Introducing a New Unit of College Essay Measurement – a Princeton

One of the worst parts about college admissions is that there are more and more universities requiring essays. The topics never seem to end.

Essay requirements are expanding to universities that never used to require them. For example, some less selective universities that admit more than 75% of their applicants like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Auburn, still require essays. I get it that Stanford or Michigan need essays to evaluate students beyond their academics, but when some non-selective universities like Wyoming or Loyola in New Orleans admit 95% of their applicants also require essays, that shows that our system is absolute madness.

Essay requirements deter students from applying, especially those from low-income communities and first-generation families. I follow admissions counselors Facebook groups, and they always celebrate when universities go test-optional. I’ve never seen a post applauding removing an essay requirement.

It’s insane that more and more universities require essays when they could admit almost every student based solely on their academics.

Holistic review and their essay requirements are like a computer virus infecting the admissions processes of colleges everywhere.

It is true that a generation ago most universities only looked at your academics. That isn’t true today. Unless a student intends to enroll at a community college, it is almost certain that you will need to submit at least one essay.

Parents often say to me: “I don’t ever remember me or anyone I knew having to write a single college essay, let alone three dozen.” And they’re right!

It isn’t just the number of universities that require essays, but the number of essays for each university.

I want to introduce a new unit of measurement for how much each university requires – a Princeton.

Princeton requires around 1,000 words worth of supplements beyond the Common Application essay. A university receives a Princeton for every 1,000 words worth of supplements they require. Programs that are less selective than Princeton yet have more demanding requirements signal dysfunction in that program’s requirements.

The winner for the highest Princeton quotient I’ve ever seen is Penn State Shreyers Honors along with the combined MBA/BS program. In total, there are 20 essays amounting to over 7,500 words, or 7.5 Princetons.

UT-Dallas’s former McDermott Scholars full-ride scholarship program required 10 essays for around 5,000 words, or 5 Princetons.

It’s often hard to know the Princeton quotient upfront because universities are terrible about publishing their requirements. Students often learn about requirements only after accessing the Common Application or even after submission for honors programs and scholarships that have hidden requirements. Even for universities that don’t require essays for regular admission like the University of Kansas, applying to their honors programs requires nearly 2,000 words worth of essays, or two Princetons.

The University of Southern California is one of the worst offenders of the Princeton quotient.

In addition to a silly set of list questions required of all applicants, which I discuss in a future post, most majors have additional requirements. USC is terrible about publishing in advance which programs require what essays. Many USC applicants are surprised to see their requirements double or even triple depending on their first and second choice programs.

For example, USC Marshall’s World Bachelor in Business requires a video introduction and four additional essays whose requirements you only learn after making the Common Application because the topics aren’t listed on their website.

One question for USC’s Dornsife school gives students the challenging task of writing in 250 words about a hypothetical ten-minute speech if they “had the attention of a million people,” disregarding that a ten-minute speech amounts to 2,000 words or more. Plus, why can’t they just ask what would be your TED Talk?

Applicants to Computer Science and Engineering must submit two additional essays, while applications for USC’s Iovine and Andre Young Academy must write a different essay and film a one-minute video. Applicants to both Dornsife and the Iovine Academy programs as their first and second choices need to submit materials for all of the above, around three Princetons, or 3,000 words.

An explosion of essay topics is unique to undergraduate American universities.

No other countries in the world have such a system, and applicants for American law, medical, or graduate schools usually have to write one or at most two essays for everywhere that they apply.

The Princeton measurement offers a convenient shorthand to determine how much work all of your colleges require. If you’re trying to decide which universities to trim from your list, consider starting with the ones that require the most essays and have the highest Princeton quotients. Consider adding on your college Excel spreadsheet a cell for “Princeton Quotient.”

The simplest explanation for why universities are adopting essay requirements and increasing the number of essays required is because that’s what everyone else is doing.

The lemming effect describes a popular myth about a type of rodent that lives in packs. One lemming jumps off the cliff, and the others follow to their death. Less selective universities follow their elite neighbors over the essay requirement cliff when it’s totally unnecessary to adequately admit enough of their applicants.

These less selective universities want to give the impression of prestige and “inclusion.” Oklahoma University and Auburn aren’t fooling anyone into thinking they’re elite by claiming that they review their applicants holistically.

Additional essay requirements privilege wealthy students who are savvier about the admissions process and are more likely to begin their applications early. Essay requirements punish students who don’t receive coaching, do not attend resource-rich high schools, and who do not have college-educated parents.

A good rule of thumb for whether a program is sincere about diversity and inclusion is if their Princeton quotient is low or non-existent. Families and high school educators should call out less selective universities who have demanding essay requirements.

There’s no reason Penn State should require 20 essays of some applicants or for USC to not publish their requirements upfront and clearly. The easiest way for colleges and programs to promote access and increase their application numbers is to decrease essay requirements and make their topics more transparent.