Over the last few weeks, several parents have sent me the same kind of message. A screenshot of a headline: this university has dropped its essay. Sometimes a second line follows, and it is usually some version of relief. At least there will be less to write this year.
I get the feeling. By July, a Class 12 family is staring at the personal statement, the activity list, SAT dates, school exams and a college list that still is not final. Any reduction in the pile sounds like found time, and for a student also carrying board preparation or an entrance exam, the relief is genuine. The time freed up will help. I would still be careful about what families conclude from the change.
What has actually changed
Since April, six US universities have cut or reduced a supplemental essay requirement for the 2026-27 cycle, the cycle your child enters if they are applying this year. The six announcements were not identical, so the headline alone does not tell a family what has disappeared and what still needs to be written.
Washington University in St. Louis went first, dropping an essay that was technically optional but that students often felt obliged to complete. It kept a 250-word essay on what the student wants to study. The University of Georgia retired its well-known “book essay”, saying one essay gives its readers what they need. Tulane paused its “Why Tulane?” prompt. Cornell removed its university-wide essay but kept prompts for the specific college or school; for example, its engineering applicants still write six responses. The University of Miami dropped a 250-word community essay, and UNC-Chapel Hill removed both of its short-answer questions.
A year earlier, the University of Virginia had made a similar move. Its subsequent application numbers are useful, although they do not tell us why the pool grew.
Why colleges say they are doing it
The colleges gave slightly different reasons, although applicant workload came up often. A National Association for College Admission Counseling committee on student mental health recently recommended that colleges simplify their admissions processes. Grace James, WashU’s assistant vice provost for undergraduate admissions, told Inside Higher Ed that students did not experience the optional essay as optional and that it often repeated information elsewhere in the application. Georgia’s admissions director, David Graves, wrote on the university’s admissions blog that the personal essay gave his office what it needed.
Some admissions offices also questioned how much new information they were getting. A student can collect course names, faculty details and club descriptions online, then assemble a competent “why us” response without knowing the college particularly well. AI makes that easier. Tulane’s dean of admissions cited the rise of AI-written applications as one reason for pausing its essay. The other schools did not name AI, and WashU told the same publication that AI was not part of its decision. I would not use Tulane’s explanation to tell a story about all six colleges.
What UVA’s numbers tell us
Virginia removed its supplemental essay a full cycle before this group, giving us one earlier admissions cycle to examine. Many things can change an applicant pool from one year to the next, so the numbers need some care.
After the essay requirement went, UVA’s total applications rose from about 64,000 to over 82,000, a jump of roughly 27 percent. Regular decision applications alone rose by more than half. The university made 10,287 offers, which works out to an admit rate near 12 percent. In regular decision, out-of-state applicants were admitted at under 7 percent.
UVA has not attributed that surge to the essay change, and no outsider can separate one cause from everything else in that admissions year. The Independent Educational Consultants Association expects fewer writing requirements to increase application volume, although that is a forecast rather than an explanation of UVA’s numbers. Whatever drove the increase, roughly the same number of offers was spread across a much larger pool. Families should not read a shorter application as a sign that admission has become easier.
What this changes for an Indian applicant
For a student applying from India, the “why us” essay was more than another writing task. It was one of the few places to explain college interest in the student’s own words. Campus visits are uncommon, and a local interview may not be available. The essay gave a student in Gurgaon or Coimbatore a way to show what they had learned about the college and why it suited them. Six schools now offer less room for that than before.
The prompt also forced students to do useful research. To fill 250 words, a student read the course catalogue, checked whether the program allowed the flexibility she needed and noticed the cost of living in that town. Without the prompt, a college can be added without any of that work. I would still ask every student to do the research, even when nobody asks for an essay about it.
At these colleges, an admissions reader will see fewer extended responses in the student’s own words. I would use some of the saved time on the personal statement, while resisting the temptation to turn it into a compressed résumé. The reader already has the activity list. The essay needs to show how the student thinks. Students coming through school systems that rarely ask for personal, reflective writing often need several attempts before that essay begins to sound like them.
The six colleges did not make the same change. Cornell kept its college-specific essays, and WashU kept the question about what the student wants to study. Georgia, Miami and UNC kept nothing beyond the personal statement. Tulane has paused “Why Tulane?”; applicants should check its current application before finalising their essay plan. Where an academic-interest question remains, a student still needs concrete reasons for the chosen field. A few course names added in September will not do that work.
WashU has also begun considering demonstrated interest and added a non-binding early action round. WashU’s move should not be read as a pattern across all six colleges. At a college that considers demonstrated interest, use the channels it publishes: virtual sessions, department webinars, regional events and genuine questions when you have them. There is no need to manufacture contact simply to be noticed.
There is also a practical question for Indian applicants: where will unfamiliar school context go? An American reader may not know what leading a school house involves, how a CBSE or ISC timetable works, how much time JEE preparation took alongside school, or what a family responsibility demanded each week. When those details are relevant, they belong in an activity description or the Additional Information section. They should not be forced into the personal statement merely because another essay disappeared.
I do not want families to overcorrect after six colleges have moved. Most highly selective universities still require supplements, and Inside Higher Ed concluded that it was too early to call this a broader trend. Check every college rather than rebuilding the essay plan around an assumed trend.
Families applying to the UK alongside the US will see a related move. UCAS has replaced its free-form personal statement with three structured questions for 2026 entry, keeping the 4,000 characters but telling applicants what to answer.
What I would do before August
If your child is applying this cycle, I would make the following changes before August.
- Re-audit every college’s requirements for 2026-27. These changes were announced between April and July, so last year’s spreadsheet or a senior’s experience may already be stale. Check the admissions page of each college itself.
- Use some of the freed hours to revise the personal statement. We have written before that college essays do not start with the prompt. This is a good time for another exercise or an early draft, before deadline pressure takes over.
- Do the research the prompt used to force. For every college that survives your audit, your child should still be able to say why this place, in their own words, even when nobody is asking for 250 words on it. If they cannot answer, the college probably needs another look.
- Decide where important context will go. If something about your child’s schooling needs explaining, choose now whether it belongs in an activity description or the Additional Information section, and write it for a reader who has never seen an Indian school.
- Resist adding “easy-apply” colleges to the list. UVA’s surge had many possible causes, but a short application is still a poor reason to add a college. We made the longer case in why longer college lists are not always safer.
- Where a college offers an optional video or other supplement, read its guidance and submit it only if it adds something useful that the application does not already show.
- For colleges that consider demonstrated interest, follow their published channels. Attend a useful session or event, and ask a question when you genuinely have one. Do not create activity merely to appear interested.
For a Class 12 student, fewer essays are welcome. I would put the saved time into the application already planned rather than use it to add more colleges. That may mean another personal-statement draft, a closer look at an academic program or a clearer explanation of an unfamiliar part of the student’s school life.
At AltView, this is the kind of shift we track so families do not have to decode it from headlines. If your child is applying this year and you want to re-check the essay plan and the college list against these changes, you can book a discovery call with us.
