Official-source reference
College application guides by school
Each guide brings the current writing requirements, deadlines, testing rules, and published authorship guidance into one place. Every page shows its sources, cycle, review date, and any uncertainty that still needs a check in the live application.
Reviewed 26 hand-reviewed schools
Published school guides
This catalog is deliberately selective. Nudge adds a school only after its guide has distinct official data and school-specific interpretation.
2026-2027 cycleHarvard CollegeHarvard requires the Common App, five 150-word Harvard short answers, school materials, two teacher recommendations, and standardized testing. Restrictive Early Action is due November 1 and Regular Decision is due January 1. Harvard says the essay must reflect the student's own content, style, and English proficiency.2026-2027 cycleYale UniversityYale's 2026-2027 application includes an academic-interest response of up to 200 words, three short takes of up to 200 characters, and one 400-word essay. Yale's deadlines are November 1 for Single-Choice Early Action and January 2 for Regular Decision. Yale requires the ACT or SAT and publishes a specific AI policy.2026-2027 cycleStanford UniversityStanford requires five short questions of 3 to 50 words and three essays of 100 to 250 words in addition to the Common App personal essay. Restrictive Early Action is due November 1 and Regular Decision is due January 5. Stanford requires the ACT or SAT and asks applicants to write in their own genuine voice.2026-2027 cycleCalifornia Institute of TechnologyCaltech's Fall 2027 supplement asks about STEM interests, scholarly character, scientific drive, and community contribution. Restrictive Early Action is due November 1, 2026, and Regular Decision is due January 4, 2027. Caltech requires the SAT or ACT and publishes detailed ethical AI guidelines.2026-2027 cycleCornell UniversityCornell requires the Common App, a Cornell supplement tied to the undergraduate college or school, official school materials, two teacher recommendations, and the SAT or ACT. Early Decision is binding and due November 1. Cornell publishes detailed rules on acceptable application help and prohibits AI outlining, drafting, writing, and translation of responses.2026-2027 cyclePrinceton UniversityPrinceton's 2026-2027 supplement includes an academic-interest response, a 400 to 500 word lived-experience essay, a service response, and three 50-word answers. Princeton also requires a graded written paper. Single-Choice Early Action is due November 1 and Regular Decision is due January 1. Princeton is test optional for Fall 2027.2026-2027 cycleMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyMIT's 2026-2027 application asks for four responses of about 100 to 200 words, four short responses of about 40 to 50 words, and activities and coursework details. Early Action is due November 1 and Regular Action is due January 4 on MIT's detailed deadlines page. MIT requires the SAT or ACT.2026-2027 cycleDartmouth CollegeDartmouth's Class of 2031 supplement has three required responses: a 100-word Why Dartmouth answer and two 250-word responses selected from separate groups. Early Decision is due November 1. Dartmouth requires standardized testing, with different ways for students attending schools inside and outside the United States to meet the requirement.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of ChicagoUChicago's 2026-2027 supplement requires a Why UChicago response and one extended essay chosen from six options. The public prompt page does not state numeric word limits. Early Action and Early Decision I are due November 2, 2026. Regular Decision and Early Decision II are due January 4, 2027. UChicago is test optional.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of MichiganMichigan's 2026-2027 first-year application includes two required supplemental essays: a 100 to 300 word community or contribution response and a 100 to 550 word response about the specific undergraduate school or college. Early Decision and Early Action are due November 1, and Regular Decision is due February 1. Michigan is test optional and publishes clear AI-use guidance.2026-2027 cycleNorthwestern UniversityNorthwestern's 2026-2027 supplement requires one response of up to 300 words for Common App and Coalition applicants, plus up to two optional responses under 200 words each. Early Decision is due November 1, 2026, and Regular Decision is due January 4, 2027. Northwestern is test optional and publishes specific guidance on AI use in applications.2026-2027 cycleVanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt's current supplement asks for one short answer of approximately 250 words about personal growth and contribution to the campus community. Early Decision I is due November 1, 2026. Early Decision II and Regular Decision are due January 1, 2027. Vanderbilt is test optional for Fall 2027 and publishes admissions guidance about AI assistance and student voice.2026-2027 cycleRice UniversityRice's 2026-2027 supplement includes two required 150-word responses, one optional 500-word contribution response, and the required non-evaluative Rice Box image. Early Decision I is due November 1. Early Decision II and Regular Decision are due January 4. Rice recommends but does not require the SAT or ACT.2026-2027 cycleGeorgetown UniversityGeorgetown's current application requires two 250-word short essays, a 650-word personal or creative essay, and a 500-word response for the undergraduate school selected. Early Action is due November 1 and Regular Decision is due January 1. Georgetown requires an official SAT or ACT score and does not superscore.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of Notre DameNotre Dame's current supplement requires one essay of up to 150 words and two short answers of 50 to 100 words each. Restrictive Early Action is due November 1 and Regular Decision is due January 4. Notre Dame is test optional through at least the 2026-2027 cycle.2026-2027 cycleJohns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins requires one 350-word supplemental essay for 2026-2027 about engaging across differences and building community. Early Decision I is due November 1, 2026. Early Decision II and Regular Decision are due January 2, 2027. Hopkins requires the SAT or ACT for Fall 2026 entry and beyond.2026-2027 cycleWashington University in St. LouisWashU's Fall 2027 application requires a 250-word response about what you want to study and why. The university added nonbinding Early Action for Fall 2027. Early Action and Early Decision I are due November 2, 2026. Early Decision II and Regular Decision are due January 4, 2027. WashU is test optional.2026-2027 cycleTufts UniversityTufts requires two short answers for the Class of 2031: a 75 to 150 word response about how you engaged with Tufts during your college search and a 100 to 200 word response tied to the school or program selected. Early Decision I is due November 2, 2026. Early Decision II and Regular Decision are due January 4, 2027. Tufts is test optional.2026-2027 cycleBoston CollegeBoston College requires the Common App and one writing supplement. Most applicants choose one of four prompts with a 400-word limit. Human-Centered Engineering applicants answer a separate fifth prompt whose limit is not stated on the public page. Early Decision I is due November 1. Early Decision II and Regular Decision are due January 4. Boston College is test optional.2026-2027 cycleGeorgia Institute of TechnologyGeorgia Tech's current 2026-27 writing page requires one of the seven Common App personal essays and does not list a separate Georgia Tech short answer. Georgia applicants use Early Action 1 by October 15. Non-Georgia applicants use Early Action 2 by November 2. Regular Decision is due January 6. Every first-year applicant must submit SAT or ACT scores.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillUNC-Chapel Hill's official 2026-27 prompt page lists the Common App personal essay and no separate UNC short-answer supplement. The essay is 250 to 650 words. Early Action is due October 15 and Regular Decision is due January 15. Testing is optional for applicants with a weighted GPA of at least 2.8 on a 4.0 scale, with specific rules for applicants below that threshold.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of WashingtonThe University of Washington's current first-year application requires the Common App personal essay, with a 250-to-650-word limit, and does not list a separate UW supplemental essay. The Autumn 2027 application deadline is November 15, 2026. UW has removed the SAT and ACT from general admission review, and its writing guidance says every response must be the applicant's own original work.2026-2027 cycleThe University of Texas at AustinUT Austin requires one 500-to-650-word essay and two short answers of about 250 to 300 words: one about the applicant's first-choice major and one about the high-school activity they are proudest of. Early Action is due October 15, 2026 and Regular Decision is due December 1, 2026. UT Austin requires an official SAT or ACT score sent by the testing agency.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of California systemUC Berkeley, UCLA, and the other UC campuses use one University of California application. First-year applicants choose four of eight Personal Insight Questions, with a 350-word maximum for each. The Fall 2027 filing period runs from October 1 through November 30, 2026. UC does not consider SAT or ACT scores for admission or scholarships, and its PIQ guidance requires the responses to reflect the applicant's own ideas and writing.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of GeorgiaUGA's Fall 2027 application keeps the 250-to-650-word Common App personal essay and removes the previous UGA supplemental essay. UGA requires an official SAT or ACT score. The application opens August 1, 2026; UGA's detailed deadline calendar had not yet switched its visible Fall 2026 label during Nudge's review, so applicants should confirm the October 15 Early Action and January 1 Regular Decision dates before submitting.2026-2027 cycleUniversity of FloridaUF's Fall 2027 first-year application uses the Common App and has three plans: binding Early Decision due October 15, Early Action due November 1, and Regular Decision due January 15. UF requires SAT, ACT, or CLT scores and, for most applicants, a separate STARS academic record. UF's public admissions site confirms a UF Supplement with several short answers but did not publish their wording or limits as of August 11, 2026.
How to use these pages
Copy the official prompts, limits, deadlines, and requirements into your application plan. Then recheck the linked admissions page and the live application before you submit. A guide is a reviewed reference, not the controlling application record.
Start with the Common App guide or read the neutral AI policy reference when a school's authorship rule is unclear.
Ready to turn the reference into tasks? Use the free college application checklist builder. It keeps the selected schools and checkmarks in your browser.