Anonymous wrote:In all honesty, if your kid isn’t willing to write a 250-500 word supplemental essay, they are going to hate any elite or private university. My kids are both at small top 20s and have written their asses off. My freshman has already written four 5-7 page papers for two of her classes, and several smaller writing assignments. Her other two classes are comp sci and calculus, so luckily no paper writing in those. My senior has written papers for most of her classes as an Econ major outside of math and programming classes, and will spend her last semester writing a thesis.
Large public universities with large lecture classes rarely require writing unless the student is in a writing based major. The professors just can’t read and grade hundreds of papers. Large universities love multiple choice scantron tests.

NP. Came to say basically this, the bold above.

I suspect the issue for many on this thread is either "My kid wants to apply to a long list of 'elites' and doesn't have time/bandwidth to do so many essays" and/or "My kid doesn't like to write that much/doesn't know what to say/doesn't want to make the effort to tailor essays for specific schools."

Neither is a good way to think about the process. As another PP already noted, if something is listed as optional but it's for a college you really want -- you do the optional essay. If a kid is applying to places based on avoiding essays, that's a terrible criterion to use in something as serious as applying for college. A student who can't manage, or is intimidated by, multiple admissions essays of so few words (and these are so short they aren't even really "essays") is going to find it a struggle to deal with the homework load and test expectations in a lot of colleges. I know, DCUM, I know: It's all about just getting the acceptance and your kids will do great once they're in the door, college homework isn't like these essays, etc. etc. I know how the responses on DCUM run. But letting "no supplementals, hooray!" be the way a kid picks places--that's setting the bar pretty low.

Anonymous wrote:Since my kid doubted her chances a couple of years ago, she tried to limit her applications to colleges that required less writing. Most of the Ivies and Stanford have quite a few, but she applied to Cornell and only had to write one specifically for CALS and Northwestern only had a short "Why Northwestern?" essay back then. Several of LACs like Wesleyan, Carleton, Middlebury, Bowdoin (might've been 1-2 essays), Grinnell (optional "why Grinnell"), Oberlin, Swarthmore (1), Macalester (1-2?), Kenyon, etc. had very little additional writing required other than the Common App essay. I think Emory and Duke had 2-3 essays (some optional).

What were her stats and where did she end up? I’m only asking as this list looks like what my kids might be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nor sure if this is elite (some people think it is), but Northeastern did not have supplemental essays last year.

Northeastern?

No it's not.

Stat wise such as SAT/ACT, Outcome, Acceptance rate, Retention/Graduation rate, etc., it's certainly elite level.

Ranking wise(USN&WR) it's 'only' #44, but considering there are 2832 of 4 years colleges/universities, it's probably not a bad idea to call it elite.

However everyone has their own definition of elite just like everyone has an a$$hole, so you are good

Anonymous wrote:My kid will be a humanities major. She has a large load even as a senior and they are not letting up because of college apps. She will be fine writing a lot in college, but she absolutely thinks the many essays are a big lift on top of everything else.

Same here for my senior DS. The workload is insane unless you're quick-witted, and lots of intelligent and capable people are not that quick-witted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The question was about elite schools. In what world are Pitt, W&M, Clemson, Northeastern, Wake Forest, and Oberlin "elite"?

Amherst, Williams, and I believe Swarthmore have no additional essays, if any of those fit your definition of elite.

Towson and UMD do not have essays -- only a few brief questions.

UMD has the personal statement required by the Common App. Not that UMD is elite in any way, but just saying.

Colby

Hamilton might not have supplements

My kid will be a humanities major. She has a large load even as a senior and they are not letting up because of college apps. She will be fine writing a lot in college, but she absolutely thinks the many essays are a big lift on top of everything else.

Anonymous wrote:Nor sure if this is elite (some people think it is), but Northeastern did not have supplemental essays last year.

Northeastern?

No it's not.

Anonymous wrote:In all honesty, if your kid isn’t willing to write a 250-500 word supplemental essay, they are going to hate any elite or private university. My kids are both at small top 20s and have written their asses off. My freshman has already written four 5-7 page papers for two of her classes, and several smaller writing assignments. Her other two classes are comp sci and calculus, so luckily no paper writing in those. My senior has written papers for most of her classes as an Econ major outside of math and programming classes, and will spend her last semester writing a thesis.
Large public universities with large lecture classes rarely require writing unless the student is in a writing based major. The professors just can’t read and grade hundreds of papers. Large universities love multiple choice scantron tests.

I agree with the above. Yale and Harvard have a lot of extra essays. My kid was griping- especially because the odds of getting in are so low. But if your kid is unwilling to write the extra essays they probably don't belong at a top 10 school.

Anonymous wrote:Harvard essay is optional

hahhahqhhhahahhhahh
Nothing is really optional if you don't do it you don't get in!

UVA supplemental "essays" are not essays. Short answer questions actually. Two 50 words & one 100 words answers. 50 words is like 3 sentences.

Anonymous wrote:The question was about elite schools. In what world are Pitt, W&M, Clemson, Northeastern, Wake Forest, and Oberlin "elite"?

Well, Wake Forest is ranked 29. Do you only count the schools ranked 1-20 as elite?

Wake Forest actually has quite a few supplemental essays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all honesty, if your kid isn’t willing to write a 250-500 word supplemental essay, they are going to hate any elite or private university. My kids are both at small top 20s and have written their asses off. My freshman has already written four 5-7 page papers for two of her classes, and several smaller writing assignments. Her other two classes are comp sci and calculus, so luckily no paper writing in those. My senior has written papers for most of her classes as an Econ major outside of math and programming classes, and will spend her last semester writing a thesis.
Large public universities with large lecture classes rarely require writing unless the student is in a writing based major. The professors just can’t read and grade hundreds of papers. Large universities love multiple choice scantron tests.

Writing based majors are usually less valueable and close to useless sometimes.

Lol. No they aren’t. I make $300k a year doing thought leadership (ie marketing content) for a Fortune 100 company. They are desperate for good writers.

Anonymous wrote:clemson

OP used the modifier ‘elite’ though