The Elimination of Supplemental Essays and Changing Admissions Priorities

The declining role of essays in admissions means changes in the admissions process. 

We last wrote about the elimination of supplemental college essays in November of last year. With the past few months seeing high-profile schools like Tulane, The University of Georgia and Washington University of St. Louis deemphasizing supplemental essays we thought it would be a good time to revisit the issue and how it is likely to impact the admissions process.

When considering the recent actions by Tulane, Georgia, and WUSTL, it's important to recognize that the reduction and removal of supplemental essays have been underway for a while. In 2025 UVA and TCU eliminated essay requirements, and Duke deemphasized them. These schools joined others like Colby, Holy Cross, Indiana, Middlebury, Northeastern, Ohio State, Wesleyan, and Williams, which do not require additional essays. The reasons for eliminating supplemental essays are varied; some institutions cite the conclusion of DEI initiatives, while others point to the increasing impact of AI, which makes essays less useful for admissions offices. Additionally, there's a desire to simplify the admissions process for students and families who feel increasingly overwhelmed. Finally, in an environment with tightening admissions yields and a declining number of applicants, it's evident that school concerns about enrollment trends also play a role, as application volumes tend to increase when the extra essay requirement is removed.

For applicants, the key question is how the removal of essays will affect admissions at the schools that are eliminating them.

First and foremost, students should expect a larger number of applicants and increased competition at any school that eliminates their supplemental essay requirement.

That said, students should also expect changes in the applicant selection process as well. One obvious impact is the increasing focus schools will place on the Common App essay. Our conversations would also lead us to believe that an increasing amount of highly specific school detail, less likely to be included in an AI produced essay, will be key to ‘good’ essays at the schools still requiring supplemental essays.

Beyond essays, we believe communications with regional representatives are becoming

more important as a channel not only to express interest and potentially impact predictive enrollment models but also to give the school representative a sense of who the applicant is. Questions to a representative can help paint a picture of a candidate’s interests and who they are. These questions are also likely to be saved by the enrollment management software used in most admissions departments.

Finally, similar to what we observed in November, we still believe that the most overlooked consequence of reducing or eliminating supplemental essays is the growing significance of optional (though not really optional) admissions videos. In these videos, students briefly respond to a question or talk about themselves. We have noticed that many colleges that have reduced the emphasis on supplemental essays now offer the option for videos, a trend we expect to grow. With video supplements available at institutions like Bowdoin, Brown, Boston University, Case Western, Chicago, Claremont McKenna, Colby, Duke, Middlebury, Northwestern, Swarthmore, and Vanderbilt (among others), we anticipate that applicants aiming for top schools will increasingly concentrate on crafting a compelling video. This is an increasingly important service provided by forward-thinking college counselors. Ultimately, the decreasing use of supplemental essays at a growing number of top schools means students have to be more aggressive using channels of introduction and communication that many have traditionally been less comfortable using.