My Colleges: Writing & Supplemental Essays
In the My Colleges section, we review Writing & Supplemental Essays you may be required to write for the various colleges and universities to which you are applying. The length of time this process takes varies by student and depends on the number of supplemental essays each college requires. It might take several hours to complete this section.
Items marked with a red asterisk * are required. You are not required to complete items that do not have the red asterisk.
Introduction
Some colleges have additional “supplemental” essays in My Colleges. In this section, you will learn more about supplemental essays, including:
- How to approach the “Why do you want to attend our college?” or the “Why Us?” essay
- Resources with advice about how to write supplemental essays
- How to approach the disciplinary history essay
Videos
In this video, we discuss the most common supplemental essays and how to use supplemental essays to tell colleges more about you. This video should take approximately 5 minutes.
In this video, Timothy Brunold, Dean of Admission at the University of Southern California, makes suggestions as to how to write the “Why Us?” essay. This video should take approximately 4 minutes.
In this video, we provide a detailed explanation of how to write the “Why Us?” essay. This video is for students who want more advice on how to write a thorough, authentic “Why Us?” essay. This video should take approximately 5 minutes.
In this video, we discuss how to approach questions about disciplinary or criminal history. The purpose of this section is for you to understand how to write about your disciplinary history, if you have one. If you have to write about a disciplinary history, this section should take approximately an hour.
Tips & Reminders
- Review the writing and supplemental essays questions within My Colleges as soon as you have created your list. Essays can appear in different places depending on the information you enter regarding your college choice.
- Supplemental essays are a valuable opportunity to tell a college more about yourself and why you would be a good fit for that college. If a college has several supplemental essays, think about how the essays can work together to tell more about you.
- When writing a “Why Us?” essay, your goal is to tell the college how you will pursue your academic interests there and why you are genuinely a good fit for the college. WOW provides detailed advice for how to write this essay in the WOW – Writing The “Why Us?” Essay Guide.
- WOW provides detailed guidelines for how to approach other supplemental essays in the WOW – Writing Supplemental Essays Guide.
- WOW also provides detailed advice for how to write about academic challenges in the WOW – How to Write About Academic Challenges Guide.
