Supplemental Essays Are Disappearing — Which Makes the Remaining “Why Us” Heavier
Every year, Elite Prep helps seniors through the college application process. We hope the information below is useful.
There’s a piece of good news going around among families this fall: a lot of colleges have dropped their supplemental essays. That part is true.
Here’s what we end up saying in almost every consultation:
Fewer essays does not mean an easier application.
If anything, the opposite. The less you have to write, the more weight lands on what’s left. And what’s left, most often, is the “Why Us?” essay.
This guide covers what actually changed this year, why colleges are cutting these prompts, and how to write the ones that remain.
| Part | What we cover |
|---|---|
| 1 | What changed — which schools cut what |
| 2 | Why colleges are dropping them (including the AI part) |
| 3 | Why fewer essays isn’t easier |
| 4 | “Why Us” is not a place to praise the school |
| 5 | The four questions a reader is answering |
| 6 | The most common failure — brochure language |
| 7 | How to build specificity in thirty minutes |
| 8 | What to cut inside 150–350 words |
| 9 | What to rewrite per school vs. what to reuse |
| 10 | A September roadmap |
| 11 | Frequently asked questions |
1. What Changed This Year
For the 2026-27 cycle, a number of colleges eliminated supplemental essays entirely.
| School | What went away |
|---|---|
| Georgia Tech | Supplemental essays eliminated |
| UNC Chapel Hill | Short-answer prompts cut back |
| University of Georgia | Its long-running “book” essay dropped |
| University of Miami | Supplemental essays eliminated |
| Tulane | “Why Tulane?” dropped |
| University of Washington | Supplemental essays eliminated |
| Yale | “Why Yale” dropped |
| Cornell | University-wide essay dropped — college-specific essays remain |
⚠️ The Cornell case is the one to remember. If you hear “Cornell dropped its essay” and move on, you’ll miss the college-specific prompts. Cuts happen prompt by prompt, not school by school. Check each school’s Common App page yourself.
And one thing did not change: every one of these schools still requires the main personal statement.
2. Why Colleges Are Dropping Them
Three reasons come up consistently.
| Reason | The college’s position |
|---|---|
| The answers stopped differing | Tens of thousands of near-identical responses carry no signal |
| Readers are exhausted | The volume exceeds what a reading staff can evaluate well |
| Application friction | Essay load discourages qualified students from applying |
But there’s a larger reason underneath. AI.
The shorter the prompt, the harder it is to tell an AI-polished response from a student’s own. A 250-word “Why Us” is exactly that case. From the college’s side, there’s little point requiring a document that no longer supports a judgment.
📌 This matters more than it sounds. If colleges trust the essay less, something else in the application has to explain the student — and that shifts weight onto everything that remains.
3. Why Fewer Essays Isn’t Easier
| The common assumption | What’s actually true |
|---|---|
| Less writing, less work | Each remaining piece counts for more |
| No school-specific prep needed | You still have to check every school |
| No way left to show interest | Major choice, activity order, and recommendations show it |
| Essays matter less now | The personal statement matters more |
When essay fields disappear, so do the places where “what is this student about” gets answered. The order of the activities list, the consistency of the intended major, and the specificity of recommendation letters all carry a bigger share than they used to.
4. “Why Us” Is Not a Place to Praise the School
Now to the part that still requires writing.
The name of the prompt creates the misunderstanding. This is not “why this school” — it’s “why are we a match.” And half of the answer is supposed to be the student, not the school.
| Written this way | What the reader thinks |
|---|---|
| History, ranking, reputation | “We’re aware of our own history” |
| “World-class faculty and facilities” | A sentence that fits any college |
| The campus is beautiful | Zero information about you |
| What I intend to do + why it’s possible here | “I can see this student’s next four years” |
💡 A strong “Why Us” reads less like a description of the college and more like a plan. When you finish it, you can picture what the student will actually do there.
5. The Four Questions a Reader Is Answering
| # | Question | What answers it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the interest real | Do they know what’s only possible here |
| 2 | Can they succeed here | Does it connect to what they’ve already done |
| 3 | Do they fit this campus | Alignment with how the place actually works |
| 4 | Does what we offer match their plans | Is there a direction past graduation |
All four converge on one thing: a reason it has to be this school. If another college’s name could be dropped in and the essay still works, the question hasn’t been answered.
6. The Most Common Failure — Brochure Language
These are the sentences we delete most often from first drafts.
| ❌ Frequently written | Why it fails |
|---|---|
| “I’m drawn to the excellent academic environment” | Fits every school on the list |
| “World-renowned faculty and cutting-edge facilities” | Straight from the brochure |
| “Its commitment to interdisciplinary learning” | Nearly every university says this |
| “A top-ranked institution” | Rankings say nothing about you |
| “The warm sense of community” | An impression without evidence |
The problem usually isn’t effort. It’s that the research stopped at the homepage and the admissions brochure — the same two pages every other applicant read.
7. How to Build Specificity in Thirty Minutes
Specificity isn’t talent. It’s how far into the material you went. Thirty minutes per school, in this order, changes the essay.
| Step | Where to look | What to write down |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Department curriculum | Two or three actual course titles |
| 2 | Faculty research pages | One professor whose work overlaps yours, and the topic |
| 3 | Labs, institutes, centers | Programs that take undergraduates |
| 4 | Student organizations | Something you could continue there |
| 5 | Academic structure | Minors, dual degrees, study-away, distinctive requirements |
Then one more step, which is the one people skip. Naming things is not enough.
| Not there yet | Finished |
|---|---|
| “I’m interested in Professor X’s research” | “Professor X’s work on ___ asks the same question I ran into last year when ___” |
| “I’d like to work in the ___ lab” | “The ___ lab takes students from sophomore year, and I’d continue the project I started in high school there” |
⚠️ A list of names backfires. Readers recognize a paragraph assembled from the department website immediately. One item connected to you beats ten items listed.
8. What to Cut Inside 150–350 Words
Supplements are short — usually 150 to 350 words. Less than half a personal statement.
| Cut | Why |
|---|---|
| Greetings and warm-ups | There’s no room for a run-up |
| Descriptions of the school | They know their own school |
| Rankings and reputation | No information |
| Anything already elsewhere | Grades and activities have their own fields |
| Adjectives | “Excellent,” “outstanding,” and “renowned” are not evidence |
| Keep | Share |
|---|---|
| What you intend to do | 30% |
| Why it’s possible specifically here (names, courses, programs) | 40% |
| The sentence connecting the two, and what follows | 30% |
📌 Start with content in the first sentence. Spending forty words on a lead-in to a 250-word essay costs you a sixth of it.
9. What to Rewrite Per School vs. What to Reuse
Rewriting everything for a dozen schools isn’t realistic. Divide it.
| Category | Content |
|---|---|
| ♻️ Reusable | What you intend to do, what you’ve already done, the problem you care about |
| ✍️ Rewrite every time | The school’s own courses, faculty, programs, structures — and the sentence tying them to you |
⚠️ The most dangerous mistake is forgetting to change the school’s name. It happens every single year. Search the document for other schools’ names before you submit. That one check saves an application.
10. A September Roadmap
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Week 1 of September | Go through the list and confirm which schools still require supplements — a lot changed this year |
| Week 2 | Research only the schools that do — thirty minutes each, collecting course, faculty, and program names |
| Week 3 | Draft, starting with the ED/EA school. Separate reusable paragraphs from new ones |
| Week 4 | Check school names, hit the word counts, read aloud |
| October | Extend to regular-decision schools in deadline order |
💡 Start after the personal statement clears its third revision. Holding both at once means neither finishes.
11. Frequently Asked Questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Without a supplement, how do we show interest? | A consistent intended major, the order of the activities list, and visit or info-session records |
| Are those schools easier to apply to now? | Application volume may rise, so admit rates can tighten instead |
| How close to the word limit should we get? | 80–90% of the cap. Half-length reads as indifference |
| Do we have to name a professor? | Not required. A specific connection to you is |
| Are we penalized for never visiting? | No. Online material supports a specific essay fine |
| Can AI help? | Grammar checks. In short essays, AI phrasing is more visible, not less |
| Can parents help with research? | Gathering material, yes. The sentences belong to the student |
| What’s the real deadline? | Finish ED/EA supplements by mid-October |
Closing — Fewer, and Therefore Heavier
It’s true that supplements got thinner this year. But the message inside that change isn’t “prepare less.” If colleges trust short essays less, the job of explaining the student moves onto everything else in the file.
And at the schools that still ask, those 250 words decide whether this reader believes the student actually belongs there. An essay built from the homepage and one built from a single course and a single line of research, tied to the student’s own work, separate on the first read.
At Elite Prep we go through this school by school with rising seniors — confirming who still requires supplements, identifying what to research, and deciding what to cut from a very short essay. If the list is set but the writing hasn’t started, this is the moment.
For a closer look at your family’s plan, reach out to your nearest Elite Prep:
📍 Elite Prep Suwanee
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Andy Lee / Director of Elite Prep Suwanee powered by Elite Open School
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