Guide/02 The Essay Course
Planning Your Supplements
How to organize dozens of supplemental prompts — the spreadsheet, the prompt-type map, what to write first, and how to reuse material without recycling essays.
Chapter 10 of 385 min readUpdated September 25, 2026 Preview
Applying to ten or fifteen selective schools can mean writing 30 to 50 supplemental essays and short answers. Without a plan, that's overwhelming. With one, it's manageable — because most schools are asking a handful of the same questions in different words.
This chapter gives you the system: a spreadsheet, a prompt-type map, and an order to write them in...
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What’s in this chapter
- 1The common supplement types
- 2Step 1: Build your supplement spreadsheet
- 3Step 2: Map your material
- 4Step 3: Write in the right order
- 5Reusing material vs. recycling essays
- 6Hitting very different word limits