jmu honors college supplemental essays

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The Honors College seeks to develop a diverse community of inquisitive and aspirational learners from all parts of campus through distinctive and challenging educational experiences. Under the guidance of recognized teacher-scholars, this program offers students the opportunity to cultivate the habits of critical thinking, independent analysis and creative expression through classes and independent study. The program offers a setting in which students who share a similar enthusiasm for learning are brought together in intellectual fellowship and provides public recognition for superior academic achievement. 

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Hey there! I'm starting my application for JMU and was curious if they have any supplemental essays or if it's just the Common App essay? Thanks for your help!

Hello! Over the past few admissions cycles, JMU has not required any additional essays for the general application process, so it's safe to assume that this policy will continue for future applicants.

However, it's essential to double-check their website or contact their admissions office for the most up-to-date information, as requirements often change from year to year. Additionally, if you're applying for a specific program or scholarship within JMU, there might be separate essays required for those applications. So, make sure to explore all the opportunities you're interested in and check for any associated essay requirements.

Best of luck with your application to JMU, and I hope this information helps you prepare!

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Honors College Essay: Tips, Prompt Examples and How to Write

Writing honors college essay

An honors college essay is an academic paper that students typically complete to establish entrance into an honors college, program, or division. An honors paper seeks to test students’ research skills and focus their analytical abilities on a subject of academic interest. 

Due to the specialized focus of the paper, students benefit from serious attention to the college essay topics, which are vital in developing the essay.

An Honors College essay is unique in terms of its requirements, structure, and background. The purpose of this article is to provide advice on writing and structuring an Honors College essay.

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Which Universities do Ask for Honors College Essay

1. uci (university of california irvine) .

The UCI has two programs, the Academic Honors Program and the Honors Program. Both are popular with many members. They are not mutually exclusive, but they have different requirements and different goals.

The Academic Honors Program is for students who want to get recognized by their professors for academic achievement. It does not require an essay but several letters of recommendation from faculty members.

You should not apply to either program if you are only interested in one or the other because there is no guarantee that either program will accept your application or that you will gain acceptance into either program.

2. VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University)

The applicants must complete the 500-word Essay on Honors. The essay should address the following topics:

• Your interests and goals, especially as they pertain to your intended major(s) and career path(s). How do you feel about being a lifelong learner?
• Your ideas about leadership, including h
• How you would define leadership, what your leadership style is, how you would use your abilities as a leader to positively impact your community in and out of college, and how you would lead if given the opportunity.

3. NJT (New Jersey Institute of Technology)

NJT requires you to write an essay and submit it along with your application.

These honors college essays usually focus on your intellectual interests and experiences, using specific examples to illustrate your points. It’s essential to select an area you are interested in and know about. 

You should also pick something that you can write about easily; it will be evident if you are writing a research paper or other academic work instead of an honors college essay, so don’t try to fake it!

4. Purdue University

Purdue University’s Honors College focuses on scholarship, leadership, research, and engagement by integrating residential and co-curricular learning opportunities with academic classroom experiences.

Your college application essay needs to breathe life into your application. It should capture your genuine personality, explaining who you are beyond a series of grades, test scores, and after-school activities. 

Take a minute and think about the college or university admission officers who will be reading your essay.

5. Stony Brook University

The Stony Brook Honors College provides an exceptional opportunity for students who want to pursue a challenging course of study in the company of talented peers. Your essay should be no longer than three double-spaced pages and should address certain questions.

It is an opportunity to explain an event that took place on any day in history; what would that event be? Discuss why you chose this particular day. Also, as this question, what do you hope to learn/experience by being present?

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How to Write a Good Honors College Essay

Honors college essays follow a formal style with a clear structure. To get your honors college essay, follow these tips:

• Think about the prompt and what you want to say.
• Brainstorm.
• Organize your thoughts into a logical outline.
• Write your introduction.
• End with a conclusion that sums up the main points of your argument and connects those points back to the prompt.

Technically, the honors college essay can be a five-paragraph essay, but it should be more than that.

It should be closer to a 10-paragraph essay, with an introduction and conclusion paragraph that are each about four or five sentences long.

The introduction and conclusion paragraphs should be about the same size. The middle of the essay should be about three paragraphs long, and each of them should be about four to five sentences long.

1. Introduction 

The introduction should have a hook which is a catchy sentence or two that gets the reader interested in reading your essay. Furthermore, it should have an explanation of why you want to go to Honors College: This is usually possible in one sentence. 

Also, there should be a thesis statement. This is usually evident in one sentence at the end of the paragraph. The thesis statement tells the reader what you plan to write about in your essay. For example: “I want to attend honors college because of their strong pre-med program.”

Write the body of your paper using transition words to connect your ideas and explain the connections between them.

The middle paragraphs should include an explanation of why you have chosen your career path and why you are interested. 

3. Conclusion

End with a strong conclusion that ties together everything you discussed within your paper, providing important takeaways for readers as well as leaving them feeling satisfied with what they just read.

Takeaways 

• You are writing an essay, not a text message. In other words, please use complete sentences and correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If proper English is not your strong suit, enlist someone proficient at it to help edit your essay.
• Be specific about what you want to study and why. Do not just say that you want an education; tell the reader what kind of education you want and why. This is particularly important if you plan to study something that you did not find at your high school. 
• The readers do not expect you to know everything about the field you plan to enter. They expect that you give serious consideration to it and explain why you want to pursue it beyond the fact that “it sounds interesting” or “it pays well.”
• Proofread your essays before sending them in. Errors will distract from whatever else is in those essays and may give us a negative impression of your abilities.

Things to Remember about Honor Essays

The honors essay is one of your best chances to stand out in a meaningful way from other applicants, so be sure to invest time in crafting a great response.

The admission office is looking for the following:

• The office wants to know that you understand what makes the honors program special. We have a diverse group of students and faculty who are passionate about learning and interacting across disciplines.
• What do you think this will mean for you? How will you take advantage of being in an environment that values interdisciplinary thinking?
• Your accomplishments. Let the audience know your talents. Have you excelled academically? What leadership roles have you taken on, or awards have you won? They want to discover what drives your passion for learning, leadership, and service.
• Your plans for the future. The honors program will prepare you for success beyond your skills, whether that’s graduate school or medical school, or a career in a completely different field. 

People Also Read: NJHS Essay: How to Write a Winning Piece from Ideas to end

Examples of Honors College Essay Topics

• Considering your lifetime goals, explain how your present and future academic activities will assist you in achieving your goals. 
• Settle for an issue of importance to you, whether it is political, personal, local, or international related. Then, craft an essay to explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your community, and your generation. 

When not handling complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

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JMU Scholarly Commons

• Graduate School Publications

How to Submit

How to make revisions, why contribute to jmu scholarly commons, honors college: uploading to scholarly commons (part 1/2), honors college: uploading to scholarly commons (part 2/2).

• Conference Proceedings
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• SelectedWorks for Faculty
• Submitting Honors Projects to JMU Scholarly Commons Submitting Honors Projects to JMU Scholarly Commons
• Revising Honors Projects in JMU Scholarly Commons Revising Honors Projects in JMU Scholarly Commons

As an institutional repository, JMU Scholarly Commons is a hub to showcase your research and scholarship from your time at James Madison University. Contributing your work to JMU Scholarly Commons will greatly increase the discoverability and accessibility of your work. The benefits of contributing your work to JMU Scholarly Commons are:

• Increased visibility of your work through search engine optimization, including Google Scholar and major search engines.
• Increased accessibility of your scholarship through unique, persistent URLs that will eliminate the concern of “dead links” on other web sites.
• A centralized location for all of your scholarship – both published and unpublished, as a compliment to existing print and electronic publications. Supplemental content can be uploaded to provide additional information and context.
• Ability to create reports to indicate timely impact of your work, including views, downloads, and how your work was found.
• Ease of publicizing your work through mailing lists, social media buttons, and RSS feeds.

Contact the Repository Administrators

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Don’t Sweat the Supp Stuff: Advice for Crafting Your Supplemental Essay

It can feel daunting to choose what to write about in your college application essays. How do you sum up the complex, dynamic individual you are with such limited space? 

The short answer: You can’t. But that’s OK. 

The goal of your application is not to share every detail of your multifaceted life. Rather, the process allows you to share your story with the admissions committee about what makes you a strong match for the institution. Each piece of the application reveals something about your academic experiences and personal journey that shows us how you might contribute to the Hopkins community. 

In some ways, the essays help tie together the rest of the application. They offer space for you to tell stories that represent the most important parts of your identity, which provide context for other components of the application. 

Let’s zero in on the supplemental essay . 

The supplemental essay portion of the application is specific to each school. Each institution has intentionally crafted a question (or multiple) to help determine whether a student might be a good match. We look for individuals who share Hopkins’ institutional values but will also bring unique experiences and perspectives to the community.  

Below is the supplemental essay prompt for students applying for entry to Hopkins in the fall of 2024:  

Tell us about an aspect of your identity (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, religion, community, etc.) or a life experience that has shaped you as an individual and how that influenced what you’d like to pursue in college at Hopkins. This can be a future goal or experience that is either academic, extracurricular, or social. (350-word limit) *

Picture your life in college. What does your community look like? Which aspects of your identity are most important for you to develop and nurture?  

Now jot down some thoughts about experiences or parts of your identity that have had a significant effect on your life. Maybe it’s a hobby you love, a cultural tradition, or an instance when you discovered something new about yourself. 

Once you have a list, think about how each of these will continue to play a role in your college life. Choose one to focus on and spend some time building it out. 

Keep in mind this essay is not an exercise in “tell us everything you know about Hopkins.” While it’s important for the admissions committee to see you’ve done your research and understand what Hopkins has to offer, simply listing what you hope to pursue on campus is only half of the puzzle. Be sure to connect the dots by explaining why you wish to pursue those things, and how they’ll help you remain connected to and grow in your identity. 

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas or crafting your essay, reach out to your school counselor or an English teacher. They can help you brainstorm and ensure your piece is answering the prompt in a meaningful way. 

Happy writing! 

* An important note about the essay: In this essay question, we are looking for how an aspect of your identity or background has contributed to your personal story—your character, values, perspectives, or skills—and how you think it may shape your approach to college as a scholar, leader, or community member.

Please note that the U.S. Supreme Court recently limited the consideration of race in college admissions decisions but specifically permitted consideration of “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life” so long as the student is “treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race.” Therefore, any part of your background, including but not limited to your race, may be discussed in your response to this essay if you so choose, but will be considered by the university based solely on how it has affected your life and your experiences as an individual.

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List of Supplemental Essays Required By Top Colleges

By Michaela • October 31, 2021 • College Application Early Admission

Looking for a quick reference to the essays required by the colleges on your list? Check out our list of supplemental essays required by many of the top colleges students apply to each year. If you need help with these essays schedule a meeting with one of our essay coaches today!

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Supplemental College Essay Prompt Examples

What is a supplemental essay?

While most students know that all colleges expect them to write a Common App essay, also known as a Personal Statement, parents and students are not as familiar with the supplemental college essays they need to write. Besides the central personal statement, every student needs to respond to supplemental college essay prompts. In this post, we are sharing everything you need to know about supplemental college essay prompts as well as supplemental college essay prompt examples and ways to think about the prompts. These essays or questions are called supplemental essays.

How many supplemental essays do I need to complete?

Depends on the schools you are applying to. Some schools require no supplemental essays while others require many. Schools like Stanford, Yale, Johns Hopkins and Tufts have many supplemental essays. Other schools like Arizona State University, Drexel, Northeastern have no supplemental essays at all. Schools like Harvard and Princeton will require additional essays that look much like the Personal Statement and some students may have to write two, three or even up to four 650+ word additional essays. This is especially true for students applying to Honors Colleges at universities.

Are supplemental essays as important as the personal statement in college admissions?

Supplemental essays are very important to the application. Supplementals offer students the opportunity to highlight fit factors for a university and show off the interesting person that they are. Supplementals offer students the chance to speak to research-based work (always a plus!), service projects, community work, and passion areas.

What are common supplemental essay topics?

Supplemental essays for each school often repeat. The most common supplement questions are: 1) Explain why you chose your major? It is good to have a major to talk about here. For students who are undecided, it is better not to center the essay around being undecided. Picking a major and highlighting an interest in it can actually serve a student well. Other questions schools commonly ask are : 2) Tell us about an extracurricular you do just for the fun of it. It is important to actually create a strong outline for these essays and do serious research and thinking before writing. Investing time in planning these responses, sharing novel experiences and showing very specific knowledge will help students stand out from peers with generic responses. 3) Why us? This requires school-specific research and work figuring out where the student connects to the school. 3Students often want to lean into university, student and campus life. The campus is an immediate go-to for students on these prompts-the mountains or the city, the lakes and trees on campus, playing on a team, etc.

What schools want in response to this essay prompt is to know that students are going to use the most resource-rich time of their lives thoughtfully over four years. Students can start this essay by making a list of areas they will look forward to academically –professors and research opportunities with them, classwork, special academic programs offered uniquely on the campus they plan to attend, and more. Students can connect the school to their own meaningful experiences during high school. For example, students applying for engineering should mention high school engineering projects they have worked on over summers or during the school year. Many students have gone through Boeing’s program or Project Lead the Way in school. They might have completed an engineering camp like UPENN Summer Engineering or Cooper Union Summer STEM. It is important to highlight that work in the “Why Us?” essay to connect to ways one might contribute to specific university programs.

What makes a good supplemental essay?

A strong supplemental essay will be more technical than narrative. There are a few golden rules for the supplemental essays: 1) First, each essay should be about a different topic. Students should not repeat or talk about the same things. This is a chance to really show the admissions committee who you are and repeating answers about the same topic is a missed opportunity. 2) Present your adult self-committees are less interested in hearing about things like reading Harry Potter or watching TV as a favorite extracurricular in student essays. They want to hear about research, playing music, reading physics books voraciously, engaging in math for fun. They want to understand what makes you tick academically more than personally and casually. This doesn’t mean the essay responses cannot be quirky or fun. But, they should be packed with information showing off your areas of academic strength, too.

What are the supplemental essay questions from the top 10 schools in the country for this year?

-Princeton University Supplemental Essays

Princeton has many supplemental essays. Responses range from 50 to 250 words.

1) Briefly elaborate on an activity, organization, work experience, or hobby that has been particularly meaningful to you. (150 words)

2) At Princeton, we value diverse perspectives and the ability to have respectful dialogue about difficult issues. Share a time when you had a conversation with a person or a group of people about a difficult topic. What insight did you gain, and how would you incorporate that knowledge into your thinking in the future? (250 words)

3) Princeton has a longstanding commitment to service and civic engagement. Tell us how your story intersects (or will intersect) with these ideals.(250 words)

4) What is a new skill you would like to learn in college? (50 words)

5) What brings you joy? (50 words)

6) What song represents the soundtrack of your life at this moment? (50 words)

7) Princeton also requires students to submit a graded written paper as part of your application.  Learn more .

-Harvard University Supplemental Essays

Harvard offers a brief space for students to highlight one area of particular importance extracurricularly alongside a lengthier essay that resembles the Common App in nature. Harvard allows students to write on a topic of their choice allowing them to choose from one of the following topics:

• Unusual circumstances in your life
• Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities
• What you would want your future college roommate to know about you
• An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
• How you hope to use your college education
• A list of books you have read during the past twelve months
• The Harvard College Honor code declares that we “hold honesty as the foundation of our community.” As you consider entering this community that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty. 
• The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and citizen-leaders for society. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission? 
• Each year a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for one year or take time off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would you like to do? 
• Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates. 

– Columbia University Supplemental Essays

Columbia has many supplement questions that ask students about their interests in reading, academic and cultural interests. Because Columbia has a lengthy series of requirements in the Common Core, their admissions committee evaluates whether students will be interested enough in the core curriculum through some of their questions.

List Questions:

• List the titles of the required readings from academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school. (75 words or fewer)
• List the titles of the books, essays, poetry, short stories or plays you read outside of academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school. (75 words or fewer)
• We’re interested in learning about some of the ways that you explore your interests. List some resources and outlets that you enjoy, including but not limited to websites, publications, journals, podcasts, social media accounts, lectures, museums, movies, music, or other content with which you regularly engage. (125 words or fewer)

Short Answer Questions:

• A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and live in a community with a wide range of perspectives. How do you or would you learn from and contribute to diverse, collaborative communities?  (200 words or fewer)
• Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (200 words or fewer)
• Please tell us what from your current and past experiences (either academic or personal) attracts you specifically to the areas of study that you noted in the application. (200 words or fewer)

– Massachusetts Institute of Technology Supplemental Essays

MIT has a series of short answer essay questions:

• 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? (250 words or fewer)
• Pick what field of study at MIT appeals to you the most right now, and tell us more about why this field of study appeals to you. (100 words or fewer)
• 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. (200–250 words)
• At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200–250 words)
• 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? (200-250 words)

-Yale University Supplemental Essays

• Students at Yale have time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the  list  provided.
• Why do these areas appeal to you? (125 words or fewer)
• What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)
• What inspires you? (35 words)
• Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What would you ask them to discuss? (35 words)
• You are teaching a new Yale course. What is it called? (35 words)
• Yale students embrace the concept of “and” rather than “or,” pursuing arts and sciences, tradition and innovation, defined goals and surprising detours. What is an example of an “and” that you embrace? (35 words)
• Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. Tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. Why are you drawn to it? (250 words)
• Respond to one of the following
• 2A. Reflect on a community to which you feel connected. Why is it meaningful to you?  You may define community however you like.
• 2B. Reflect on something that has given you great satisfaction. Why has it been important to you?

Additional supplemental essays can be found on university websites by clicking on the links below:

Stanford University Supplemental Essays

University of Pennsylvania Supplemental Essays

California Institute of Technology Supplemental Essays

Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essays

Northwestern University Supplemental Essays

Duke University Supplemental Essays

Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays

Brown University Supplemental Essays

Vanderbilt University Supplemental Essays

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How to Write the George Mason University Essays 2023-2024

A  relatively young university, George Mason University was established in 1957 as a branch of the University of Virginia, before becoming an independent school in 1972. Today, the Fairfax County, Virginia-based institution has gained recognition as a top research university.

Keep reading to learn all about the George Mason essays and how to tackle them.

George Mason University Supplemental Essay Prompts

All applicants.

Prompt: What is your motivation for pursuing higher education? Why do you believe George Mason University is the right institution for you? (Required for those applying test-optional) (400 words)

Honors Applicants

Prompt: To complete your application to the Honors College, please choose and respond to one (1) of the prompts above in no more than 500 words.

Option 1:  George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. As a Tier-1 research institution, every day, our faculty, staff, and students work to address unanswered questions, unresolved challenges, and problems that impact a wide variety of populations. In the Honors College, you’ll have opportunities to do this sort of work — and maybe even answer questions and solve problems that matter to you. Tell us about one question, challenge, or problem that you’d like to work to better understand or address during your time at Mason. Introduce this issue, and then explain why it matters to you and why it might matter to others. Feel free to be creative- research and inquiry can exist in unlikely places.

Option 2:  The art we see, the stories we read, and the words we hear have the power to move us and to change us. Tell us about a time that you’ve been moved to act by something you read, a speech you heard, or a work of art that you experienced. What was it, and how did it impact you? What did you do — or what will you do — in response?

What is your motivation for pursuing higher education? Why do you believe George Mason University is the right institution for you? (Required for those applying test-optional) (400 words)

While this essay is required for students who are applying test-optional, we recommend that you complete it even if you do submit standardized test scores.

This is a classic “Why Us” prompt, asking you to explain why you’re interested in attending George Mason over other colleges. Remember, however, that it’s not just about the college and the qualities that appeal to you about it — it’s also about you : your personal and professional goals, what you hope to get out of your education, and how George Mason will support you in achieving these goals.

The “Why this college” essay may seem relatively straightforward on the surface, but it requires a certain amount of nuance. It also demands research on your part, in order for you to go beyond surface-level details like George Mason’s proximity to Washington, DC and the opportunities the location provides. It must also go beyond details you can find from a cursory look on the website.

Instead, use specific details, taking a factual approach — which doesn’t mean it should be devoid of feeling — when describing your goals and how George Mason will enhance your journey.

For example, perhaps you plan to pursue conservation as a profession. Because George Mason is home to the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, the only program of its kind in the country, this is an opportunity to describe why this program appeals to you and how your background complements it. 

You might offer anecdotes about your experience working with wildlife — perhaps you volunteered at a zoo in high school or led a fundraiser to support preserving endangered species. Then, draw a connection between your experiences and George Mason’s program, explaining why this is an ideal place to nurture your goals, since you’ll have the opportunity to receive hands-on training from leading Smithsonian scientists toward the goal of supporting a biodiverse planet.

Dig deep, finding specific names of prospective mentors and research or work they’ve done that you admire. Remember to keep connecting your experiences to what George Mason can offer. This essay is about more than why George Mason is the right school for you — it’s also about you .

To complete your application to the Honors College, please choose and respond to one (1) of the prompts above in no more than 500 words.

The selective Honors College at George Mason is a prestigious school designed to promote inquiry and critical thinking. If you are applying to the Honors College, you will be asked to respond to one of the following additional prompts, along with writing the essay above.

Honors Applicants, Option 1

George mason university is virginia’s largest public research university. as a tier-1 research institution, every day, our faculty, staff, and students work to address unanswered questions, unresolved challenges, and problems that impact a wide variety of populations. in the honors college, you’ll have opportunities to do this sort of work — and maybe even answer questions and solve problems that matter to you. tell us about one question, challenge, or problem that you’d like to work to better understand or address during your time at mason. introduce this issue, and then explain why it matters to you and why it might matter to others. feel free to be creative- research and inquiry can exist in unlikely places..

Colleges seek students who will be a credit to their institutions. In other words, they want their graduates to make them look good. This prompt is a version of the archetypal “impact on community” prompt, which asks you to describe how you plan to make a difference to a variety of communities and/or the efforts you’re currently undertaking.

Inquiry is at the heart of the Honors College at George Mason. The school seeks out students who are curious and want to solve problems. This prompt requires real thought and asks that you grapple with the issues that are most important to you. Avoid cliches here — of course you want to solve world hunger and achieve peace in the Middle East. Instead, be specific in pinpointing an issue that really means something to you.

For example, perhaps you’re passionate about children and young adults who attend school while struggling with homelessness. Discuss why this issue is important to you — maybe you volunteered with underserved communities or even have acquaintances struggling with this problem — and why you want to study it further. 

Bear in mind that you don’t have to solve the problem in or with your essay. The adcom doesn’t expect you to have the answers. They want to gain insight into your thought process and how you grapple with particularly challenging scenarios. They also want to see evidence of your own curiosity and desire to work through complex issues.

Discuss some approaches you would take in order to further investigate the problem — the resources you would use, the research you would pursue, and so on.

Again, this is not about answers — it’s about inquiry and curiosity. It’s also about engaging with complex scenarios and the world around you.

Honors Applicants, Option 2

The art we see, the stories we read, and the words we hear have the power to move us and to change us. tell us about a time that you’ve been moved to act by something you read, a speech you heard, or a work of art that you experienced. what was it, and how did it impact you what did you do — or what will you do — in response.

This is another spin on the “impact on community” prompt, one that also asks you to demonstrate your interests and reveal your sources of inspiration. 

One danger with this prompt is choosing something that’s cliche. George Mason will almost certainly receive numerous Black Lives Matter-inspired responses, and while the movement is, of course, important, and might have particular importance to you, you want your essay to be unique. Moreover, the prompt asks you to choose a particular work, something more specific, that has an enormous impact on you.

Think outside the box. This doesn’t have to be a weighty book like Caste , which has obvious implications that might compel you to act. Perhaps, for instance, you saw an episode of Law & Order: SVU about child trafficking, and it inspired you to research and get involved with efforts to combat it. 

Spend less time describing the piece and more time explaining the impact it has on you. A lengthy description of the item will take up too much space, and you only have 500 words. Plus, the goal of the essay is not to give a summary of something that inspires you but to demonstrate how and why you’re inspired by it and how it compels you to act. 

Your essay will most likely take a narrative form and should include plenty of anecdotes to engage the reader and bring authenticity to the story. You should show how you feel, why you feel that way, and what your reaction is, without, of course, telling your reader those things bluntly.

Where to Get Your George Mason Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your George Mason essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools.  Find the right advisor for you  to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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