When I was applying to the University of Rochester, I wanted my application to show more than my grades, activities, and accomplishments. I wanted the admissions team to get a sense of who I was beyond what was on paper. A major part of my identity is my creative side, and my passion for music and performance. Being a major part of my high school experience, I wanted that part of who I was to come through in my application.
For me, the performing arts were a big part of the story I wanted to tell colleges and universities when applying. But figuring out how to communicate who you are in an application – and what makes a particular university right for you – can be difficult when you only have so much space to do it. That’s where URochester’s supplemental essay comes in.
Unlike the Common Application personal statement, URochester’s supplemental essay gives applicants the opportunity to explain what they are looking for in their college experience and why they see themselves as a future member of the URochester community.
“Fit matters to us, and the supplemental essay is one of the most important ways that we can assess that,” Kathleen Pipala, Director of Admissions Application Review at URochester, said. For prospective students, that means the supplement isn’t simply another personal essay. Admissions counselors are looking for applicants to make a connection between what matters to them and what URochester can offer.
“We hope that applicants can go deeper than just the general information they can find on our website to pinpoint the things that make URochester special to them,” Pipala said.
That specificity can take many forms. An applicant might be excited about URochester’s open curriculum, interested in conducting research with a particular faculty member, or already imagining themselves joining a club or becoming part of the residential community on campus. The supplemental essay provides a space for explaining why those opportunities are meaningful to them. When I think back to my own application, that desire to show who I was extended beyond simply listing my interests. Creativity mattered to me, and I wanted to come through in how I presented that part of myself. For another applicant the defining interest might be anywhere from community service, research, entrepreneurship, athletics, or something else. The challenge is figuring out what matters to you and connecting it back to URochester, and letting that shine in your essay.
Pipala also emphasized that applicants often make the same approach to the supplemental essay as they would their Common Application personal statement. “Sometimes applicants try to make the supplemental essay into a complete 2nd personal statement which often misses the mark,” she said.
Instead the supplement offers an opportunity to turn the focus toward URochester. That doesn’t mean applicants need to find the one “perfect” response that they think an admissions counselor wants to hear, it’s an opportunity to turn the focus toward URochester. “There is no right or wrong way to respond to the prompt; each applicant is different and therefore each response will be different,” said Pipala. “Figure out what matters most to you about your college experience and align your response accordingly.”
That might require doing a little more digging than reading the first few pages of the University website. Rather than simply writing that URochester has an open curriculum, for example, an applicant could explain how the flexibility would allow them to explore a particular combination of their passions and interests. Someone wanting to pursue a certain academic field could look into the classes, faculty members, or research opportunities they might encounter here.
The little details really help transform a response from a list of things URochester offers into a picture of how an applicant might actually use them.
Above all, Pipala encourages applicants to use their own voice and to approach the supplement in a way that is “genuine and authentic.”
That means resisting the temptation to make every sentence perfect. Pipala explained that “using things like AI to help craft your supplemental essay typically backfires as it often removes your authentic voice, which is what we want to hear.”
Instead, she encourages applicants to get specific about the experiences they can genuinely envision themselves having at URochester. “We want to know what clubs you want to join, what classes or faculty you’re excited to engage with, or what experiences you hope to have with your classmates,” she said.
Looking back, I think that is what I was ultimately looking to accomplish with my own application. I wanted the person reading it to see not only what I had done in high school, but what mattered to me and the person I hoped to become at URochester.
For prospective students staring at a blank supplemental essay, that might be a useful place to begin: not with what you think an admissions counselor wants to hear, but with what genuinely excites you about the possibility of calling URochester home.