- academic interests
- community involvement
- leadership
- personal goals
- reasons for considering a college
- challenges they have addressed
Memorized speeches often sound unnatural.
Brief, specific stories usually communicate more than broad claims about ambition, curiosity, or leadership.
Check Every College’s Requirements
Supplemental essays are being reduced, not eliminated, at every institution.
Requirements may also differ by undergraduate school, major, scholarship, or honors program.
Applicants should check official admissions pages before starting and again before submitting.
Prompt wording, word limits, deadlines, and testing rules may change between cycles.
A tracking document can record each school’s deadlines, required materials, essay limits, recommendation rules, and financial aid forms.
Do Not Assume Fewer Essays Mean Easier Admission
Shorter applications may attract thousands of additional candidates.
Reduced writing requirements can therefore make admission more competitive rather than easier.
Students should build balanced college lists with likely, target, and highly selective options.
Every application should still be complete, accurate, and carefully prepared.
Colleges Making Changes
Changes differ by institution. Some colleges have removed all supplemental essays, while others have eliminated only broad or optional prompts and kept questions tied to academic interests.
Tulane University
Tulane is pausing its “Why Tulane?” essay.
School officials said the prompt may discourage qualified applicants and has become harder to evaluate because of AI-assisted writing.
Interest may still be measured through campus visits, virtual programs, event attendance, and communication with admissions staff.
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis removed one optional essay after finding that students often viewed it as required.
A separate question about why an applicant selected a particular major is still part of the application. That response gives admissions officers more focused information about academic interests and goals.
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia eliminated a 250 to 300-word essay asking applicants to discuss a book they had read and enjoyed.
Admissions staff concluded that the response added little information beyond the main personal statement. Removing it also reduces the time needed to review a growing number of applications.
Cornell University
Cornell removed its universitywide supplemental essay but kept prompts required by individual undergraduate schools.
Applicants must still check the requirements for their selected school, since engineering, business, agriculture, and arts programs may request different responses.
University of Miami and UNC-Chapel Hill
University of Miami and UNC-Chapel Hill eliminated supplemental essays for the 2026–27 cycle.
Applicants will have fewer school-specific writing opportunities, placing more weight on the Common Application essay and other application materials.
TCU and the University of Virginia
Texas Christian University and the University of Virginia made similar changes during the previous admissions cycle.
Their decisions showed that reducing supplemental writing was already becoming more common before the newest changes were announced.
Possible Effects on Admissions
Removing essays makes applications faster to complete, which may encourage students to apply to more colleges.
Texas Christian University recorded an application increase of approximately 14 percent after eliminating two supplemental essays.
Similar increases at other schools could create more competition without any major change in class size.
- lower acceptance rates
- more deferred applicants
- longer wait lists
- less predictable admission decisions
- larger applicant pools at selective colleges
Colleges may also appear more selective when application totals rise. A school admitting the same number of students out of a larger pool will report a lower acceptance rate.
Applicants could lose a useful opportunity to communicate personality, leadership, interests, or institutional fit.
One recent applicant completed 29 supplemental essays, plus additional writing for scholarships and honors programs, but valued the chance to discuss qualities that were not clear elsewhere in her application.
Students with specialized academic interests, unusual experiences, or a strong connection to a particular college may have fewer places to explain those details.
- grades and course difficulty
- standardized test scores
- activity descriptions
- recommendation letters
- the Common Application personal statement
- interviews and video responses
- demonstrated-interest data
Demonstrated interest may include website visits, virtual tours, email engagement, event attendance, and campus visits.
Greater reliance on these signals could benefit students with more time, money, or access to college counseling.
Summary
Supplemental essays are not disappearing entirely, but colleges are reconsidering which prompts provide useful and authentic information.
Reduced requirements may lower stress for students and ease review workloads for admissions teams.
Larger applicant pools, however, may increase competition and produce lower acceptance rates.
Applicants will need stronger personal statements, clearer activity descriptions, detailed recommendations, and close attention to changing requirements.
Simpler applications may improve access, but they may also make selective admissions more crowded.
