Supplemental Essay Prompts 2026-27: Every School in the Directory, With Counts and Limits

Of the 153 schools in our directory, 90 publish their prompts for 2026-27 on their own admissions pages, 44 ask for no supplement this cycle, and 19 print theirs only inside the application. The tables below say how many essays each school asks for and how long they can be. The prompts themselves are quoted in full, with word limits and the day we read them, on each school’s own page here; every school name links to it. Every entry was last read on or after October 24, 2026.

Two rules shape this list. A prompt is recorded only from the school’s own site, never from an aggregator, and a question the school prints only inside the Common App is recorded as unreadable rather than copied from somewhere else. And no deadlines appear anywhere on this site: each school’s page links the school’s own deadline page, which is the only one that is right on the day you read it.

What the prompts ask

The 388 prompts in the library sort into a small number of questions. Counted across every school with prompts listed, from most to least common:

• Your academic interest · 79: what you want to study and why, usually with the school's own programs in mind.
• Identity and background · 56: where you come from and what it taught you; the Common App's first prompt, in miniature.
• Community and contribution · 53: a community you belong to and what you have done for it.
• Intellectual curiosity · 51: an idea you chased without being asked, and how far you went.
• Why this school · 42: what you would do with what this school in particular has. The why-this-college guide takes this one apart.
• An activity · 29: one activity, explained rather than listed.
• A challenge · 27: a setback and what changed afterward.
• Something else · 24: questions that fit none of these: a book, a quotation, a value the school names.
• Creative or playful · 15: a playful or unusual prompt where the answer's form is part of the answer.
• Open topic · 12: anything you want the committee to know that the application does not show.

Schools with prompts published

Schools with no supplement this cycle

The personal statement is the whole of the writing at these schools. Their pages here say so, with the date we checked, and a school that adds a supplement mid-cycle moves to the table above.

Prompts printed only inside the application

These schools refer to their questions on their own pages without printing them, so the text exists only behind a Common App or Coalition login. We do not copy prompts from third-party sites, so each row says what the school’s page does say.

The AI rules cover supplements too

A school’s rule on AI in application essays applies to its supplements as much as to the personal statement, and the supplements are where most applicants are tempted, because there are more of them and less time. Each school’s page prints its prompts under its policy for that reason. The directory quotes every published rule, and the list of outright bans is short enough to check against your list in a minute.

How this list is kept

Every entry is re-read against the school’s page on the directory’s schedule, and the date in the last column is the day that happened for that school. A prompt that changes wording, a limit that moves, a school that drops its supplement: each appears on the changelog with its date. If a school’s page says something different from what its row here says, the contact page is the fastest way to get it fixed; include the school’s URL.