Recently, colleges like Tulane, the University of Miami, and Washington University in St Louis have eliminated supplemental essays that once gave students a dedicated space to explain why they were interested in the institution. Years ago, Tulane’s “Why Tulane?” essay was 650 words. More recently, it was 250 words. Now it’s gone entirely.

Every time a college announces it’s dropping a supplemental essay, I can hear the cheers from high school students: “One less essay to write!”

And yes, on the surface, that sounds like great news.

But our message to our students is, don’t mistake fewer essays for less work. In fact, it may mean students need to be even more intentional about showing colleges why they are a strong match.

If there isn’t a supplemental essay asking, “Why us?” then students need to communicate that fit elsewhere:

• Through the activities they choose to pursue
• Through the stories they tell in their personal statement
• Through the qualities teachers highlight in recommendation letters
• Through demonstrated interest and engagement
• Through the way they show up in their communities

Students still need to understand a college’s mission, values, culture, and opportunities. They still need to research programs, read admissions emails, follow campus news, attend virtual events, and learn what types of students thrive there.

So they may not need to distill it into a 250-word supplemental essay, but it doesn’t mean they can take the summer off. Colleges will now look for evidence of fit throughout the entire application rather than in a single designated essay.

When we work with students, we make sure they have at least 5 real reasons other than “it’s pretty” or “it has a biology major” for why they feel a particular school is a “right fit” for them and then help them show how they are a “right fit” for that school.

• We look at a school’s mission statement
• We look at their educational philosophy: in other words, do they have a flexible curriculum or a more structured core curriculum
• We help them understand what specific opportunities they have outside of the classroom for undergraduate students: research, co-ops, etc
• We do a deeper dive on majors, asking students to tell us if there are at least 5 majors that “sound interesting” to them, that maybe one day they may want to pursue
• For our neuro-diverse students, we search for what supports they can access at particular schools
• For our students with dietary restrictions, we search for options and safeguards put in place for them (in fact, we have so many students who have Celiac or are gluten-free that, because of our research, we have some students creating “Your Girlfriends Guide to Eating Gluten Free at College” resource sheet.

And this is just the beginning; we sit with students to understand their pillars, categories that are important to them in their college experience, and give them the structure to fully understand “why” a school is right for them and they are right for the school, even if they don’t need to write a 250-word essay.

So before celebrating and heading off to the beach, our message to our Class of 2027 is: remember, the students who stand out in an increasingly crowded applicant pool won’t simply be the ones who clicked “submit.”

They’ll be the ones who spend time understanding where they belong and then demonstrate that fit through every part of their application process.

We’ll be the ones who guide them through it.