college essay prompts for penn state

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2023-24 Penn State Supplemental Essay – Prompt and Tips

September 6, 2023

With an acceptance rate still above 50%, it would be easy to misjudge how challenging the Penn State admissions landscape truly is. In fact, those entering the famed University Park campus sport mid-50 SATs of 1270-1450. They also boast an unweighted GPA range of 3.59-3.93 . Additionally, successful applicants in 2023-24 should prepare to write a strong Penn State supplemental essay.

(Want to learn more about How to Get Into Penn State? Visit our blog entitled:  How to Get Into Penn State University: Admissions Data and Strategies  for all of the most recent admissions data as well as tips for gaining acceptance.)

In a competitive admissions environment, every piece of the Penn State application takes on a high level of importance. Therefore, it is vital that all Nittany Lion applicants dedicate a significant amount of time to this optional essay. Below is the lone PSU supplemental prompt for the 2023-24 admissions cycle along with our advice for composing a winning essay.

Penn State Supplemental Essay Prompt #1 (Optional)

Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at penn state. this is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. we suggest a limit of 500 words or fewer..

This essay is technically “optional” but all serious applicants should view it as mandatory. Unlike many “optional” essays that may or may not apply to you (e.g. COVID impact, gap in education, gender identity etc.), just about every applicant has at least one extracurricular or experience worth elaborating on.

The activity/experience angle

With this prompt, Penn State is not necessarily asking you to write about the activity where you earned the most prestigious awards. Nor are they looking for the one where you held the highest position of leadership. The university is going to see all of your activities in that section of the Common App. As such, you want to ask yourself which of your entries is crying out for more explanation and detail. Which one is closest to your heart and most representative of your unique passions? Pick the option that will allow you to deliver additional detail that may be memorable to the admissions reader. For example, you may be a volunteer EMT and have compelling, drama-filled experiences to share.

Alternatively, you may have worked in local restaurant and learned more about the lives of your undocumented coworkers. Start this process by asking, “What is the most interesting and consequential moment I have experienced in my extracurricular activities?”

If you can identify one clear-cut moment, that is likely the activity worth sharing with the Penn State admissions staff.

The more broad “about you” angle

Of course, this prompt has a wider scope than just an activity. You can also take this opportunity to share something personal. After completing your Common App, is there anything that you have yet to share that is absolutely elemental to who you are as a person/student? Without the benefit of an in-person interview, it may feel like you never fully had a chance to connect intimately with a PSU admissions officer. Perhaps you have not communicated the full you, your true essence, your je ne sais quoi. If you feel something important about yourself has yet to be communicated elsewhere in the application, then this essay is about to become your best friend.

Consider that the admissions reader is already familiar with your academic history, activities, and awards. What don’t they know, or, what could they understand on a deeper level. This could be a particular skill or talent or something about your character or personality. On the other hand, you may wish to speak more about your passions, hobbies, ideas, or beliefs. Any of those options are perfectly fine!

This one is intentionally open-ended so use this space to share your most cherished accomplishments or most winning attributes. The university itself is, in essence, inviting you to make a “closing argument” at the end of this admissions trial.

How important is the Penn State supplemental essay?

The essays (the Common App essay and supplemental essay) are not among the most important factors to the admissions committee. GPA and the rigor of one’s courses are at the top of the list. However, the essays can help borderline applicants push themselves over the edge toward an acceptance.

Want Personalized Essay Assistance?

Lastly, if you are interested in working with one of College Transitions’ experienced and knowledgeable essay coaches as you craft your Penn State supplemental essay, we encourage you to  get a quote  today.

• College Essay

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A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew's experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans two decades. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid.

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How to Respond to the 2023-2024 Penn State Supplemental Essay Prompts

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Pennsylvania State University , commonly known as Penn State, is a public land-grant research university located in State College, Pennsylvania. It is widely known for its high ranking athletics and undergraduate degree programs. We are here to help you respond to the Penn State supplemental essays , so keep reading!

The Penn State prompts

The Penn State supplemental essays might be optional for all applicants, but going the extra mile shows your interest in the university and showcases your talents. Your story is important, and Penn State wants to hear about it. This is why they also include a supplemental essay for potential students that have taken time off before applying to college. 

“ Optional : Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State. This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. We suggest a limit of 500 words or fewer.”

This prompt is the classic “who are you beyond academics?” question. Penn State and many other colleges want to get to know their applicants to determine if it’s the right fit. It’s important for your personality to shine through in this essay, and being authentic is a necessary component.

Make your Penn State supplemental essay specific to you and your journey. Start by figuring out a main topic for your essay that isn’t so general that it could apply to any of the other applicants.

However, the story you share with the admissions office should relate to what you hope to accomplish or contribute to the Penn State community. This includes hobbies that might have inspired you to choose your major as well as ways you contributed to your current community in a way that you hope to make a similar impact at Penn State. You might also want to mention a course that Penn State exclusively offers that relates to an interest you have. 

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Questions to consider.

• What is the story I want to tell Penn State?
• What are some notable experiences, interests, or hobbies that I have?
• Why did I choose to apply to Penn State?

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Remember: This prompt is only for applicants who are sending in their application sometime other than their senior year of high school.

“ Please use this space to explain any time that has elapsed between your high school graduation and your anticipated enrollment at Penn State. Please provide a summary of why that gap occurred. If you attended another college or university during that time, please note it below and ensure that you have entered the information in the Academic History section of this application . ( 500 words ) ”

Everyone’s college journey is different, with some not enrolling in college the fall after graduating high school. Whether you took a gap period to travel or to prepare for university, this is your opportunity to share your experience with Penn State. 

You might’ve taken the time to travel, recoup from years in school, or start an entirely new adventure. You might have taken the time to seek experience and save money by working. Whatever your reasons, this supplemental essay prompt allows you to emphasize the importance of your gap period and how it has shaped you.

When writing your essay, try to include why you want to attend Penn State after your time off. Make them a part of your story, and explain how you hope to further develop once you attend. 

Be aware of the word count, it’s a bit more fixed than the other supplemental essay prompt. It might be hard to hit the exact limit, so go back and proofread before adding any additional sentences. A couple words here and there are quick to stack up!

Also see: What is a gap year? Everything you need to know

• Why did I want to take a gap year?
• What did I accomplish during my gap year?
• How did taking this time shape me as a person?
• In what ways do I feel more prepared to start college now (specifically at Penn State)?

Don’t miss: Top reasons to take a break from college

Next steps for students

As you go through the college application process, mark your calendar with important deadlines! By doing this, you can accurately plan and get things done in advance. You could circle the date for admission notifications or schedule a campus tour.

Penn State has multiple campuses for applicants to choose from, and they also offer virtual tours, so you can get a quick look before visiting in person. The website even gives brief overviews of each location in Pennsylvania along with degrees, housing, and extracurriculars offered there. 

Remember to check Penn State’s social media pages to stay updated on important events and dates. You’ll also be able to get a glimpse of what Penn State is like and how you might fit in there. Good luck on your path toward success!

Additional resources 

Now you know how to ace the Penn State supplemental essays. But the work is not done! You can never be too prepared for college, so here’s a couple resources to make the transition smoother: 

• Figure out the major that’s right for you
• Decide on applying early decision or early action
• Choose different types of scholarships to apply to
• How to write an essay about yourself

Other colleges to consider

• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
• University of Illinois (Urbana-Campaign, IL)
• Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)

Frequently asked questions about the Penn State supplemental essays

Can i apply to penn state through the common app, is the penn state optional supplemental essay worth writing, how long should the penn state supplemental personal essay be, scholarships360 recommended.

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How to Write the Penn State Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

Pennsylvania State University, better known as Penn State , is a public, land-grant university, with its flagship campus in University Park, Pennsylvania. Penn State has an additional 19 campuses across the state of Pennsylvania. Penn State – University Park is ranked #59 in National Universities by US News, and #20 in on US News’ Top Public Schools list.

University Park offers a traditional, idyllic college town campus, and is home to 40,552 undergraduates. Of these students, 57% hail from Pennsylvania; the remaining 47% of students are geographically diverse, from all 50 states and 137 countries.

Penn State’s acceptance rate in 2017 was 50%. The middle 50% of accepted students have an SAT from 1250-1430, and an ACT from 28-32. Penn State accepts the Common Application, the Coalition Application, and also offers their own admissions platform, MyPennState.

Essay Questions

Penn State requires two 500-word supplemental essays for all applicants. The first asks you to list or discuss activities other than academic work that you’ve been involved in over the last several years. The second asks you to choose “something about yourself, your experiences, or your activities” that testifies to your ability to succeed at Penn State.

Additional prompts are required for applicants to the following specialized programs at Penn State: B.F.A in Acting, Theater Studies, and the combined BS/MBA program.

Students applying to the B.F.A in Acting must write a response (no word limit) to the question “Why do you want to be an actor?”

Students applying to the Theater Studies program must write a 3-5 page research essay on a significant theatre artist of the 19th or 20th century.

Students applying to the BS/MBA combined degree program must write six additional short responses. Five separate prompts, each with a 200-word limit, ask about: your significant experiences; your career aspirations and how the BS/MBA would help you achieve them; your leadership and collaboration skills; your commitment to cultural competency in a global community; and the adjustments you will need to make to transition from high school to college. An additional prompt with a 150-word limit asks you to describe your biggest commitment.

Please use this space to list or discuss your activities other than academic work during the last several years (for example: school organizations, jobs, athletics, the arts, community service, religious groups, or other individual interests). (500 words)

Both the Common App and the Coalition App include a section for listing activities and experiences, you should ensure that your response isn’t just a paragraph-form resume or activities section. Instead, strive to give life to your activities, or discuss something that you could not fit into the activities section.

As you might guess, it’s better to “discuss” your activities than to just “list” them. Don’t be tempted to impress the admissions committee with sheer volume—with a really long list. Instead, focus on high-quality, meaningful elaborations of your activities.

So, how can you go about doing this? First, let’s consider your higher-level approach.

One strategy for this prompt is to use a theme or thesis to unify a discussion of 2-4 concrete experiences. For example, a theme of helping others realize their dreams could unify an essay where you discuss your role as team captain, your involvement in a service organization, and your internship at a hospital. This theme does not need to be explicitly stated as a topic sentence. It can be woven through the essay in more subtle ways—for example, in the analysis, you could offer how each experience has shaped you.

Another viable tactic is to focus on one activity, or maybe two activities if they are intimately related (your roles as student council president and as liaison to the town’s school committee). In an essay that uses this approach, you should try to adopt a “showing not telling” narrative style: pick a moment and immerse the reader in your first-person experience. For example, swap out “I was nervous” (telling), for something that shows that nervousness by describing how it felt (“As I entered the room, my palms began to sweat and my heart started to race.”).

Finally, it can work to pick a smattering of things that you’ve done to show your diversity as an applicant. In this case, it might be difficult to find a “unifying theme.” Instead, you can play up the contrasts between your various examples: you could emphasize the fast-paced efficiency you’ve honed as a volunteer EMT before switching gears to describe the meticulous precision you’ve developed as a classical pianist.

The approach that you pick should be dictated by the experiences that are most meaningful to you. If you think a few of your activities work together to paint a picture of who you are, go with the first strategy. If you’ve been super committed to one activity and have a lot to say about it, then consider going with the second strategy. If you feel like you’re “all over the place,” the third might be the fit for you.

Once you’ve chosen your higher-level strategy, this essay should be pretty straightforward. Give concrete examples of what makes these activities meaningful. Furthermore, try to show how they’ve shaped you by discussing not only the activities themselves but also by giving concrete examples of their impact elsewhere in your life.

If you choose to discuss your after-school job as a receptionist at a dental clinic, describe a day in the office in detail. Show the reader the skills you’ve learned. Then, you might describe how you’ve used the organizational skills you gained through work to improve your academic time management.

Remember that the most effective versions of this essay will bring your on-paper activities—and you—to life for the admissions committee.

Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State. This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. (Response required in about 500 words.)

General Strategy

One of your main objectives in all college essays should be to depict yourself as a strong addition to your college of choice’s community. This prompt makes that purpose really explicit—but it also is challengingly open-ended. To conquer that challenge, you’ll need to think carefully about your strengths and show them to the reader using specific examples.

A strong response will contain three elements: (1) a reflection on your experiences to demonstrate (2) a specific quality or trait that you think (3) will set you up for success in college. You should think of (1) as evidence that you can use to “prove” (2) and (3). Furthermore, you might think that (2) and (3) are really the same element—in the prompt, they are mixed together in the phrase “your ability to succeed.” However, it’s actually really important to disambiguate these components: you need to not only argue that you have a trait but also show that the trait will help you in college.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to structure your essay in the order explained here. Feel free to take the components of your essay “outside the box” of this basic framework.

As you brainstorm, it might be helpful to start with (2) and (3), the more conceptual elements of your response. Ask yourself: What do I need to succeed in college? What are my strengths? Keep in mind that college is multifaceted; it requires a wide range of different tools. A wide variety of traits can enable you to succeed in college: resilience, resourcefulness, interpersonal skills, openness to change, time management skills, empathy, rational thinking skills… you get the idea!

A note before we continue

You might be thinking, “but this essay asks about succeeding at Penn State, not about succeeding at just any college!” While this is true, your overall approach should prove that you are prepared for college. If you can tailor your response to Penn State by highlighting unique aspects of the school that you are prepared to take advantage of, that’s great. However, whatever you do, don’t get myopically focused on Penn State (for example, by focusing on how you are prepared for Penn State’s huge, unique sports culture). Again, the admissions committee really wants to learn about you and about the tools you bring to the table to succeed in college.

Picking a central topic/example

You’ll need to think of an example or examples that demonstrate(s) the trait(s) that will set you up for college success. Though the prompt says that you can pick “something about yourself, your experiences, or activities,” your choice should be something that you can show through a story or anecdote.

Almost any poor topic can be strengthened if you make it more specific:

Don’t pick something too broad, like “I have formed many friendships in different settings.” However, you could write a detailed account of a specific friendship or friend group you formed after switching high schools, explaining how you developed the skills to assimilate in a new social community. Then, you can discuss how, at any college, but especially a big school like Penn State, forming a social network is crucial for academics (study groups, peers to help with homework, collaborators for group projects, etc) and for making the most of your college experience.

Avoid focusing on an experience that virtually all applicants will share. “I made it through high school” is not a strong response. However, you could write about an illness you faced that jeopardized your ability to succeed in school. Through detailed storytelling, you could show the reader that you developed time management skills and perseverance, which you know are absolutely crucial for college success.

Great responses to this prompt can be quite personal since more formal academic and extracurricular activities might already be covered in your application. For example, you could relate difficult family or friendship situations you’ve negotiated to your ability to navigate a diverse and complex college community.

Regardless of which thing about you, experience, or activity you pick, be absolutely sure to avoid generalizing. Many students write a 500—or even 650 word—essay that never uses specific examples. While these essays might sound smooth, they are almost entirely composed of clichés and generalizations. An example might help here.

Example: A student could write something like:  “I have volunteered for over five years at my local homeless shelter. This experience has made me more appreciative of what I have, and more determined to give back, and I know I’ll take these values with me to college.”

Note that these sentences do not refer to a specific instance or give concrete examples. They give a general description of one activity and then make generic, high-level assertions about the results of that activity.

A strong essay will push beyond this level of resolution:

• Describe a day at the homeless shelter.
• Show the perspective this has given you by giving an example of how you changed your daily activities or interactions with others as a result of this experience.
• Then link these changes to success in college by discussing how you’ll dive into volunteer opportunities and community organizations. Use specific examples of clubs or organizations at Penn State.

A few words of caution

Some students will have too many things they want to squeeze in here—perhaps you feel like you’ve just left so many crucial details out of your application. However, you should resist the temptation to use this essay as a “catch-all” for everything “not already reflected in your application.” Note that the prompt asks you to share “something” not already included—not everything! This essay should be focused and cohesive, telling a story that proves you can succeed in college.

If you truly feel that important information has been left out of your application, try to incorporate it into your activities section, other essays, or, if all else fails, the “additional information” section of the Common App.

Why do you want to be an actor? (Word count not specified) *This essay is only for Acting B.F.A applicants*

Such an open-ended prompt poses innate challenges: Where to begin? How to structure your answer? What kind of response are they “looking for”? How long should it be?

Let’s deal with the last question first. As a rule of thumb, college applications essays are read incredibly quickly, with just a few minutes allotted to each essay. This means that, with an unspecified length essay, the longer your essay is, the less time each paragraph is likely to get. As a rule of thumb, it’s best not to go over the Common App length (650 words). If you can make a convincing argument in significantly fewer words, that’s fine. However, if your essay is shorter than 250 words you might want to consider adding a few more details.

The best responses to this prompt will tell a story about your love for acting . This story will be engaging and believable and will convince the reader that you are certain that you want to be an actor. This certainty is crucial because an acting degree is highly specialized; it opens up a lot of options, but it also means that you are choosing acting training over more a general professional or academic education. Furthermore, succeeding as an actor requires passion and persistence—as you probably know, making a “breakthrough” is not easy.

Brainstorming

The place to start ideation of this story is, of course, inside your own head and heart. Perhaps what you want to focus on will be obvious, but you’ll likely need to do a little brainstorming. Try to unearth your deepest motivations by considering questions like: What do you love about acting? Is there a certain rehearsal, production, or other experience that helped you find this love? Was there a decisive moment when you realized “this is what I want to do”? When or how did you find your inspiration? Is there someone you look up to, whose creative path you want to follow?

These questions are designed to get you to think of narrative answers. However, you might not find that a simple, neat narrative emerges. Some strong responses will involve a series of “moments” that build toward a realization; some might not even involve an “aha” moment, but rather just a slow, steady process of falling in love with theater.

Narrative Strategies

The first and most important strategy discussed here is a very general one. It’s called “showing not telling.” Whatever you do, try to use specific examples and detailed narratives to depict your experiences and feelings about acting.

• For example, instead of saying “The first time I stood on a stage, I felt incredibly happy,” you can write something more like “As I stood on the scuffed-up stage for the first time, all I could feel was an effervescent joy in my entire body.”

A more specific narrative approach is to try and link theater to a broader explanation of what is meaningful to you. This can be accomplished by drawing parallels between on-stage experiences and broader life experiences. This tactic will likely need to employ “showing not telling,” as discussed above.

• You could depict a moment when playing a certain character helped you understand yourself better. Perhaps you stood on stage, reciting Belle from Beauty and the Beast’s lines when she talks about her father; suddenly, you had an epiphany about your own relationships with your parents.
• Rather than just stating “Playing Belle helped me better understand my relationship with my Dad,” show this by describing a moment on the stage, in rehearsal, or an interaction with your father.
• Creating this sort of link between theater and life can powerfully illustrate why acting is so meaningful to you as a person , not just as an actor .

Another narrative approach might be to focus on the history of the acting profession or on a historic actor that means a lot to you. This sort of approach could go something like this:

• Let’s say you want to write your essay about a particular actor who inspires you.
• You could begin by giving a vivid depiction of a moment in a certain actor’s career that really inspires you. Try and take the reader to the time and place in question.
• Then, pair this moment with personal reflection–perhaps a parallel moment in your life, or the moment you learned about this actor (or watched him or her on stage!).

In such a personal essay, there is really no limit to the narrative strategies that might work. Don’t be afraid to take a little risk; this is not a traditional college application essay, and for a creative program a creative, outside-the-box essay can be a good fit.

Even so, keep in mind that each moment or experience you describe should be a piece of “evidence” to support your argument that acting is really what you want to do.  

Select one significant theatre artist of the 19th or 20 century (playwright, actor, director, choreographer, etc). Write a well-researched (minimum 5 sources, only 2 of which can be on-line) document describing the contribution(s) of your chosen artist to the world and to the world of the theatre. Please be aware that grammar, spelling, and punctuation are important. Your paper should include citations of your sources for all quoted or paraphrased material. Please use the MLA citation method. (You can Google “MLA Citation” and “MLA parenthetical citation” to find this on-line free of charge.) Your introduction should include an explanation of why you chose this artist to research. (3-5 pages) *This essay is only for Theater Studies applicants*

As you probably know if you’re applying, Penn State’s Theater Studies program is centered around the study of the history of theater and the motivations for contemporary theater, as well as critical study of performance. This prompt is designed to assess whether you have the interdisciplinary academic writing and research skills necessary for the program. You can tell from the precise source and citation instructions—and the reminder about grammar—that the admissions committee wants to use this essay to test your scholarship ability.

So what artist should you choose?

The artist you choose is not as important as what you do with that choice in your essay. Don’t spend too much time worrying about making an impressive or outside-the-box choice. Instead, go for an artist that (1) you can find ample sources on, (2) whose story you feel you can fit into 3-5 pages, and (3) who genuinely interests you.

Of course, if you’ve conveyed a strong interest in one particular aspect of theater in another part of your application, it might make sense to choose an artist who fits that interest. If you are passionate about studying early drafts of scripts, then it would be most logical for you to write on a playwright. If your interest is in actors and their methods, then you should consider writing on an actor. However, this isn’t a hard and fast rule—it’s just another strategy that can help you narrow down your choices and can make your application as a whole seem more coherent.

Understanding what counts as a “contribution”

The simplest way to think about a contribution, for the purposes of this prompt, is to focus on ways that your artist innovated, challenged or changed norms, or supported an ongoing effort. This could mean discussing how your artist acted as a trailblazer for certain identities, introduced new artistic techniques, or supported the rise of a project or theater company. Almost any accomplishment can be framed as a “contribution.” In order to do so, you need to focus on the lasting impact or legacy that that accomplishment has created.

You might also wonder: Should I focus more on contributions to theater, or contributions to the world?

It’s important to note that this program’s motto is “Engaged Scholarship. Thoughtful practice. Citizenship.” This means that the Penn State Theater Studies program truly cares about engaging with the world—not just with the academic study of theater. As such, try not to neglect the “world” aspect of this prompt. Show the reader that you understand that artists are also citizens and that you understand the impact of theater on the world.

Furthermore, the strongest essays will discuss contributions to both. A contribution to theater can, often, be a contribution to the world. For example, if your artist wrote plays that popularized political satire in theater, this could be a twofold contribution: first, it expands the genres that playwrights can explore; second, it plays a broader role in making space for artists to engage politically.

With this understanding of what constitutes a “contribution” and a basic idea of your artist’s life, it’s time to start serious research.

The Research Phase

Once you’ve chosen your artist, it’s time for some homework. Don’t be afraid to start off with a Wikipedia page or similar general article to get a broad sense of your subject’s life. If you already know a lot about your subject, you probably can skip this step. More importantly, you should not use Wikipedia or similar resources as one of your five sources. This phase of research is just intended to help you get started.

You should approach this project in the same way as you would approach any research paper for school. Use whatever methodology you’ve been taught or has worked best for you. Stay focused in your note-taking—the prompt isn’t that complex. Consider grouping your research findings into two categories, as dictated by the prompt: contributions to the wider world and contributions to theater.

Start with a search for scholarly or biographical articles. Remember that only two of your sources can be online! This is because the admissions committee wants to see that you are capable of using more traditional research methods—that is, that you’re not afraid of visiting a library. Unless you happen to have a lot of theater books and biographies on hand, you’ll likely need to visit your local library.  

As you conduct your research, be meticulous in your attribution of sources and accuracy. All the usual rules apply, but the stakes here are higher if you make a mistake, because accidental plagiarism or sloppy management of sources will almost certainly doom your application. If you are quoting something, make sure you use quotation marks. If you are summarizing a point, you should still attribute a source unless it is “common knowledge.” Be absolutely certain that you are not copying anyone else’s work—Penn State’s admissions department likely utilizes state of the art plagiarism-catching software, which can detect if you’ve just changed around someone else’s words or phrases.

As you reach a critical mass of sources and information, start outlining your essay.

Writing your essay

There’s no one template that will fit every essay for this prompt since the form of your essay should be dictated by its subject.

However, your essay should start with an introduction that:

• Explains why you chose this artist (as the prompt indicates).
• Depending on how well-known the artist is, it may also make sense to include some biographical details in the introduction.
• Most importantly, your introductory paragraphs should also convey some sort of thesis or central, conceptual claim about your artist’s contributions. In many cases, a strong thesis can be linked to your explanation of why you chose the artist.  

A good thesis could be as broad as “[Your artist] shaped America’s social and political atmosphere by writing blockbuster plays about taboo issues,” or as specific as “[Your artist] contributed to theatrical modernism by developing innovative techniques to break down the fourth wall.”

Once you have your introduction and thesis down, you can start in on the body of your essay.

Body paragraph strategy

Build your body paragraphs around quotations, examples, and facts that serve as “evidence.” Pair this evidence with analysis: discuss why that accomplishment or action qualifies as a contribution, what it was a contribution to, and, when applicable, provide context and discussion of its larger significance.

Of course, your essay should not just be a smattering of facts paired with analysis. Instead, you should carefully structure each section. If you are writing on an artist who had a very linear career, this might mean organizing your essay chronologically. If you notice significant themes in your artist’s life and accomplishments, try organizing your essay according to those themes.

For example, you could have a section on an actor’s “challenges to traditional household roles” and a section on her “experimental vocal techniques.” Ideally, you could unite these two sections with your thesis: your claim could be that the artist used experimental acting methods to challenge stereotypes.

Once your essay is written, it’s time for editing and more editing. Here are some key boxes to tick before you submit:

First, check to be sure you’ve met all the conditions imposed by the prompt (ideally, you will have checked these throughout the writing process, so there will be no last-minute surprises):

• Have you written on just one artist?
• Did your artist live in the 19th or 20th century?
• Have you used at least five sources?
• Are only two of your sources online?
• Do you use MLA citations?
• Does your introduction include an explanation of why you chose this artist?
• Is your paper 3-5 pages?

Once you’ve made sure your content 100% fulfills the prompts requirements, do a final technical check.

• Be sure that you’ve perfectly executed your MLA citations.
• Double-check to be sure your quotes are accurate.
• Be sure you haven’t missed any citations or committed unwitting plagiarism in any other way.
• Do a final read-through for grammar, style and spelling issues.
• If possible, have a teacher or someone familiar with academic writing review your essay.

Please enter your significant experiences, and describe them. (200 words) *This essay is only for Science BS/MBA applicants*

This question is really tough. It doesn’t give hints about what qualifies as a “significant experience,” and it only gives you 200 words. Furthermore, the main Penn State supplement asks you to discuss your non-academic activities, so you’ve likely already covered a lot of “significant” experiences there.

Cracking the code of this essay requires a step back. Remember that this essay is for the BS/MBA program only . This offers a bit of insight into what the admissions committee is looking for. They want to understand your maturity and what makes you tick because one of the primary admissions considerations for a combined degree program is whether you are mature enough to commit now to a five or six year (the length depends on your amount of AP credit) academic path.

Your goal here should be to give the reader a more complete picture of who you are—and also to show them that person is mature and ready to make long-term decisions. The only “wrong” answers for this prompt are ones that make you look immature, or overlap too much with other responses on any part of your application.

Brainstorming and choosing an experience

This might all sound good in theory, but you’re probably still wondering: what kind of experiences should you list?

Think about the experiences that have really shaped you. If possible, it would be great if these experiences have also shaped your desire to pursue a BS/MBA. While the focus of the essay should not be on “why I want to do a BS/MBA” (that’s not the prompt), it’s a plus if your essay tells some sort of story about your interest in science or business.  

Strong responses can reference:

• Interpersonal experiences – an illness or crisis in your family, or something significant that has occurred within your friend group or wider social circle.
• Academic experiences – this could be a great place to discuss a teacher or course that has really helped solidify your academic or career interests
• A travel experience – as long as you go beyond avoid the most obvious clichés and describe the specifics of how a journey changed you, this can be a good option.
• Miscellaneous experiences that don’t really fit anywhere else in your application: a one-weekend meditation retreat; a conversation with a stranger; a visit to an exhibit or play; an article you read; a crime or tragedy you witnessed as a bystander.

A word of caution

With a short, conceptual prompt like this, there’s always a risk of falling into vague clichés. However, these can always be avoided if you dive into specifics.

• Instead of saying “I could never have imagined…”, describe your feeling of surprise or amazement in original, personal terms.
• Instead of saying “It was transformative…”, describe how you were transformed.
• Instead of saying “…shaped who I am today…”, depict the specifics of who you are today.

Goals: Discuss your career aspirations. How would the Science BS/MBA program help you reach those goals? (200 words) *This essay is only for Science BS/MBA applicants*

General strategy

The word limit here is very short, so your response has to be to-the-point. Helpfully, the prompt lays out a clear formula for you: you need to link the resources provided by Penn State’s Science BS/MBA to the attainment of your career goals. Sounds simple, right? It will be if you use plenty of specifics.

Remember that one significant factor in admissions decisions for combined degree programs like the BS/MBA is whether the admissions committee thinks you’re really committed to this path. As you probably realize, it’s a big decision to decide as a high school senior that you want to pursue a degree after your bachelor’s—much less to pick the exact program. The admissions committee does not want to give a coveted spot to someone who will change their mind about following through on the MBA after a year or two of college. This means that you need to show both specific long-term goals that fit with the program and deeper motivations that will carry you through five or six years of rigorous education.  

Getting clear on your goals

First, dig down and describe your career goals in as much detail as you can—while still conveying a broad, bold vision for your future.

A weaker strategy:

• Some students focus on something like achieving a particular rank in a certain company by a certain age. However, this type of career aspiration isn’t the best choice: it is too arbitrary and too specific and doesn’t convey a lot about your underlying values.

A stronger strategy:

• Think about a particular problem you’d like to solve or a legacy you’d like to leave.
• Perhaps you want to bring truly affordable solar cells to a mass market.
• Or, perhaps your goal is multi-tiered: you want to forge a path for minority women in biotech startups in the short term, and in the long term you want to move to the public sector, using your entrepreneurial experience to address inequality in healthcare outcomes.

Even if your goals are currently quite vague, you can still make them sound clear and worthwhile. For example, maybe you know that you want to do something at the intersection of chemistry and entrepreneurship, but you’re just not sure about the specifics yet. That’s fine! If your goals are still vague, you’ll just have a little more work to do in the other sections of your response.

The deeper motivations behind your aspirations  

Once you’re clear on what your career aspirations are, spend a little bit of time reflecting on why you hold these aspirations. While the prompt doesn’t explicitly state that you need to explain why you hold the career aspirations you’ve stated, the best answers will at least allude to your deeper motivations. As noted above, if you show what drives you , then you provide additional assurance to the admissions committee that you’re really committed to completing the BS/MBA program.

Since you don’t have very many words, so you’ll probably need to integrate this explanation of “why” with your explanation of the goal itself.

This might mean sharing a short anecdote about your first-hand experience of rising sea levels and then connecting that experience to your desire to work on solar power to cut carbon emissions. Or, you might briefly describe a personal medical experience which gave rise to your desire to improve medical technologies.

What the BS/MBA program offers

Once you’ve established what your aspirations are and why you hold them, it’s time to focus on Penn State’s BS/MBA program. This means doing more than just talking about the basics of the program (the fact that it allows you guaranteed admission, or that it could potentially shorten your time in school).

Visit Penn State’s BS/MBA website and carefully scour it for details that fit your goals. Pick just a few specific features of the program and talk about them in your response. These can include a particular course, a professional training resource, a research program, an interdisciplinary opportunity, or even a particular professor (but be careful not to just name-drop–explain the professor’s work and its relation to your interests in detail).

Link the skills, competencies, or background that these resources provide to the attainment of your career goals. This means getting a little technical. Do you need to learn a certain management strategy to succeed as the founder of a biotech startup? Great! Talk about that specific strategy and how you’ll learn about it in a given course offered through Penn State’s BS/MBA.

Closing thoughts

Remember, this is your chance to demonstrate a few things.  Firstly, you can show commitment and enthusiasm: you’ve done your research because you’re genuinely interested in the program. Secondly, you can show mature and realistic goal-setting: you know what is necessary to achieve your goals, and you can concisely articulate the steps you will take along the way.

All that’s left is to put it all together. Your essay does not need to follow the exact order described here. However, you should make sure that all the components (your goal and deeper motivations, Penn State’s BS/MBA resources, and how those resources will help you achieve your goal) are present. Try to use vivid, concise language, with strong verbs, specific details, and personal touches.

Leadership: Please discuss your leadership and collaboration skills. Give recent examples of how they have been demonstrated. (200 words) *This essay is only for Science BS/MBA applicants*

Penn State’s BS/MBA sees itself as a training ground for future leaders on the frontiers of both science and business. They want to admit students who can work with and lead others.

“Leadership” and “collaboration,” the words used in the prompt, have become overused buzzwords in college applications. This means that one of the keys to a successful response to this prompt is to avoid just repeating these words and various synonyms. Instead, you focus on the “examples of how they have been demonstrated.” It’s possible to write an exceptional response to this prompt without ever actually using the word “leadership” or “leader.”

Picking examples

Before you choose your examples, note that the prompt asks for a “recent” example. Ideally, this means in the last two years. You should definitely not go further back than your freshman year of high school. Additionally, try not to repeat activities or experiences you’ve discussed in detail elsewhere in your application.

You can pick more than one example, but keep in mind that this essay is very short . Offering a quality, detailed depiction of your leadership in just one situation is definitely preferable to just listing every leadership role you can think of.

If you hold formal leadership roles, this is definitely a great place to discuss them. However, don’t just list off and briefly describe your titles. Instead, describe what your leadership role involves. If you’re president of a club, describe a “day in your life”—use vivid language to bring your responsibilities and skills to life. If you’re on student council, pick a particular debate or initiative and use a detailed depiction of that situation to exemplify the leadership and collaboration skills that you’ve developed.

If there are no obvious formal leadership roles for you to cite, or if you’ve already discussed them in your Common App essay or other supplemental responses, then you should think outside the box.

Effective but unconventional responses can include:

• A depiction of how you’ve worked with peers on group projects.
• A leadership role you’ve taken on in your family.
• An instance when you took charge in extreme situations (getting lost on a hike, for example).

Writing the essay

Once you’ve chosen your example(s), double check to make sure that these examples are conveying skills –this is, after all, the point of the essay.

If you choose just one example, your essay should focus on depicting a “moment” in that experience that demonstrates the skill that you are claiming you possess . An example of this:

• You could depict a moment of conflict in your local church choir, which you chair.
• Demonstrate how you used your interpersonal skills to calm the situation, your strategic thinking skills to propose a solution, and your organizational skills to execute that solution.
• A strong version of this essay wouldn’t just state what you did. Instead, it would set up the moment with detailed descriptions of what you felt, said and did.

If you choose to use more than just one example, here are a few ways to organize those examples. They can:

• Perhaps you’ve been class president (requiring clear communication as a leader), worked in a restaurant as a chef (requiring a lot of collaboration), and interned with a local politician (where you found yourself leading other unruly interns by setting a good example).
• You can unite these examples under the thesis that you are a good verbal and non-verbal communicator who knows when to give directions and when to collaborate with others.
• Maybe in all your leadership experiences, you’ve found yourself in the position where you have to hold others accountable for their mistakes. You could give several examples of different instances (different roles) where you’ve developed the skills to do so.
• You could choose several examples of your experience leading in a high-pressure office setting. Here, the uniting theme is where the examples actually take place.
• If a lot of your experience has been with biology research, you could choose several examples of times when you’ve collaborated or taken on a leadership role in a laboratory setting.
• If you choose to thematize something like this, be sure that you’re still highlighting skills that you’ve gained, not just the setting or shared content of your experience.

Inclusiveness and Diversity: In an increasingly global community, it is essential that students gain cultural competency. In what way have you demonstrated a commitment to this mission? (200 words) *This essay is only for Science BS/MBA applicants*

“Cultural competency” is defined as the ability to appreciate and accurately interpret other cultural traditions and the actions and words of people from other cultures.

This might lead you to ask: what counts as another culture?

• There are some obvious cases—someone who actually comes from a different country, or from a radically different part of this country.
• However, there are often many cultural divisions within a single community. Your school might include students from a variety of racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

This prompt does not ask about a time when you talked with someone who was different from you—it asks about your “commitment to this mission.”  Your goal should really be twofold:

• To show that you understand what “cultural competency” means.
• To show that you’re committed to it.

To accomplish these goals, you need to describe significant , lasting interactions with people who are different from you. Furthermore, The best responses will go above and beyond: they will show how you have tried to help others gain cultural competency, too.

Picking an example

Great responses could involve describing just a single, big effort you’ve made. Some answers are really obvious fits: maybe you’re involved in a club that focuses on race relations at your school; maybe you’ve done mission trips with your church that have required you to listen to and respect local knowledge and requests. In a case like either of these, you can easily write a detailed, “showing not telling” account of this experience that will fill the 200-word limit. Describe actual interactions that show your interest in understanding and working with people from different backgrounds.

If you don’t have one “big” example, then choose a few smaller ones. You could discuss choosing to do a history presentation on the history of immigration to the US, anti-racist political activism you’ve been involved in outside of school, and efforts you’ve made at your summer food service job to communicate better with foreign tourists who speak limited English. Try to thread these different experiences together to depict an interest in cultural inclusiveness that cuts across different features of your life.

Bonus points

Because this essay is for the BS/MBA program, you’ll likely get bonus points if you can tie cultural competency to success in science or business. If applicable, you could discuss your research on the differential health outcomes for people of different ethnic backgrounds in your city, or your internship with a transnational business that has required you to expand your cultural skills.

However, if there’s no real link between your cultural experiences and business/science, don’t force it. Your first priority here is to demonstrate that you’re committed to cultural competency.

Pitfalls to avoid

Regardless of whether you focus on just one experience or several, be very mindful of avoiding clichés and vagueness. It’s incredibly easy to write a 200-word essay on a topic like this that never really gets into the specifics of your experience. A vague essay might show that you know what cultural competency is, but it won’t tell the reader anything about your real-life commitment to it. Avoid general, cliché phrases like “I have interacted with many people who are different from me,” or “I have learned so much from…” Instead, show that these things are true through specific examples.

Another risk is stereotyping or making over-generalizations about cultural groups. The last thing you want to do is to end up sounding culturally insensitive as you respond to a prompt about cultural competency.

You can avoid this danger by focusing on your own experience, goals, motivations, and growth. What strategies have you developed to interact with those who are different from you? What have you learned about yourself? How have these experiences shown you the importance of multicultural acceptance? If possible, have a parent, teacher, or other third party review your essay to be sure it doesn’t include any accidentally offensive material.

As a final note: Crucially, this prompt assumes that inclusiveness and diversity are good things; it states that cultural competency is “essential.” This means that it is not a viable option to write an essay disputing that these things are important. Even if you personally do not care a lot about diversity or inclusivity, you should think carefully and write thoughtfully about the value of interacting with those who are different than you.

Resiliency: Transitioning to college can be a challenge. Discuss the adjustments you believe you will need to make in order to be successful as you transition from high school to a college environment. (200 words) *This essay is only for Science BS/MBA applicants*

The BS/MBA program asks high school seniors to commit to graduate study when they are only seniors in high school. This is a tall order—after all, you haven’t even assimilated to college life yet! That’s exactly the point of this prompt. Many students struggle in their freshman year since there is so much to adjust to. As a student in a dual degree program, you won’t have the luxury of floundering; the admissions committee wants to be sure that you’re prepared to gracefully navigate this transition to Penn State.

To start out, brainstorm the major differences between your life as a high school student and the experiences you expect you’ll have in college. If you really don’t know what to expect, try to talk to friends or acquaintances who have already transitioned to college, or peruse some articles on the topic.

Here are a few of the major differences between high school and college for most students. Use this list as a jumping off point to consider what changes will be the most challenging for you.

• Moving away from home
• Having a less structured schedule and more freedom
• Larger class sizes, at least in introductory courses (this will definitely be true at a large school like Penn State)
• Acclimating to a completely new social environment
• Establishing healthy habits on your own
• Picking your classes and your major
• Communicating with professors
• Navigating a massive campus
• Managing your own finances.

Framing challenges in terms of “adjustments”

Once you’ve identified the differences between high school and college that matter the most to you, you’ll need to frame these as “adjustments.” How will you need to change in order to succeed at college?

• If you’re really close to your family members, you’ll need to develop patterns for staying in touch with them, and also find a new support system at college.
• If you are used to a super-structured school day, followed by extracurriculars, you’ll need to develop time management skills to make good use of the time between classes that is almost inevitable in college.  

Your goal here isn’t to argue that you already are prepared for college. Rather, it’s to show that you know what you need to do to succeed in college. The admissions committee wants to see that you have a strategy.

Of course, ideally, you can also show that you have the basic tools to implement this strategy.  For example, if you focus on adjusting socially, you might talk about strategies you used to adjust socially to your high school and discuss how you plan to scale those strategies up for your transition to college.

In such a short response, your goal should not be to exhaustively list all the adjustments you’ll need to make to successfully transition to college. Instead, pick two or three and use personal examples to show that you’ve thought through this question carefully and have a solid plan in place to manage your transition.

Describe your biggest commitment. (150 words) *This essay is only for Science BS/MBA applicants*

Like many of the BS/MBA prompts, this one is intended to assess your maturity level and understanding of what commitment means. Again, the admissions committee wants to be sure you’re ready to commit to a set path for the next five to six years of your life. They want to see that you have a track record of taking on responsibility and not balking when things get tough.

Picking a “commitment”

The prompt’s phrasing (“your biggest commitment”) dictates that you choose just one commitment—and it needs to be one that is obviously substantial. If it’s not the sort of thing that a reader would automatically think of as “big,” you need to be able to convincingly argue that it is, in fact, a sign of substantial responsibility in 150 words or less.

Strong options include:

• Family or interpersonal commitments.
• Significant leadership roles that you’ve taken on, or even academic commitments (a heavy course load, for example).
• Outside-the-box choices could also work here. For example, maybe you’re an avid rider; in that case, you could discuss the weighty commitment of ensuring the health and happiness of your horse.

It’s also possible to choose more abstract commitments.

• Perhaps you’ve committed to interacting with friends and family with absolute honesty. Perhaps you’ve made some sort of religious or spiritual commitment.
• These sorts of more personal, somewhat vague responses can work—if you ground them in concrete examples.
• If you’ve committed to complete honesty, describe a case where this commitment was difficult to keep.
• If you want to discuss a spiritual commitment, be sure to depict the role of that commitment in your everyday life—for example, through prayer, community service, or scriptural readings.
• If you’re not able to give these sorts of concrete depictions of what an “abstract” commitment in your life means, then it might be best to stick with a more straightforward topic for this essay.

As you’ll doubtless notice, the general supplemental questions ask about your activities and experiences, as do other questions in the BS/MBA-specific part of the supplement. This means that you will have already covered a lot of ground, and likely already discussed a number of things in your life that qualify as commitments. Though it might seem difficult, try not to double up on anything you’ve already discussed in detail (it’s fine if you’ve mentioned it in passing).

Once you’ve chosen a topic, it’s time to begin writing. Though there are many ways to go about filling your 150-word limit, the best responses will include specific depictions that show why this commitment is the “biggest” in your life. It’s easy to use up 150 words with generalizations. Instead, try to depict a “moment” that exemplifies the weight of your commitment. If you’re talking about your commitment to caring for an ailing parent, this could mean describing in detail a moment of crisis when you were there for them. If your topic is academic, this could mean putting the reader into your head at a moment when you were stretched to your limits by your courses.

If no single “moment” can convey the significance of your commitment, you can take a higher-level approach. If you’re writing about a leadership role you hold, this might mean describing the broader pool of people who depend on you, or the what the consequences would be if you fail to fulfill your responsibilities. Though this approach is slightly more “zoomed out,” you still should use specific examples and vivid details whenever possible.

Words of caution

While your goal is to convey that you are comfortable taking on responsibilities and have a track record of following through, you don’t want to make yourself sound too overburdened. Particularly if you talk about a family or personal commitment, use caution. The admissions committee should not discriminate against applicants with personal or familial struggles, but there is a chance that they might subconsciously worry that you have too many burdens to succeed in an intensely rigorous academic program.

You don’t need to explicitly address this concern ( don’t say something like “I am committed to taking care of my mother, but this won’t detract from my ability to do well in college”). Instead, try and show that this commitment is not an obstacle by subtly emphasizing how you’ve already balanced it with myriad other responsibilities. For example, you could briefly describe how you’ve managed to help care for your ill mother while succeeding in high school and at multiple extracurriculars.

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Thank you for your interest in the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State!

The Honors College promotes achieving academic excellence with integrity, building a global perspective, and creating opportunities for leadership and civic engagement. Our student body is dynamic, diverse, and driven to change the world for the better.

We offer highly motivated high school students a rigorous undergraduate academic experience that combines all of the resources of one of the country's largest research institutions with all the benefits of a small liberal arts college.

More Than A Test Score Application Components

Application.

• Short Answers

Recommendations

• Academic Record
• Alumni Interview

To apply to the Schreyer Honors College, you'll need to complete two separate applications: the Penn State undergraduate application and the Schreyer Honors College application. We suggest you work on both applications at the same time, submitting the Penn State application first, and the Schreyer Honors College application second.

Application Platforms

The link to the Schreyer Honors College application will be displayed in the application portal once you indicate your interest in the Honors College.

Your Penn State and Schreyer applications are evaluated separately; decisions are made independently on the two applications.

Use whichever application platform you prefer, just remember to leave enough time to submit by the deadline!

Essay Questions

The Schreyer Honors College first-year application will have two essay questions, in addition to several shorter prompts. These questions change on a yearly basis and are meant to elicit well-written, comprehensive responses. Each essay response has a maximum word count of 800 words.

The essay questions are an opportunity to present your best self to the review committee, and there is no right answer to the prompts. Rather, reviewers will consider how or why you take a specific approach to each question looking for well-reasoned, consistent, and persuasive responses.

2024 Essay Questions

• Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could take to identify a solution.
• Isaac Asimov wrote: “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” Do you agree? Is such censorship ever justified? If not, explain why. If so, who or what should determine which books are read and which books are forbidden.

Get started on your essays early — they are released on our website in July.

There is no right or wrong essay answer — just answer the question to the best of your ability. Our questions are designed to push you to think, do some research, and apply your knowledge. Be honest, be genuine, and allow your character and personality shine through your writing.

Short Answer Questions

The Schreyer Honors College asks a handful of short answer questions to obtain information regarding honors and achievements, leadership positions, activities and service. These questions have a 200 word limit and may change without notice, so please be sure to check back before starting your application.

2024 Short Answer Questions

• What do you hope to get at Penn State as a Schreyer Scholar to help you accomplish your future goals and aspirations?
• If you were able to go anywhere in the world, outside of the country you currently reside, where would you go and why?
• Tell us about your leadership experiences (community roles, family contributions, research, clubs, organizations, etc.) and why leadership is important to you. Describe the challenges and/or successes you’ve faced in these roles.
• List awards or other recognitions you have received in or outside of school over the last 4 years. Which award or recognition means the most to you and why.
• Tell us about a book or other media that has made you think about something in a new way.
• Consider a time when you had to collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds or with different perspectives. How did this experience contribute to your personal growth and understanding of others?
• Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups, including: shared geography, faith, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities or groups to which you belong and describe how it has influenced your life over the last four years.
• Please use this space to share information you would like us to consider that has not been discussed elsewhere in your Schreyer Honors College application. This could include obstacles you’ve overcome, something you’re proud of that is not discussed elsewhere, or anything else you choose.

Want to share your creative talents and accomplishments? You're welcome to submit this information electronically via the last short answer question.

As with the essay questions, we want to get to know who you really are. Let the true you shine through.

As part of the Schreyer Honors College application process, potential Scholars are required to submit a minimum of two and a maximum of 4 letters of recommendation. Recommendations can be from a teacher, a guidance counselor, a coach, or club advisor.

Common Application

If your school uses a system that connects to the Common App and you applied to Penn State through the Common App, your letters of recommendation that you submitted through your school's system or via the Common App will be sent to the Honors College. No further action is necessary.

If you are working with a recommender who is not affiliated with your school and they cannot submit a letter of recommendation through your school's system, please follow the directions below.

Alternate Instructions

If one of your recommenders is unable to submit their letter of recommendation via the Common App, Naviance or SCOIR, please follow the instructions below.

• Print the Letter of Recommendation Cover Sheet
• Fill out the cover sheet completely
• Give the cover sheet to your recommender.
• The recommender should include both the completed cover sheet and their letter of recommendation in an e-mail to [email protected]

Please be considerate by giving your recommender ample time to complete and submit recommendations on your behalf. Also, please do not ask recommenders to upload recommendations via multiple methods as this will greatly slow down the processing of your application.

The methods outline above are the only methods through which letters of recommendation will be received. Please do not send recommendations to the Penn State Undergraduate Admissions Office as doing so will delay processing of the documents.

Note: It is solely the applicant's responsibility to ensure that all required documents are received by the final deadline of December 4 at 11:59 PM EST.

Schools that participate with Naviance or use The Common Application may upload recommendations to Penn State through these portals.

Alternatively, letters may be sent via e-mail to [email protected] .

Self-Reported Academic Record

Your Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR) must be submitted as part of your Penn State application. This process replaces having school counselors send academic transcripts for each applicant.

The Schreyer Honors College will review and rate your academic record as it relates to the opportunities offered at your particular high school.

We do not use standardized test scores in our evaluation as we've found them to be an inaccurate predictor of student success. In our opinion, one of the best predictors of future performance is prior performance; therefore, your course load and academic rigor in high school are the most important pieces of information we review.

Make sure to enter your grades exactly as they appear on your high school transcript.

If you are offered admission to Penn State, your final high school transcript will be sent to the University.

Optional Alumni Interview

If we receive your application by November 1, you will be invited to participate in an optional interview as part of the selection process.

The goal of this interview is to have a comfortable conversation with one of our alumni volunteers. They are eager to meet you, learn more about your interest in the Schreyer Honors College and share with you some of their Penn State experiences.

Please note that as this is an optional interview, your application will not be negatively impacted if you are not able to participate.

Our admissions interview is not intended to make you nervous or afraid — our alumni just want to have a conversation with you and get to know you better.

Interviews usually last half an hour, keep that in mind and use this time wisely.

Stay on Track First-Year Admission Checklist

Use this at-a-glance checklist to keep your Schreyer application on track.

June & July

October & november, march & april, visit penn state & the schreyer honors college.

There is no better way to see if a college is right for you than by setting foot on campus and getting a feel for the place. Not able to visit in the summer? Don't worry — Penn State has visitations year-round!

Begin Working on Your Essays

The Schreyer Honors College essay questions are posted in mid-July to give you plenty of time to craft well-written, comprehensive responses by our application deadlines.

Create a MyPennState Account

Create a MyPennState account, and explore the Penn State University undergraduate application website. Learn about application requirements, academics, student life, and costs. Plus, you can chat with a current Penn State student.

Schreyer and Penn State Applications Open

The Penn State undergraduate admissions application and the Schreyer Honors College application open on August 1. There are two portals available through which you can apply to both Penn State and the Schreyer Honors College — MyPennState and the Common Application. Students are encouraged to indicate their interest in applying to the Schreyer Honors College on the Common Application. If a student indicates they are not interested in applying or would like to apply at a later date and have submitted their Penn State undergraduate admissions application they can still access the Schreyer Honors College application through MyPennState.

Attend Scholars Day

This annual fall open house gives you a comprehensive look at what Penn State and the Schreyer Honors College have to offer.

Penn State Early Action & Optional Interview Deadline

The early application deadline for Penn State is November 1. Students who apply by this date will receive a decision from the University by December 24.

If you submit your application by 11:59 PM EST on November 1, you will be eligible to schedule an optional alumni interview. Please note that only your application is due by this date; your letters of recommendation may come later.

Note: All the materials for the Schreyer Honors College application must be submitted online. If you wish to submit applications that are audio or visual representations of your work, publish them online and include links in the appropriate section of the Honors College application. No offline material will be accepted or reviewed.

Admissions Interview Signup Opens

The Admissions Interview portal will open for students who have submitted their Honors College application. Interview spaces are limited and assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. All interviews must be scheduled and completed between November 10 and January 16.

Final Application Submission Deadline

If you weren't able to finish the application by the priority deadline in November, our final submission deadline is December 4. In order to meet this deadline, you must have submitted an application for both Penn State and the Schreyer Honors College and have submitted all of the required documentation for both applications by December 4 at 11:59 PM EST .

Recommendation Letters

All letters of recommendation must be submitted online by December 4 at 11:59 PM EST .

Admissions Decision

Look for your Schreyer Honors College admission decision online in mid February to early March . We'll notify you in advance by e-mail of the date and time our admissions decisions go live. Good luck!

If you have been accepted to Penn State, consider waiting until you have your Schreyer decision to schedule your accepted student visit.

Accepted Student Receptions

If you have been accepted to the Schreyer Honors College, consider attending one of our many Accepted Student Receptions held in March and April. Information regarding these events will be posted online.

Offer Acceptance and Housing Selection Deadlines

The deadline for accepting a Penn State and Schreyer Honors College offer is May 15 at 11:59 PM EST . Incoming Scholars also need to select their on-campus housing option by May 20.

New Student Orientation

Information about New Student Orientation (NSO) for incoming first-year Scholars will be posted soon.

What We Look For Application Review Process

While the Penn State Undergraduate Admissions Office will evaluate your credentials for admission to the University, the Schreyer Honors College will conduct its own evaluation. These evaluations are conducted completely independently of each other, however, your entrance into the Honors College depends on receiving an offer from Penn State.

Schreyer is ultimately looking for well-rounded students that excel both inside and outside of the classroom. We pride ourselves on fostering a diverse community of difference makers here in the Honors College and keep that in mind as we review applications.

Selection Committee

As part of your evaluation, your application will be read by at least two members of our Selection Committee. Applications are assigned to these readers randomly and are anonymized as much as possible. Selection Committee members will read and rate (via a norming process) all of their assigned applications. These ratings, along with reader comments, are used to help determine your admissions decision.

Optional Admissions Interview

If you apply by the optional interview date (November 1), you will have the opportunity to request an optional admissions interview with a Scholar alumnus/alumna. Interview availability is offered on a first-come, first-served basis, so please register as soon as possible if you are interested. Every attempt will be made to match alumni volunteers with applicants, but due to alumni availability, the College cannot guarantee that every request will be honored.

Alumni interviewers are asked to submit ratings and comments based on the conversation they have with you. Just be yourself and let your passion shine through. The interview is also an opportunity for applicants to learn more about life as a Scholar at Penn State.

Please note that alumni interviews are completely optional. The applications of students who do not select or were unable to participate in the optional alumni interview are not negatively impacted. Final admissions decisions are based on the material submitted as part of the student application.

The Schreyer Integrated Undergraduate Graduate program allowed me to pursue a master’s degree while finishing my bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. Extending my commitment to research allowed me to confirm my desire for a career as a physician scientist. Alison Roby ' 18 Bioengineering

Pennsylvania State University Essay Guide 2019-2020

Found in the heart of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University (PSU) is a public, land-grant university with a multitude of locations and the primary campus being at University Park, Pennsylvania. PSU has an undergraduate body of over 40,000 students, with an admission rate hovering in the low to mid-50s over the past three years. For the Class of 2022, the middle 50% of applicants had a high school GPA between 3.55-3.97 out of a 4.0 scale and SAT score between 1250-1430 or ACT score between 28-32.

According to the 2017 US News & World Report , PSU ranks #50 overall for best college experience for undergraduates and is ranked #14 among national public universities. Many factors contribute to a student’s evaluation: academic record, standardized test scores, personal statements, cultural and geographic background, and activities. PSU strives to look at the holistic individual and chooses a diverse class of students in all aspects of life.

For students admitted for Fall 2019 and following, PSU has slightly modified its general education curriculum. The baccalaureate degree consists of no less than 120 credits, where students are permitted to take courses beyond the minimum. PSU allows for early action admission, direct application into a major of study granted the student satisfies requirements and also has several special accelerated programs. To list a few at the University Park campus, there is the seven-year BS/MD program, the five-year BS/MBA, the Schreyer Honors College, and many more at one of 18 other PSU affiliated campuses.

To help you with the writing process, we wrote this essay guide specifically for PSU’s supplemental essays. For more guidance on personal essays and the college application process in general, sign up for a monthly plan to work with an admissions coach 1-on-1.

The Penn State Essay Prompts

Prompt 1: please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at penn state. this is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. we suggest a limit of 500 words or fewer..

With the incredible amount of applications submitted each year, try to make the admission officer’s job easier by writing a concise, unique, fluid essay . The essay should tell a story that gives the officer an idea of what kind of person you are while allowing yourself to show off a bit . For example, have you participated in community service or have volunteering experience that has taught you a lesson that can translate to your success at Penn State? Do you play any instruments or sports that have allowed you to travel or gain insight into other cultures? Are you from a military background, has the process of moving to different homes helped you learn to adapt quickly?

To find that desired topic I suggest creating a list of experiences or activities and then writing a short description for each one. This will help with the second prompt because, even if the topic you start with doesn’t end up being the final choice, you can start to pick the activities that mean the most to you. Also, you will have already started brainstorming and writing about your general experiences that may be useful in essays for other schools.

Prompt 2: Please use this space to list or discuss your activities other than academic work during the last several years (for example: school organizations, jobs, athletics, the arts, community service, religious groups, or other individual interests). You may already have an activities resume or list prepared and should feel free to paste it into the space below. We suggest a limit of 500 words or fewer.

The key to this prompt is to brainstorm a few categories (e.g. traveling) in addition to the ones listed and write a quick sentence or two about each activity within that category. Make sure that the description highlights the key takeaways from each activity as you want to try and keep the supplemental essay under 500 words. However, even if the word total exceeds 500, don’t fret as the flow and significance of the activities can mean more to the admissions officer.

If you have only a few activities you would like to describe, feel free to go into more detail and write a compelling story so that the admission officer can understand your passion for said activities. However, if you have too many topics and are unable to sufficiently describe each activity, you can pick one for each category or choose which are most important to you.

Other Program-Specific Prompts

5 year ms/mba of eberly college of science, prompt 3. select the scientific discipline above that is most interesting to you. why do you want to devote 4 years of college studying it (astronomy & astrophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology, biology, biotechnology, chemistry, mathematics, microbiology, physics, statistics) (200 words max).

Think about what has interested you in and out of school, do you have a curiosity or passion for any of these subjects? Have you considered how business will factor into your academic plans?

Prompt 4: Inclusiveness and Diversity: In an increasingly global community, it is essential that students gain cultural competency. In what way have you demonstrated a commitment to this mission? (200 Words Max)

Cultural competency refers to your ability to communicate and interact with people of different cultures. This could be attributed to traveling to different countries or meeting people of various backgrounds in your neighborhood. In this essay, you should demonstrate that you are able to recognize your own views, acknowledge cultural differences, have a positive attitude towards others, and plan to continue doing all of these things in the future.

Prompt 5: Goals: Discuss your career aspirations. How would the Science BS/MBA program help you reach those goals? (200 Words Max)

Your career aspirations can be at any moment after graduation, even 20 years down the road. What is important is that you have some idea of where you what to be at each stage and that you include it in your response. You should also do research on this program, find out what previous graduates did, and look at the curriculum to determine what this program has to offer that is unique and interesting to you.

Prompt 6: Leadership: Please discuss your leadership and collaboration skills. Give recent examples of how they have been demonstrated. (200 Words Max)

Pick one or two examples at most to effectively paint a complete story of you as a leader. If you are unable to think of an example, explain a hypothetical but realistic situation where you can showcase your leadership and collaboration skills.

Prompt 7: Resiliency: Transitioning to college can be a challenge. Discuss the adjustments you believe you will need to make in order to be successful as you transition from high school to a college environment. (200 Words Max)

Whether you believe you need to make adjustments or have already made them, make sure you include a broader list and then narrow down the answers to respond to this prompt.

Prompt 8: Describe your biggest commitment. (150 Words Max)

This prompt allows some flexibility if you think one aspect of yourself has not been thoroughly showcased, you are able to go into more depth here.

Prompt 9: Describe a time when you helped someone else succeed. (150 Words Max)

Think about your family, friends, peers, or even strangers and create a list with a brief description under each potential answer.

Prompt 10: Using three adjectives, how would you like others to perceive you? (3 Words Max)

Do not overthink this answer , one solution could be to try and summarize your previous prompts so that each adjective has a supporting essay to go along with it.

Schreyer Honors College

Prompt 11: describe a typical day in your life in 2050. consider what your professional life will look like, what technologies you might use, and how you will interact with your personal network (friends, family, etc.) and the world at large..

This prompt allows you to be creative, but you should contain your answers to what you would be able to gain specifically from being a Schreyer Honors student (i.e. the network perks and additional educational benefits). Try to look for previous Schreyer Scholar testaments to the benefits of being one of these students.

Prompt 12: Describe a situation in which you moved outside your comfort zone, interacting with people whose experiences and/or beliefs are different from your own. What was your initial response and how did you adapt? Walk us through the situation and explain what impact it had on you.

Approach this question in a multitude of ways:

• Have you traveled to a new country with family or by yourself?
• Have you met anybody during community service who has left a lasting impact?
• Did you partake in work that involved being adaptive?

Regardless of the specific situation, be sure to include how you were initially presented with an uncomfortable situation, how you thought to remedy the situation, what you chose to execute in action, and the overall response.

Prompt 13: “A picture is worth a thousand words” refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture. If you could submit a selfie from anywhere in the world that would tell us about your beliefs and passion, where would you take this photo? What insight would this photo provide about you?

Again, think about what you want to show the admissions officer that you have been unable to explain in previous essays or your resume.

This essay guide was written by Victor Shen , PSU Class of 2018. If you want to get help writing your PSU application essays from Victor or other CollegeAdvisor.com Admissions Experts , register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, college essay prompts: complete list, analysis, and advice.

College Admissions , College Essays

When talking about college essays, we tend to focus on the Common Application prompts , and it's true that many students will need to write a Common App essay. However, there are actually quite a few schools, including both public and private universities, that don't use the Common App and instead ask applicants to respond to their own college essay prompts.

Luckily, college essay prompts tend to be pretty similar to each other. In this guide, I'll list all the college essay questions for popular schools in the US (and a few abroad) and then break down the patterns to help you brainstorm topics and plan how to approach multiple essays efficiently. After reading this guide, you'll be able to strategize which essays you'll write for which colleges.

Feature image: Mayr /Flickr

Why Do Colleges Ask For an Essay?

The short answer: the essay gives admissions committees a sense of your personality beyond the statistics on the rest of your application. The essay is your chance to show the committee your unique perspective and impress them with your maturity and insight.

College application essay prompts are written with this goal in mind. Admissions officers want to give you the chance to share your interests, aspirations, and views on the world, so most prompts ask about how your experiences have shaped you or what you're excited about studying or doing in college. I've collected a ton of examples below and provided some analysis to help you begin planning and crafting your own essays.

Keep in mind that the personal statement alone won't be enough to get you in— your grades and test scores are still the most important factors in your application . That being said, a stellar essay can help bring a borderline applicant over the top or give an excellent but not extraordinary student the opportunity to stand out in a competitive applicant pool.

As such, the essay tends to matter most for very competitive schools. Non-competitive schools generally don't ask you to submit an essay.

Complete List of College Essay Prompts

This list collects the 2022 college essay prompts for major state universities, top-50 schools, and other popular schools which have their own unique questions. They're divided by region, with all optional essays listed at the end.

I left off the Common App supplements, as those often require a substantially different approach. I also stuck to four-year schools, meaning I didn't include special two-year programs, such as Deep Springs College or Miami Dade College's Honors Program (both of which require essays).

Finally, note that these prompts are for freshman applicants, so the requirements might be different for transfer students .

General Applications

There are three general applications you can use to apply to many different schools at once:

Common Application

Universal college application, coalition application.

Each application has its own personal statement requirement. Some schools will ask for additional supplemental essays.

Many more schools accept the Common App than they do the UCA or Coalition Application , though some will accept more than one of these applications.

For the Common App essay, you pick one of the prompts and write 250-650 words about it. Here are the prompts for the 2022-2023 school year:

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma—anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

The UCA essay prompt is completely open ended and has a 650-word limit. Here is the 2022-2023 prompt:

Please write an essay that demonstrates your ability to develop and communicate your thoughts. Some ideas include: a person you admire; a life-changing experience; or your viewpoint on a particular current event.

For the Coalition Application, you'll pick one of five prompts listed below. While there is no hard word limit, the range guidelines are 500-650 words. Here are the prompts for 2022-2023:

What interests or excites you? How does it shape who you are now or who you might become in the future?

Describe a time when you had a positive impact on others. What were the challenges? What were the rewards?

Has there been a time when an idea or belief of yours was questioned? How did you respond? What did you learn?

What success have you achieved or obstacle have you faced? What advice would you give a sibling or friend going through a similar experience?

Now that you know the essay requirements for the three general applications, let’s look at the application essays for specific schools . To keep things organized, we’ve grouped schools based on the region of the US in which they’re located.

Northeast/Mid-Atlantic

The Great Dome at MIT

Georgetown University

Georgetown asks applicants to write one short essay (about half a single-spaced page) and two longer essays (approximately one single-spaced page each). Each applicant must respond to the first two prompts and can choose among the other four based on the specific program she's interested in.

Short Essay: Briefly (approximately one-half page, single-spaced) discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved.

All Applicants: As Georgetown is a diverse community, the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in your own words. Please submit a brief essay, either personal or creative, which you feel best describes you.

Applicants to Georgetown College: What does it mean to you to be educated? How might Georgetown College help you achieve this aim? (Applicants to the Sciences and Mathematics or the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics should address their chosen course of study).

Applicants to the School of Nursing & Health Studies: Describe the factors that have influenced your interest in studying health care. Please specifically address your intended major (Global Health, Health Care Management & Policy, Human Science, or Nursing).

Applicants to the Walsh School of Foreign Service: The Walsh School of Foreign Service was founded more than a century ago to prepare generations of leaders to solve global problems. What is motivating you to dedicate your undergraduate studies to a future in service to the world?

Applicants to the McDonough School of Business: The McDonough School of Business is a national and global leader in providing graduates with essential ethical, analytical, financial and global perspectives. Please discuss your motivations for studying business at Georgetown.

For more Georgetown application tips, check out our articles on the Georgetown essays and how to get into Georgetown .

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT doesn't ask for a single personal statement but rather asks applicants to respond to a series of questions with just a paragraph or two of about 200 words each .

We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it.

Describe the world you come from (for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town). How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?

MIT brings people with diverse backgrounds and experiences together to better the lives of others. Our students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way you have collaborated with people who are different from you to contribute to your community.

Tell us about a significant challenge you've faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

For more details on how to get into MIT , read our other articles on the MIT application process , tips for MIT essays , and an example of a real MIT acceptance letter !

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Indiana University Bloomington

IU asks for 200-400 words on your plans and interests.

Describe your academic and career plans and any special interest (for example, undergraduate research, academic interests, leadership opportunities, etc.) that you are eager to pursue as an undergraduate at Indiana University. If you encountered any unusual circumstances, challenges, or obstacles in pursuit of your education, share those experiences and how you overcame them. Please note that this essay may be used in scholarship consideration.

University of Illinois

The University of Illinois asks for two essays (or three only if you selected a second-choice major other than what's noted on your application). All responses should be approximately 150 words.

You'll answer two to three prompts as part of your application. The questions you'll answer will depend on whether you're applying to a major or to our undeclared program, and if you've selected a second choice. Each response should be approximately 150 words. If You're Applying to a Major: 1.  Explain, in detail, an experience you've had in the past 3 to 4 years related to your first-choice major. This can be an experience from an extracurricular activity, in a class you’ve taken, or through something else. 2.  Describe your personal and/or career goals after graduating from UIUC and how your selected first-choice major will help you achieve them. If You're Applying to Our Undeclared Program in the Division of General Studies: 1.  What are your academic interests and strengths? You may also include any majors you are considering. 2.  What are your future academic or career goals? If You've Selected a Second-Choice Major (Including Undeclared): Please explain your interest in your second-choice major or your overall academic or career goals.

If you're applying to UIUC, check out our UIUC essay tips article as well!

University of Wisconsin–Madison

All applicants must complete two essays for UW–Madison. The essays should be 250-650 words in length and may be used for scholarship and campus program review.

If you apply through the Common Application, you’ll be asked to reply to one of the freshman Common Application essays in lieu of the first essay prompt below, but you’ll be required to respond to the second prompt below. 

If you apply through the UW System Application, the following two essays are required:

This part is all about you. Tell us about something you've done — academically or personally — and what you've learned from it. Was it a success or a challenge? Did it represent a turning point in your life? How did this particular moment in your life influence you, and how will it continue to influence you as you pursue your college education?

Tell us why you would like to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest.

Kyle Field at Texas A&M ( Ed Schipul /Flickr)

The ApplyTexas application is used by all Texas public universities and some private colleges. There are four ApplyTexas essay prompts. Which ones you need to respond to will depend on where you're applying. UT Austin, for example, requires applicants to submit at least one essay responding to Topic A on the ApplyTexas application. .

While there's no set word limit, the online application will cut off each essay at 120 lines (~1000 words).

Topic A: Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

Topic B: Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.

Topic C: You've got a ticket in your hand – Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

Topic D: Please Note: The essay in this section is specific to certain college majors and is not required by all colleges/universities that accept the Apply Texas Application. If you are not applying for a major in Architecture, Art, Art History, Design, Studio Art, Visual Art Studies/Art Education , you are not required to write this essay.

Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?

We go into all the ApplyTexas prompts in detail here !

University of Georgia

For UGA, applicants must write two essays, one 200-300 words and one 250-650 words . Both essays are required for all applicants. The longer personal essay uses the Common Application prompts for 2023 ; the prompt for the shorter essay is as follows:

The c ollege admissions process can create anxiety. In an attempt to make it less stressful, please tell us an interesting or amusing story about yourself from your high school years that you have not already shared in your application.

For a more detailed discussion of the UGA essays, read this article .

The Campanile at UC Berkeley

University of California

Students applying to the UC system must respond to four out of eight short personal insight questions. The maximum word count for each response is 350 words.

• Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.
• Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
• What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
• Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
• Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
• Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
• What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
• Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

Learn more about the UC essays , the UC application , and how to choose which UC schools to apply to with our complete guides .

University of Oregon

Applicants to the University of Oregon are required to submit one essay of 650 words or fewer. You also have the option to write a second essay (maximum of 500 words), but it’s not required.

The essay prompts are as follows:

The UO is interested in learning more about you. Write an essay of 650 words or less that shares information that we cannot find elsewhere on your application. Any topic you choose is welcome. Some ideas you might consider include your future ambitions and goals, a special talent, extracurricular activity, or unusual interest that sets you apart from your peers, or a significant experience that influenced your life. If you are applying to the UO's Robert D. Clark Honors College, feel free to resubmit your honors college application essay.

Optional second essay: As you've looked into what it will be like to attend Oregon, you've hopefully learned what makes Ducks Ducks. No two are alike, though, so tell us what makes you you, and how that connects to our campus community. We are interested in your thoughts and experiences recognizing difference and supporting equity and inclusion, and choosing one of these two options will guide you in sharing those thoughts. You can learn more about equity and inclusion at Oregon by visiting the Equity and Inclusion website . Maximum statement length is 500 words. This statement is not required.

University of Washington

In addition to its specific prompts, the University of Washington gives specific advice about what its admissions officers consider to be good writing before the prompts:

"At the UW, we consider the college essay as our opportunity to see the person behind the transcripts and the numbers. Some of the best statements are written as personal stories. In general, concise, straightforward writing is best, and good essays are often 300-400 words in length.

Essay Prompt (Required): Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped shape it. Maximum length: 650 words.

Short Response (Required): Our families and our communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW. Maximum length: 300 words

You can also find more tips on the University of Washington essays in this blog article .

International

Generally speaking, international schools are less likely to ask for an essay, since admission tends to be heavily focused on grades and test results. However, a few popular international schools do ask for a personal statement as part of their application.

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UK Schools)

UCAS is a general application for UK schools (similar to the Common App in the US). There's no specific prompt for the personal statement—instead, applicants are required to write an essay describing what they want to study, why they want to study it, and what they bring to the table. There is a 4,000-character/47-line limit.

University of British Columbia

UBC asks applicants to fill out a personal profile consisting of five to seven short-answer questions that vary depending on the program you're applying to. Answers should be 50-200 words.

Depending on which degree program you apply to, you’ll be asked to answer some or all of the following questions on the UBC application:

• Tell us about who you are. How would your family, friends, and/or members of your community describe you? If possible, please include something about yourself that you are most proud of and why.
• What is important to you? And why?
• Family/community responsibilities
• Creative or performing arts
• Work/employment
• Service to others
• Tell us more about one or two activities listed above that are most important to you. Please explain the role you played and what you learned in the process. You will be asked for a reference who can speak to your response.
• Additional information: You may wish to use the space below to provide UBC with more information on your academic history to date and/or your future academic plans. For example: How did you choose your courses in secondary school? Are there life circumstances that have affected your academic decisions to date? What have you done to prepare yourself specifically for your intended area of study at UBC?
• Please submit the names of two referees who know you well and can comment on your preparedness for study at UBC. Examples of referees include an employer, a community member, a coach, a teacher/instructor, or anyone who knows you well. One of the referees you select must be able to speak to one of the activities/experiences described in one of your long-answer responses above. For applicants who are currently attending a high school, one of your referees must be a school official (e.g., Grade 12 or senior year counsellor, teacher, or IB coordinator). Neither referee should be a friend, family member, or paid agent.

Some programs of study may ask applicants to respond to the questions above and some additional, program-specific questions when completing the personal profile.

University of Cambridge

Optional Essays

Some schools don't require an essay from all applicants but do recommend or require an essay for certain programs. I've listed a selection of those prompts below.

Arizona State University

Students applying to the Barrett Honors College at ASU must submit one essay of 300 to 500 words in response to one of the following prompts (your response may be critical or creative):

Prompt 1 Discuss how a specific piece of art (painting, literature, photograph, etc.) or popular culture (song, comic book, etc.) helped you realize something new about yourself or the world. What was that realization, and how did the piece of art or pop culture bring about this change in your thinking? Do not simply describe the piece of art or pop culture; instead, focus on its effect on you and how it makes you a good fit for the Barrett Honors College experience. Prompt 2 Tell us about a habit or way of thinking that others would recognize as “uniquely you.” This is something you value and would hesitate to give up because it is a distinct part of who you are or what makes you different - why is it so? Be sure to share how this aspect of your identity makes you a good fit for the Barrett Honors College experience.

City University of New York

Applicants to Macaulay Honors College must write two essays: an “about you” essay, and an essay describing your plans for college. Each response should be around 500 words, give or take a few within reason.

Essay 1: About you. (Select one of the options below.) Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. OR Tell us about an area or activity, outside of academics, in which you have invested a lot of time and effort. Tell us why. What did you learn? How was it meaningful?

Essay 2: About your plans for college. Please discuss all points below. Why do you want to go to an honors college ? There are many benefits of being a Macaulay student, such as the Macaulay community, special courses, Honors advisement, cultural passport, opportunities funds, and other financial benefits. Please describe how these features will shape you and your college experience, including, what you expect to bring to the college community and what you expect to get out of your college experience.

Florida International University

Only applicants who don't meet the criteria for automatic admissions and whose applications undergo holistic review will need to submit a 500-word essay:

Students requesting appeal or additional review of their admission status must submit a written statement including:

Your goals and educational or professional objectives

A summary/explanation of past academic performance

Information and/or circumstances that may have affected past academic performance

• Any other information the student wishes to have considered

Ohio University

For the Ohio University application, students who've been out of school for more than a year must submit an essay explaining what they've done in their time off from school.

Applicants who have been out of high school for more than one year must submit an essay detailing activities since graduation.

Additionally, applicants to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism are encouraged, though not required, to submit an essay detailing how they want to help shape the future of journalism.

For all other applicants, submitting an essay here is optional; however, if you do wish to write an essay, the application suggests that you describe any academic challenges you’ve faced, academic and career objectives, or involvement in community affairs (recommended length is 250-500 words).

Those interested in Ohio University's OHIO Honors Program (including the Cutler Scholars Program) are required to answer the following essay prompt (limit 250 words):

Students in the OHIO Honors Program represent all majors on campus and take engaging honors courses while applying what they learn outside of the classroom. Students choose from classes and experiences across three pathways: community engagement, research and creative activity, and leadership . Students in OHP can move among the three pathways as their interests evolve and they develop their goals. What pathway is most exciting to you right now, and why?

Finally, those interested in the Honors Tutorial College are must answer the following two essay prompts (in about 500 words each):

HTC Question 1: Please explain why you have chosen your particular program(s) of study.

HTC Question 2: We expect that one reason you seek a tutorial education is for the one-on-one interaction with faculty, but other than that, what interests you about pursuing a tutorial-based undergraduate education? What aspects of your education and life experience have prepared you for a tutorial education with its emphasis on research and creative activity?

Type 1: Questions About a Meaningful Experience

This type of college essay question is the most common. The exact focus of these prompts can vary quite a bit, but they all ask you to reflect on an important experience. Some questions specify a type of experience whereas others don't, simply opting to have applicants write about whatever matters to them.

There are three basic sub-types that you'll see when dealing with these prompts. Let's look at an example of each.

#1: Overcoming a Challenge

These prompts ask about how you dealt with a particular challenge or solved a problem. Below is a typical example of this question type from the MIT application:

Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

To address a question like this, you need a topic that has real stakes —that is, something that you genuinely struggled with. Even though it can seem as though you should only discuss positive experiences and feelings in your college essay (you want to impress your readers with how awesome you are!), unwavering positivity actually hurts your essay because it makes you seem fake.

Instead, be honest : if you're writing about a negative experience, acknowledge that it was unpleasant or hard and explain why. Doing so will just make your overcoming it that much more impressive.

#2: Engaging With Diversity

Questions about diversity ask how you interact with those who are different from you . See an example below from the Common Application:

When approaching this type of question, you need to show that you're thoughtful about new ideas and perspectives. Colleges are full of students from all kinds of backgrounds, and admissions officers want to know that you'll be accepting of the diversity of other students, even if you don't necessarily agree with them.

Also, make sure to pick a specific instance to focus on. Writing a general essay about how you accept others won't impress admissions officers—you need to show them an example of a time that you did so.

#3: Growing Up

Finally, this type of prompt asks about a transitional experience or rite of passage that made you feel like an adult. I've reprinted another example from the Common App:

For these types of prompts, you want to show personal growth. Explain to the reader not just who you are but also how you've changed . (Really, this is a good idea no matter which prompt you're addressing!)

College can be challenging, so admissions officers want to know that you have the maturity to deal with (likely) living on your own, managing your own life, and planning for your future.

Regardless of the exact prompt, the key to this type of college essay is to show what you've learned from the experience. Admissions officers don't care that much about what happened to you—they care about what you think and feel about that event. That's what will give them a sense of who you are and what kind of college student you'll make.

Once you write a first draft, put it in a drawer for a week. Taking some time away from it will allow you to come back to it with fresh eyes. Then, try to read your essay from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about you. Would they be able to understand the story? Do you explain clearly what you learned? Does your intro grab the reader's attention?

It can also be helpful to ask someone you trust, such as a parent, teacher, or peer, to read your essay and give you feedback. Really listen to what they say and think about how you can improve your writing.

Finally, try reading your essay aloud. This will help you catch any weird or awkward phrasings.

What's Next?

If you're struggling with how to approach your personal statement, consider looking at some college essay examples .

The essay is just one part of the college application process. Check out our guide to applying to college for a step-by-step breakdown of what you'll need to do.

Finally, if you're planning to take the SAT or ACT , consider taking a look at our expert test-prep guides for some helpful advice on whatever you might be struggling with.

Alex is an experienced tutor and writer. Over the past five years, she has worked with almost a hundred students and written about pop culture for a wide range of publications. She graduated with honors from University of Chicago, receiving a BA in English and Anthropology, and then went on to earn an MA at NYU in Cultural Reporting and Criticism. In high school, she was a National Merit Scholar, took 12 AP tests and scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and ACT.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, penn state personal statement vs common app essay.

Hi guys! I'm working on my application for Penn State and I'm wondering if I should write a separate personal statement for them or if it's okay to use my Common App essay. Is there a difference between the two and have any of you had success with one over the other?

Hey! You've raised an important question when it comes to college applications. For Penn State, you can actually use your Common App essay as your personal statement. They accept the Common App, which means they are prepared to receive and evaluate essays written in response to those prompts.

However, it's essential to make sure your Common App essay addresses the requirements and aligns with the characteristics that Penn State is looking for in their applicants. Before submitting your essay, you might want to take a closer look at Penn State's mission, values, and campus culture to ensure your essay fits well with their expectations.

Remember, some schools might have additional supplement essays specific to their institution. Penn State may also require supplemental essays or short answer questions, so make sure to double-check their application requirements and complete those as well.

Good luck with your application!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

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A Rising Democrat Leans Into the Campus Fight Over Antisemitism

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the proudly Jewish leader of a battleground state, has dived headfirst into subjects that have wrenched apart his party.

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By Katie Glueck

Reporting from Pennsylvania’s State Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pa.

• May 11, 2024

A few hours after Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian student protests, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania was in his office in Harrisburg, taking stock of the ways he sees universities letting students down.

“Our colleges, in many cases, are failing young people,” he said in an interview this week. “Failing to teach information that is necessary to form thoughtful perspectives. They are willing to let certain forms of hate pass by and condemn others more strongly.”

Mr. Shapiro — the leader of a pre-eminent battleground state, a rising Democrat and a proudly observant Jew — has also emerged as one of his party’s most visible figures denouncing the rise in documented antisemitism after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

And at a moment of growing Democratic anger and unease over how Israel is conducting its devastating military response, Mr. Shapiro, 50 — who has no obligation to talk about foreign policy — has not shied away from expressing support for the country while criticizing its right-wing government.

Plunging into a subject that has inflamed and divided many Americans carries risk for an ambitious Democrat from a politically important state. The politics around both the Gaza war and the protest movement are exceptionally fraught within the Democratic Party , and many of its voters and elected officials have become increasingly critical of Israel.

But Mr. Shapiro has been direct.

Asked if he considered himself a Zionist, he said that he did. When Iran attacked Israel last month, he wrote on social media that Pennsylvania “stands with Israel.”

When the University of Pennsylvania’s president struggled before Congress to directly answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the school’s rules, Mr. Shapiro said she had failed to show “moral clarity.” ( She later resigned .) When opponents of the Gaza war picketed an Israeli-style restaurant in Philadelphia known for its falafel and tahini shakes, Mr. Shapiro called the demonstration antisemitic and showed up for lunch.

And as university officials have struggled to define where free speech ends and hate speech begins, a tension upending the final weeks of the school year, Mr. Shapiro has issued stern warnings about their responsibility to protect students from discrimination. The issue hits close to home: On Friday, police cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators off the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Shapiro had said it was “ past time ” for Penn to do so.

‘It should not be hard’

In the interview, Mr. Shapiro stressed that he did not believe all encampments or demonstrators were antisemitic — not “by any stretch.” But he suggested that on some campuses, antisemitic speech was treated differently than other kinds of hate speech.

“If you had a group of white supremacists camped out and yelling racial slurs every day, that would be met with a different response than antisemites camped out, yelling antisemitic tropes,” he said.

Law enforcement officials and advocacy groups have tracked a rise in antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab acts in recent months.

Speaking after an appearance at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday, Mr. Shapiro emphasized that “we should be universal in our condemnation of antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of hate.”

While there is room for “nuance” in foreign policy discussions, he said, “it should not be hard for anyone on the political left or right to call out antisemitism.”

In a new survey , Mr. Shapiro, a former state attorney general, had a job approval rating of 64 percent, with just 19 percent of Pennsylvanians saying they disapproved.

He has long emphasized bipartisanship and prioritized nonideological issues like rapidly reopening a stretch of Interstate 95 after a collapse. And his own religious observance has helped him connect with people of other faiths in a state where Jews are estimated to make up about 3 percent of the electorate.

“I make it home Friday night for Sabbath dinner because family and faith ground me,” he said in a campaign ad.

Many Jews in Pennsylvania hope that he will become the first Jewish president. On that subject, he deflects as skillfully as any potential White House aspirant: He laughs or insists that he loves and is focused on his current job.

“I am very humbled that people have taken note of our work,” he said. “I sort of dismiss those comments because they’re not helpful to the work I’m trying to do every day as governor, the voice I’m trying to have both here in the commonwealth and across the country to root out hate and to speak with moral clarity.”

He added, “It’s certainly not helpful when it comes to our top political priority, which is to re-elect President Biden.”

‘Josh is front and center’

The Mideast war, which has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities, has fueled a broad and significant protest movement.

But on college campuses, there are sharp debates over when demonstrations against Israel and its treatment of Palestinians veer into antisemitic targeting of Jewish students and institutions.

To Mr. Shapiro, the distinction is clear: Criticism of Israeli policies is fair game. “Affixing to every Jew the policies of Israel,” he said, is not.

Mr. Shapiro said he felt a “unique responsibility” to speak out both because he leads a state founded on a vision of religious tolerance , and because he is a “proud American Jew.”

Indeed, his Jewish identity is intertwined with his public persona to a degree rarely seen in American politicians.

He is a Jewish day school alumnus who has featured challah in his campaign advertising and alludes to a collection of Jewish ethics in his speeches. In recent weeks, he offered an under-the-weather 76ers player matzo ball soup and celebrated the end of Passover with Martin’s Potato Rolls, a Pennsylvania delicacy.

“It’s not an easy time to be Jewish, and to be a Jewish politician,” said Sharon Levin, a former teacher of Mr. Shapiro’s. “Josh is front and center.”

Mr. Shapiro has also spent significant time in Israel, proposing to his wife in Jerusalem . Asked if, like Mr. Biden , he considers himself a Zionist, he confirmed that he did.

“I am pro-Israel,” he said. “I am pro-the idea of a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state, and I will certainly do everything in my power to ensure that Israel is strong and Israel is fortified and will exist for generations.”

He also supports a two-state solution , is a longtime critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he mourned “the loss of life in Gaza.”

That approach is common among elected Democrats. But it is clearly at odds with the campus protests, which are often explicitly anti-Zionist.

The issue is virtually certain to divide Democrats on future presidential debate stages.

For now, Mr. Shapiro has not drawn the kind of backlash from the left that some other Israel supporters have, in part because he is not voting on foreign policy. And while another Pennsylvania Democrat, Senator John Fetterman, has sometimes engaged provocatively with pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Mr. Shapiro has a more measured, lawyerly style.

“It’s critically important that we remove hate from the conversation and allow people to freely express their ideas, whether I agree with their ideas or not,” he said.

Tensions over Israel

Some Muslim leaders say Mr. Shapiro has not found the right balance in his post-Oct. 7 comments.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Philadelphia said in a statement that two of its board members had skipped an iftar dinner he hosted, arguing that he had “created much harm and hurt among Muslim, Arab and pro-Palestinian Pennsylvanians.”

“The governor, like the White House, is not fully able to see the deep level of resentment that exists about his stances,” Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of that chapter, said in an interview. (In a statement on Friday, he also criticized Mr. Shapiro’s call to disband the Penn encampment.) “The governor has lost the trust of many in the Muslim-American community in Pennsylvania that had long considered him a friend.”

Mr. Shapiro, whose team has clashed with CAIR before, replied, “I’m not going to let one press release from one group that has its own agenda take away from the close, strong relationship I have with the Muslim community.”

“We have tried to create, at the residence and across Pennsylvania, a place where all faiths feel welcomed,” he said.

State Representative Tarik Khan, a Philadelphia-area Democrat who is Muslim, did attend the iftar. It included time for prayer and a “legit dinner,” he said, rather than “hors d’oeuvres and get the hell out.”

“At a time when there’s a lot of trauma, sometimes the easy thing is to do nothing,” Mr. Khan said. “If he didn’t care about our community, he wouldn’t have spent that time.”

Growing expectations

Mr. Shapiro faces different pressures from the Jewish community.

In the Philadelphia area, many know him or his family personally — or feel as if they do — and in some cases expect him to speak out frequently in support of Israel. But, said Jonathan Scott Goldman, the chair of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition, his job is to lead the whole state.

“Jewish people want to and do claim Josh as their own,” Mr. Goldman said. “He knows he’s not just a Jewish governor. He’s a governor, and he’s the governor of all Pennsylvanians.”

In the interview, Mr. Shapiro reiterated that he was focused on that job.

But asked if — broadly speaking — he believed the country could elect a Jewish president in his lifetime, he replied, “Speaking broadly, absolutely.”

“It doesn’t mean that our nation is free of bias,” he said. “If you’re asking me, can the country rise above that, and elect someone that might look different than them or worship different than them? The answer is yes.”

Katie Glueck covers American politics with a focus on the Democratic Party. More about Katie Glueck