Tufts Blogs

Application advice month continues as we go through the next part of application checklist: the Writing Supplement!

The supplement is my favorite part of application reading, partly because it gives us the chance to get to know you better and partly because it gives you the opportunity to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack (or herd, seeing as we are the Jumbos).  The supplement is also the most important part of your application right now because it is really one of the only pieces you still have control over. Your transcript, your extracurricular involvements, your recommendations, these are now mostly out of your hands.  The supplement is your chance to tell us, on behalf of yourself, why you are a great addition to the Class of 2019 (or 2020 for the ever-eager juniors reading this).

When I’m looking to build a case for a student who I desperately want to accept, I go to straight to the source, straight to what you’ve written to us.  In Committee we don’t ask “was that an A or an A- in that class,” we ask “what did she write for Let Your Life Speak again?” because that’s where we get to learn the most about who you are and how you think.

Admittedly, there is no single right way to write a supplement, though there are some tricks you can use to make your supplement stand out (spell check being only one of them).  The best thing that you can do for yourself as you plan your essays is to have each one touch upon a different part of who you are or come at a topic from a different angle. If you are a tea-obsessed globetrotting chemist with a love of 1970s Swedish pop, use the various essays to highlight each individual piece. If your entire Tufts (and life) plan circulates around creating the first child-friendly Kindle, use the different essay prompts to show the different sides of why this project is so important to you.  These are fascinating bits of information that we use all of the time to explain why a student is perfect for Tufts, even if they don’t know it yet.  And while I can’t tell you what to write in your essays, I can certainly give you some guiding hints on how to write them.

First comes Why Tufts.  You’ll often hear us talk about “fit”, and Why Tufts is where we see it the most.  When we’re reading an application, we know that you’re behind those words and we want to make sure that you’ll be happy here.  Part of what we do when reading a Why Tufts is to see whether or not you’ve done your homework on us, what specifically about us you’re interested in.  Tell us about an academic program or research project or club that you’re interested in joining. Maybe you had a great tour and have been dreaming of elephants since or maybe you aren’t in love yet but you’ve got a big crush on us and are excited to see where that goes.  We want you to be as excited about us as we are excited about you.

The next up is Let Your Life Speak, and I always like this question because it asks not just who you are but why you are. What role did your family have in your upbringing? Was your guidance counselor or coach or teacher a role model to you? Are you fiercely proud of where you grew up? Diversity isn’t just what state you call home or what culture you grew up with, it’s also how you think about things and why.  When we look to create a well-rounded class, we look to this question to make sure we have students from all walks of life and all modes of thought so that when you come on campus you have the opportunity to interact with students who are different from you in the best ways possible.

The last is the choice of six essay prompts.  We want you to have fun with this question and I know I’m saying have fun writing college essays but hear me out.  You’ve spent most of your college application probably being serious, professional, and mature, but you’re 17, maybe 18 years old, and we want to see that fun playful side of you as well.  Use this question, whichever option you choose, to get excited about something!  This is where we learn that the pre-med Homecoming King captains both the football team and the slam poetry team; where we find out how the engineering student dreams of becoming the next Nikola Tesla; where we learn that the environmental studies major spent her summers working on the family orchard and plans to use her degree to create environmentally friendly pesticides. If you are fiercely passionate about something and haven’t told us about it yet, this is your chance.

So, my final advice? Take your essays and give them to someone who only kind of knows you, an old teacher, or a parent of a friend, and ask them to read them, just as we will do. Once they’re done, ask them what they know about you through those essays. If the person they describe back to you is spot on who you are, don’t touch them. If the person they describe back is a stranger to you, I might go back and try to add a bit more personality, a bit more you, into your supplement.  If you find yourself hitting a road block, take a break by doing something you love… and then write about that. These essays don’t have to be transcendental pieces of literary perfection, we just want to get to know you, the real you.