With an admission rate of just 18 percent, the University of Michigan is a highly selective school, which means you’ll need a strong application to stand out among the more than 100,000 students who apply each year. Admission to this top-ranked public school requires a well-rounded application that includes excellent grades and test scores, a varied activities list, great recommendation letters—which most applicants will have. Here’s where your essays, including the Common App personal statement and the UMich supplemental essays, can help you stand out from the crowd.
Once you’ve written a great personal statement, it’s time to tackle the supplemental essays. Let’s unpack these essays and take a deeper dive into how to write the UMich supplemental essays.
What Are Supplemental Essays?
Like the Common App personal statement, supplemental essays give you the opportunity to personalize your application and give colleges a look at who you are as a person beyond your academic record. This gives colleges more information to consider when evaluating your application.
Not all colleges require supplemental essays, but those that do ask you to address specific prompts. Because these essays are school-specific, they usually require more research than your personal statement, and it’s important that each of these essays highlight something different from your personal statement. It’s wise to look at the supplemental prompts for colleges you are considering early on—even before you begin writing your personal statement—so you can make sure your essay topics don’t overlap too much and give yourself enough time to do the research necessary to write a strong essay.
You can find general tips for writing supplemental essays in our Ultimate Guide to Writing Supplemental Essays, but below we’ll take a closer look specifically at the UMich supplemental essays and how to address each prompt.
UMich Supplemental Essays
The University of Michigan requires all applicants write two supplemental essays, with one optional essay for students who have extraordinary circumstances they’d like to be included in their admissions application:
- Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words/maximum 300 words)
- Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words/maximum 550 words)
- An optional essay related to the impact of challenges on the applicant. We encourage students to share their specific circumstances, and we will bring empathy and compassion to our holistic review process. (Max 250 words)
How to Write the the UMich Supplemental Essays
UMich Supplemental Essay 1
- Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words/maximum 300 words)
This prompt—what is described as a “Community” essay—can be broken down into two parts:
- Describe a community to which you belong.
- Describe your place in it.
Taken together, your answers to these two parts can tell admissions officers a lot about you: what is important to you, how you involve yourself in the communities you’re a part of, and how you might add to the mosaic of the UMich community.
The community you describe might be an in-person activity you’re involved with—a school or church group, a sports team, a choir or dance troupe, or a friend group that shares a common hobby—but it could be almost anything, even an online community around a shared interest.
The focus of your essay should be less on the community itself and more on your contributions to it. This will give admissions officers an impression about how you’ll contribute to the community at UMich. In fact, if there is a similar community at UMich that you think you’d like to be a part of, be sure to talk about it! This is where taking the time to research the school is important, since you’ll both show admissions officers you did your homework and give them an even clearer picture of how you see yourself contributing to the campus community.
UMich Supplemental Essay 2
- Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words/maximum 550 words)
The second UMich supplemental essay is a “Why College?” prompt, with a bit of “Why Major?” thrown in. Like the first prompt, it is really two questions:
- What unique qualities attract you to the College or School?
- How will the curriculum support your interests?
The University of Michigan is a bit unique in that students apply to a specific college or school, not to the university itself. So in this essay, you’ll focus on which of the university’s seven freshman-admitting schools and colleges—Architecture & Urban Planning; Art & Design; Engineering; Kinesiology; Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA); Music, Theater & Dance; and Nursing—you’re interested in, and why.
Again, research is important here: The admissions officers want to know what draws you to the school or college, so you’ll want to take a close look at the school that offers the major you’re interested in so you can speak to the “unique qualities” the prompt is asking for. Some majors— for example, Computer Science, which is offered in both LSA and Engineering—are offered in two different schools, with each major having a somewhat different focus. The factors you consider in deciding which school to apply to could well be the unique attributes the prompt is asking about.
The second question in the prompt relates to your choice of major. When considering this part of the prompt, ask yourself what about the program—and the college or school that offers it—will give you the education and experience you’re hoping to gain in college.
UMich Supplemental Essay 3 (Optional)
- An optional essay related to the impact of challenges on the applicant. We encourage students to share their specific circumstances, and we will bring empathy and compassion to our holistic review process. (Max 250 words)
The third, optional UMich supplemental essay, is part of the “Additional Information” on the Common App and will be reviewed by any school you apply to. UMich recommends that students take advantage of this opportunity to share circumstances that might impact their application, including physical/mental health challenges, family disruptions or obligations, community disruptions, housing instability/homelessness, natural disasters, or anything else that has had an extraordinary impact on you during high school. This information can help contextualize your application, especially if the circumstances adversely impacted your grades or ability to participate in extracurricular activities.
Conclusion
The UMich supplemental essays are a critical part of a well-rounded application, giving admissions officers insight into who you are as a person, what is important to you, and how you will contribute to the UMich community, both socially and academically. Taking the time to research the school and its programs, and thinking about both how the programs will support you and how you’ll contribute to the school community, will help you write compelling essays that strengthen your application and show the admissions officers why you’d be a positive addition to the school.
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