College Apps: How to Write a Great "Why Us" Supplemental Essay
Written essays are a key portion of the entire college application process. It is very common to have to incorporate one longer personal statement with your application, but many schools also require shorter supplemental essays as well. A very common type of supplemental essay is the “Why Us” essay, asking a student to explain why they’re interested in the school. Here, we’re walking you through what you should and shouldn’t include when you write this essay.
Many students spend a lot of time perfecting their personal statement, oftentimes for the Common App system, before sending off their college applications. But what about the supplemental essays that each college may ask for? These require just as much care and attention.
The supplemental essay requires will vary from one college to the next, and some may not require any at all. For schools that do include this required writing step, it’s important to take this step of the process seriously. Oftentimes, this is where the college will ask you why you want to study something specific or what you will contribute to their college campus. They really do care about how you answer these prompts.
Oftentimes, colleges will include a “Why Us” essay in the supplemental requirements. In this essay, you’ll want to explain why you want to go to that school specifically but still make sure to set yourself apart from the competition. This is where the difficulty lies. Read on to see our tips for making your “Why Us” essays stand out to admissions officers.
How should you approach writing college application essays?
Start Early - The most important part of this process is planning! Too many students discover too late that the college application process is tedious and more time consuming than they would have expected. Don’t wait until last minute and have to rush through your essays and submit something that you are less than fully proud of. Start working on your essays early—we promise you’ll thank yourself later.
Have an Outline - Just as you should start any academic paper you write at school, we highly recommend coming up with some kind of an outline to guide your writing. Without this guidance, your essay can end up all over the place and difficult to follow. Try to at least decide on what broad points you’ll focus on and in what order. It’s not necessary to write the introduction first or the conclusion last, but you should have an idea of what your essay will discuss before you start writing.
Be Okay with a Very Rough First Draft - It’s called a “rough” draft for a reason. It’s not going to be your best work, and it certainly shouldn’t be what you send in with your applications. This is another reason to start early and give yourself time. It may very well take three or four drafts or more before you really love your essay.
Revise, Revise, Revise - We encourage all students to keep polishing their essays until they are 100% proud of the finished product. If there is any little piece of the essay that you don’t like, change it! Keep going and perfecting until you are as happy with it as possible.
What should you consider for the “Why Us” essay?
Colleges are more and more often asking students “Why do you want to go to THIS school?” Obviously there are so many great schools out there, and most students will apply to multiple colleges (we highly recommend applying to at least 6 colleges — read more about why here). When a college asks you why you want to go to their school in particular, it’s important that you answer their question effectively.
Make sure you answer the question
First, make sure that you answer the question! For some colleges, this question will be as vague as “Why do you want to go here?” But for others, it may be something more along the lines of “Why do you want to be a part of our community?” or “How do you see yourself fitting in with our diverse community?” It could be any variation of things. The bottom line is make sure you answer the question! If the question references community specifically, you certainly should include information about community within your essay.
How to approach the “Why Us” essay
Be Honest - This is the big one. BE HONEST. Ask yourself “Why do I want to go to this school?” And seriously ponder the answer. Do you find their academics appealing? Is there a specific program that other colleges don’t typically have? Is there something about the location that inspires you? There is no right or wrong answer - there are just TRUE answers.
But what about being cliché? We get this question a lot. Sure, you don’t want to get too sappy with the schools, but there is really no such thing as being cliché if you are sticking to your honest answer of the question. So stop worrying about whether your response is cliché, and instead worry about if it is honest!
Do Your Homework & Include Specifics - If you really do want to go to this school, take some time and do some research. Look into potential courses you’ll want to take, professors you’ll want to learn from, and clubs you’ll want to join. Mix this information into your essay. As you’re researching, you’re probably going to find so many programs and people that you’re inspired by. Include all of this with your response. Not only will including information that is specific to the school show that you took the time to do your research (and therefore show the admissions team that you probably do care to join them at their college), but we think that your feelings of excitement and inspiration that are bound to come up as you do this research will also shine through in your response. There is nothing more boring than reading a supplemental essay that is lacking all emotion. You want the reader to FEEL that you want to go to their school.
Make Sure There is a Balance Between YOU and THEM - This is a big one. Are you paying attention? These colleges already know that they are awesome. I’m going to say it again to make sure you caught that: THESE COLLEGES ALREADY KNOW THAT THEY ARE AWESOME. They don’t need you to go on and on for 400 words about how amazing they are. They already know that! And approaching the “Why Us” essay in this way isn’t going to do you any favors.
So what do they want to hear from you in terms of why you want to go there, then? Well, they want to know why YOU and THE COLLEGE will make a great TEAM. Yes, this essay response needs to include information about the college, but don’t forget that this is YOUR application. Why would you be a good fit for the school? Why would the school be a good fit for you? How could you help the school? How could the school help you? How could you help each other? Talking about your interest in the community and how you would contribute to the community is a good example of including both sides.
I hear a lot of seniors tell me things like “My essay sounds so cliché,” or “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging” when they’re working through the college application essay process. The truth is, this is a very unique process that is unlike other types of writing that you likely have experience with. Your ultimate goal is to make yourself as appealing of an applicant as possible for each college you apply to. That doesn’t mean you should embellish or lie about your experiences and your accomplishments, but you certainly are allowed to be proud of yourself and include your real experiences in your essays. As far the cliché information goes, thinking about going to college can be an emotional, sappy time. That’s typically where cliche ideas and phrases come from — they exist for a reason! So stop worrying about that, and focus instead on being HONEST.
All in all, if you take one thing away from this blog post, let it be just that: be honest with your essay responses. When a college says “Hey, why do you want to go to THIS school?” take a minute to reflect and yourself what the honest answer is. Find the real answer before you start trying to concoct some fancy response that may not revolve around the truth at all.
Good luck, and happy writing!
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