Not every school does. The ones that do share one personal essay between them; the ones that do not want something of their own. Knowing which is which is how you work out what you are actually signing up to write.
Answers for 287 schools come from Kate’s own list, checked August 2026. Anything else is an AI best guess, labeled as one. Common App lists over eleven hundred colleges and publishes no list anyone can hold a copy of, so their own search is always the last word.
01What you are choosing between
Three systems, three different amounts of writing.
Most students end up in two of these at once. The order you write in is what decides whether that is manageable.
Common Application
—One personal essay, 650 words, chosen from seven prompts. That essay goes to every Common App school you apply to.
—Then each school’s own supplemental questions on top, which are not shared with anyone else. That is where the real work usually is — a student applying to six schools can owe a dozen supplements.
—The order matters: the personal essay first, because the supplements are easier to write once you know what the main essay already says about you.
University of California application
—The UC application is separate from the Common App. Nothing carries across — not the personal essay, not the recommendations.
—Instead: Personal Insight Questions. You answer four of eight, 350 words each.
—One set of answers covers every UC campus you apply to, so nine campuses cost the same four answers as one.
BYU application
—Seven prompts, which come to ten separate text boxes once the two-part questions are counted. Character limits, not word counts.
—None of it is shared with any other school, and a Common App personal essay does not fit these questions without being rewritten.
—Every answer should connect to one of the four BYU Aims. Kate’s students work through all four across the set rather than repeating one.
02What this tool cannot tell you
Which essays to write, and in what order.
A yes or a no is the easy half. The list of what each school asks, which of those can share material, and which one has to be written first — that is the work, and it is the reason families call.
A student applying to a Common App school, a UC and BYU is writing one 650-word personal essay, four 350-word Personal Insight Questions, and ten BYU boxes — plus supplements. Sequenced well, several of those feed each other. Sequenced badly, it is fifteen separate assignments in November.