Several selective U.S. colleges are reducing or eliminating supplemental essays for the 2026–27 admissions cycle.
University of Miami, Tulane University, Washington University in St. Louis, and UNC–Chapel Hill are among the institutions changing their requirements.
Cornell University removed its university-wide essay but kept prompts assigned by individual undergraduate schools.
Fewer essays may reduce stress and simplify applications.
Easier requirements could also attract more applicants, increase competition, and lower acceptance rates.
Why Colleges Are Dropping Essays
Supplemental essays often require significant time, especially when students apply to several colleges.
Responses typically range between 150 and 650 words, while some institutions ask for multiple prompts. Stanford, for example, has required eight supplemental responses.
One college counselor reported that a student produced 30 pages of supplemental essays for nine applications. Such workloads add pressure for applicants balancing school, activities, jobs, testing, and scholarship forms.
Colleges are also questioning how much useful information certain prompts provide.
WashU found that applicants often treated its optional essay as mandatory and repeated details already included elsewhere. University of Georgia concluded that its second essay added little value besides the main personal statement.
Growing application totals have also increased the burden on admissions teams. Staff members may spend substantial time reviewing essays that do not meaningfully affect decisions.
Artificial intelligence has created another problem.
Tulane said generative AI made it harder to determine if “Why Tulane?” responses represented a student’s natural voice or polished machine-generated language.
Fewer prompts do not reduce the need for careful preparation. Applicants should treat every remaining section as an important part of the admissions file and avoid assuming that a shorter application requires less effort. A 650-word Common Application personal statement may become the main place to communicate personality, experiences, and personal growth. Applicants should focus on one clear experience, decision, challenge, interest, or relationship rather than summarizing their entire lives. Specific details and a natural voice usually communicate more than complicated vocabulary. Students who need help organizing ideas, improving clarity, or reviewing grammar may use academic support platforms such as WritePaperFor.Me, but the final personal statement should preserve the applicant’s own experiences, opinions, and natural voice. Activity descriptions carry more importance when school-specific essays disappear. Students should explain responsibilities, results, leadership, and time commitments instead of listing club names alone. Recommendation letters may also matter more. Applicants should ask teachers who can provide specific examples of their work, character, and classroom participation. Academic records continue to play a central role. Course difficulty, grade trends, school context, and performance in major subjects can strongly affect admission decisions. Test scores may receive more attention at colleges that require or consider them. Students should review each school’s current testing policy before applying. Interviews and video responses can communicate information that may no longer fit elsewhere. Memorized speeches often sound unnatural. Brief, specific stories usually communicate more than broad claims about ambition, curiosity, or leadership. Supplemental essays are being reduced, not eliminated, at every institution. Requirements may also differ by undergraduate school, major, scholarship, or honors program. Applicants should check official admissions pages before starting and again before submitting. Prompt wording, word limits, deadlines, and testing rules may change between cycles. A tracking document can record each school’s deadlines, required materials, essay limits, recommendation rules, and financial aid forms. Shorter applications may attract thousands of additional candidates. Reduced writing requirements can therefore make admission more competitive rather than easier. Students should build balanced college lists with likely, target, and highly selective options. Every application should still be complete, accurate, and carefully prepared. Changes differ by institution. Some colleges have removed all supplemental essays, while others have eliminated only broad or optional prompts and kept questions tied to academic interests. Tulane is pausing its “Why Tulane?” essay. School officials said the prompt may discourage qualified applicants and has become harder to evaluate because of AI-assisted writing. Interest may still be measured through campus visits, virtual programs, event attendance, and communication with admissions staff. Washington University in St. Louis removed one optional essay after finding that students often viewed it as required. A separate question about why an applicant selected a particular major is still part of the application. That response gives admissions officers more focused information about academic interests and goals. Admissions staff concluded that the response added little information beyond the main personal statement. Removing it also reduces the time needed to review a growing number of applications. Cornell removed its universitywide supplemental essay but kept prompts required by individual undergraduate schools. Applicants must still check the requirements for their selected school, since engineering, business, agriculture, and arts programs may request different responses. University of Miami and UNC-Chapel Hill eliminated supplemental essays for the 2026–27 cycle. Applicants will have fewer school-specific writing opportunities, placing more weight on the Common Application essay and other application materials. Texas Christian University and the University of Virginia made similar changes during the previous admissions cycle. Their decisions showed that reducing supplemental writing was already becoming more common before the newest changes were announced. Removing essays makes applications faster to complete, which may encourage students to apply to more colleges. Texas Christian University recorded an application increase of approximately 14 percent after eliminating two supplemental essays. Similar increases at other schools could create more competition without any major change in class size. Colleges may also appear more selective when application totals rise. A school admitting the same number of students out of a larger pool will report a lower acceptance rate. Applicants could lose a useful opportunity to communicate personality, leadership, interests, or institutional fit. One recent applicant completed 29 supplemental essays, plus additional writing for scholarships and honors programs, but valued the chance to discuss qualities that were not clear elsewhere in her application. Students with specialized academic interests, unusual experiences, or a strong connection to a particular college may have fewer places to explain those details. Demonstrated interest may include website visits, virtual tours, email engagement, event attendance, and campus visits. Greater reliance on these signals could benefit students with more time, money, or access to college counseling. Supplemental essays are not disappearing entirely, but colleges are reconsidering which prompts provide useful and authentic information. Reduced requirements may lower stress for students and ease review workloads for admissions teams. Larger applicant pools, however, may increase competition and produce lower acceptance rates. Applicants will need stronger personal statements, clearer activity descriptions, detailed recommendations, and close attention to changing requirements. Simpler applications may improve access, but they may also make selective admissions more crowded.
What Applicants Should Do
Give More Attention to the Common Application Essay
Strengthen Other Application Sections
Use Interviews and Video Responses Effectively
Check Every College’s Requirements
Do Not Assume Fewer Essays Mean Easier Admission
Colleges Making Changes
Tulane University
Washington University in St. Louis
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia eliminated a 250 to 300-word essay asking applicants to discuss a book they had read and enjoyed.Cornell University
University of Miami and UNC-Chapel Hill
TCU and the University of Virginia
Possible Effects on Admissions
Summary
