Are you hoping to write some amazing supplemental essays during the 2021-2022 admissions cycle? You’re in the right place.. because we are the supplemental essay gurus!
Here at DC College Counseling, nearly all of our Class of 2022 students have already begun work on their 2021-2022 supplemental essays. In fact, most of them started this work before any schools had released their supplemental essay prompts!
Our process allows our students to finish their (amazing) essays with the least amount of stress, and we are definitely not submitting anything the night before the deadline. Students who begin working with us before the end of their junior year complete and submit their college applications by September - yes, 2-4 months in advance!
If you’re wondering why we submit so early, there are a few reasons:
Students are able to do their best work when they are not rushed and stressed
The home environment is much more pleasant when parents don’t need to nag
Even before opening their files, admissions officers will jump to lots of conclusions about the types of 17-year-olds that turn their application materials in far before the deadlines. Spoiler alert: they are good conclusions :) That may not be fair, but it’s human nature and we’ll take it!
Keep reading for a sneak peek into our process and how we get it done:
1. Common App ® comes first.
Even though some of our students start their supplemental essays as early as April, we make sure that every student completes their main essay for the Common Application ® first. That way, when we approach the supplemental essays, we know what the college will already know from the student’s main essay - and where the gaps are! This order is essential, because the Common App ® essay will go to nearly every school on the student’s list, and we need to avoid overlap with the supplemental essays in order to show as many different aspects of the student’s background and personality as possible.
2. Getting a head start.
Before our students even look at the school-specific supplemental essay prompts, they complete four different “generic supplemental essays,” as we call them. Even though no school will see these exact essays, they still put in 4-6 hours of work with our essay coaches to make sure every line is perfect. Why? Because we’ve identified four themes that come up again and again in the supplemental essay process, and it makes sense to start there. Once the generic essays are complete, students have a strong base of options and can repurpose language they’ve already written - considerably speeding up the essay writing process!
3. Moving to school-specific essay prompts.
Yes, schools have until August 1 to release their supplemental essay prompts for the coming year. However, many schools do release prompts early, and others do not publicly release the prompts, but are able to confirm them over the phone. We do the work of sifting through to ensure that our students begin the prompts soon after they are released over the summer, freeing up their time in August to tackle those later essays. Want to get the same head start? Check out our listing of supplemental essay prompts for the class of 2022, which we update every week as new prompts come out!
4. Revision, revision, revision.
A college essay will typically have at least two readers, if not more, who bring different perspectives and biases to the process. We try our best to mimic that process, ensuring that every single essay is not only approved by a coach, but also by Colleen or Shannon as the secondary reader, to make sure we catch any potential issues! The essays are also reviewed by the parents and family, and then Colleen and Shannon again, before they are added to the application.
5. Finish by September
Senior fall grades can be vitally important in the college admissions process, especially for students who are deferred from their dream school during the early rounds and need to provide grades at the end of the semester. Plus, often students are taking their most challenging high school courses this year! Thanks to our process, they can often put the supplemental essays behind them as early as September and spend the rest of the fall focusing on their grades and excelling in their last year of high school.
Questions about the supplemental essay process? Comment below and we’ll answer in a future blog post! Want some more help moving through the process outlined above? All of our materials, as well as our generic supplemental essay prompts and method, are laid out for you in our DIY Membership Vault!