Here’s a list of colleges and universities that changed their supplemental essay prompts in 2023, following the SCOTUS decision to ban race-conscious admission:
Two Notes to Contextualize This Spreadsheet
This list represents some of the colleges and universities that students and counselors most frequently Google, and largely corresponds to the list of schools for which we have written free supplemental essay guides (because those are the ones we wanted to update first).
This list is by no means exhaustive, and these schools aren’t necessarily the “best,” and shouldn’t be the only schools you should apply to. Here’s our guide to developing a balanced college list.
Some Things You May Be Wondering About (anticipated FAQ)
What percentage of colleges and universities changed their prompts?
Many universities (like the University of California, for example) kept their prompts the same, and still many others that didn’t require essays (like the CalStates, for instance) still don’t require essays. But of the 74 guides we have (and with a few colleges still having not updated at time of posting), we discovered that more than 55 colleges and universities made small changes (small prompt phrasing or word count changes) or major changes (big re-wordings or a new prompt, both of which affect how to approach writing). This represents more than 70% of universities we have guides for who have released prompts making changes. (Though how well this correlates with all schools that have supplemental prompts, we don’t know.)
Did we notice any trends in the kinds of colleges that changed their prompts?
We noticed many of the colleges that changed their prompts are selective (lower than 25% acceptance rate), and many are highly selective (lower than 10% acceptance rate).
Which new prompt seemed to be most popular?
I (Ethan) was curious, so I tagged each of the new prompts and found the most popular new prompt to be some version of the “contribution” prompt, asking what students might bring to the college community. (Example: “Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?”) The next most popular ones are covered in our guide to writing the different types of diversity supplemental essays.
Are most of the prompts required or optional?
Many of the new supplemental essay prompts we found were optional, and in many cases students were given the choice between a prompt related to diversity/inclusion or something else altogether. Some notable exceptions include the new Cornell prompt and the new Harvard prompt.
Why did so many colleges change their supplemental essay prompts?
This is very much an “it depends,” and the answer will be particular to different colleges, but based on conversations I’ve had with dozens of admission officers in the past few months, here’s what I’ve gathered:
Colleges want to enroll a diverse class of students.
They will no longer be able to know the race of students applying.
So they’re looking for other ways to learn about the diversity of their applicant pool (including but not limited to race) and the supplemental essays are a pretty good way to do that.
What if I notice a prompt that’s changed that you don’t list here?
Fill out this Google form and we’ll include it!
Do you have any resources and guides to help students answer these prompts?
We do. Check ‘em out:
A Brief Guide to Answering the Diversity (and Other Related) Supplemental Essay Prompt(s)
In this guide, you’ll find a walk through of the most common prompts, including sample essays, and the best darn brainstorm exercise (in my humble opinion) for finding your topics.
Here’s an example of an application written by a student who elected to discuss her race but—and this is important—she was careful to connect her race to her character and unique qualities she’d bring to a college community.
(More) College Admission Resources Following the SCOTUS decision to Race-Conscious Admission
You’ll find links to podcast episodes, resources for college counselors, college admission officers and more.
