Every year, millions of students across the world apply to American colleges and universities with aspirations of future success. The application process includes taking the SAT, sending colleges your academic transcript and asking teachers for recommendation letters. After fulfilling all these requirements, the applicant still has to write a personal Common Application essay, and often at least one supplemental essay.

Fortunately, some schools, including our own Washington University, only require applicants to write the Common Application essay, making it easy and simple for students to apply. I remember feeling overjoyed when I learned that at least one of the 10 colleges I applied to did not oblige applicants to write a supplemental essay.

Nevertheless, many elite institutions such as Yale University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Boston College require applicants to write a supplement essay to communicate interest in the university as well as the applicant’s own individuality. Although some of the essay prompts inspire students to think outside the box, others appear to be ridiculous and quirky.

In many cases, students have no choice but to attempt to artificially squeeze out creativity from their brains. Often, the prompts compel students to appear as imaginative and unique as possible. This begs the question of whether the supplemental essays really inspire students to show their true personalities, characteristics and backgrounds, or some artificially constructed version of themselves.

It is impossible for students to not worry about making their essays sound creative, even if they hide their true personality and deviate from their own values and beliefs. When I was writing my supplemental essays five to six years ago, I rarely thought about the possibility that my essays neither really represented my true self nor genuinely answered the prompts. Rather, I mainly focused on displaying myself as a creative student and a qualified candidate.

To my understanding, the supplemental essay’s purpose is to help colleges learn more about the applicant and determine if he or she has specific qualities and traits that they are looking for. Yet how can admissions officers know if the applicant belongs to the school or not when so many of them fake creativity?

Furthermore, thousands and thousands of students apply to college every year. It is highly unlikely that the admissions officers of these popular and prestigious colleges have a chance to look at every supplemental essay carefully. In other words, the tremendous amount of work and time that students put into writing their supplemental essays probably will not make a huge difference in the decision-making process.

Wash. U. really has nothing to lose from not requiring applicants to write a supplement essay. The writing supplement is fundamentally unnecessary and inefficient in that the applicants already have an opportunity to show their creativity and personalities thorough the Common Application personal essay. Wash. U. should not abandon its simple application system that grants admissions officers more time to pay closer attention to each applicant.