that school’s writing requirements on its Questions page and/or its Supplement.
Go to Common App’swriting requirements page and search by college name.
Either way, you’ll see all supplemental writing prompts for that college, including word counts and whether or not an essay is “optional.”
To recap: Supplemental essay prompts aren’t available in the Common App itself until the August 1 rollover or later. If you’re eager to get ahead with essays earlier this summer, keep an eye on our College Application Essay Tracker.
Need help with college essay writing? Give us a call today! Our essay experts work closely with students to help them find their voice and let their writing shine.
