While the University of Chicago says there is no strict word limit on its supplemental essays, other schools prefer brevity. For example, Stanford University in California asks students to answer ...

3. Don’t Try to Be Funny Of course, there are some examples when a humorous essay helped students get into an Ivy League university, but the truth is, not everyone is funny. And it’s totally okay!

Some secondary essay questions are optional, but experts recommend answering them even though they're extra work. For example, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee asks ...