Boston University often called simply BU, is a private research institution in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a lot of colleges, but BU is the largest with about 32k undergrads. BU has an acceptance rate of about 14%. BU’s acceptance rate has been falling pretty dramatically over the last ten years and has become competitive to get into. Their supplement is fairly short, but we wanted to break it down to give you the best chance of getting in.

Scripps is a small private liberal arts women’s college in Claremont, CA, and is part of the 7 Claremont Colleges. Notable alumnae include a variety of artists, Bill Clinton’s house counsel Beth Nolan, and Representative Gabby Giffords. Their most popular majors include biology, social science, psychology, communications, natural resources and conservation, and English.

Claremont McKenna College is a private liberal arts college located in Claremont, California. It’s small, with just 8,500 students and is part of the consortium of Claremont Colleges along with seven other schools. Each one presents a different focus of sorts. McKenna’s is the social sciences. Last year’s acceptance rate was 11.2 percent. The school has two required supplemental essays and one optional video assignment. But as we always say at TKG, nothing is optional when it comes to college applications

Brown is kind of having a moment. It has become a favorite school of the Ivy League for many of the students we work with. Brown is a private university in Providence, Rhode Island. Their acceptance rate has been seeing historic lows and was around 5% for the. They are known for their liberal arts feel, Open Curriculum model, and creative student body. Brown’s supplement is fairly short, at least compared to some of the other Ivy Leagues, but students do have to write 3 additional mini-essays to be considered. We want to break these down and give you some tips about how to approach the Brown supplement.

Occidental College is a small private liberal arts college located in Los Angeles, California. When they were founded in 1887, they wanted to be the Princeton of the West, so naturally they adopted the orange and black and tiger mascot. Subtle. Occidental, or Oxy for those ~in the know~, has a 38% acceptance rate and popular majors include Econ, International Relations, Poli Sci, Biology, and Psychology. They’re also a really diverse school, with 45% domestic students of color, and community service is huuuuge with students.

Davidson College, located in Davidson, North Carolina, is an extremely small, private, liberal arts school (fewer than 2,000 undergraduates). It’s competitive to get into, with last year’s admit rate falling at Davidson has two essay prompts this year which are relatively straight-forward. Let’s dive in.

Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, CA, just outside of L.A. It’s part of the 7 Claremont Colleges – which if you are unfamiliar, is a consortium of schools that all share one giant campus, resources, and even classes. Each school has it’s own distinct personality which will allow you to get specific about why that particular school fits your larger goals. Pitzer is very big into sustainability, and it’s even listed in their prompt as a key core value. Pitzer has around a 15% acceptance rate and a small student population, so making sure your supplemental essays are in tip-top shape are important.

Amherst College is a small, private, liberal arts school in…you guessed it…Amherst, MA. It’s an extremely academically competitive school to gain admittance, with a this past application year. There are about 1,800 undergraduates and it’s a part of a five-college consortium, which includes UMass Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith.

Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is a historically women’s liberal arts college. It’s a part of the Seven Sisters schools (Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Wellesley College are still women's colleges. Vassar is co-ed and Radcliffe was absorbed by Harvard) and the Five College Consortium ( Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst). Lotta school names, we know. Mount Holyoke has a 38% acceptance rate and a technically optional supplement. Frequent readers of the blog know there is no such thing as optional.

Give it up for Barnard, Columbia’s extremely smart, cool, insightful, wise sister. Barnard is not the same as Columbia University, but it is an affiliated college that was created after some very outspoken women said, “please give us our own college if we want to study, live, and learn in female-dominated spaces, but let’s stay close by, let us learn at Columbia in a co-ed environment (*only if we want!*), and share a bunch of resources, OK?” True queens. And so, Barnard was born 133 years ago.

The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson (oooh) and has been home to countless Rhodes Scholars, astronauts, governors, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Tina Fey. It’s located in Charlottesville, Virginia and offers over 49 majors and boasts some of the the best undergraduate nursing programs and business programs in the country. For 2022, UVA had a record-low 19% acceptance rate, with over 50,000 students applying. UVA’s known as a public Ivy, and it’s only going to get more competitive over time.

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois – about 40 minutes away from Chicago. Although, at the time of writing this, Google Maps says you can get there in 35. Northwestern is famous for its journalism program, which boasts a #4 ranking out of all undergraduate journalism programs in the country – and it’s a hard school to get into too, with a 7% acceptance rate. Northwestern has approximately 9,000 undergraduates and one of the largest endowments of any college, 16.1 billion. Famous alumni include Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Pharrell, George R. R. Martin, Seth Meyers, and Megan, Duchess of Sussex. And potentially you!!

Macalester College is a private school in St. Paul, Minnesota. With an urban setting important to its character, Macalester has an undergrad population of about 2,000 students. There are no graduate students and the majority of kids study abroad at some point in their college career. They also have cross-program offerings with four other liberal arts schools in the state. The acceptance rate is 32%. Below, we offer some advice on how to tackle the supplement:

Mount Holyoke is a private liberal arts college (and a historically women’s college) located in South Hadley, Massachusetts. MoHo, as its students and alumni affectionally call it, is the oldest of the Seven Sisters (7 women’s colleges in the northeast). This sister describes itself as being “gender diverse” and is committed to “equal access to opportunity.” It’s also part of the Five College Consortium, offering classes at other nearby schools. The acceptance rate is 38%.

Scripps College is a small women’s liberal arts school in Claremont, CA. Scripps is small (about 1,100 undergrads) but it’s also one of the five Claremont Colleges, along with Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, and Pitzer. The acceptance rate is about 35% Here’s our advice on how to tackle the two-part supplement:

The University of Richmond is a private liberal arts school in Richmond, Virginia. It’s on a suburban campus with about 3,200 undergrads, most of whom live on campus. The school emphasizes research for its student body and while it’s small, it’s a Division I school. The acceptance rate is 28%. Below are some tips for diving into the supplement: