penn core values essay

Penn Law School Personal Statement Examples

Working on a Penn Law school personal statement? UPenn law school is one of the best law schools in the US , and is also among the famed Ivy League schools, so getting in is very competitive. Writing a stellar law school personal statement can help you stand out from a qualified pool of applicants and make an impression on the admissions committee. In this blog, we’ll look at how to start writing your law school personal statement for Penn Law, what the requirements are and what to avoid in your statement. We’ve also included some Penn law personal statement examples to help inspire your own!

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Article Contents 8 min read

How to write your penn law personal statement.

Penn Law advises students to make the most of their law school personal statement and write an essay that reflects their unique voice. The content of your narrative should be directed by your life experiences, unique perspective and motivations to study law. Since very few applicants have the chance to interview at Penn Law, your law personal statement is essentially your only opportunity to interact directly with the admissions committee through your writing.

In short, your essay needs to be impactful and memorable.

The first step is always brainstorming. Start writing down a list of your strengths and accomplishments—focus on the most recent or relevant to Penn Law. Research the law school’s core values and mission. Reflect on how your personal values or strengths align with the school’s and what experiences you have which demonstrate these important qualities and values. Try to narrow your list down to 1 or 2 key experiences or personal anecdotes.

#2 Organize your experiences into a narrative

Using the ideas you’ve brainstormed, start mapping out where they will fit in your paragraphs. Use bullet points or short-form to arrange your experiences into a cohesive and clear structure. Remember that your experiences should connect to one another and also connect to your motivation to study law.

#3 Draft, proofread and revise

Once you have a solid outline, draft your personal statement, proofread and revise. Writing a good personal statement will take time, so be patient with the writing and revising process. Try reading your personal statement out loud, or ask someone else to read it for you and give you feedback to see if your ideas come through clearly. And don’t forget to proofread!

There are no specific requirements for your Penn Law personal statement, but it should use a professional, formal tone and be divided into an introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion like any personal essay.

Penn Law suggests limiting your personal statement to 2 pages, double-spaced, or around 500 words. This is fairly small word count for a personal essay, so you may need to revise and trim your final draft a bit to fit under the word count.

As for your content, Penn Law suggests centering your essay on these topics:

Your personal growth can highlight how you\u2019ve developed maturity, self-awareness or your personal value system. You can also discuss a time when you changed your mind or addressed and changed a personal bias. "}]">

Penn Law Optional Essays

If there are some experiences that don’t fit in your personal statement, you’ll have an opportunity to write about these in your law school optional essays . Penn Law has several law school optional essays, including a law school diversity statement and a prompt to share any academic struggles you’ve had. So, if there are experience relevant to your application that are addressed in the Penn Law optional essay prompts, you can leave them out of your personal statement.

Here's what you need to get into Penn Law:

Do’s and Dont’s of a Law Personal Statement

• Take time to reflect. Take your time when brainstorming and writing your law personal statement. This is one of the most important aspects of your application, and it can have a significant impact on your admissions chances. Take the time to self-reflect and choose the experiences that are truly important and relevant to your decision to study law.
• Proofread carefully. Just like writing, proofreading takes time. Make sure your essay is free of errors and polished before you submit. You can ask a friend to proofread for you as a second pair of eyes, or look at some of the best law essay writing services .
• Focus on you. Use your own unique voice and experiences to make your narrative shine. Don’t write about what others would say about you or center your narrative on how others have inspired you to go to law school. Your story should be about your experiences and what they have meant to you and you decision to apply.
• Use legalese or complex language. Don’t use sophisticated language or an abundance of legal terms to show off. Focus on keeping your language precise and clear.
• Use titles or quotes. Avoid using titles or quotations in your statement. They will take up valuable space and they will not add anything important to your essay.
• Include irrelevant information. Your personal statement is not the best place to discuss tangential topics or gaps in your application. These are irrelevant to the main idea of your personal statement and should be addressed elsewhere. For instance, if you want to know how to get into law school with a low GPA , address this shortcoming in an optional essay or law school addendum , not your personal statement.

Here's some tips on writing your law school personal statement!

Personal Statement Sample #1

“You shouldn’t park there.”

As I turned to face the irate driver, leaning halfway out of his car window to berate me, a young teen, for parking in one of many open disabled stalls, I had to sigh. It wasn’t the first, or the last time, I would be confronted over my supposedly inconsiderate parking habits. It was always a shock for the righteous drivers when I lifted my pants leg, revealing the sturdy metal shaft that now serves as my left leg. People don’t expect teenagers to be amputees, or actually have need of a disabled parking spot. In my experience, people often make assumptions about disabled individuals, whether their disability is immediately visible or not. Because of these assumptions, I’ve had to advocate for myself as a disabled person since the age of 15.

Amputees and others with disabilities like mine have plenty of experience advocating for themselves. Even running to the grocery store becomes much more difficult than it needs to be. Not just because of your disability, but because you have to constantly explain yourself and your actions. Often, managing my disability is the easiest part of my day. And despite my experience being my own advocate, I know how important it is to have others supporting and advocating for you, too.

Years ago, a friend of mine had to visit her bank to have a hold taken off. It was placed mistakenly, since the system mixed up her name with someone else’s and put the hold on the wrong account. My friend is deaf, and she had to argue for over an hour with bank staff who didn’t understand sign language and wouldn’t accommodate her when she tried to explain the problem in writing. She eventually asked her sister, who is hearing, to come with her and explain the problem. The block on her account was removed within 10 minutes. Afterwards, my friend remarked that if there was a rule that at least one employee was trained in sign language, she would have been saved a trip.

I know the value of having this kind of support and accommodation. In university, I made it a point to advocate for individuals with disabilities like me and raise awareness about some of the common issues we face every single day. If there were more legal supports and accommodations for persons with disabilities, we could drastically change lives.

I believe the law is meant to protect and empower vulnerable populations. I knew if my goal was to advocate for and be an ally to others like me, the law was the best vehicle to work on creating meaningful impact in people’s lives.

Personal Statement Sample #2

When I was in fifth grade, I never could have expected that one small incident would have lasting repercussions throughout the rest of my life. And an 11-year-old certainly never expects to become the target of a witch hunt. All it takes is one accusation. One accusation, and “innocent until proven guilty” becomes “most likely guilty” or even “definitely guilty.” When a childhood bully pointed the finger at me for stealing something from a classmate, I learned how true this was. I had never stolen anything, and my suspicions that the bully themselves was the thief went unheard by teachers, classmates, the school principal, and even my own parents.

I was suspended from school when I refused to return the item I hadn’t stolen. When I came back, my classmates whispered about me, shot me looks, pretended to hide things from me in their desks so I couldn’t take them. Teachers continually frowned at me in disapproval in class. One teacher went so far as to search my locker and backpack after class every day to make sure I hadn’t made off with anything. Even my classmates’ parents knew of me, turning to gossip among themselves while I waited at the bus stop. I didn’t shake the last of my unearned reputation until my high school years.

When I was in grade 11, a neighbor of ours, Mr. Soon, had his store robbed. Mr. Soon was a friendly guy, and he welcomed the kids from his neighborhood into his store after school. He’d never had an issue with stealing until two teens decided to break in and ransack his store. The police were called, took statements, checked security footage. Nothing came of it. Mr. Soon couldn’t get a call back on the status of his complaint. The police told him it was unlikely the thieves would be caught. Mr. Soon’s insurance all but accused him of staging the robbery, and denied his claims. Mr. Soon’s complaints to the city went unanswered. With so little evidence, there was no case for him to pursue in court, criminal or civil. Others began encouraging the rumors that Mr. Soon faked the robbery for the insurance payout. He had a sick daughter. He was behind on his rent. Neighbors started boycotting the store. I sympathized with Mr. Soon. He’d done nothing wrong, but people’s opinions of him were permanently tainted. I’d never forgotten how it felt to have everyone turn against you. For others to steadfastly refuse to see you any other way, to believe an untrue judgment without proof. Whenever I heard a whisper against Mr. Soon, I spoke out loudly in his defense, even if my voice was the only one on his side. I continued to frequent his store.

Eventually, I took a job with the [city] victim services unit. I was able to become an advocate for victims of crime, helping them find the resources they needed, explaining the options available to them, and acting as a sympathetic ear. I coordinated often with emergency services, police and legal aides assigned to specific cases. Being able to do something tangible and actually helpful for victims was an eye-opening experience. It made me realize how many are re-victimized by the legal system or left behind.

These early experiences shaped my motivation to study the law. As a lawyer, I can continue to be an advocate for people. I can be the one person on their side if they have no one else. I can help them face difficult situations, so they do not have to face them alone, as I once did. I can help ensure everyone receives fair and just treatment.

Yes, like most law schools, UPenn Law does require all applicants to submit a law personal statement.

Start by researching the school’s core values and mission. Then, bring brainstorming the personal, professional and educational experiences you have that relate to your core values, align with the school’s mission or demonstrate that you are a good fit for law school. Reflect on which experiences led you to a career in law or which ones influenced you the most. Narrow your list down to 1 or 2 of the most important and relevant experiences to include in your narrative.

Penn Carey Law does invite some applicants to interview, however, the majority of students will be accepted without one. This is why your personal statement is so important, since it is likely the only time the admissions committee will be able to get to know you on a personal level.

A law school personal statement for UPenn Law should be around 2 pages, double-spaced, or 500 words.

As with most elite law schools, UPenn is looking for students who have shown they can succeed academically and professionally in the law school environment. They also want to see students with unique voices and perspectives. 

Structure your personal statement into an introduction paragraph, 1 to 3 body paragraphs and a conclusion. Include only 1 major point or idea in each body paragraph.

Avoid rewriting your resume or CV, using legalese or complicated language, and including irrelevant information. Your personal statement should serve to inform the admissions committee about your background and personal experiences, not restate your professional experience or discuss why your GPA is low.

Penn Carey law school is among the Ivy League and is one of the top-ranked law schools in the US, so getting in is quite competitive. However, your personal statement is a chance for you to stand out and make an impact on the admissions committee!

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Podcast: Interview with Penn Law Admissions Dean Renee Post

In this episode, Spivey Consulting's Derek Meeker — a former Penn Law Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid — interviews Renee Post, Penn Law's current and long-standing Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid. Derek and Dean Post walk through the components of the law school application, including the personal statement, resume, addenda, and Penn's "Core Strengths, Goals, and Values" essay, and they also discuss topics including joint degrees, the merits of going to law school straight from undergrad vs. getting full-time work experience, handling the stress of the admissions process, their craziest admissions stories, their favorite things about Philadelphia, and what gives some law school applicants that "it" factor.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube , SoundCloud , and Google Podcasts .

Full Transcript:

So let me just start by telling you a little bit about our guest’s history and her background and our special 20-year history as colleagues. Renee Post is the Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She received her BA in history and women's studies from the University of Pittsburgh and her Masters in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. Renee began her career at Penn Carey law in 1999 as an admissions officer. In 2001, she was promoted to associate director and served in that role until the fall of 2002. And that is when our paths first crossed; Dean Post had decided to leave her position at Penn to start a family. And I was actually hired to replace her as the Associate Director. She was going to stay on for, I think, about a month to help me transition. And then the unexpected happened. On my second day of work, which was also the first day of orientation, the then Dean of Admissions resigned. Renee actually stayed on for a few more months. They made her interim Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid to help me with my sudden new role in the office.

She left after a few months, I then became the Dean of Admissions, and three or four years later, as luck would have it, I was looking to hire a Director of Admissions, and Renee was looking to come back to Philadelphia to work in admissions. I hired her back, which turned out to be a very prescient move on my part, because a year later life changes brought me to Los Angeles. And so, she replaced me as Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, and she has been there ever since. I have reported to her. She has reported to me. She is a respected colleague, a mentor, a mentee, and a dear friend. I'm so honored that I get to interview her today. Dean Post, welcome to Status Check.

Renee: Hey, thanks Dean Meeker. Thank you for having me. I sort of feel like that our paths are just so interwoven, it's kind of a good LSAT question, right? Who’s where and when?

Derek: For sure. I don't even know if anyone followed that, but I thought it would be fun to cover it nonetheless. We'll have at least one question about the LSAT. So not an LSAT question fortunately. I should also add, you've also served on a number of leadership positions on national committees, including on the board of trustees for LSAC. And there are very few people with the breadth of knowledge and experience in law school admissions and education that Dean Post has. We are so lucky to have you. And now that I just gave the longest introduction ever, we are pretty much out of time. Thanks so much for joining us. I’m kidding, but we do have a lot to cover, so we should get to it.

Dean Post is going to give some pre-application advice, tips on various components of the application itself, including the infamous Penn core strengths, goals, and values essay, joint degrees, we're also going to talk a little bit about stress and some of our craziest experiences in our positions at Penn. Let's just start with a little more about what brought you here, Dean Post. What made you decide to work in admissions?

Renee: Thanks Derek. That's a really interesting question. When I completed my graduate degree at Penn, I knew two things. One was that I wanted to stay in Philadelphia because I fell in love with the city, and two that I really wasn't cut out for any sort of development work. I didn't want to ask people for money. So, I started my job search, cast a wide net, and as luck would have it, someone took a chance on me and hired me as an admissions officer/office manager at the law school.

Derek: That's funny about development and not wanting to ask people for money because now people ask you for money, as we well know. Alright, tell us what you like most about working in admissions. It's now been more than 20 years, so there must be a few things you like about it.

Renee: I do. You know working at admissions, it's all about the people. I am fortunate to get to know terrific applicants, law students who then become alums. The admissions community is full of wonderful colleagues who are mentors, who are trusted advisors. It really is the people that make working in admissions just so much fun.

Derek: Yes, definitely one of the things that I liked most about it. This also gets to the next question I'm going to ask you, which is one of my favorite interview questions. What would you say is the most challenging part of working in law school admissions?

Renee: I think one of the most challenging parts of working in admissions is sort of trying to dispel bad advice around the admissions process. A lot of people think that they are experts on the topic and sometimes the information just gets twisted in ways that really is frustrating. And I think that I would say is the most challenging part, is dispelling the myths, really sort of trying to get out there and get the right and correct and transparent information out to applicants.

Derek: Right. Which is something that has changed a bit of course, and has increased since when we first started, right. Because now with the internet and all of these discussion boards and just so much information out there, it's often hard to parse through it. Yeah. And what I was going to say is what I loved most about admissions was also -- what I thought was one of the most challenging parts, which is you have to, it just involves so many different elements. Like I loved that it was recruiting, it was marketing, it was writing and communication. It was interpersonal. It was also a lot of data.

If I could go back, I probably would have taken a statistics class. I never thought I would have to know that much about numbers when I worked in admissions. But yeah, I mean, even now as a consultant, the myths thing is something that I feel like I talk about almost every day with my clients and Dean Zearfoss actually spoke a little bit about that on the podcast that we did. What would you say are some of the biggest myths that are out there as far as admissions and financial aid?

Renee: It's a good question. We're going to get to some of this later in the podcast, I think. I'm going to temper my answer a little bit. So as to not answer all of our questions in the first 10 minutes, Dean Meeker.

Derek: Sorry.

Renee: I think one of the myths that is out there is that it's all about the numbers and that students should count themselves sort of not apply to a school, because they don't think that the numbers are strong enough. And I think that it's not all about the numbers and it is really about fit, which we'll talk about later. And students identifying a school that they would feel good being at and they would be successful at as well as schools identifying candidates. It's really a two-way street.

Derek: Yeah. And I mean, I think one of the things that we've talked about in other podcasts is the medians, right. There is this often a lot of talk about the medians and obviously they are important. No one's denying that LSAT and GPA are important components. Absolutely. But they are medians which means there is flexibility in terms of the people that you get to admit.

One of the things that I often also try to impress upon clients and anyone I talk to who is interested in law school is, I think some of this idea that it's all about the numbers comes from the fact that an applicant only knows their own application, right. They don't get to see the comparisons in the entire pool, the way that you do. And I will say one of the things that really surprised me the most when I started working at Penn was just how talented and amazing the applicants are, that comes into play.

And I distinctly remember a colleague or friend who didn't work in admissions saying to me – because I read every application and at the time there were over 6,000 applications and made the decision on them. And someone said, “Well, why do you have to read the ones that have lower numbers? Can you just reject those or not worry about them?” And absolutely not. Right. I mean, everyone deserves to have their application read completely, and there's so much wonderful information in those other parts of the application that really allow you to admit an interesting, and of course, a diverse class. And that's one of the things I loved most was reading their stories.

Renee: Yeah. I don't know that I could have said it better. It is the entire application. And there's a lot in there. A lot of really terrific information for us to review and think about.

Derek: Yes, first what I want to do. Actually, we do have listeners who haven't started the application process yet. There are people who are listening, who are still in college. And I think one of the things that you and I wanted to talk about was just some pre-application advice. Also, one of the most common questions is, “What should I major in?” Or “What should I study if I'm thinking about going to law school?” I love talking about this actually.

And I'm curious to hear your thoughts. I was actually a first-generation college student and grew up in a very blue-collar town. And so, it was impressed upon me that I had to do something practical and that I should major in business because business will get you a job and that's how you make money. And so that's what I started out as and as I alluded to earlier, I'm not a numbers person really. I hated it. All I knew was that I loved to write and I didn't know that I wanted to go to law school at the time.

I actually ended up choosing journalism as my major, because again, hearing that I had to do something practical, English felt too abstract. I thought, well, I just know, I love to write. I majored in journalism. As it turns out when I did decide to go to law school, I thought that journalism was an excellent preparation for law school. I really felt prepared for all the writing that I had to do.

I would just say the advice I usually give is, number one, follow your heart, trust your instinct because the rest will work out. And then the other thing that I can't help saying is whatever you do, write as much as you can or try to take as much writing as you can, but tell us what your thoughts are on what one should study, if they're thinking about going to law school.

Renee: I always love this question because if you look at Penn Carey Law’s first year class, we have 69 unique majors in the class. And 22% of the class majored in a STEM field. And so my advice to an undergrad who is choosing a major is very similar to yours, Derek, which is pursue something that you are interested in, pursue something that you are passionate about, pursue it for the love of learning, because that is where a student is going to do their best. They're really going to be able to dig into to whatever the field is.

And if you think about law school and you think about the law, the law intersects every aspect of our society. And so really when you think about what to major in tangentially, there are going to be connections to the law, regardless of what the major is. And so at the end of the day, I'm right there with you. I say, study what you're passionate about, study what you're interested in, and that is going to best position you to pursue whatever educational or professional experience you want. And the law is very versatile in that respect.

Derek: Great. And one of the other questions that I hear a lot from people who are thinking about applying to law school is whether they should take time off after college. Now, I always feel like I have to correct them a bit because by time off we don't mean that you just take time off to sit around and do nothing, take a break, right. But take time to maybe gain work experience, to do some sort of additional study, to do community service, Teach for America, Peace Corps work, whatever appeals to you. Now I have very strong opinions about this question, but I'll save those maybe I'll chime in after you do, but what's your answer to that question?

Renee: The answer to this question is very nuanced. I think it depends on the individual and what their goals are, both educationally and academically. We do see a majority of our applicants and thus enrolling students take some time off after undergrad and do things sort of like you said, enter the workforce, they will join a program, do something that is of interest to them and the interest that was born from whatever their undergraduate studies were.

Having said that though, I do and over the years, I've met with so many candidates who say, “I'm ready, I'm ready to go to law school now I do not want to lose my momentum.” And that's great too. I really don't think that there is a wholesale answer that I can give on this question, but would say to candidates, think about what your goals are. Think about what happens if you take time off, what happens if you go right to law school.

I will say that, we talked about majors and the breadth of majors that we're seeing in our applicant pool and then in our enrolling students. I would say the same about experience before law school. We have students join us from the health field, from communications, from intellectual property, from graduate programs, from Fulbright, Teach for America, AmeriCorps, that sort of thing. As well as students who say, “I don't really know if I want to go to law school. I'm going to become a legal assistant or a paralegal, I want to see what this whole thing is about before I make the commitment to go to law school.” And we see those students as well.

For the student who chooses to come directly to law school, I think that's an individual choice and I support it. For the student who says, “I want to do something else for a period of time.” That is certainly supported as well. Now I think your opinion, I don't think it differs hugely from what I just said, but I do want to hear your thoughts on this.

Derek: Okay. Yes. I probably overstated it. I would say in most cases I encourage people to take time and get some sort of experience before going right to law school from college. What it comes down to for me is, I think, if you can answer the question, why are you doing this? What's motivating you to go to law school. And what do you see as your professional goals, right. How's it going to add to what you see as your potential path? Not that they have to know exactly what they want to do, but I think you have to be able to answer those two basic questions, right.

Because it's a lot of time, it's a lot of money, it's hard work. I don't know. I just feel like I often hear from people who went straight to law school, “I wish I had taken some time off.” Some people regret that. I don't hear the opposite though, from people who did take time. I've never heard someone say, “I wish I had gone straight through.”

But you are correct in that my answer doesn’t differ from yours that much. And that I will say, I have certainly met and work with many individuals who are applying directly from college and they have amazing experiences from summer work or things that they've done on campus and they can answer those questions and they have a sense of maturity and self-awareness and professionalism, which I think is so important in trying to convey that, right. I think that's part of it. If you can bring that out in your application, then absolutely.

Let's talk about then the application itself. I think what I first want to ask, and we're going to get back to some of that. How do you convey professionalism or self-awareness, that's going to come up I think a couple of times in the discussion with the questions I have. But let's jump right into the application itself then which primarily obviously consists of the LSAT score, the academic record, personal statement, resume, letters of recommendation, sometimes supplemental essay, sometimes there are addenda. Let's just start with, how do you even approach an application? How do you read an application?

Renee: I thought a lot about this question since Derek and I talked last week in preparation for this podcast, and I thought a lot about this question because how I approach an application has changed over the years. It seems that every season I'm reading an application in different order, but each application, I think the best way to describe it is you sort of approach each application as a blank canvas. And as you read through the application, that canvas is populated with a ton of information, right. From all of the application components that you just mentioned. And you think about sort of, again, I go back to fit. You think about are we a good fit for what this applicant wants out of their law school education and their professional career? And as you just read through an application again, the canvas starts to get populated with different pieces of information that the candidate has put forth.

Derek: Great. One of the questions that I'm really most excited to ask, it's what I call an “it” factor question. As you know, aside from being a Dean of Admissions and a consultant, I was also an actor for many years.

Renee: That's why you left.

Derek: Oh yes. Thank you for exposing me.

Renee: That’s in my orientation speech most years.

Derek: Yeah, I heard.

Renee: That my dear friend and boss left to become an actor.

Derek: Yes. I'll never forget your face when I said we need to go for a walk and I told you that I was leaving Penn to be an actor. Yes. Thank you for outing me on that. But yes, those were the life circumstances that brought me to Los Angeles. Something that I always hear in Hollywood and the acting industry is it's often about whether someone has that “it” factor that kind of makes them jump off the screen in a movie or a TV show, the je ne sais quoi, if you will. I don't know if I said that right. I'm curious, it's sort of that abstract factor. It's hard to explain. What would you say some of those abstract factors are that make a law school applicant jump off the page?

Renee: Yeah, this is a really interesting question. It’s a very good question. I think intellectual curiosity is something that will hop off the screen, if you will, as you're, you're reading an application. And that intellectual curiosity will come from many different parts of the application. It's this theme that builds as you're reading an application.

I think the second is commitment, and I want to be clear. I want you to tell me Derek, if I'm not being clear on this, when I say commitment, that can be a commitment to anything, it can be a commitment to community, it can be a commitment to family, it can be commitment to an athletic team, community organization, to the academic pursuit, right. It is a commitment to something. And I often am asked the question, how many organizations should we get involved in? Or I'm doing this, this and this. And I sort of feel like the answer is to do what you are passionate about. You don't need to do two dozen things. You can do one or two things and do it very, very well. And so, I think that commitment is second. And again, that the idea of commitment, it just builds in an application as you're reviewing an application.

The third is kindness, and by kindness, I mean, someone who is open-minded, someone who is self-aware, someone who is willing to sort of have their norms challenged and respectfully challenge someone else's norms, but come at it from a place of kindness and growth.

Derek: In answer to your question, yes, you were very clear about commitment. And I love that answer because obviously law school is quite a commitment in of itself, but the work itself is such an intense commitment. I love that you talk about that because I think sometimes there is a perception that in one's personal statement, which we're going to delve into, they need to talk about their commitment to law specifically, right.

And that gets to the question, other question that we were going to talk about, which is when one is thinking about law school or applying to law school, do they need to know what area of law they want to practice in? But yeah, I mean, so what you're saying essentially is in the application, that commitment can come from so many things, because that is a way of showing your dedication. The dedication that you will have to the study, to the law school community, to the greater community, perhaps, and to the profession. And kindness…thank you for saying that.

Ah, we so need more kindness right now. Right. So I agree. So that is a, that is a great segue then to the personal statement, right. Because that is one of the main pieces that an applicant can use to bring out these more abstract qualities. And so why don't you first give us your thoughts on whether one needs to know what type of law they want to practice. And then we can talk a little bit about, does that need to be part of the personal statement? What would you say makes for a compelling personal statement?

Renee: I think a majority of candidates enrolling in law school are not certain exactly what type of law they want to practice, and that is 100% okay. Now there are students who enroll after a successful career in another field, and they are very specific about what type of law they want to do and they talk about that in their essays and that is very effective. But that is typically again, the person who has been working for several years in a field that has piqued their interest in the law and specifically how the law intersects with that field. In that instance, it makes a lot of sense. But I don't think that an applicant should stress about not knowing what type of law they want to practice upon entry to law school.

I think you said it beautifully when you said there is a level of commitment and dedication and belief in sort of the pursuit of the study of law. And that is an important question to be committed to when applying, but you don't have to write about that if it does not feel genuine or authentic to you as part of the personal statement.

Derek: I'm curious though, if you would, I mean, one thing I do say though to applicants is I think that at least in looking at all components of the application, so not necessarily the personal statement, but just taking all the pieces together, is it clear to me, or do I get a good sense of at least why this person is applying to law school? So maybe not specifically the field that they want to enter, but why they're at least why they're doing this, connecting the dots, if you will. I use that phrase a lot. Would you agree with that?

Renee: I do. I agree with that. You put a very nice fine point on what I was saying. There is a question about why someone is applying to law school and oftentimes the different components of an application answer that question without the literal writing of why I’m I applying to law school.

Derek: The personal statement being my favorite part of the application, because I write personal essay myself. I love writing.

Renee: You're a very good writer too. You're an excellent writer, Derek.

Derek: Thank you. I appreciate the “excellent.” What would you say makes for a compelling or effective personal statement? What is your one-minute spiel on personal statement advice.

Renee: In full disclosure, I have a child who's applying to college this year and have given at least 20 different topics for a personal essay. And each topic has been summarily dismissed as no good.

Derek: It's harder to work with 17-year-olds than it is with 20 –

Renee: But in suggesting the topics I was suggesting topics that I believed would be authentic to write about and would come across in a genuine voice. And that was my goal in suggesting these various topics. But I think when approaching your personal statement, there are several sort of high-level things I hope people remember. One is, don't assume you know who's reading your application on the other side. At Penn Carey Law, we had at least two readers, oftentimes more on every application. And the committee itself is a very diverse group in every sense.

And so when writing a personal statement, write it from your voice and your authentic self and not what you think someone on the other side of the page is going to want to read. So that's number one.

I think number two is the topic of a personal statement can be a common everyday thing. It does not have to be a grandiose accomplishment. It can be, right, but I think that's where sometimes applicants get stuck. They’re thinking, “I have absolutely nothing to write about.” Well, you do, right. You do. And so, think about the smaller stuff and I think you'll find a topic that works for the personal statement.

Derek: It's so interesting because in thinking about the main things that I tell people when I'm giving tips or advice, I say them a bit differently, but they're so similar to what you're saying, that authenticity and genuine voice part, what I often say as a practical way of just coaching them is make it conversational, which I think is very similar.

Right. I think that there is this often the sense that I'm writing a personal statement for law school. I have to take on a certain tone and write like a lawyer or write in an academic way. And it often becomes rather stilted and it's not their voice. And so one of the things that I probably say to everyone I talk to is you don't know if you're going to be the first application that's read that day or the 50th application.

The more conversational you make it, the more you can write it in a way that brings the reader into your story, so they feel like they're a part of your experience. I think the more effective it's going to be. I also loved what you said about just the common everyday things. It doesn't have to be some grandiose thing. I think more and more in recent years, what I find myself saying is less is more. A lot of times less is more. I think that given how competitive these last few cycles have been, there is this increase in anxiousness. Also, I think the sense that I have to do more, I have to do more and more and more in my application and that actually sometimes ends up, I think, hurting the applicants. I find myself more and more saying less is more. Sometimes there's just a beauty in simplicity sometimes in those everyday sort of experiences. How is your son's personal statement coming?

Renee: It's not, I thought I had some really great ideas and they were daily, everyday things and it's not coming.

Derek: Alright. Well, that should at least give our listeners some reassurance because the personal statement is one of the things that they struggle the most with.

Renee: It’s hard. It is really hard.

Derek: If the child of one of the most experienced Dean of Admissions in the industry is struggling, then it's understandable. Most people don't like to write about themselves. I'm actually one of those people that does I don’t know what that says about me, but I actually enjoy it. You mentioned too, just you can’t try to write to one person.

Renee: Can we talk a minute about the mistakes of a personal statement?

Derek: Oh absolutely, yes. Another one of my favorite questions, biggest or most common mistakes with the personal statement.

Renee: Yeah. I think to go back to the blank canvas example, as a candidate is thinking about their application, think about what other information is presented elsewhere in the application. And so a restatement of a resume is a missed opportunity. Let me say that in the personal statement, and it's certainly fine to hone in on something that is on the resume and expand on that experience. But restatement is just, you've missed that real estate.

Derek: Okay. Any others?

Renee: To go to something you and I talked about, I think a timely example is important in the personal statement. To write about something that is far off in the past, unless a very clear connection can be made to the present, is again a missed opportunity. What do you think about that?

Derek: Absolutely. Thank you for raising that. That's such a good point. Because that is a question that often comes up and there's confusion on both ends of it, which is some people feel that they cannot or should not talk about any experience from childhood, which is not true. You can, one of the other pieces of advice that I often give is, think about the inflection points. Think about the moments when something changed for you. It changed your path or your perception of things. Those are important moments and experiences to remember when you're brainstorming topics. And some of those obviously happen for people when they are young. I always say, yeah, I mean, it's absolutely fine to talk about an experience from childhood. If you're using it as a way to establish theme for the essay or maybe it's part of a greater journey, but absolutely. I mean, I agree, you have to move on at some point. It has to connect to who you are today, why you are, where you are.

Renee: Yeah, absolutely.

Derek: Yeah. I think that that's such an important point. Also, I have to say, because when I was talking about the less is more thing, one of my favorite quotes and this just gets to, again, that sense of I have to take on a different voice and I have to overwrite the essay to try to stand out and be impressive. I often quote Mark Twain, who said, “If you see an adverb, kill it.” And similarly, Stephen King said, “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs,” which I know I'm getting a little bit in the weeds here, but as you know I'm a writing and grammar geek. That's going to be my next podcast.

But yeah, but I mean, I say when you're trying to cut words or go through and take out the adverbs. Again, there are times when adverbs serve a purpose but I agree with Mark Twain that -- so we digress a bit. Alright. What about the resume, because yes, one of the things you mentioned was you don't want to repeat the resume, but you can use the personal statement to elaborate on something in the resume. What's your one-minute spiel or critical tips for the resume, the law school application resume, let's be more specific. Because it can differ from an employment resume.

Renee: Absolutely. So that's a very important point, which is the application resume is going to be different than an employment resume, 9 times out of 10. When applying to law school, applicants should let admissions committees know sort of everything they've done from undergrad forward, beginning in undergrad forward. If there is an organization or a sport or an instrument or anything that has been a lifelong passion that is absolutely appropriate to have something prior to undergraduate career on the resume. The resume can be two pages for the purpose of applying to law school. Use the real estate on the resume wisely.

For example, I waited tables when I was in college and I would just put “server,” I wouldn't necessarily put anything beyond “server” and the number of hours I worked. But if you're part of an organization at your undergrad that is peer nominated or faculty nominated organization, that admissions committees may not be familiar with, then you want to give us a little bit more information about what that is. And so just use your judgment when putting together a resume. I'm always a fan, people disagree with me wholeheartedly on this, but I'm always a fan of the interest section of the resume.

Derek: Me too.

Renee: Yeah. I think it really provides some fun insight into hobbies that applicants have outside of their school, or –

Derek: Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. I will always remember when reading a particular application at Penn, when I was there, someone had written in interests section, ultimate Frisbee I think it was. And one of the committee readers put in their notes, we could use more ultimate Frisbee players in the courtyard. But yes, I mean a lot of times those things just stand out and they certainly allow you to get a fuller picture of who someone is, their personality beyond academics and work.

Renee: Absolutely.

Derek: I’m curious you mentioned that you waited tables. I'm not going to ask you how good you were as a server, although you're welcome to share. No, but I am curious, many people would say, “Well, why would I put that on my law school resume? That's not substantive experience. It doesn't have anything to do with academic study or law.” Why would one include that?

Renee: I worked for several years during undergrad. It was just another, it was another commitment that I had on top of going to class. I think for the student who is employed, who does work during their schooling, that they should absolutely put that on their resume. It's an important indication of one's ability to manage their time. And that is a key skill that is needed both in law school and in their profession.

Derek: Not to mention the managing people, right.

Renee: Right.

Derek: I mean, there's so many different types of people that you have to interact with. And please, not just being a server in a restaurant, but in so many of those service industry type of jobs. Great tips. Let's move on to addenda, because I think this is a part of the application that has many nuances and a lot – talk about myths, lots of myths and misunderstandings about that. I'm just going to quickly – so there are two types of addenda, generally. There are those that are required based on specific application questions. And then there are optional addenda. Those are the ones that require a little more nuance and understanding. And that's what I want you to talk about, but just to make sure that our listeners understand the difference.

When I say required addenda, I'm talking about affirmative answers to questions on the application about character and fitness, i.e., academic discipline or probation or arrests or criminal charges or convictions. Every application has those sorts of questions. You must answer them. You must answer them truthfully, you must provide an explanation. But then there are what we call optional addenda. And not every application has any instruction about this, or even any guidance. But when we say optional addenda, we're talking about adding something to your application to explain something. So can you talk about what some of those are when one should write one, when one should not write one.

Renee: Thank you for setting that up so nicely. Just to reiterate, if there's a question on the application that an applicant answers ‘yes’ to, there will oftentimes be, ‘please provide an explanation.” Then you have license to write, must write that addenda. A lot of times applicants will ask about grades, for example, they will say, “I was doing really well in school. And then I -- first term of my junior year something personal happened and my grades really fell off. Should I write an addenda?” So that's one example. The second example is someone who says, “I had two Cs first term of my first year at university. Should I write an addenda?”

To the second example, the answer is ‘no.’ First term of first year of university, no, don't write about two Cs. To the first example where if you sit back and you look at a candidate’s academic record across their entire career in undergrad, if there appears to be a blip, there's going to be a question. What happened this term? Something clearly happened. If we have a student who has a consistent 3.4 across three years, and then all of a sudden we see a 2.9 one term, that is a noticeable difference. What has happened? And in that instance, I think an addendum is perfectly appropriate. Letting the admissions committee know sort of what was going on at that period of time that impacted the grades and that sort of thing.

Another example would be, if time off had to be taken during the undergraduate career, just acknowledgement that that time was taken off I think is important. And that's not time off between undergrad and law school to be clear, that's time off during the undergraduate experience. I would say to answer the question.

Derek: Maybe you were getting to this, so I'm sorry. I just jumped in, but what about, so they've graduated from college and then worked for a year or two, and then there's a gap of, I don't know, six months or more when they're applying to law school.

Renee: That's a really interesting question.

Derek: One that's coming up more. Because there've been a lot more gaps in the last year and a half because of the pandemic.

Renee: Yeah. I think from the Penn Carey Law perspective, we will read everything that you submit, why the six months off, why the eight months off. I mean, during the pandemic, there are so many reasons why applicants had to leave the workforce or applicants had to leave school or that sort of thing. There's no harm in sharing that with the committee. Sometimes if we do see a gap in a resume, a committee member will ask and we will follow up with the candidate, “What are you currently doing?” And again, there's no wrong answer to that, and it's not certainly a negative that we're asking the question, but if you can answer it right out of the gate, I think that's worth it.

As applicants think about what addenda to write about or, or what not to write about. I think you have to trust your judgment. I would, if there's any uncertainty, sort of ask a trusted advisor or ask a mentor, do you think this is too much? Or do you think I should, if you think the admissions committee would ask this question, as they're reviewing my application.

Derek: One of the other ones I get a lot of questions about is an LSAT addendum, so I really wanted to hear your thoughts on that. One of the things that's changed over the years since I've been doing this is people are taking the LSAT more frequently. And I believe now that three times is the average number, which is a jump from prior years. When should one write an addendum when they've taken the LSAT multiple times?

Renee: Yeah. It's a good question. I mean, I think that if an applicant sees a jump or dip in score from one test administration to the other, I usually say five or more points. What happened? Again, there's no right or wrong answer to that question about what happened? Well, you certainly have read them Derek. I've read them. I mean, I remember one applicant writing about a marching band practicing outside of the room, outside of the classroom. So that would be difficult circumstances under which to take a test, to have a band playing outside the window.

I do think it is important for candidates if we see a score discrepancy, then they should write the addenda. I don't think it's necessary to write an addenda if a candidate has taken the LSAT two times, frankly. And from what you just said three times, I don't think it's necessary to say, “I took the test three times because—"

Derek: Great that is very helpful.

Renee: Can I say one more thing on this?

Derek: Please.

Renee: If a candidate is in doubt as to whether or not a school welcomes addenda, ask the question, ask the question of the school.

Derek: A very good point, because there are definitely varying and strong opinions on this. But I think the takeaway is if there's something that might raise questions or leave a question unanswered, it's better to just err on the side of writing it, but be judicious, be thoughtful. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule about length other than I usually say no more than a page. And the most things that you've described, I think a couple of paragraphs or even a paragraph, if we're talking about LSAT discrepancy, would you agree?

Renee: Absolutely. And thank you for raising that about length because I think it can be a very short explanation. Absolutely no longer than a page. I agree.

Derek: Wonderful. I think that those are some really helpful points for our listeners. Let's talk about supplemental essays because that is an important part of the application and many schools have them. And I just want to hear a little bit about your thoughts because Penn has a unique supplemental essay, the Penn Carey Law, core strengths, goals, and values essay. You essentially list five or six of the core strengths of Penn Carey Law.

And then the prompt is these qualities define Penn Carey Law. What defines you? How do your goals and values match Penn Carey Law’s core strengths? Now I will say a lot of people I talk to are intimidated or a little overwhelmed by this. Because it's a big question and they have one page to answer it. I actually love this essay and I can say why, but why did you, or why did the admissions committee choose this prompt? And what tips do you have for applicants in writing it?

Renee: Yeah. Thank you for raising that. You'll remember Derek way back when the question on the application was simply “Why Penn?” That was the supplemental prompt.

Derek: Initially we required it. And then we did supplemental.

Renee: We did.

Derek: Yes.

Renee: The response to the “Why Penn?” was often just a restatement of marketing materials or website or something. And so the committee wanted to provide a prompt that allowed applicants to be a little bit more thoughtful about why they're applying to law school and why Penn is a good fit for them. Again, I keep going back to this idea of fit. But what is it? The core values essay is an opportunity for an applicant to sort of really hone in on why Penn Carey Law is a good fit for them in terms of their past experiences and their future goals. It's not simply, I am a good fit for you Penn Carey Law. It's this is why you're approaching a legal education and all of the community and the supports are a good fit for me. So that is my one-minute answer on the core values.

Derek: Alright. Well, it's interesting that you say, obviously you're talking specifically about fit for Penn Carey Law as the response should be. But interestingly, one of the things I love about this essay is, it really compels applicants to dig deeply and to reflect on, “Why am I doing this? What's important for me in an academic setting and what do I see as my goals?” Whether you intended it or not, while it certainly helps them with their Penn application, it ends up helping them quite a bit for when writing those ‘why’ essays for other schools.

Also, these questions get asked and more and more schools are doing admissions interviews. And so, these questions come up. Although initially I think they're intimidated by it, ultimately, I find that many people like it because not only do they learn more about why they want to go to Penn, but it helps them then thinking about more generally and more broadly when talking or when writing for other schools.

Alright, gosh, time is going so quickly. There are a few more things that I want to talk about. I did want to get your advice about joint degrees. I feel like that's not something that we've talked much about on our podcasts or blog about. I get a lot of questions about it. Certainly, when I worked at Penn I did, because Penn has a lot of joint degree programs and most law schools have some, at least some joint degree programs. The thing that I often hear is whether they should apply for one, does it help them? What I find is many times when I ask them, why do they want to do the joint degree? A lot of times, many of them just say something like, “Well, it sounds interesting.”

I'm just curious. What is your advice generally for law school applicants who are considering applying for a joint degree and should they talk about it in their law school application?

Renee: Good question. I think for candidates who are considering pursuing a joint degree, they should do their research. What is the value-add of the pairing of degrees either academically or professionally? And what does it look like on the other side, in terms of career prospects? So asking the question, why do I want to do this joint degree? It's interesting.

Penn Carey Law is so cross-disciplinary and candidates certainly write about their interest in cross disciplinary study, but they do it from a perspective of curiosity as opposed to absolute, right? More candidates write about thinking about how the law intersects with another discipline and maybe there's a certificate program or a joint degree offered at Penn, but they stopped short of saying I'm affirmatively applying for this degree. I think that's okay. I think that's okay.

I mean, when thinking about a joint degree is a commitment and a lot of research is involved. One of the great things about Penn is that there's a lot of flexibility, so the students can decide later in their law school career, whether or not they actually want to do the additional degree and still be able to complete in a timely fashion. Again, I think it's a very individual response as to whether or not to write about wanting to do a joint degree. I've never read an application where someone says they want to do a joint degree and it hurt them. It was not seen as a negative.

Derek: Yeah. There's that theme of commitment again, which has come up so many times in your responses. I think that's just such a great takeaway from this podcast when applicants are thinking about how they're putting their application together and conveying that aspect. I will say, I think similar to earlier when we were talking about whether one should take time off and you talked about people who work in a particular field and then see how it intersects with the law and so they're coming to law school specifically to work in that field. Sometimes there is a joint degree obviously, that's associated with that.

There are, it's a small percentage of people, but they have a very good idea of why they want a joint degree. And I think for them it can actually make their application stronger when they can talk about the experience that they have that backs it up and why they're doing it. It might allow them to tailor their application to that particular school because it offers that program.

Renee: I think you're absolutely right on that Derek. I think for that candidate, I'm envisioning a resume, I'm envisioning letters of recommendation, I'm envisioning everything that builds to the experiences, build to wanting this dual degree. And so the evidence is there to make a really strong case as to why the joint degree. Thank you for pointing that out.

Derek: Of course, that's why we're a great team. Alright. We're going to quickly go through a few more questions because one thing that I want to talk about that is so important is just a little bit about advice on managing stress, advice for applicants this cycle. There's been so much talk obviously about last cycle and how competitive it was and all of these questions about is it going to be as competitive? And I don't want to talk about that.

I mean, in some ways people are getting more stressed out about all the talk about it. And the thing that I always say to my clients is, look, it doesn't change what you have to do. We're never going to be able to control external factors. I mean, there's so many examples of that, the pandemic, no one ever saw that and how long it was going to last and how much, and to what extent it was going to affect higher education and so many things.

I mean, it's just, you know, you just have to stay present and stay focused on what you need to do to put together the best application, because that's the one thing that you have control over. One of the things that I really admired and respected about you as a colleague is that you were steady, talk about ‘never let them see you sweat.’ That's what I always thought of you as poised and always professional. It's a two-part question.

One is just, what advice do you have for clients as this cycle has just begun. What advice do you have for them generally? And then secondly, what do you do, how do you do that? What do you do to manage your own stress? Because you have a stressful job. I've had it.

Renee: Thank you for those wonderful compliments. I appreciate that. My general advice for this cycle is for applicants to do exactly what you just suggested, which is put together the strongest application that you can. Once you hit submit, you have done your work, I've done everything I can, now it's their turn to do their work. I say that because I suspect, and it's early, it is still very early and it's not even October yet, but I do suspect that this cycle will be a little slower in terms of decisions than we've seen in prior cycles. I think that that is just how I predict it to go. I would say to applicants, just try to be as patient as possible. If you don't hear immediately back from a school it is not a negative, you've done the best you can and they're reading the files now.

That's really easy for me to say, and I want to acknowledge that because I think for all of those wonderful compliments that you just gave me, I'm not a particularly patient person. I just want to point out that I'm saying to candidates, the decision will come and asking them to be patient in that, so I want to acknowledge that.

In terms of managing stress, is interesting to me because you and I, early on in our professional careers found ourselves in a very stressful situation, and that taught me a lot. Our experience together all those years ago, taught me a lot about managing stress. I think the three things that I do, one is I go for walks. I walk by myself. I don't have an exercise partner. If someone joins me for a walk, it's not like my meditative time, it's time for a visit. I often go for walks by myself just to think.

The second is to find trusted advisors. I think this is where kind of our paths crossing all those years ago taught me this, is finding someone you can trust and you can bounce ideas off of when things are really, really stressful, knowing that they're not going to judge whatever it is that's coming out of your mouth in that moment.

The third is to be vulnerable. Stress happens to all of us, and I think it's important to acknowledge it and be vulnerable to the people you trust that you are finding yourself in a stressful situation and not isolate in stress, but rather have people that are there for you to share, support you.  You're going to support them I hope too, there to support you when, in times of stress so –

Derek: Yes, such sage advice. It's so important just given, not just what's happening in the law school world, but of course what's happening in the world generally.

Renee: You're the one that always taught me, you can only control the present. How many times have you said to me that you can't control that, Renee?

Derek: Yeah. I still say it to you, right. At least once a year, I think.

Renee: You do.

Renee: Probably twice.

Derek: Okay. My favorite question that I almost forgot to ask, favorite one of all is our craziest experiences. What are some of the craziest things that have happened working in admissions? I think you were there for when some of mine happened, but I definitely had that stalker theme of things of the grandma who stalked me via phone and mail whose grandson was rejected and then called me on a regular basis, sent me cookies, sent things in the mail to try to get me to change the decision. There was the parent that waited for me outside of the law school, until I left the office who then cornered me. Then the applicant who found out somehow where I lived and actually showed up at my building and tried to bribe the doorman into letting them in and up to my apartment, not once but twice.

Renee: I don't remember the applicant or the parent story. I remember the grandmother.

Derek: You were there I think, yes, we were afraid to eat the cookies, but I think you might've been there for this one too. You remember the person who at the admitted students’ day, we ran out of Philly cheesesteaks at lunch and an admitted student demanded that I fire the caterer on the spot because we ran out of cheesesteaks. And then a few weeks later asked for more scholarship money to which I said, “We are out of cheese steaks and we are out of money.”

Renee: I don't remember that one either, oh my gosh.

Derek: Okay, that must have been in our gap. Alright, what's yours?

Renee: I thought mine was great. Now mine is like ho-hum. I was probably a month into the job as an admissions officer/office manager, living in West Philadelphia, right by campus, living alone. It’s like nine o'clock on a Friday night and my phone rang. I was like, “Who's calling me at nine o'clock on a Friday night, cause I think I've talked to everybody that I planned to talk to today.” It was an applicant, had found my number and called me at home. I don't remember what the issue was. It was a processing issue, it was not a decision issue. It was a processing of application issue because at that time I was the office manager and proceeded to try to give me their social security number. I'm a month into the job, and I'm thinking to myself, I don't know—

Derek: Is this what my Friday nights are going to look like working in admissions--?

Renee: “Is this what every Friday is going to look?” So that next morning, that next Monday morning, I think I called my boss the next day and said, “Hey, this happened, like, is this normal?” And at the time of course it was not normal, so we handled it from there. But that was the one that I remember, because I was so young in my job and I just thought, what on earth have I signed onto?

Derek: Apparently, it's easy to find someone's phone number or home address, but to our listeners, please don't do either of those things. Alright, and my last question, speaking of Philadelphia, what do you love most about it?

Renee: About the city?

Renee: I love the people. I love the neighborhoods. I love the architecture. I love the river. I love the parks. I love the food. I mean, I have sort of like equal opportunity love for the city of Philadelphia.

Derek: I love the food. It's so funny because so many people talk about cheesesteaks and I talked about it because we serve them at admitted students’ day, but oh my god, the food is way, way, way beyond cheesesteaks. In fact, my favorite restaurant in the world of all the places I've traveled to, my favorite restaurant in the world, Zahav, is in Philly. And it was my favorite restaurant before it got the three James Beard awards for being the best restaurant in the country. But there's just this amazing Middle Eastern food and Mexican food and lots of Italian food. I can talk all day. That'll have to be a podcast too, food in Philly.

Renee: Yes, food in Philly. You would know.

Derek: Yes. Dean Post, this was such a pleasure. We talked for a really long time. I don't think we've missed anything, but do you have any final thoughts?

Renee: Just thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you. And hopefully the applicants found it helpful. And if we have to cut some, we can cut some because we we’re too chatty.

Derek: Yes, we certainly are. But such a pleasure. Thank you so much. And thanks to our listeners. This has been a true joy.

The Penn application process includes a personal essay as well as supplemental short answer prompts. We read your words carefully, as they are yet another window into how you think, what you value, and how you see the world. Through your writing, we get a glimpse of what you might bring to our community, including  your voice and creativity.

• Apply for Admission
• International Applicants
• Transfer Admission
• Comprehensive Review
• Extracurricular-Activities
• High School Preparation
• Alumni Conversations
• Letters of Recommendation
• Supplementary Materials
• Incoming Class Profile

Before you begin writing:

• Review the prompt thoroughly. Be sure you’re answering the question or prompt being asked. T opics are chosen because the Admissions Committee wants to know specific things about you. If you don’t address the them directly, we are left to make decisions regarding your application with incomplete information.
• Consider your response carefully. We understand that you may be writing responses for different schools and you may want to reuse material, but read through your response to make sure the content is relevant to the prompt.
• Double check your writing. Give yourself time to revisit your response. Do not rush your writing process; create space in your schedule to revise your work. Ultimately, it is up to you to polish your response before you submit.

In your Penn supplemental short answers, be precise when explaining both why you are applying to Penn and why you have chosen to apply to that specific undergraduate school. Some of our specialized programs will have additional essays to complete, but the Penn supplemental prompts should address the single-degree or single-school choice.

2023-24 Short Answer & Essay Prompts

Penn Supplemental Short Answer Prompts (Required)

• Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (We encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience!) (150-200 words, only required for first year applicants)
• How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn. (150-200 words)
• The school-specific prompt will now be unique to the school to which a student is applying. Considering the undergraduate school you have selected, please respond to your school-specific prompt below. (For example, all applicants applying to the College of Arts and Sciences will respond to the prompt under the “College of Arts and Sciences” section).

For students applying to the coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer this question in regard to your single-degree school choice; your interest in the coordinated dual-degree or specialized program may be addressed through the program-specific essay.

Transfer Essay  (required for all transfer applicants): Please explain your reasons for transferring from your current institution and what you hope to gain by transferring to another institution. (4150 characters)

Penn Nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity. What do you think this means for the future of nursing, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare? (150-200 words)

To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about Penn Nursing’s mission and how we promote equity in healthcare . This information will help you develop a stronger understanding of our values and how they align with your own goals and aspirations.

The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences? (150-200 words)

To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about the academic offerings within the College of Arts and Sciences .  This information will help you develop a stronger understanding of how the study of the liberal arts aligns with your own goals and aspirations.

Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues.  Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it.  (150-200 words)

To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about the foundations of a Wharton education . This information will help you better understand what you could learn by studying at Wharton and what you could do afterward.

Penn Engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology, by combining a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics, exploration in the liberal arts, and depth of study in focused disciplinary majors. Please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at Penn. (150-200 words)

To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about Penn Engineering and its mission to prepare students for global leadership in technology . This information will help you develop a stronger understanding of academic pathways within Penn Engineering and how they align with your goals and interests.

Coordinated Dual Degree and Specialized Programs Short Answer Prompts

For students applying to the coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer the program-specific essay below.

** Character count that only applies to transfer students applying through Common App.

Why are you interested in the Digital Media Design (DMD) program at the University of Pennsylvania? (400-650 words / 3575 characters**)

The Huntsman Program supports the development of globally minded scholars who become engaged citizens, creative innovators, and ethical leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the United States and internationally. What draws you to a dual-degree program in business and international studies, and how would you use what you learn to contribute to a global issue where business and international affairs intersect? (400-650 words)

The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing, and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay. (400-650 words)

• Explain how you will use the M&T program to explore your interest in business, engineering, and the intersection of the two. (400-650 words)
• Describe a problem that you solved that showed leadership and creativity. (250 words)

Describe your interests in modern networked information systems and technologies, such as the internet, and their impact on society, whether in terms of economics, communication, or the creation of beneficial content for society. Feel free to draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology. (400-650 words / 3575 characters**)

Discuss your interest in nursing and health care management. How might Penn's coordinated dual-degree program in nursing and business help you meet your goals? (400-650 words)

• Please list any predental or premedical experience. This experience can include but is not limited to observation in a private practice, dental clinic, or hospital setting; dental assisting; dental laboratory work; dental or medical research; etc. Please include time allotted to each activity, dates of attendance, location, and a description of your experience. If you do not have any predental or premedical experience, please indicate what you have done or plan to do in order to explore dentistry as a career.
• Do you have relatives who are dentists or are in dental school? If so, indicate the name of each relative, his/her relationship to you, the school attended, and the dates attended.
• Describe any activities which demonstrate your ability to work with your hands.
• What activities have you performed that demonstrate your ability to work effectively with people?
• Please explain your reasons for selecting dentistry. Please include what interests you the most about dentistry as well as what interests you least.

How do you envision your participation in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) furthering your interests in energy science and technology? Please include any past experiences (ex. academic, research, or extracurricular) that have led to your interest in the program. Additionally, please indicate why you are interested in pursuing dual degrees in science and engineering and which VIPER majors are most interesting to you at this time. (400-650 words)

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 5 tips for writing a great upenn essay.

College Essays

The University of Pennsylvania requires all first year applicants to submit a personal essay as well as a Penn-specific essay. If you're hoping to be one of the 6% of students admitted to Penn every year, your UPenn essay is an important part of your application. You'll need to make sure your essays are strong to increase your chances of admission.

In this article, we'll go over the UPenn essay logistics—covering exactly what you need to write for each college you're applying to at UPenn. Then, we'll break down each prompt, offering suggestions for what to write about. Finally, we'll give tips on how to write an amazing UPenn essay that'll help you get into your dream school.

What Are the UPenn Essay Prompts?

If you're applying to UPenn, you must submit your application to one of UPenn's four undergraduate schools. Depending on which undergraduate program you're applying to, you'll need to answer UPenn's specific statements as well as an additional essay for that school.

There are three required short answer prompts for this year’s UPenn application. The first is:

Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (We encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience!) (150-200 words)

UPenn's second essay prompt for all students is:

How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape Penn. (150-200 words)

And, finally, the third prompt:

Considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected, describe how you intend to explore your academic and intellectual interests at the University of Pennsylvania. (150-200 words)

Depending on the undergraduate program you're applying to, you may have to write an additional essay as part of your application. Here are those additional essay prompts and the program for which they apply:

• Please list pre-dental or pre-medical experience. This experience can include but is not limited to observation in a private practice, dental clinic, or hospital setting; dental assisting; dental laboratory work; dental or medical research, etc. Please include time allotted to each activity, dates of attendance, location, and description of your experience. If you do not have any pre-dental or pre-medical experience, please indicate what you have done that led you to your decision to enter dentistry.
• List any activities which demonstrate your ability to work with your hands.
• What activities have you performed that demonstrate your ability to work cooperatively with people?
• Please explain your reasons for selecting a career in dentistry. Please include what interests you the most in dentistry as well as what interests you the least.
• Do you have relatives who are dentists or are in dental school? If so, indicate the name of each relative, his/her relationship to you, the school attended, and the dates attended.
• Digital Media Design Program: Why are you interested in the Digital Media Design (DMD) program at the University of Pennsylvania? (400-650 words)
• The Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business: The Huntsman Program supports the development of globally-minded scholars who become engaged citizens, creative innovators, and ethical leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the United States and internationally. What draws you to a dual-degree program in business and international studies, and how would you use what you learn to make a contribution to a global issue where business and international affairs intersect? (400-650 words)
• The Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Science and Management: The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay. (400-650 words)
• The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology: Please complete both prompts.
• Explain how you will use the M&T program to explore your interest in business, engineering, and the intersection of the two. (400-650 words)
• Describe a problem that you solved that showed leadership and creativity. (250 words maximum)
• The Rejendra and Neera Singh Program in Networked and Social Systems Engineering: Describe your interests in modern networked information systems and technologies, such as the internet, and their impact on society, whether in terms of economics, communication, or the creation of beneficial content for society. Feel free to draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology. (400-650 words)
• Nursing and Healthcare Management: Discuss your interest in nursing and health care management. How might Penn's coordinated dual-degree program in nursing and business help you meet your goals? (400-650 words)
• The Roy and Diana Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research: How do you envision your participation in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) furthering your interests in energy science and technology? Please include any past experiences (ex. academic, research, or extracurricular) that have led to your interest in the program. Additionally, please indicate why you are interested in pursuing dual degrees in science and engineering and which VIPER majors are most interesting to you at this time. (400-650 words)

UPenn Essay Prompts, Analyzed

In this section, we'll analyze each of the UPenn supplement essay prompts and offer suggestions for what you should talk about (and avoid) for each.

Penn-Specific Essays

Let's take a look at how to tackle the essays all students will have to answer.

This rather charming prompt is a great opportunity to show the UPenn admissions counselors what you value and what you’re grateful for .

Consider making a list of all the things people have done for you, and narrow it down to those that have made the biggest impact. Has a family member or your best friend has gone the extra mile for you, and you haven’t quite found a way to truly thank them? Maybe someone you’re not friends with stood up for you in an academic or social situation. Maybe your Model UN nemesis did you a solid. Is there something you may have taken for granted?

Once you’ve narrowed down your topic, remember to focus on the "so what" part of the answer. Why is it important to thank this person? What did they do, and how did it affect you? Why have you not yet been able to thank them (there are plenty of good reasons for this—don’t panic if you feel like you’ve been rude!).

Remember to be as specific and sincere as possible—you have 200 words, tops, to tell a genuine story that reveals part of your character.

How will you explore the community at Penn? Consider how this community will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community. (150-200 words)

The first prompt was largely focused on academic interests. The second is where you can think more about community.

Going to college isn't just about what you'll learn in class. It's also about forming life-long friendships and exploring different communities to find out who you are and what you like to do.

Of course, you can't predict exactly what your social life is going to look like before you even get accepted. You may end up in clubs you never expected, with friends you never anticipated. But that's okay—UPenn isn't asking you to lay out, step-by-step, how you'll participate in college communities. They just want to know that you're thinking about it!

To answer this question, consider looking into UPenn's many student-run clubs and activities and find some that match your interests. Think about how these clubs and activities will contribute to the vision you have of your future. What impact do you expect them to have on you?

But don't forget the second half of the question! UPenn also wants to know how you will shape the community, not just how it will shape you . What unique perspectives do you bring? What can you do that nobody else can?

This question is a pretty typical "why you?" essay prompt that's focused on community rather than academics. Think about how you fit into your social groups; what makes you unique? Are you the token caregiver friend? Or maybe you're always pursuing a new weird hobby, and your friends love hearing about what your new niche interest is. These are just two traits that you could use to explain what you'll bring to the UPenn community— get a little creative, think about how you participate in your friend groups, and plan how you're going to bring those thoughts into your new school!

Considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected, describe how you intend to explore your academic and intellectual interests at the University of Pennsylvania. (150-200 words) For students applying to the coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer this question in regard to your single-degree school choice; your interest in the coordinated dual-degree or specialized program may be addressed through the program-specific essay.

The third prompt is a traditional Why UPenn essay. It asks you to explain why you want to attend UPenn, and what you’ll do while you’re there.

While these types of prompts are common, the Why UPenn essay prompt focuses specifically on academics—it's not concerned with your interest in UPenn's extracurriculars or campus life. Your answer, then, needs to be specifically focused on your academic pursuits and how UPenn will help you achieve your goals.

You'll need to talk about how the undergraduate school you're applying to affects your academic interests, so do your research on the school. You don't want to talk about a class that you won't have access to because it's in another undergraduate school. All of your answers should be reflective of the courses you'll be able to take if admitted to the undergraduate school of your choice.

You should have a good sense of the classes offered by your program. It's a good idea to name specific classes or professors you'd like to study with. Similarly, if there are any specific opportunities available to students in your field, such as internships or study abroad programs, this essay is the place to talk about it.

The next prompts are for specific programs at UPenn. Channel your inner snowflake and show how you're a unique, one-of-a-kind candidate! 

Bio-Dental Program

Please list pre-dental or pre-medical experience. This experience can include but is not limited to observation in a private practice, dental clinic, or hospital setting; dental assisting; dental laboratory work; dental or medical research, etc. Please include time allotted to each activity, dates of attendance, location, and description of your experience. If you do not have any pre-dental or pre-medical experience, please indicate what you have done that led you to your decision to enter dentistry. (250 words maximum)

List any activities which demonstrate your ability to work with your hands. (250 words maximum)

What activities have you performed that demonstrate your ability to work cooperatively with people? (250 words maximum)

Please explain your reasons for selecting a career in dentistry. Please include what interests you the most in dentistry as well as what interests you the least. (250 words maximum)

Do you have relatives who are dentists or are in dental school? If so, indicate the name of each relative, his/her relationship to you, the school attended, and the dates attended. (250 words maximum)

The prompt for the Bio-Dental program is extensive. Attack it in pieces, being as specific as possible when answering each question.

Don't feel that you need to make up any specific experience. If you haven't interned at a dentist's office, don't invent that experience. You should stick to reality. If you haven't observed at a dentist's office, you can set up a time to visit a local dentist so that you're writing about your real experience, not something you've invented.

When listing your activities, be sure to indicate how each is relevant to dental skill. Maybe you do a lot of needlepoint, which shows that you're able to carry out complex patterns. Again, you don't want to make anything up. Not only will your essay read as inauthentic, you won't have the experience you need to enter into the program.

Take your time and work through this prompt in pieces if you have to. Be thorough, honest, and accurate.

Digital Media Design Program

Just like the Artificial Intelligence essay prompt, in this essay you'll want to explain exactly why the Digital Media Design program at UPenn appeals to you. There are a few important components to an answer for this prompt: specificity, personality, and genuine interest.

To tackle the first important feature, you'll want to do some research into the program you're applying to. Find the unique things about this program in comparison to others; that can mean the professors who teach in it, the classes that are offered, what former students are up to, or anything else that you can tie specifically to UPenn. The reason for this is that the college wants to know that you're not just applying there as a fallback choice. UPenn wants students who are driven and passionate about what college will help them achieve, and putting specifics into your essay is a great way to show that you care about attending.

Next, be sure that your essay has personality. You want your essay to read as if only you could have written it. Having specifics will help with that, but you should also make it a point to let your own unique voice and interests shine through. If Digital Media Design draws your interest because you've always been drawn to the unique storytelling potential of animation after growing up on Pixar films, that's worth mentioning! Remember, your college application is all about getting the college invested in you as a student; let your personality shine through.

And lastly, demonstrate genuine interest. UPenn is a great school, and you should use your essay to show that you're not just applying there because you needed to fill another slot on your college list. Express your passion for attending UPenn, and specifically the Digital Media Design program. What brought you here over every other school? Even if UPenn isn't your top choice, remember all the things that made you put the school on your college list in the first place, and keep them in mind as you write.

The Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business

The Huntsman Program supports the development of globally-minded scholars who become engaged citizens, creative innovators, and ethical leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the United States and internationally. What draws you to a dual-degree program in business and international studies, and how would you use what you learn to make a contribution to a global issue where business and international affairs intersect? (400-650 words)

For the Huntsman essay, you'll need to explain exactly what draws you to UPenn's International Studies and Business program. This is a dual-degree program, so you'll be studying at the intersection of these two fields. A working understanding of each will be important to writing this essay.

To start, make a short list of reasons why this degree appeals to you. What international issues interest you? Why take a business approach rather than a sociological or political one? You don't have to put the answers to these questions in your essay, but if you know the answers to them, you'll be better prepared to answer the prompt with confidence.

The question specifically asks for how you'll use what you learn in this program to make an impact on a global issue. That requires some familiarity with global issues; think about causes that matter to you and how you can use business to approach them. How will attending UPenn help you toward your career goals?

You can cite specific classes, instructors, or other features of UPenn to help make your point. Your essay should feature not just how you want to make an impact on the world, but also why you're seeking a dual degree, and specifically a dual degree from UPenn.

The Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Science and Management

The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay. (400-650 words)

The LSM essay prompt has been recently updated. Instead of being a general "why this program" style prompt, this essay wants to dig deeper into why you're interested in Life Sciences and Management and understand more about whether your personality is a fit for the program.

This essay is all about the bigger picture. The LSM program is all about innovation, so this essay wants you to pick a big issue and explain how what you learn as an LSM student will help you solve it. The best way to answer this prompt is through a combination of research and specificity. First, research the LSM program. You definitely want to pick an issue that you'll actually learn about as a UPENN student. It's also a good idea to call out specific classes, professors, and research opportunities in your response! (Keep in mind that this program is a joint venture between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School of Business, so be sure to research both schools.)

Once you have all that information pulled together, you can get specific. Admissions counselors don't expect you to solve the world's biggest problems. But they do want to see that you're thinking critically about issues in your future field, and that you can break the problem down into pieces. For instance, instead of saying you want to solve climate change, narrow that topic down into something doable, like developing new plant-based plastics that can be used in the medical field.

The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology

Please complete both prompts.

Question 1: Explain how you will use the M&T program to explore your interest in business, engineering, and the intersection of the two. (400-650 words)

Question 2: Describe a problem that you solved that showed leadership and creativity. (250 words maximum)

You'll need to complete two additional essays if you're applying to the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology.

Like many UPenn programs, this school combines two different fields—management and technology . To answer this question effectively, you'll need to know exactly how the two can work together. Think about why you've chosen this particular program—what can you gain from it that you wouldn't from a program in either management or technology? How will a degree in this program help you reach your personal and career goals? This prompt asks for how you'll use it to explore your interests, so don't be afraid to get specific!

The second question is also concerned with your problem-solving ability. This classic prompt wants to know about a time when you faced adversity and either overcame it or learned from it. Don't be afraid to show yourself tackling a real challenge here—your ability to persevere is more important than showing that you never make mistakes.

The Rejendra and Neera Singh Program in Networked and Social Systems Engineering

Describe your interests in modern networked information systems and technologies, such as the internet, and their impact on society, whether in terms of economics, communication, or the creation of beneficial content for society. Feel free to draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology. (400-650 words)

The easiest way to answer this prompt is with a story. Tell the admissions committee how you became interested in this line of study.

You should be as specific as possible in your answer. After all, the prompt calls for examples from your own experience. You should be able to clearly articulate where your interest stemmed from. Don't feel like you have to talk about everything that interests you within this field—focusing on one or two clear examples that you have a lot of interest in will go further than trying to talk about everything related to networked information systems and technologies.

Nursing and Healthcare Management

Discuss your interest in nursing and health care management. How might Penn's coordinated dual-degree program in nursing and business help you meet your goals? (400-650 words)

You have plenty of space in this prompt (up to 650 words), so you should make sure to address both parts of the question—why you're interested in Penn's nursing and healthcare management program and how the program will help you achieve your future goals.

Key to answering the second part of the prompt is to have some future goals thought out—have a specific idea of what you want to do with your degree. Then, tie that back to things you can study at UPenn. It would be helpful for this prompt to familiarize yourself with aspects of UPenn's program—courses, professors, learning and employment opportunities. The more you can show why UPenn is the right school for you to achieve your goals, the better your essay will be.

The Roy and Diana Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research

How do you envision your participation in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) furthering your interests in energy science and technology? Please include any past experiences (ex. academic, research, or extracurricular) that have led to your interest in the program. Additionally, please indicate why you are interested in pursuing dual degrees in science and engineering and which VIPER majors are most interesting to you at this time. (400-650 words)

This prompt wants to know exactly how you think the VIPER program will help you reach your future goals. You also need to touch on why you want to get a dual-degree. You have plenty of space in this prompt, so make sure you answer each aspect thoroughly. Don't invent previous experience if you don't have it—be honest and authentic in your answer.

You should have a clear idea about which VIPER majors you're interested in. Be prepared to name specific UPenn majors and provide reasoning, in the form of classes you'd like to take or professors you'd like to study with.

5 Tips for Acing the UPenn Supplement

Hoping to write amazing UPenn supplement essays? Follow these key tips to do so!

#1: Use Your Own Voice

The point of a college essay is for the admissions committee to have the chance to get to know you beyond what's featured in other parts of your application. Your admissions essays are your chance to become more than just a collection of statistics—to really come alive for your application readers.

Make sure that the person you're presenting in your college essays is yourself. Don't just write what you think the committee wants to hear or try to act like someone you're not—it will be really easy for the committee to tell you're lying.

If you lie or exaggerate, your essay will come across as insincere, which will at best diminish its effectiveness and at worst make the admissions committee think twice on accepting you. Stick to telling real stories about the person you really are, not who you think UPenn wants you to be.

#2: Be UPenn-Specific

All of your UPenn essays should be UPenn-specific. Don't be generic in your answers—the admissions committee should get the idea that you know about UPenn and that your answer is specific to that school, not about college in general.

Don't waste your time telling the admissions committee that UPenn has a world-class faculty—first of all, the admissions committee knows that and second, many universities do. Talk about why UPenn is the right school for you and be prepared to give real, concrete examples.

#3: Do Your Research

You can make your essay UPenn-specific by doing your research. Look into the course catalogue, visit your prospective major's website. Schedule a meeting with a professor or current student if you can. The more specific information you have, the better.

#4: Avoid Clichés and Overused Phrases

When writing your UPenn essays, don't use clichés or overused quotes or phrases. The college admissions committee has probably seen numerous essays that state, "Be the change you want to see in the world." You can write something more original than that!

Each of the UPenn essays asks you something specific about your experience or background. Your essay should be 100% you —you don't want the admissions committee to think, "Anyone could have written this essay."

#5: Check Your Work

Your UPenn essays should be the strongest example of your work possible. Before you turn in your UPenn application, edit and proofread your essays.

Run your essays through a spelling and grammar check before you submit and ask someone else to read your essays. You can seek a second opinion on your work from a parent, teacher, or friend. Ask them whether your work represents you as a student and person. Have them check and make sure you haven't missed any small writing errors. Having a second opinion will help your work be the best it possibly can be.

#6: Have a Spike

What's a spike, you ask?

In short, a spike is something that makes you stand out. Something that no (or very few) other applicants have.

When you're applying to college, it's tempting to seem well-rounded and interested in all the things.

Don't do that.

Your application won't stand out if you're mediocre in band, on the track team, and on student council. It will stand out if you travel to Japan to perform with a world-class performance ensemble or qualify for the Olympic trials in shot put.

When your focus is on one thing, you'll be better at it than if you have to split your time and attention. It will also be more impressive on your resume.

Final Thoughts

Your UPenn essay is an important part of your application. Depending on the specific school you're applying to, you may have to write three or more essays.

No matter which school at UPenn you're applying to, keep in mind:

• Be authentic.
• Highlight your best qualities.
• Use specific examples of UPenn courses and professors you want to study.
• Be generic.
• Make anything up about yourself.
• Split your focus by talking about too many different ideas.

What's Next?

If you're applying to UPenn, you're likely applying to other colleges on the East Coast, too. Check out our expert guides to the Williams essay , the Tufts essays , and the Harvard essay .

Need help writing your Common App essay? Our tips will show you how to write a Common App essay guaranteed to make you stand out from other applicants!

Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females.

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University of Pennsylvania | UPenn’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Gratitude short response.

Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (We encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience!)

Diversity Short Response

How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn.

College of Arts and Sciences Short Response

The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences?

Penn Engineering Short Response

Penn Engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology, by combining a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics, exploration in the liberal arts, and depth of study in focused disciplinary majors. Please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at Penn.

Penn Nursing Short Response

Penn Nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity. What do you think this means for the future of nursing, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare?

Wharton Short Response

Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues. Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it.

Huntsman Program Essay

The Huntsman Program supports the development of globally-minded scholars who become engaged citizens, creative innovators, and ethical leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the United States and internationally. What draws you to a dual-degree in business and international studies, and how would you use what you learn to make a contribution to a global issue where business and international affairs intersect?

Digital Media Design Program Essay

Why are you interested in the Digital Media Design (DMD) program at the University of Pennsylvania?

Life Sciences and Management Program Essay

The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay.

Jerome Fisher Management and Technology Program Essay 1

Explain how you will use the M&T program to explore your interest in business, engineering, and the intersection of the two.

Jerome Fisher Management and Technology Program Essay 2

Describe a problem that you solved that showed leadership and creativity.

NETS Engineering Program Essay

Describe your interests in modern networked information systems and technologies, such as the Internet, and their impact on society, whether in terms of economics, communication, or the creation of beneficial content for society. Feel free to draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology.

Nursing and Healthcare Management Program Essay

Discuss your interest in nursing and health care management. How might Penn’s coordinated dual-degree program in nursing and business help you meet your goals?

VIPER Program Essay

How do you envision your participation in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) furthering your interests in energy science and technology? Please include any past experiences (ex. academic, research, or extracurricular) that have led to your interest in the program. Additionally, please indicate why you are interested in pursuing dual degrees in science and engineering and which VIPER majors are most interesting to you at this time.

Bio-Dental Program Short Response 1

Please list pre-dental or pre-medical experience. This experience can include but is not limited to observation in a private practice, dental clinic, or hospital setting; dental assisting; dental laboratory work; dental or medical research, etc. Please include time allotted to each activity, dates of attendance, location, and description of your experience. If you do not have any pre-dental or pre-medical experience, please indicate what you have done or plan to do in order to explore dentistry as a career.

Bio-Dental Program Short Response 2

Do you have relatives who are dentists or are in dental school? If so, indicate the name of each relative, his/her relationship to you, the school attended, and the dates attended.

Bio-Dental Program Short Response 3

Describe any activities which demonstrate your ability to work with your hands.

Bio-Dental Program Short Response 4

What activities have you performed that demonstrate your ability to work cooperatively with people

Bio-Dental Program Short Response 5

Please explain your reasons for selecting a career in dentistry. Please include what interests you the most in dentistry as well as what interests you the least.

Common App Personal Essay

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

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?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

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.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

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How to get into upenn law.

Reviewed by:

David Merson

Former Head of Pre-Law Office, Northeastern University, & Admissions Officer, Brown University

Reviewed: 01/17/23

As one of the nation’s T-14 law schools, the University of Pennsylvania Law School is a popular addition to any law school list. Read on to learn how to get into UPenn Law! 

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School ranks No. 6 out of the country’s best law schools . If you plan to apply to UPenn Law, we'll outline programs, requirements, essay advice, and more to maximize your chances of acceptance.

Programs Offered 

UPenn Law offers a JD program and five graduate law programs, excluding joint degrees. Graduate law programs offered are the following: 

• LLM Degree Program 
• Wharton Business and Law Certificate for LLMs 
• SJD - Doctor of the Science of Law 
• LLCM - Master in Comparative Law 
• ML - Master in Law 

UPenn Law has one of the most diverse joint program offerings out of T-14 law schools. There are more than 30 options to tailor your law studies and receive a truly interdisciplinary education. Some options include: 

• JD/MBE Bioethics 
• JD/MA or MS Criminology
• JD/MCIT Computing & Information Technology
• JD/MD Doctor of Medicine
• JD/MSE Engineering

To find out which of the UPenn JD programs best suits your needs, contact an experienced admissions advisor .

UPenn Law School Requirements 

Carey Law School requires JD applicants to submit applications through LSAC for consideration. These are the standard UPenn Law requirements you should know about:

Penn Law GPA

Penn Law states, "We do not have numerical 'cut-offs' in the application process nor do we employ the use of an admissions index." While there are no GPA requirements for admission, past class profile data can help you determine what a competitive GPA for UPenn Law looks like : 

• 25th percentile : GPA: 3.56
• Median GPA : 3.90
• 75th percentile: GPA: 3.96

This data makes determining the Penn Law average GPA difficult. However, we can assume that your GPA should be close to 3.9 or higher for your best chance of admission. 

UPenn Law LSAT: Requirements and Averages 

While there is no UPenn Law LSAT score requirement, you should strive for the best score possible for a better chance at getting into UPenn Law. Penn released LSAT data from its incoming class: 

• 25th percentile LSAT : 167
• Median LSAT : 171 
• 75th percentile LSAT : 173

It's difficult to determine the UPenn Law average LSAT score based only on this information. However, it would be best if you strived for an LSAT score of at least 171 to be a more competitive applicant. 

Penn Law GRE

While Penn Law accepts GRE scores, no information was released on how many students submit them, averages, or percentiles. However, it's also in your best interest to score as high as possible on the GRE.

Take our interactive quiz below to find out how likely you are to get into Penn Law!

Penn Law School Essays (Prompts & Tips) 

Besides an interview, your personal statements and optional essays are your only chance to speak directly to the admissions committee and show why you’re the perfect fit for UPenn Law. 

UPenn Law Personal Statement

Knowing how to get into UPenn Law starts with understanding the personal statement. The prompt for the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School is: 

“The purpose of this personal statement is to provide you with an opportunity to submit information that you deem important to your candidacy. You may wish to describe aspects of your background and interests—intellectual, personal and/or professional—and how you will uniquely contribute to the Penn Carey Law community and/or the legal profession.” 

UPenn Law also asks applicants to be aware of the suggested length of two pages for their writing. Your essay should be double-spaced and marked as "Personal Statement," and include your name and LSAC number on every page. 

Penn Law Personal Statement Tips 

The personal statement prompt for UPenn Law is relatively open-ended, leaving some applicants wondering where to begin. Our top tips for crafting an excellent UPenn Law essay can help you write a captivating narrative sure to garner the attention it deserves. 

Brainstorm Topics 

Many topics can make an excellent personal statement; however, the perfect personal statement topic for you is something only you can judge. Thinking broadly about your experiences can help you narrow your options and determine the most impactful narrative direction. 

The University of Pennsylvania’s Career Services suggests reflecting on these topics before writing a law school personal statement: 

• Relevant, Major Learning Experiences : What experiences have taught you something that shaped who you are today? Did the experience shift your perspective, give you new tools, or did it help you hone a critical skill? 
• Leadership Experiences : When have you assumed a leadership role? What motivated you? What did you gain from the experience? What was the impact on others and your community? 
• Overcoming Adversity : You can discuss a hardship you’ve had to overcome, how you overcame it, and how you grew from the experience. 
• Personal Growth : Although the three other topics can undoubtedly touch on personal growth, this relates more to your capacity to reflect and understand how you changed or how you now see yourself or the world around you. 

Don’t Linger Too Far in the Past 

While there’s no rule explicitly stating you can’t reference an event in your distant past, the best personal statements focus on the recent past or present. Admissions committees want to get to know the adult you. 

Keep a Common Thread In Your Narrative

Your narrative should be cohesive, logical, and easy for your reader to follow. Truly stellar personal statements make great use of a thematic thread: it’s a strategic way to keep your narrative together, even if you write about seemingly disparate experiences. 

For example, the conclusion of your essay can reference or “tie up” loose ends to something you wrote about in your introduction or earlier in the essay. Writing with a common thread can help leave the reader satisfied and bring your story full circle. 

Consider Your Qualities and How Your Experiences Show Them

You want to subtly show the admissions committees you possess the qualities of a great lawyer. For example, you don't want to write, "I have a great sense of community spirit!" Instead, write about something you did that shows your community spirit. 

Identify which qualities are most prominent (whether it's honesty, compassion, diligence, or something else) and match them to your experiences. Just try not to tackle too many of them in one essay. 

Don’t Be Focused or Too Broad 

Remember, you have only two pages to convey your story. The personal statement's length doesn't allow you to tell your life's story; however, you should also be careful not to let all your writing be consumed by describing the event in great detail. Finding the right depth is challenging but imperative. 

Other Things to Keep In Mind

Other tips to keep in mind while you’re writing your personal statement include: 

• Don’t consider your personal statement a more detailed rewrite of your resume. 
• Keep your tone professional yet not too stiff – avoid slang. 
• Don’t use legalese or Latin words in your statement. 
• Proofread your essay: you'll do this many times before your work is finished. 

UPenn Law Optional Essays 

UPenn Law offers four optional essays for applicants to share new information with the admissions committee. You may answer more than one prompt if you choose to. These are the most recent prompts: 

• “Describe how your background or experiences will enhance the diversity of the Penn Carey Law community (e.g., based on your culture, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ideology, age, socioeconomic status, academic background, employment, or personal experience). 
• These are the core strengths that make Penn Carey Law the best place to receive a rigorous and engaging legal education: genuine integration with associated disciplines; transformative, forward-looking faculty scholarship; highly-regarded experiential learning through urban clinics and our pro bono pledge; innovative, hands-on global engagement; and a manifest commitment to professional development and collegiality. These qualities define Penn Carey Law. What defines you? How do your goals and values match Penn Carey Law’s core strengths?
• Describe a time when, as a member of a team, you particularly excelled or were especially frustrated. What was your role within that team? What was the outcome? 
• If you do not think that your academic record or standardized test scores accurately reflect your ability to succeed in law school, please tell us why.”

Penn Law Optional Essay Tips 

If you want to write one of these Penn Law essays, these tips can help you write meaningful responses. 

Be Concise 

Your optional essays should not be the same length as your personal statement. Try to limit your response to about one page: you'll need to keep your writing concise to achieve this.

Don’t Rewrite Anything Explained In Your Application

If you already wrote about how your goals and values match Penn's core strengths in your personal statement, you should not choose to write that essay. If you want to write one of these, ensure you haven't already touched upon the same content elsewhere in your application. 

Be Straightforward

You don't have enough space to dance around your narrative. If you're writing one of these essays, ensure your main idea is clear and that you get to it quickly. 

Write the First or Last Essay If It Applies to You 

Although these are optional, you should take advantage of the space if either prompt applies to you. The first prompt asks for a diversity essay: law schools value diverse applicants from all backgrounds, so sharing yours is in your best interest if you didn't speak about your identity at length in your statement.

The last prompt is also necessary if you have any gaps in your academic performance or test scores. Leaving these gaps unexplained can hinder your application.

UPenn Law School Stats (Admission Statistics)

The UPenn Law School class profile can tell you more about the school’s commitment to a diverse class. Some highlights from recent data include: 

• Students of Color: 48% 
• LGBTQ+ Students: 18% 
• Matriculants Out of College for At Least One Year: 77% 
• Students Holding Advanced Degrees: 11% 
• Average Age: 24 
• First-Generation College Students: 14% 
• First-Generation Professional School Students: 31% 

UPenn Law Acceptance Rate

Data shows that UPenn Law received 8,383 applications and accepted 787 students. As a result, the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s acceptance rate is 9.39% 

Is UPenn Law Hard to Get Into? 

UPenn’s acceptance rate falls way below the national average for more than 190 law schools (44%) and is on U.S. News' list of 10 hardest law schools to get into. A single-digit acceptance rate at any school means admission is competitive: overall, it's hard to get into UPenn Law .

University of Pennsylvania Law School Application Deadline & Process 

There are three rounds for admission at UPenn Law: Early Decision Round 1 and 2 and Regular Decision. No matter when you decide to apply, you'll submit applications through LSAC and send transcripts and scores through CAS. 

Below is a breakdown of all the dates/deadlines you should know about for each decision pathway: 

Early Decision Round 1

Early Decision Round 2

Regular Decision

UPenn Law Financial Aid: What You Need to Know

Including living expenses, tuition, and other fees, UPenn Law estimates the cost of attendance for one year at approximately $101,000. However, UPenn Law states that it offers “one of the most comprehensive financial aid programs in the country.”

Besides seeking loans or need-based grants, Carey Law School offers numerous scholarship programs, including: 

• Levy Scholars Program
• The Robert and Jane Toll Public Interest Scholars Program
• Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Scholarship
• Silverman-Rodin Scholars
• The Earl R. Franklin and Barbara Corwin Franklin Endowed Merit Scholarship
• Owen J. Roberts Scholarship
• Dean’s Scholarship
• CTIC Scholars Program
• Teach For America Scholarship
• The Potamkin Scholarship in Honor of A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.

UPenn Law considers the financial situation of each student for financial aid eligibility.

UPenn Law FAQs 

If you still have questions about how to get into UPenn Law, check out these FAQs! 

1. What GPA Do I Need for UPenn Law?

While there are no GPA cut-offs, achieving a GPA at or above the median 3.9 can make you a more competitive applicant. 

2. What LSAT Score Do I Need for UPenn Law?

There are no UPenn Law LSAT score cut-offs, but you should strive for a score at or above 171 (the median) for your best chance of acceptance. 

3. Is UPenn Law Hard to Get Into?

Compared to other schools, UPenn Law is hard to get into. Its 9.39% acceptance rate means that less than 1 in 10 applicants are accepted: you'll need to produce a stellar application. 

4. Does UPenn Have a Law School?

Yes, and it’s sometimes referred to as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law. 

5. Is UPenn a Good School for Law? 

Penn Law is ranked as the six-best law school in the nation. As a member of the T-14 law schools, UPenn is a great school to pursue your law education. 

6. Does UPenn Law Have Rolling Admissions? 

Yes, the school has rolling admissions for Regular Decision applicants. You can receive your admissions decision anytime between December in mid-May.

UPenn Law: A Summary 

Getting into UPenn Law requires excellent test scores and GPAs, but there's much more to your application. Remember to take extra care crafting your personal statements and deciding which optional essays you should write. 

With care, time, and dedication, you can craft a stellar application and take one step closer to attending the law school of your dreams. Good luck!

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Extracurriculars.

How to Write the UPenn Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

Founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin, the University of Pennsylvania is one of America’s eight Ivy League institutions. Its beautiful campus features unique red-and-green-brick buildings, gorgeous tree-lined paths, and lots of tributes to Ben Franklin. UPenn is known for its premier academics, but also for its thriving student life (it’s called “the social Ivy,” and has a strong Greek life).

UPenn also enjoys the benefits of being situated in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — it’s just a stone’s throw from myriad museums, gardens, cathedrals, and historic sites, including Independence Hall. Students typically describe UPenn as having a highly “pre-professional” mindset, with a large cultural focus on internships, school jobs, and career preparation. All in all, it’s the perfect city refuge for ambitious, can-do students who want to maximize their college experience.

Composite Schools: Depending on their fields of study, students at UPenn will be applying to different colleges that make up the school. Undergraduate education at Penn is separated into four distinct schools: the School of Arts & Sciences, Wharton School of Business, the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, and the School of Nursing. 

Admissions Rates and Resources: UPenn is a tiny bit easier to get into than more in-demand Ivies, but still enjoys a reputation of exclusivity. In its most recent admissions cycle, UPenn accepted 6% of undergraduate applicants. 

Now, onto the essays! Below, you can see a list of all the prompts we’re going to cover. All applicants must submit the two required essay prompts, listed first. Below these, we’ll break into the supplemental essays for various optional programs open to applicants. 

Read these UPenn essay examples to inspire your own writing.

UPenn Supplemental Essay Prompts 

All applicants.

Prompt 1: Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (We encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience!) (150-200 words)

Prompt 2: How will you explore the community at Penn? Consider how this community will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community. (150-200 words)

School-Specific Prompts

College of Arts and Sciences: The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences? (150-200 words)

School of Engineering and Applied Science: Penn Engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology, by combining a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics, exploration in the liberal arts, and depth of study in focused disciplinary majors. Please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at Penn. (150-200 words)

School of Nursing: Penn Nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity. What do you think this means for the future of nursing, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare? (150-200 words)

The Wharton School: Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues. Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it. (150-200 words)

The Huntsman Program

The huntsman program supports the development of globally-minded scholars who become engaged citizens, creative innovators, and ethical leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the united states and internationally. what draws you to a dual-degree in business and international studies, and how would you use what you learn to make a contribution to a global issue where business and international affairs intersect (400-650 words), the digital media design program, why are you interested in the digital media design (dmd) program at the university of pennsylvania (400-650 words), the life sciences and management program.

Prompt 1: The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay. (400-650 words)

The Jerome Fisher Management and Technology Program

Prompt 1: Explain how you will use the M&T program to explore your interest in business, engineering, and the intersection of the two. (400-650 words)

Prompt 2: Describe a problem that you solved that showed leadership and creativity. (250 words)

The NETS Engineering Program

Describe your interests in modern networked information systems and technologies, such as the internet, and their impact on society, whether in terms of economics, communication, or the creation of beneficial content for society. feel free to draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology. (400-650 words), the nursing and healthcare management program, discuss your interest in nursing and health care management. how might penn’s coordinated dual-degree program in nursing and business help you meet your goals (400-650 words), the viper program, how do you envision your participation in the vagelos integrated program in energy research (viper) furthering your interests in energy science and technology please include any past experiences (ex. academic, research, or extracurricular) that have led to your interest in the program. additionally, please indicate why you are interested in pursuing dual degrees in science and engineering and which viper majors are most interesting to you at this time. (400-650 words), the bio-dental program.

Prompt 1:  Please list pre-dental or pre-medical experience. This experience can include but is not limited to observation in a private practice, dental clinic, or hospital setting; dental assisting; dental laboratory work; dental or medical research, etc. Please include time allotted to each activity, dates of attendance, location, and description of your experience. If you do not have any pre-dental or pre-medical experience, please indicate what you have done or plan to do in order to explore dentistry as a career. (250 words)

Prompt 2: Do you have relatives who are dentists or are in dental school? If so, indicate the name of each relative, his/her relationship to you, the school attended, and the dates attended. (250 words)

Prompt 3: Describe any activities which demonstrate your ability to work with your hands. (250 words)

Prompt 4: What activities have you performed that demonstrate your ability to work cooperatively with people? (250 words)

Prompt 5: Please explain your reasons for selecting a career in dentistry. Please include what interests you the most in dentistry as well as what interests you the least. (250 words)

All Applicants, Prompt 1

Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (we encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience) (150-200 words).

As you’ve gone through high school, you’ve likely received help from all kinds of people. UPenn wants to give you a chance to practice gratitude and acknowledge a specific person who has positively impacted your high school journey. 

There are two main parts to this prompt: picking the person to thank and writing the note .

Who should you pick? Some commonly-influential folks include:

• Mentors or older students
• Family members
• Religious leaders
• Managers/bosses

If you’re having trouble thinking directly of people, you may want to consider thinking of experiences that shaped who you are and the person most directly involved in that . In fact, this may be more effective. There will probably be thousands of thank you notes written to parents, for example. This is great—no problem there—but execution matters. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of writing a generic note thanking this person for “supporting you no matter what” and for “believing in you.”

This brings us to part two of this prompt: writing the note. Instead of generic pleasantries, you want to share specific experiences where this person really made a difference in your life. How did they support you? How did they show they believed in you? How did this impact you? 

For example, say you want to thank your mother for her support. You might share how she woke up at 6am to run with you each day so you could get extra miles in and work towards your goal of making cross country states (while you didn’t make it, you did place in regionals for the first time!). Or, maybe you want to thank your history teacher for pushing you. You should share how he worked with you individually after school when you were initially struggling to write the AP Euro DBQs, and how this encouraged you to start tutoring others in math when you say how effective this individual help was. 

Since this essay is only 150-200 words, you likely only have space for 1-2 anecdotes, so choose the ones that stick out to you most (and ones that add additional info to your application rather than repeating it). Unlike your other essays, this one doesn’t need to be a narrative format, and you should simply address the person you’re thanking. Write as if you’re actually writing a regular thank you note to them —no need to be super formal, and do include jokes if that’s how you’d normally interact!

If you do share your note with the person you’re thanking, you don’t have to reflect on the experience in the essay, unless you want to. If you do, save about one-third to one-fourth of the space for your reflection (about 50-60 words). How did it make that person feel? How did it make you feel? How was the experience meaningful for both of you?

The goal of this essay is to see which students are self-aware and humble , so as long as you approach this essay with genuine intentions of thanking this person, you should have a strong response. 

All Applicants, Prompt 2

How will you explore the community at penn consider how this community will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community. (150-200 words).

Use this short essay to showcase the best parts of yourself outside of the classroom. This doesn’t mean you can’t mention your academic interests, but if you mention the same subject as you did in the first prompt, you should dramatically recontextualize it or illuminate a new aspect of it. 

The word community appears three times – so address your philosophy of community. Do some thinking about what “community” means to you, and what kind of group setting is your ideal. Is it small? Large? Gentle? Raucous? If you have an original, thought-provoking, or culturally-informed definition that you love, feel free to include it. The best essays will be about a deeper topic than simply extracurriculars or collaborative research.

Be specific, and do your UPenn research . Maybe you bring musical talents and want to join the student orchestra. Perhaps you are a Hispanic student who wants to revitalize others’ awareness of their cultural heritage. Poke around UPenn’s website to find specific groups or initiatives that address something you enjoy. As always, if you can use past accomplishments or experiences to illustrate your point, it will be more powerful. For instance, if you have led your soccer team’s community outreach efforts, talk about how the skills you learned on the team will make you better at building a relationship between UPenn and the city of Philadelphia.

Don’t just name-drop an activity. For example, “UPenn’s Black student center, Makuu, is something that interests me” shows a bit of research, but not a lot. It also does not connect the research to the applicant as an individual, or hit on the larger theme of community. A better approach is to be hyper specific: “Because I’m interested in Black literary studies, as well as crossover between literature and history, I’m captivated by the way UPenn’s Makuu house brings together young Black academics from various disciplines. As I delve into my field of interest — Black and African modernist poetry — I would love to draw on the knowledge of my colleagues to enrich my work. I’m a firm believer that the more paths we can create between different disciplines of Black studies, the easier it is to explore.” This answer is specific to the applicant, establishes an ethos for research, and addresses Makuu as more than a name.

Identify a challenge you want to pose yourself. Look at the prompt again — the verb “shape” is another word that gets repeated, and it’s backed up by “learning” and “growth.” This prompt is asking about development, so you should identify an area in which you want to evolve, grow, and improve. Ideally, think about a certain foible that challenges you and keeps you from fulfilling your potential — maybe it’s a fear of public speaking, an apathy towards volunteering, or a tendency to seek out echo chambers. Why do you feel you need to change, and what communities at UPenn could push you out of your comfort zone?

For example, I could plot out my essay like this: 

I’m not an effective writing mentor. I can be too harsh and too direct with my feedback. I can intimidate people I intend to help.

I need to work on my “bedside manner” as a writing mentor. I need to acquire effective strategies and principles to inform me, and I need to work with more mentees to practice.

The student essay tutors program at UPenn’s library will offer me training to improve as a tutor, and by working there I can gain repeated experience in coaching others’ writing.

I will end up as a better communicator, and I can help writers feel confident, an essential skill for an aspiring editor like myself. 

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas. Ask yourself these questions:

• When was a time I was challenged in an activity? What challenging moments would I want to repeat?
• Look up Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences . These are various kinds of astuteness Garnder posited exist in students to different extents. Is there an intelligence in which I’m lacking, which I want to strengthen? Which activities would help me build this intelligence?
• When have I grown as an individual? How did I change?
• What’s a club or group where I could use my skills for a greater good? 

College of Arts and Sciences

The flexible structure of the college of arts and sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. what are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences (150-200 words).

This prompt doesn’t leave you with a lot of space to communicate why you are pursuing your major of choice , so being concise is key. In the limited space available, you need to communicate your interest in the area of study and explain the resources and opportunities at UPenn that will allow you to indulge your curiosity and grow your passion.

When it comes to communicating your interest, there are a few ways you could go about it. A tried and true method is to rely on an anecdote to show the admissions committee either how your interest in the subject matter began or how you engage with the topic in your current life. Remember, anecdotes need to communicate your emotional attachment to your interest by drawing on thoughts, feelings, and physical expression.

You can also demonstrate your interest with specific examples. For example, a student interested in pursuing music could write a sentence about each instrument they play and what excites them about each one. Another tactic you might employ is to share your inner monologue. This might look like a student detailing the conversation in their head when they are researching astronomy topics and how they jump from one subtopic to another.

While expressing your interest in your major is important, the second half of this essay requires you to turn towards UPenn’s offerings. Start scouring the website and look for unique opportunities and resources that not only relate to your interests, but will also help you grow and achieve your goals. Below are a few ideas to inspire your research:

• Look at the course roster and find classes in your major (don’t just pick Biology 101; the more specific, the better!)
• Find professors in your department and the research they conduct
• Explore unique clubs and extracurriculars that align with your interests (there is a finance club on every campus but Penn’s Marketing Undergraduate Student Establishment is highly specific)
• Look into special programs or centers (ie. Center for Particle Cosmology or Linguistics Data Consortium)
• Research Penn-specific study abroad programs and destinations

Especially given the limited amount of space in this prompt, quality over quantity is extremely important; pick one or two opportunities and go into depth about why they excite you, how they relate to you, and what you hope to get out of them rather than name dropping four or five.                                 

If you are able to seamlessly transition from discussing your personal history with your major of choice and the related opportunities at UPenn, you will have a strong essay. You also don’t need to know exactly what you want to study in college to successfully write this essay. If you are applying to Arts and Sciences undecided, these tips will help you respond to this prompt.

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Penn engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology, by combining a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics, exploration in the liberal arts, and depth of study in focused disciplinary majors. please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at penn. (150-200 words).

All this prompt boils down to is “ Why This Major? ”. The Penn admissions committee wants to know three main things:

1. What drew you to engineering?

2. What are your goals? (ie. become a leader in technology as stated in the prompt)

3. How will Penn help you further your interest and achieve your goals?

Let’s break this down step-by-step.

Just as in any “Why Major?” essay, you need to demonstrate your passion for your chosen area of study so admissions officers are confident that you will be a positive addition to the campus. But how do you show that?

The best way is to use anecdotes. College essays that read like stories are infinitely more engaging than ones that restate the prompt and tell the reader who the student is. We need to see it. Take a look at a few examples of the types of anecdotes you could use to demonstrate your interest in engineering:

“ Seventy degrees with partially cloudy skies, but no rain on the radar. Check. Twenty foot radius cleared of trees and shrubbery. Check. Adoring fans waiting with bated breath outside the launch zone. Check, if you count my mother glancing up from her phone every minute or so. Time to initiate the launch sequence. My dad’s voice boomed out the descending count as I looked over the two-foot-tall rocket. The nose curved for optimal aerodynamicity, the fins 10% smaller than last time to reduce drift, and the parachute stowed away that would surely deploy this time. My dad reached zero and we had liftoff!”

“Nothing beats a trip to my grandparents house. And it’s not the paletas my grandma stashes underneath the frozen vegetables or my grandpa’s hand carved chess board that draws me there. It’s the bridge we take to get there. Two miles long, eight lanes wide, and 400 feet in the air, it defies all natural laws. Sticking my head out the window like a puppy tasting the wind, I crane my neck to look at the suspension cables that effortlessly distribute thousands of tons. I want to close my eyes and imagine the barges and cranes flooding the river to construct such a masterpiece, but I can never take my eyes off of the bridge.”

2. What are your goals?

The second thing your essay needs to communicate is what your personal and career aspirations are, relative to engineering. In an essay this short, this doesn’t need to be more than a sentence or two, but including a forward-thinking mindset will show the admissions committee your dedication to the subject. Plus, Penn wants to admit students who will achieve great things, so let them know you have big plans in store!

You can weave your goals into your anecdote or allude to them when you are talking about the Penn resources you want to take advantage of, for example: “ After taking Nanoscale Science and Engineering, I will know the mechanisms needed to scale-down the facial recognition chip to fit it into wearable glasses, so even those with Alzheimer’s can recognize their loved ones. ”

In the prompt, they mention “Penn Engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology,” so if you can, try to demonstrate how you will be a leader within your engineering field when highlighting a goal of yours.

3. How will Penn help you?

Before you’re done with your essay, you need to connect yourself to UPenn. By this point in your essay, the admissions committee should see you are a passionate, driven, and ambitious student with a bright future ahead of you, but the question Penn admissions officers care about is why should that future be at Penn ?

You’ll need to now bring in a few Penn-specific resources and opportunities—and connect them to you—to seal the deal and demonstrate how you would make the most out of a Penn education.

When it comes to including school resources, we always recommend quality over quantity. Avoid name-dropping three classes, a professor, and two student organizations without any elaboration. Instead, for an essay with a limited word count, focus on one or two Penn resources that align with your passion and explain why you are excited to engage with that opportunity or how it will help you achieve your goals.

It’s a good idea to pick Penn offerings that align with the central theme or anecdote of your essay. For example, a student who’s anecdote was about programming a robot might write about their interest in joining Penn Aerial Robotics to explore the design behind UAVs since they want to go into military development. Another student who told a story about researching devices to cure obscure diseases might talk about the Penn Center for Health, Devices, and Technology and how they want to partner with faculty at the Center to develop new technology.

School of Nursing

Penn nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity. what do you think this means for the future of nursing, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare (150-200 words).

Health equity has increasingly become an important topic of discussion in the public sphere, but especially in nursing and medical classes. This prompt is asking you to consider what health equity means to you and how you will play a role in creating a more fair healthcare system.

Some students might be tempted to treat this essay more like an argumentative essay you might submit in a class, but don’t forget that it’s still a college essay. That means we need to learn about you!

Yes, the admissions committee wants to hear why you think health equity is important, but they are also curious to see your experience with the topic in the past. If you’ve experienced discrimination in healthcare, witnessed a loved one or friend be disadvantaged because of a lack of equity, or worked to promote health equity within your community, they want to know. Even if you have previous experience promoting social justice and equality more generally, not necessarily in the healthcare field, that should be part of your essay.

For students who have direct experience with this topic, your essay should do these three main things:

1. Establish a connection to health equity. A good way to do this is through an anecdote or story about your previous experience. Show us how you were emotionally impacted by the existence of health discrimination or injustice. If you did work in high school to address the issue, let us know what attracted you to the topic in the first place and describe the impact achieving health equity had on you and others.

2. Explain how you will contribute to Penn’s mission . This part is a little more open ended because you can either interpret it as contributing to healthcare equality at Penn or after graduation, it’s up to you. Either way, it’s a good idea to bring in unique Penn resources that will further your knowledge of health equity or help you actively make a difference in the field. Explain why the particular opportunity you highlighted speaks to you and how it will help you grow in your career as a nurse. However, don’t forget to include what you can bring to the table, in whatever club or class you are in, too.

3. Reflect on the importance of health equity. You can weave this part throughout your essay, use it as an impactful hook or conclusion, or use it to emphasize the point of your anecdote. What’s important is to show the admissions committee your critical thinking and reasoning skills and discuss why we need equality in healthcare. What would hospitals look like? How would the patient experience be improved? Who would be impacted? How can incorporating equity make nursing more productive or enjoyable? You can really talk about any way that nursing and healthcare would be impacted, just as long as you zoom out and think about the bigger picture.

Maybe you don’t have any direct experience with this topic—that’s okay too! The structure suggested above can be modified so instead of establishing your connection to health equity with a personal anecdote, you can have a more generalized discussion about why it is important and how it makes you feel. Don’t hold back—tell us about the emotions, thoughts, and feelings you have on the topic. Describe your heartbreak and fear for yourself at hearing stories of women’s pain being dismissed. Express your hungry appetite for addressing social injustices and how you will never be satisfied until you make a difference.

The rest of the essay should be pretty similar with the Penn resources and the reflection on the future of nursing. If you don’t have any personal experiences, your essay might be a bit heavier on what you hope to learn at Penn and contribute in the future; there’s nothing wrong with that. 

Regardless of what your experience-level is like, it’s important that you are able to communicate in your response that you are a civically-minded person and that you are driven by a desire to improve the world around you. If you can demonstrate to the admissions committee that you are passionate about advancing health equity, your essay will be a success.

The Wharton School

Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues. please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a wharton education would help you to explore it. (150-200 words).

This essay follows the “ Global Issues ” essay archetype. For this type of essay, it’s extremely important that you pick an issue you are actually passionate about, rather than one you think will seem “impressive” to admissions officers. Your natural interest in the topic will make it easier to write and make the essay more engaging.

Pick an Issue Important to You

You’re given leeway in the prompt to pick any economic, political, or social issue that is close to your heart. Maybe there is one that immediately jumps out at you, or maybe you’re struggling to choose. If you need help narrowing down your choices, start by asking yourself these questions:

• What class are you more drawn to, economics or history/government?
• What type of news articles catch your attention?
• What causes or charities do you donate to or volunteer for?
• What’s a news story that has made you enraged? Upset? Motivated?
• What current events topics do you like to talk about with your friends?

We recommend picking a topic that relates to your interests and experiences that way you can incorporate stories into your essay. A student who is able to connect something they do on a local level to a larger national issue will show the admissions committee their appreciation of micro and macro perspectives. 

For example, a student who’s been volunteering as a tutor for low income elementary students throughout high school might choose public education funding as their topic because they have seen the disparity in resources available to students simply based on the property taxes in the district. Not only does this topic directly relate to their extracurricular interests, but it also provides the student with a chance to use stories and details from their personal experience.

Keep in mind that although Wharton is the business school, your issue does not have to be economically-related, nor do you need to explain the issue’s connection to business. Practically every global issue involves economic theory or the private sector, so it’s more important to pick an issue that is authentically you rather than one that seems better suited to the school.

Explain the Extent of the Problem and Your Connection

The first part of this is pretty straightforward: tell the admissions committee why they should care about this issue as much as you do. Pretend that your reader isn’t familiar with the issue and explain what is going on and why it is important to address it.

The more nuanced part is to explain why this issue is important to you.

This is where anecdotes and personal stories can come into play, but you need to make sure that through these stories you communicate your emotional attachment to the issue. Are you or your community personally affected? How has that impacted your lives? Maybe the issue is not directly related to you but it reminds you of something you’ve faced. In that case, how do you empathize with the people going through the situation?

Since this essay is pretty short, a good portion of the essay should be on your personal connection to the issue. 

How Will Wharton Help You Fix It

Of course since this is a college essay, the prompt doesn’t just want to know about a global issue you care about—it wants to know how you will utilize a Penn education to solve problems. Again, space is limited, so you don’t have the luxury to go into multiple resources that you hope to engage with on campus. Instead, hone in on one or two and make sure to explain their significance.

Whether it’s a professor, class, student organization, research topic, special center, study abroad program, etc, make sure to include how that opportunity will teach you something unique or equip you with specific skills that will allow you to address the issue in the future.

Huntsman Program Applicants

UPenn’s Huntsman Program is a dual degree track in International Studies and Business, which brings together the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School of Business. Its focus is global, and students learn target languages and study foreign affairs with an eye towards becoming internationally-involved, global citizens.

This is a meaty question, and we should break it down into a checklist of key items they’re asking you to identify. 

• What draws you to business (B) + international studies (IS)
• A global issue in B + IS
• What you want to learn about B + IS
• How that knowledge is applicable to the global issue 

A logical, competent way to structure this essay would be a narrative format: past to present. The items that compose the question naturally lend themselves to this timeline format, so lean into it if you choose. You can talk about your past interest in a problem, the current state of that problem, and how your collegiate experience in B + IS will make you a citizen better equipped to help solve that problem. 

As always, be specific. Pick not just a broad issue (“refugee crises”), but a subset of the issue that actually seems manageable (“connecting large corporate donors with small charities run by refugees themselves”). From there, look for potential classes offered at UPenn, and student organizations involved in similar missions. It may be worth citing how the Huntsman program has aided the students featured on its website , and discuss how those same opportunities would similarly provide you with a comprehensive education in B + IS.

Demonstrate your cosmopolitanism . If you have a family history that involves living in multiple countries or cultures, you may want to evoke it here. The same goes for any educational, service, or other time spent learning abroad. Even if you’ve never left your home country, demonstrate a keen knowledge of foreign affairs by citing events, specific leaders, certain charities or businesses, etc. 

That said, be wary of “factoids” and surface knowledge . The CollegeVine writer who broke down this prompt last year had a great piece of advice that’s worth emphasizing (and maybe tattooing?): 

“Don’t do what I did. In high school, I focused on international affairs a lot during debate. Unfortunately, I messed up an important interview by talking about a bunch of breaking news instead of tying those events back to the deeper insights I had been describing in my debates.

All this is just to say: don’t mistake superficial ideas for depth of interest. One quick way to test this is to try talking about your essay topic for three minutes. If you run out of things to say about the intersection of global issues and business, you probably are coming at the issue from the wrong angle [and you need to approach it from another direction: themes, morality, ethics, etc].”

What is the philosophy behind your international focus? In addition to showing your knowledge of IS, you should state why you enjoy the field, and why it’s necessary for the world right now. Has your understanding of “the world” and your “self” changed since you first became interested in B + IS? Your understandings of “community,” “collaboration,” “multiculturalism,” “aid,” etc? 

Think of it this way: the prompt asks “what” and “how,” but there’s also a hidden question: “why?”

Digital Media Design Program Applicants 

“ The Digital Media Design Program ,” writes UPenn, “was established in response to what we perceived as a growing rift within the computer graphics and animation industry.” UPenn is one of few schools to offer a specialized curriculum that combines fine arts with computer engineering. However, because the DMD program is so rare, it is also competitive. In this essay, show your interest in digital media design to be sustained rather than temporary.

This prompt is similar to the first UPenn prompt, discussed above with the hypothetical applicant Sam. It asks you 1) what your interest is, and 2) why you need to pursue it at UPenn and DMD specifically. To that effect, you can brainstorm using the T-chart format we covered there, with “DMD” in the column previously dedicated to a certain major. 

That said, there are some specific things you should mind. 

Why you NEED the interdisciplinary approach . DMD combines a lot of fields that you could study in isolation elsewhere. For a standout application, you need to show why you wouldn’t be content in just the School of Fine Arts or just the School of Engineering. Rather, you should describe the magnetic pull both design and computer sciences have on your mind, and how you’ve integrated them in the past, to the point where they’re inextricable for you.

A problem you can help address. Remember, this whole program was created to solve a perceived problem! Towards the end of your essay, identify a societal or industry-specific problem that the skills set you’d acquire at DMD would help ameliorate, whether it’s user interfaces for apps, computer models for statisticians, or how to make animated fish scales look really, really good. 

Do some digging about the program . Information about DMD is scattered in multiple places, so spend a good hour clicking around and exploring the Internet. There’s some student work on this webpage, a Youtube video , and a description of Penn’s computer graphics facilities . For a program this esoteric, it’s also worth your effort to send a polite email to the Computer Graphics Department at UPenn, asking if there’s any faculty or current students who’d like to chat or answer your questions about the program. This will give you a much more specific sense of how the program would fit your interests, what career resources are available for DMD students, etc. 

The message is the medium. Since this is a design program, convey your design preferences and unique style as much as possible. A successful essay not only convinces admissions officers that you are passionate about design; it gives them a sense of what aesthetics your designs will prioritize. For example, if your style is “minimalist,” you might want to experiment with a “minimalist” writing style: sentence fragments, short sentences, and clipped breaks. If your style is vivid and colorful, engage lots of sensory words, lush descriptions, and (obviously) words for all your favorite shades of colors. 

Life Sciences and Management Program Applicants

The Life Sciences and Management Program is a dual degree that ties together the biology majors in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School of Business. Although it’s selective in the number of students it accepts (25), it’s broad in terms of focus: students pursue everything from agriculture to pharmaceuticals to bioengineering to finance. 

The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay. (400-650 words)

Wow! They already gave you a theme for this essay: innovation! That should make it easy, right? Well, maybe. By like 5%. Batten down the hatches.

We can break this prompt down into the central requirements, and all the attendant little words that feed into them. Those central requirements are:

• The issue you want to address
• LSM experience – “program,” “understanding,” “eye”
• “Innovation” – “identifying, advancing, implementing”

First, find an issue in the life sciences/life sciences business that speaks to you. This doesn’t have to be a specific problem: it can be an attitude that you feel needs fixing, a lack of collaboration, or an incorrect mindset or paradigm. However, you should have specific examples of personal experiences with it, either from your studies or some other aspect of your life. And you should demonstrate a thorough understanding of it, revealing that you’ve read widely and stayed updated. 

Second, talk about how LSM will help you become the solution . LSM provides its students with an incredible array of resources, including internships, connections, prizes, funds, and mentorship. You should discuss program-specific resources that either touch on the issue specifically or will give you the “eye,” the “understanding” mentioned in the prompt.

• Find granular examples of LSM resources . Their website is so expansive, and so full of student profiles and useful information, that we recommend spending about an hour clicking through and jotting down information that intrigues you. Find specific faculty who work in areas that interest you, or who are engaged in public work in a way you’d admire. Then connect these back to the “issue” you’ve mentioned.
• Justify your interdisciplinary needs . You need to prove that you wouldn’t be be happier in either management or bioscience — you need them both together. Good statements to have in pocket are “only through LSM,” “LSM specifically,” and “LSM’s unique X.” For example, check out LSM’s two program-exclusive courses . Citing these would be a great idea, as would clicking on the faculty links on the same page. 

Lastly, discuss your ideas of innovation. Don’t worry — they’re not expecting you to solve anything now. And actually, if you read the prompt closely, LSM wants their students to be skilled at “identifying, advancing and implementing” innovations, not necessarily inventing them. Here, it’s less important to propose a solution to your issue than it is to propose a road to that solution, an implementation plan for an extant solution, or a unique definition of “innovation.” You should focus on ideas that are key to management: how does innovation happen, how do we organize people to produce innovation, how do we establish cultures where collaboration is enjoyable? UPenn wants to learn about how you think, about your philosophy.

Jerome Fisher Management and Technology Program Applicants

The Jerome Fisher Management and Technology Program is a dual-degree program that allows students to select an interdisciplinary concentration that melds the schools of Business and Engineering. 

Note: The two essays have very different purposes, so be sure to write them with those distinct goals in mind.

• The first essay follows a similar archetype as the essay outlined under the first general UPenn prompt: the “why major” essay. Remember Sam and the T-chart? 
• The second essay is trying to learn how you think and act under pressure. Do you think like an engineer? Can you solve problems creatively? Do you take the lead when circumstances demand it?

M&T Program, Prompt 1

Explain how you will use the m&t program to explore your interest in business, engineering, and the intersection of the two. (400-650 words).

This prompt is similar to the first UPenn prompt, discussed above with the hypothetical applicant Sam. It asks you 1) what your interest is, and 2) why you need to pursue it at UPenn and M&T specifically. To that effect, you can brainstorm using the T-chart format we covered there, with “M&T” in the column previously dedicated to a certain major. 

Why you NEED the interdisciplinary approach . M&T combines a lot of fields that you could study in isolation elsewhere. For a standout application, you need to show why you wouldn’t be content in just the School of Business or just the School of Engineering. Rather, you should describe the magnetic pull both engineering and business have on your mind, and how you’ve integrated them in the past, to the point where they’re inextricable for you.

A problem or curiosity you can help address. Remember, the first words on M&T’s website are “ solving big problems ”! Towards the end of your essay, mention a societal or industry-specific problem that the skills set you’d acquire through M&T would help ameliorate, whether it’s user interfaces for apps or environmentally-friendly polymers.

Do some digging about the program . M&T’s website is vast, so spend a good hour clicking around and exploring, taking notes on details that appeal to you. This will give you a much more specific sense of how the program would fit your interests, what career resources are available for M&T students, etc. We suggest checking out the News section and Alumni profiles .

M&T Program Applicants, Prompt 2

Describe a problem that you solved that showed leadership and creativity. (250 words).

Finding an anecdote that fits the second essay is harder than it may seem. First, think back on times you have been a leader. This can be through some formal position you held, like club president, or it can be leadership in practice rather than in title. It also doesn’t have to strictly involve business and engineering, although it really helps if you’re able to creatively apply it back to your business/tech interests. You should think of this prompt as the short, fun, unbuttoned sequel to the previous one.

Here’s an example. Imagine Lucy is the lead singer in a band, but they’ve been having trouble booking gigs. So Lucy looks for venues they had not considered previously, going to chamber of commerce meetings. She finds out small business owners would like live music for events. Talks go well, and pretty soon, Lucy’s band is playing private events hosted by small businesses.

This anecdote makes a great fit for the essay prompt, because it expands on the idea of “business” without being stuffy or repetitious. It’s fresh, and can allow Lucy to talk about a real topic in business, relevant to M&T — seeking face-to-face connections and word-of-mouth recommendations.

CollegeVine’s breakdown of a Common App essay on problem-solving has some useful tips you can use here, too. For example:

1. Briefly reflect on the pros and cons of your solution! It takes a sophisticated essay to describe a solution, but also to reflect on some errors or things you’d do differently.

2. Brainstorm problems with solutions that you are particularly proud of or that you think are unique or exciting, then pick the most compelling one for M&T.

3. Use anecdotal color: dialogue, varied tone, emotions, jokes, asides. 

To which we should add that here, since you only have 250 words, be short, streamlined, and vivid. Use efficient, active verbs that will pack the maximum amount of punch into such a short passage. 

NETS Engineering Program Applicants

NETS is a unique program in Penn’s engineering school that foregrounds networks, huge systems, social media, modern computing, and economics.

UPenn really loves these meaty prompts, don’t they? This one needs to be broken down and analyzed, since there are a bunch of components.

Notice all the nouns? If you look closely at the prompt, almost all the words are nouns. That means the admissions readers for NETS are going to be on the lookout for applicants who name-drop specific terms, techniques, or systems — the bread-and-butter unit nouns of CS. When composing, you should take care not to sacrifice density of concepts and information for narrative flair, although…

You need to add that *narrative flair*. Since the prompt is mostly nouns, you’ll need to stir in your own action through verbbbbs. Make a list of all the actions you’ve performed while working on information systems. And keep in mind the UPenn example with Tarzan: the verbs should be as vivid as you can afford writing about CS. Did you “formulate” and “organize” an array, or did you “DREDGE” the data set and “FLOOD” the array with numbers and “CONSTELLATE” the data into “WHIRLING” patterns? Don’t be excessive, but liven up your prose to convey your enthusiasm. 

NETS’ website emphasizes creativity, brilliance, and sometimes genius . NETS has a little bit of a god complex: their ideal student is “one of the few” (as the NETS Program website tells us), an “extraordinary” thinker, not an “average mind.” So make sure to let your personality and uniqueness shine through. (Fun fact about the word genius : it comes from a Latin word indicating a unique, endemic spirit.) This means using vivid words and literary devices to showcase your free-thinking. And you can elaborate unabashedly about your accomplishments, as long as you do so with enthusiasm for the work itself, rather than pride in nominal awards. 

We live in a society. All right, gamers, it’s time to rise up and talk about societal issues that resonate with you. “Society” is mentioned twice, which offers you an opportunity to start with your personal experience, then broaden your focus to encompass wider issues. Describe how awareness of this context changed anything about your methods, ethics, or career goals: was there a service you stopped using or a technique you tried learning after reading a piece of news? 

“Draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology.” You should really involve all three. 

Conclude with your specific desires for college . Translate your interests into a college context, and state what kinds of coursework you want to do, and what kinds of pre-professional assistance would help you out. Lastly, bring back the “societal” need and identify how you want to contribute as a thinker. 

Nursing and Healthcare Management Program Applicants

NHCM is a dual degree between the Wharton School of Business and the Nursing School. 

This prompt follows a similar format as the first UPenn essay, in that it asks you to 1) identify your interest and 2) pair that interest with specific resources at UPenn — NHCM, specifically. So you may want to revisit that breakdown, the T-chart method we discussed, and the sample “Sam” essay. 

Why you NEED the interdisciplinary approach . NHCM combines a lot of fields that you could study in isolation elsewhere. For a standout application, you need to show why you wouldn’t be content in just the School of Business or just the School of Nursing. Rather, you should describe the magnetic pull both healthcare and business have on your mind, and how you’ve integrated them in the past, to the point where they’re inextricable for you.

A problem, curiosity, or goal you can pursue. Discuss how your personal experience has shaped your objectives in pursuing nursing — you have space to open in medias res with a personal story, if you want. Towards the end of your essay, mention a societal or industry-specific problem that the skills set you’d acquire through NHCM would help ameliorate, whether it’s how pharma companies can better incorporate the perspective of nurses or how businesses can succeed with their health initiatives.

Do some digging about the program . The NHCM website is very small, so be sure to poke around the internet exploring, taking notes on details that appeal to you. This will give you a much more specific sense of how the program would fit your interests, what career resources are available for NHCS students, etc. We suggest checking out the Admissions webinars offered by the UPenn school of nursing for opportunities to ask questions. You also might want to politely email the staff member listed under the “Who Can Apply?” section , and ask if there are any faculty or current students who would be open to talking about their experiences in NHCM.

VIPER Program Applicants

The Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, or VIPER, is a rigorous program that emphasizes student research, publication, and involved mentorship opportunities with faculty.

This prompt is more like a python than a viper, in that it’s huge and has some additional prompts swallowed up inside. However, you should note that it follows a similar format as the first UPenn essay, in that it asks you to 1) identify your specific interests and ideal majors and 2) pair that interest with specific resources at UPenn — VIPER, specifically. And boy, do VIPER students not lack for resources. So you may want to revisit that breakdown and the T-chart method we discussed, and fill up the target panel with VIPER-specific programs, mentorship opportunities, awards, funds, and summer opportunities that call to you. 

Why you NEED the interdisciplinary approach . VIPER combines a lot of fields that you could study in isolation elsewhere. For a standout application, you need to show why you wouldn’t be content in just the School of A&S or just the School of Engineering. Rather, you should describe the magnetic pull both science and engineering have on your mind, and how you’ve integrated them in the past, to the point where they’re inextricable for you. Describing your dual passions can provide a meaningful segue into “previous research,” as per the prompt — you might have loved a setting in which you practiced both science and engineering, or you might have felt something was “missing” when you solely focused on one or the other. 

A problem, curiosity, or goal you can pursue in college. Discuss how your personal experience has shaped your objectives in pursuing engineering – you have space to open in medias res with a personal story, if you want. If one experience was particularly formative, eye-opening, challenging, or inspiring, this would be a great incident with which to open.

Follow a logical narrative organization. The prompt itself provides you with the easiest way to lay out your essay, and that is: 

Inciting or important experience 

Interest in energy/science as a subject

Further experience

Narrowed and refined interests;  awareness of large-scale dilemmas in the field

Desire for certain exploratory opportunities in college

VIPER programs that fit that desire

How VIPER programs will prepare me to address those large-scale dilemmas and research interests

Do some digging about the program . The VIPER website is huge and comprehensive, so be sure to reserve an hour or so for reading, exploring, and taking notes on details that appeal to you. This will give you a much more specific sense of how the program would fit your interests, what career resources are available for VIPER students, etc. We suggest checking out the information e-sessions offered by The VIPER for opportunities to ask questions. You also might want to politely email the staff member listed on the Prospective Students page if you have any questions, or if you want to ask if there are any faculty or current students who would be open to talking about their experiences in VIPER.

Bio-Dental Program Applicants

UPenn’s seven-year Bio-Dental Program is a rigorous and highly-structured regimen that puts students on track to complete a professional dental degree in an accelerated time-frame. This program emphasizes discipline, determination, and pure scientific competence. Your answers should be focused much more on skills and comprehension, although personal stories can still be important. But it’s advisable to take a clear, incisive tone instead of something more colorful or story-heavy.

Bio-Dental Applicants, Prompt 1

Please list pre-dental or pre-medical experience. this experience can include but is not limited to observation in a private practice, dental clinic, or hospital setting; dental assisting; dental laboratory work; dental or medical research, etc. please include time allotted to each activity, dates of attendance, location, and description of your experience. if you do not have any pre-dental or pre-medical experience, please indicate what you have done or plan to do in order to explore dentistry as a career. (250 words).

This is an expertise-oriented question; it’s very similar to a resume. However, since you’ll also be submitting a profile of your extracurriculars, and possibly a resume as well, you should use this brief essay to go more into depth and focus on your accomplishments. Skill, aptitude, and experience should be your foci here, and you should talk about specific techniques, tools, or procedures you learned. Don’t worry too much about telling a story or personal development. Stick to hard expertise.

If, as per the second option (no pre-dental or pre-med experience), you still need to keep the theme of “expertise” in mind. When UPenn asks you to “indicate what you’ve done,” they’re not looking for a personal epiphany or moving memoir about why you decided to go into dentistry. They’re more interested in the rigorous science and anatomy classes you’ve taken, science programs in which you’ve participated, etc. 

List your accomplishments in these classes, specifically your scores and achievements in areas relating to medicine and dentistry. (Hint: you’ll also get a chance to shine in the next prompt, which asks about manual skills.) For example, a relevant accomplishment might be a review of data you conducted in your AP Environmental Science class that focused on dental problems in areas with high erosion and airborne particles, and for which you earned a commendation at a local science club. 

Bio-Dental Applicants, Prompt 2

Do you have relatives who are dentists or are in dental school if so, indicate the name of each relative, his/her relationship to you, the school attended, and the dates attended. (250 words).

This is pretty simple and straightforward; there’s no need to go into detail about personal experiences. You don’t have to write complete sentences and can do a bullet-type list in a clear but informal format. 

For example: 

First and Last Name; Relation; School Attended; First Year-Last Year.

Bio-Dental Applicants, Prompt 3

Describe any activities which demonstrate your ability to work with your hands. (250 words).

Focus on motor skills and actions. Here you can be a bit more descriptive and evocative, although your focus should remain on what you can do, rather than your fascination with your activity or your emotional attachments to the work. “Thrilled and trembling with energy” might have been your reaction to welding in shop class, but it’s the last thing UPenn wants in an aspiring dental surgeon. Instead, list the operations you had to perform in welding, including the thinness of the wires, the delicacy of the projects, and any certifications you earned. A good way to summarize is in a technical but illustrative list. For example: “Advanced Jewelrymaking 302: form and solder 15-gauge wire into jump rings, create settings with various-sized burs, acquire working knowledge of a rotary precision motor.” 

As mentioned before, this is a great place to shine if you don’t have as much pre-med or academic experience in health. An applicant who doesn’t have as many AP classes, but who has a proven track record of quality trade work and mechanical skills, may stand out more than a candidate with an outstanding academic record but little in the way of manual work. 

Don’t be afraid to mention less “hard” and “mechanical” subjects. Art is perfectly acceptable, as long as you can break it down to a technical level in terms of tools and minute detail. 

Also, focus on the small and precise! If you did lawn maintenance over the summer, leaf-blowing and lawn-mowing may not be very helpful to mention here. But if you had to mix precise ratios of concrete or resin, or caulk up a small crack in a fountain, these are good examples to list. 

Bio-Dental Applicants, Prompt 4

What activities have you performed that demonstrate your ability to work cooperatively with people (250 words).

Use a similar format as you did in the last prompt, relying on lists of tasks and accomplishments. Feel free to mention challenges you overcame and how: for example, “improved low member engagement by moving our NHS chapter onto a Slack channel.” 

Don’t fall into any traps, or think UPenn is looking for a certain type of club, leadership, or cooperation. Think about shifts at work, family, sports, projects, and other preoccupations.

Keep it results-focused. Don’t wax poetic about “community bonds,” “love,” or “family.” They’re less interested in how you bonded with your partners than in how you know how to work as a unit. If your emotional bonding helped you better function as a well-oiled machine, mention it in that context. Otherwise, concentrate on results and improvement, rather than feelings.

Bio-Dental Applicants, Prompt 5

Please explain your reasons for selecting a career in dentistry. please include what interests you the most in dentistry as well as what interests you the least. (250 words).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we’re advising once again that you take note of the technical tone. By asking “what interests you most in dentistry as well as what interests you the least,” UPenn is signaling that you can’t just be emotional about your reasons for liking dentistry. You have to include your thoughts on what technical area or sub-field you want to pursue. 

That being said, you do have space to include a personal connection or involvement, if you choose. But you need to bring your focus back, always, towards your knowledge of the field. For example, “seeing my grandmother’s confidence soar when she got dental implants” is a good start. However, you need to take the gesture to its logical conclusion: “Seeing my grandmother go from recluse to the life of the party, combined with what I learned about the emotional vulnerabilities of aging in AP Psych, inspired me to pursue geriatric dentistry in particular. Dental health, I’ve found, is central to the self-esteem and mental health of seniors, and training in this area would allow me to use my skills in a way that betters lives.” Note how the emotional subject matter is tempered by the applicant’s educational experience. Wisely, the applicant also demonstrates a priority for coursework and a career path — a clear trajectory moving forward.

For your non-interest, be tactful. This can be a stumbling block for applicants, as it’s a lot harder to talk about what you don’t want to study in a way that’s still positive and reflects well on your personality. As you’re writing this, you should put yourself in a “job interview” mindset — you don’t want to slip up, or say anything that could be used against you. Try not to use emotional words, like “boring” or “stressful” or “I don’t care.” It’s essential to be respectful and graceful instead. But don’t worry — you just need a little more planning. Here are some ideas:

1. Acknowledge your non-interest as a matter-of-fact sacrifice for your interest. Be brief and impartial. Don’t go into a lot of detail about why you don’t want to pursue orthodontics or cosmetic dentistry, etc. Just state that you have greater interest and motivation in other fields. Try, “As I focus my attention on geriatric dentistry, I expect to devote most of my coursework to implants and the aging dental structure, and anticipate spending less time on pediatric dental courses as a result.” Frame it as a trade-off or logical transaction, rather than you having an aversion to a certain area. 

2. Frame your “least interest” as a personal shortcoming that you need to overcome . For example, a student who’s never felt called to study dental office administration might acknowledge that this is probably not good for her in the long term. “I’ve never been interested in dental office management or secretarial work, but I’ve reflected, and I know that I’ll need a solid understanding of these things to be an effective practitioner. Therefore, I intend to immerse myself in more courses and programs that will increase my proficiency and maybe spark new interest.” This is good, because the student not only cites a deficient area, but she formulates a plan to remedy this blind spot in the future. She shows she’s someone who can bite the bullet, and put in the work even during periods of non-interest.

Where to Get Your UPenn Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your UPenn 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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Guest Essay

The Happiness Gap Between Left and Right Isn’t Closing

By Thomas B. Edsall

Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.

Why is it that a substantial body of social science research finds that conservatives are happier than liberals?

A partial answer: Those on the right are less likely to be angered or upset by social and economic inequities, believing that the system rewards those who work hard, that hierarchies are part of the natural order of things and that market outcomes are fundamentally fair.

Those on the left stand in opposition to each of these assessments of the social order, prompting frustration and discontent with the world around them.

The happiness gap has been with us for at least 50 years, and most research seeking to explain it has focused on conservatives. More recently, however, psychologists and other social scientists have begun to dig deeper into the underpinnings of liberal discontent — not only unhappiness but also depression and other measures of dissatisfaction.

One of the findings emerging from this research is that the decline in happiness and in a sense of agency is concentrated among those on the left who stress matters of identity, social justice and the oppression of marginalized groups.

There is, in addition, a parallel phenomenon taking place on the right as Donald Trump and his MAGA loyalists angrily complain of oppression by liberals who engage in a relentless vendetta to keep Trump out of the White House.

There is a difference in the way the left and right react to frustration and grievance. Instead of despair, the contemporary right has responded with mounting anger, rejecting democratic institutions and norms.

In a 2021 Vox article, “ Trump and the Republican Revolt Against Democracy ,” Zack Beauchamp described in detail the emergence of destructive and aggressive discontent among conservatives.

Citing a wide range of polling data and academic studies, Beauchamp found:

More than twice as many Republicans (39 percent) as Democrats (17 percent) believed that “if elected leaders won’t protect America, the people must act — even if that means violence.”

Fifty-seven percent of Republicans considered Democrats to be “enemies,” compared with 41 percent of Democrats who viewed Republicans as “enemies.”

Among Republicans, support for “the use of force to defend our way of life,” as well as for the belief that “strong leaders bend rules” and that “sometimes you have to take the law in your own hands,” grows stronger in direct correlation with racial and ethnic hostility.

Trump has repeatedly warned of the potential for political violence. In January he predicted bedlam if the criminal charges filed in federal and state courts against him damaged his presidential campaign:

I think they feel this is the way they’re going to try and win, and that’s not the way it goes. It’ll be bedlam in the country. It’s a very bad thing. It’s a very bad precedent. As we said, it’s the opening of a Pandora’s box.

Before he was indicted in New York, Trump claimed there would be “potential death and destruction” if he was charged.

At an Ohio campaign rally in March, Trump declared, “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath for the whole country.”

In other words, Trump and his allies respond to adversity and what they see as attacks from the left with threats and anger, while a segment of the left often but not always responds to adversity and social inequity with dejection and sorrow.

There are significant consequences for this internalization.

Jamin Halberstadt , a professor of psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand and a co-author of “ Outgroup Threat and the Emergence of Cohesive Groups : A Cross-Cultural Examination,” argued in his emailed reply to my inquiry that because “a focus on injustice and victimhood is, by definition, disempowering (isn’t that why we talk of ‘survivors’ rather than ‘victims’?), loss of control is not good for self-esteem or happiness.”

But, he pointed out:

this focus, while no doubt a part of the most visible and influential side of progressive ideology, is still just a part. Liberalism is a big construct, and I’m reluctant to reduce it to a focus on social justice issues. Some liberals have this view, but I suspect their influence is outsized because (a) they have the social media megaphone and (b) we are in a climate in which freedom of expression and, in particular, challenges to the worldview you characterize have been curtailed.

Expanding on this line of argument, Halberstadt wrote:

I’m sure some self-described liberals have views that are counterproductive to their own happiness. One sub-ideology associated with liberalism is, as you describe, a sense of victimhood and grievance. But there is more than one way to respond to structural barriers. Within that group of the aggrieved, some probably see systemic problems that cannot be overcome, and that’s naturally demoralizing and depressing. But others see systemic problems as a challenge to overcome.

Taking Halberstadt’s assessment of the effects of grievance and victimhood a step farther, Timothy A. Judge , the chairman of the department of management and human resources at Notre Dame, wrote in a 2009 paper, “ Core Self-Evaluations and Work Success ”:

Core self-evaluations (C.S.E.) is a broad, integrative trait indicated by self-esteem, locus of control, generalized self-efficacy and (low) neuroticism (high emotional stability). Individuals with high levels of C.S.E. perform better on their jobs, are more successful in their careers, are more satisfied with their jobs and lives, report lower levels of stress and conflict, cope more effectively with setbacks and better capitalize on advantages and opportunities.

I asked Judge and other scholars a question: Have liberal pessimists fostered an outlook that spawns unhappiness as its adherents believe they face seemingly insurmountable structural barriers?

Judge replied by email:

I do share the perspective that a focus on status, hierarchies and institutions that reinforce privilege contributes to an external locus of control. And the reason is fairly straightforward. We can only change these things through collective and, often, policy initiatives — which tend to be complex, slow, often conflictual and outside our individual control. On the other hand, if I view “life’s chances” (Virginia Woolf’s term) to be mostly dependent on my own agency, this reflects an internal focus, which will often depend on enacting initiatives largely within my control.

Judge elaborated on his argument:

If our predominant focus in how we view the world is social inequities, status hierarchies, societal unfairness conferred by privilege, then everyone would agree that these things are not easy to fix, which means, in a sense, we must accept some unhappy premises: Life isn’t fair; outcomes are outside my control, often at the hands of bad, powerful actors; social change depends on collective action that may be conflictual; an individual may have limited power to control their own destiny, etc. These are not happy thoughts because they cause me to view the world as inherently unfair, oppressive, conflictual, etc. It may or may not be right, but I would argue that these are in fact viewpoints of how we view the world, and our place in it, that would undermine our happiness.

Last year, George Yancey , a professor of sociology at Baylor University, published “ Identity Politics, Political Ideology, and Well-Being : Is Identity Politics Good for Our Well-Being?”

Yancey argued that recent events “suggest that identity politics may correlate to a decrease in well-being, particularly among young progressives, and offer an explanation tied to internal elements within political progressiveness.”

By focusing on “political progressives, rather than political conservatives,” Yancey wrote, “a nuanced approach to understanding the relationship between political ideology and well-being begins to emerge.”

Identity politics, he continued, focuses “on external institutional forces that one cannot immediately alleviate.” It results in what scholars call the externalization of one’s locus of control, or viewing the inequities of society as a result of powerful if not insurmountable outside forces, including structural racism, patriarchy and capitalism, as opposed to believing that individuals can overcome such obstacles through hard work and collective effort.

As a result, Yancey wrote, “identity politics may be an important mechanism by which progressive political ideology can lead to lower levels of well-being.”

Conversely, Yancey pointed out, “a class-based progressive cognitive emphasis may focus less on the group identity, generating less of a need to rely on emotional narratives and dichotomous thinking and may be less likely to be detrimental to the well-being of a political progressive.”

Yancey tested this theory using data collected in the 2021 Baylor Religion Survey of 1,232 respondents.

“Certain types of political progressive ideology can have contrasting effects on well-being,” Yancey wrote. “It is plausible that identity politics may explain the recent increase well-being gap between conservatives and progressives.”

Oskari Lahtinen , a senior researcher in psychology at the University of Turku in Finland, published a study in March, “ Construction and Validation of a Scale for Assessing Critical Social Justice Attitudes ,” that reinforces Yancey’s argument.

Lahtinen conducted two surveys of a total of 5,878 men and women to determine the share of Finnish citizens who held “critical social justice attitudes” and how those who held such views differed from those who did not.

Critical social justice proponents, on Lahtinen’s scale,

point out varieties of oppression that cause privileged people (e.g., male, white, heterosexual, cisgender) to benefit over marginalized people (e.g., woman, Black, gay, transgender). In critical race theory, some of the core tenets include that (1) white supremacy and racism are omnipresent and colorblind policies are not enough to tackle them, (2) people of color have their own unique standpoint and (3) races are social constructs.

What did Lahtinen find?

The critical social justice propositions encountered

strong rejection from men. Women expressed more than twice as much support for the propositions. In both studies, critical social justice was correlated modestly with depression, anxiety, and (lack of) happiness, but not more so than being on the political left was.

In an email responding to my inquiries about his paper, Lahtinen wrote that one of the key findings in his research was that “there were large differences between genders in critical social justice advocacy: Three out of five women but only one out of seven men expressed support for the critical social justice claims.”

In addition, he pointed out, “there was one variable in the study that closely corresponded to external locus of control: ‘Other people or structures are more responsible for my well-being than I myself am.’”

The correlation between agreement with this statement and unhappiness was among the strongest in the survey:

People on the left endorsed this item (around 2 on a scale of 0 to 4) far more than people on the right (around 0.5). Endorsing the belief was determined by political party preference much more than by gender, for instance.

Such measures as locus of control, self-esteem, a belief in personal agency and optimism all play major roles in daily life.

In a December 2022 paper, “ The Politics of Depression : Diverging Trends in Internalizing Symptoms Among U.S. Adolescents by Political Beliefs,” Catherine Gimbrone , Lisa M. Bates , Seth Prins and Katherine M. Keyes , all at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, noted that “trends in adolescent internalizing symptoms diverged by political beliefs, sex and parental education over time, with female liberal adolescents experiencing the largest increases in depressive symptoms, especially in the context of demographic risk factors, including parental education.”

“These findings,” they added, “indicate a growing mental health disparity between adolescents who identify with certain political beliefs. It is therefore possible that the ideological lenses through which adolescents view the political climate differentially affect their mental well-being.”

Gimbrone and her co-authors based their work on studies of 85,000 teenagers from 2005 to 2018. They found that

while internalizing symptom scores worsened over time for all adolescents, they deteriorated most quickly for female liberal adolescents. Beginning in approximately 2010 and continuing through 2018, female liberal adolescents reported the largest changes in depressive affect, self-esteem, self-derogation and loneliness.

In conclusion, the authors wrote, “socially underprivileged liberals reported the worst internalizing symptom scores over time, likely indicating that the experiences and beliefs that inform a liberal political identity are ultimately less protective against poor mental health than those that inform a conservative political identity.”

From another vantage point, Nick Haslam , a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne, argued in his 2020 paper “ Harm Inflation: Making Sense of Concept Creep ” that recent years have seen “a rising sensitivity to harm within at least some Western cultures, such that previously innocuous or unremarked phenomena were increasingly identified as harmful and that this rising sensitivity reflected a politically liberal moral agenda.”

As examples, Haslam wrote that the definition of “trauma” has been

progressively broadened to include adverse life events of decreasing severity and those experienced vicariously rather than directly. “Mental disorder” came to include a wider range of conditions, so that new forms of psychopathology were added in each revision of diagnostic manuals and the threshold for diagnosing some existing forms was lowered. “Abuse” extended from physical acts to verbal and emotional slights and incorporated forms of passive neglect in addition to active aggression.

Haslam described this process as concept creep and argued that “some examples of concept creep are surely the work of deliberate actors who might be called expansion entrepreneurs.”

Concept expansion, Haslam wrote, “can be used as a tactic to amplify the perceived seriousness of a movement’s chosen social problem.” In addition, “such expansion can be effective means of enhancing the perceived seriousness of a social problem or threat by increasing the perceived prevalence of both ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators.’”

Haslam cited studies showing that strong “correlates of holding expansive concepts of harm were compassion-related trait values, left-liberal political attitudes and forms of morality associated with both.” Holding expansive concepts of harm was also “associated with affective and cognitive empathy orientation and most strongly of all with endorsement of harm- and fairness-based morality.” Many of these characteristics are associated with the political left.

“The expansion of harm-related concepts has implications for acceptable self-expression and free speech,” Haslam wrote. “Creeping concepts enlarge the range of expressions judged to be unacceptably harmful, thereby increasing calls for speech restrictions. Expansion of the harm-related concepts of hate and hate speech exemplifies this possibility.”

While much of the commentary on the progressive left has been critical, Haslam takes a more ambivalent position: “Sometimes concept creep is presented in an exclusively negative frame,” he wrote, but that fails to address the “positive implications. To that end, we offer three positive consequences of the phenomenon.”

The first is that expansionary definitions of harm “can be useful in drawing attention to harms previously overlooked. Consider the vertical expansion of abuse to include emotional abuse.”

Second, “concept creep can prevent harmful practices by modifying social norms.” For example, “changing definitions of bullying that include social exclusion and antagonistic acts expressed horizontally rather than only downward in organizational hierarchies may also entrench norms against the commission of destructive behavior.”

And finally:

The expansion of psychology’s negative concepts can motivate interventions aimed at preventing or reducing the harms associated with the newly categorized behaviors. For instance, the conceptual expansion of addiction to include behavioral addictions (e.g., gambling and internet addictions) has prompted a flurry of research into treatment options, which has found that a range of psychosocial treatments can be successfully used to treat gambling, internet and sexual addictions.

Judge suggested an approach to this line of inquiry that he believed might offer a way for liberalism to regain its footing:

I would like to think that there is a version of modern progressivism that accepts many of the premises of the problem and causes of inequality but does so in a way that also celebrates the power of individualism, of consensus and of common cause. I know this is perhaps naïve. But if we give in to cynicism (that consensus can’t be found), that’s self-reinforcing, isn’t it? I think about the progress on how society now views sexual orientation and the success stories. The change was too slow, painful for many, but was there any other way?

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Thomas B. Edsall has been a contributor to the Times Opinion section since 2011. His column on strategic and demographic trends in American politics appears every Wednesday. He previously covered politics for The Washington Post. @ edsall