The supplementals decide more than students think
By Ryan Jaffe ·
Students pour everything into the personal statement and then write the short answers the night before. The short answers are often the ones that tip a decision, because they are the only place a school can tell whether you actually know anything about it.
A why-this-school answer that names the weather, the prestige, or the beautiful campus is an answer about every school. One that names a specific course, a professor whose work overlaps yours, or a program you can describe accurately is an answer only you could have submitted.
That requires twenty minutes of real research per school. Not a brochure phrase — something you could bring up in conversation.
Do these in deadline order, earliest first, and nothing gets written in a panic.