college essay what motivates you

10 Smart Answers to “What Motivates You?”

By Status.net Editorial Team on April 21, 2023 — 9 minutes to read

Why Do They Ask “What Motivates You?”

When an interviewer asks you about your motivation, they want to understand how passionate and committed you are to their company and the job opportunity. They are looking to gauge if you genuinely care about the work and if you will fit well within their team and culture. Your answer should be genuine and specific, highlighting your unique motivators and how they relate to the position you are applying for.

10 Example Answers to “What Motivates You?”

I’m motivated by the opportunity to learn and grow in my career. I’m always looking for ways to challenge myself and expand my skill set, and I find that being in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment helps me do that. I’m also motivated by the chance to collaborate with talented colleagues and contribute to a team effort that produces great results.”

“For me, motivation comes from feeling like I’m making a difference. Whether it’s through providing excellent customer service, creating innovative solutions to problems, or simply being a supportive team member, I find that I’m most energized when I feel like my work is having a positive impact. That’s why I’m drawn to companies that have a strong sense of purpose and a commitment to making a difference in their communities.”

“As someone who is naturally curious and loves to explore new ideas, I’m motivated by the opportunity to innovate and create. Whether it’s developing new products, designing new processes, or finding more efficient ways to do things, I’m always looking for ways to push the envelope and come up with something new and exciting. I find that this kind of work keeps me engaged and inspired.”

“One of the things that motivates me most is the chance to take on new challenges and push myself out of my comfort zone. I thrive on the adrenaline rush that comes with tackling something difficult and succeeding against the odds. Whether it’s taking on a new project, working with a new team, or learning a new skill, I’m always eager to take on new challenges and prove myself.”

“What motivates me is the desire to achieve my goals and fulfill my potential. I’m driven by a sense of ambition and a desire to succeed, and I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and my performance. Whether it’s through setting and achieving personal or professional goals, or simply striving to be the best version of myself, I find that this kind of drive keeps me focused and motivated.”

“I’m motivated by the opportunity to make a positive impact on the world. Whether it’s through my work directly or through the company’s mission, I find that I’m most energized when I feel like I’m contributing to something bigger than myself. I want to be part of an organization that is making a difference and creating a better future for everyone.”

“For me, motivation comes from the chance to develop meaningful relationships with my colleagues and clients. I’m a people person at heart, and I find that working with others who share my values and goals is incredibly fulfilling. I want to be part of a team that is supportive, collaborative, and committed to achieving great things together.”

“I’m motivated by the opportunity to continuously learn and improve. Whether it’s through formal training programs or on-the-job experience, I’m always looking for ways to expand my knowledge and skills. I want to work for a company that values professional development and encourages its employees to grow and evolve over time.”

“As someone who is passionate about innovation and creativity, I’m motivated by the chance to work on projects that are truly groundbreaking. I want to be part of a team that is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and creating solutions that are truly innovative and impactful.”

Example 10:

“For me, motivation comes from the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with achieving a difficult goal. Whether it’s hitting a sales target, completing a complex project, or overcoming a personal challenge, I find that I’m most motivated when I have a clear goal in mind and a plan for achieving it.”

How to Answer “What Motivates You?”

Step 1: identify your motivations.

By identifying your key motivations, you’ll be able to provide a compelling response during your interview.

Personal Values

Reflect on your core beliefs and principles, and consider how they drive your actions and decisions. Here are some common personal values:

• Self-improvement

Think about which ones align with your personality and the role you’re applying for. Describe how these values fuel your motivation and commitment to the job.

Career Goals

Consider the long-term objectives you’re working towards in your professional life. Be specific about your desired achievements and how they relate to the role you’re interviewing for. Some examples of career goals could be:

• Acquiring new technical skills
• Developing leadership skills
• Contributing to a specific industry

Link these goals to the company’s mission, and express how this role will help you grow professionally and contribute to the organization.

Interests and Passions

Identify what you’re genuinely passionate about, both inside and outside of work, and connect these interests to the position you’re applying for. Here are some questions to help you introspect:

• What topics of conversation energize you?
• Which tasks and projects bring out your enthusiasm?

Step 2: Tailor Your Answer to the Job

Try to tailor your response to the specific job you’re applying for. Consider the key responsibilities, company culture, and overall mission of the organization.

Begin by researching the company and its values. This information can typically be found on the company’s website, social media profiles, or through online reviews. Pay special attention to the language used in the job description – it may indicate some of the top skills and values the company is looking for.

Next, reflect on your personal motivations and how they align with the job requirements. Make a list of the aspects of the position that genuinely excite you, and focus on these in your response.

1) Motivator:  Interest in the field

Sample Answer:  “One thing that motivates me is my genuine passion for the industry. I’ve always been fascinated by the way technology impacts our daily lives, and I’m excited to be part of a team that’s shaping its future. I find that this passion drives me to stay focused and committed to my work.”

2) Motivator:  Professional growth

Sample Answer:  “What truly motivates me is the opportunity for personal and professional growth. I enjoy taking on new challenges and expanding my skill set. Knowing that I’m constantly improving and contributing value to the team gives me a great sense of accomplishment.”

3) Motivator:  Helping others

Sample Answer:  “I’ve always been motivated by the desire to help others. In my previous role, I took pride in knowing that my work made a positive impact on my clients’ lives. This not only gave me a sense of fulfillment but also encouraged me to go above and beyond in my tasks.”

Step 3: Include Specific Examples

If applicable, you can provide specific examples from your experience that demonstrate your motivation. By doing so, you give the interviewer a clear and authentic picture of your work ethic and what drives you to succeed.

To begin, think about a time when you were particularly motivated to achieve a goal, finish a project or overcome a challenge. Describe the situation, what motivated you, and the steps you took to reach your objective. Remember to focus on aspects that can be applied universally, such as personal growth or helping others, rather than individual circumstances.

When crafting your answer, use the STAR method:

• Situation : Describe the context or background of the event.
• Task : Explain your responsibility or goal in that situation.
• Action : Detail the steps you took to approach the task or challenge.
• Result : Share the positive outcome of your actions, and how it demonstrates your motivation.

For example, if you’re motivated by helping others, you might say:

“In my previous role as a customer support specialist, I was motivated by finding solutions to customer issues and ensuring they had a positive experience with our company. One day, I encountered a particularly challenging issue that required me to work closely with multiple departments to find a resolution. Seeing the gratitude in the customer’s response when we resolved the issue was incredibly rewarding and further motivated me to work even harder in the future.”

By providing specific examples that showcase your motivation, you’ll demonstrate to the interviewer that you have a genuine passion for your work and a strong drive to excel in your career.

Step 4: Practice Your Response

Practicing your response to the question “What motivates you?” will help you feel more confident during your interview. So, once you’ve identified your motivators and examples, practice articulating your response. You can do this by speaking your answer out loud or writing it down. As you practice, focus on being concise and clear in your explanation. Avoid using filler words, such as “um,” “like,” or “you know.”

Consider practicing with a friend or family member who can provide feedback on your response. They can help you identify areas that need improvement, such as body language, tone, or clarity of your answer. Remember, your goal is to provide a strong, authentic response that showcases your unique motivations and fit for the role.

Avoid Common Mistakes

• Be genuine:  Don’t try to impress the interviewer by simply stating what you think they want to hear. Instead, provide an authentic answer that truly reflects your personal motivations.
• Stay relevant:  Although you should share your genuine motivation, ensure it connects to the job or the company’s goals. This will demonstrate your potential as a valuable employee in the organization.
• Keep it concise:  Though it’s important to provide context for your motivation, avoid long-winded answers that drift off-topic. Stay focused and keep your response brief.

It’s a great idea to prepare a few examples that illustrate your motivation. This will make your response even stronger, and help convey your commitment to the role. For example, let’s suppose your motivation is your desire to contribute to meaningful projects. You might share a story about a time when you initiated or led a project that made a real difference in your previous role. Or you could mention a specific project or initiative at the company you’re interviewing for that excites you.

It’s essential to reflect on your personal motivations and connect them to the job you’re applying for. Consider how your motivations align with the company culture and values.

Tailor your response and try to use specific examples from your professional and personal life to illustrate your points. If you’re unsure what aspects to highlight, think about the desired skills and qualifications mentioned in the job description and how you have demonstrated those in the past. Don’t forget to practice your response before the interview. Good luck!

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The Admissions Strategist

How to answer “ what motivates you ” (amazing examples included).

At your job interview, everything seems to be going well. Your resume is impressive, and you have enough experience under your belt to feel confident about your qualifications.  

Suddenly, your interviewer asks, “What motivates you?” How do you respond? Do you find yourself freezing up, or furiously racking your brain for a response?  

If you have a series of job interviews lined up, you might quickly find yourself in this hypothetical situation.

The best way to prepare for an interview is to practice commonly asked questions and keep a selection of anecdotal examples for each question.

In this article, we’ll help you prepare to answer the brain-stumper, “What motivates you?”

Why Do Interviewers Ask This Question?

Businesses take a lot of care in hiring people – taking on a new employee can be a risky investment.

• So, employers have to be sure that those they hire are the best suited for the work at hand.
• They also look for potential employees whose personalities and personal goals fit in well with the rest of the company.

Work experience and a great resume can get your foot in the door.

However, what employers are really looking for are people who know where to find motivation when the going gets rough.

Even dream jobs have their rough spots, where the work is boring or difficult, and can be a chore to accomplish anything.

Companies want to know how you find inspiration and continue forward even when the work isn’t fun anymore .

Neal Taparia, founder of Spider Solitaire Challenge , explains “I want to know what makes you tick. How will your motivation translate into exceptional work at my company. If you can show me you’re motivated to make a difference in my business, you’re the type of candidate I want to consider.”

Similar Questions to “What Motivates You?”

Not all interviewers use the exact words “What motivates you?” They may use a variety of different questions that all end up asking the same thing.

For that reason, you can easily modify your potential answer to fit any of the following questions:

• What makes you tick?
• What inspires you?
• What influences you to do your best work?
• What are you passionate about?
• What drives you every day to achieve better?

However they ask, the key part of the question is figuring out what drives you.

For instance, how do you keep going when things get tough? What parts of your work do you look forward to? What is the carrot you dangle in front of yourself to motivate you?

How NOT to Respond

Your resume and cover letter can get your foot in the door, but the interview makes or breaks your chances of getting the job. Therefore, it is crucial that you do not fall victim to some of these common blunders:

Don’t Talk about Money

“What motivates me is money. I mostly want to live a comfortable life without having to worry about money. I worked hard throughout school to get a well-paying job to achieve my goal. I measure my success in life by how much money I earn, and my motivation is mostly bought.”

Do not ever mention money when talking about your motivations. Money motivates everyone, to some degree.

• Ignoring that you might come across as greedy, amoral, and facetious in your answer, you also won’t set yourself apart from a vast majority of the human population.

While at your interview, you should try to put your best foot forward and differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack.

• Securing a well-paying career might fit into your overall goals, but that isn’t what businesses want to hear.
• They’d rather know how you fit into their work culture and the way you work under pressure.

In general, you likely shouldn’t bring up money during the interview.

Unless they’re offering you a job right then, salary negotiations and money talk are strictly off the table. Even if the job’s money is important to you (and it likely is), you’ll have no chance of getting that money if you practice bad interview etiquette.

Don’t Be Vague

“I’m motivated when I have goals.”

Don’t be too general when answering. This is an opportunity to open up and share something about yourself that didn’t fit in your job application or cover letter.

• The interviewer isn’t trying to get you to confess to a crime, so don’t treat it like a hostile interrogation.

Clamming up and keeping your answers impersonal might make it seem like you don’t have much to say or that you don’t really want that job position.

Expanding upon your answers with specific experiences and goals you have will definitely leave a better impression.

When you practice, try to answer the question within two minutes. That might seem like a short amount of time at first, but use a stopwatch when practicing your interview answers.

The average person speaks somewhere between 125 and 150 words a minute – so you’ll have enough space to fit a decent amount of information in those precious seconds.

Don’t Make a List

“I’m motivated when I set goals for myself. I am also motivated when I help others. I also am motivated by healthy competition. I am also…”

While being vague can make you seem closed off, just rattling off a long list of motivators can seem like you either don’t know yourself well or you’re just hoping you’ve mentioned something the interviewer may like.

• You may also fall into the trap of just mentioning things without expanding upon them, which leaves a significant chunk of the question unanswered.
• Remember, the interviewer isn’t interested in hearing what might motivate someone; they want to know what specifically motivates you .

When you walk into the interview, you should have one or two motivators in mind with a couple anecdotes as examples.

Really dive in deep when answering the question. Remember, interview questions should be answered like short essay prompts: with one main point, and a significant chunk of evidence to support your answer.

Don’t Overly Cater Your Response

“I am motivated by the idea that I might attend your prestigious company. I want to honor your business’s high standards for excellence, and I push myself so that I will be accepted for this position. Your company website says…”

If your answers are more about the company than yourself, you may come across as a little insincere and untruthful.

• Mentioning certain aspects of the company’s mission and about pages can be a great way to demonstrate that you’ve done your research and you’re genuinely interested in their company, rather than just a job position in your field.
• However, your interviewer primarily wants to know about you, not the company.

It’s fine (and encouraged) to mention how specific parts of the company’s culture or achievements align with your passions, but make sure that your answer covers the full scope of your experiences and professional aspirations.

Get personalized advice!

Well, how should i answer “what motivates you”.

Most of all, you should be authentic when answering.

The first step to being authentic is self-reflecting. Sit down and really think about what excites you about your work.

• What achievements are you most proud of, and why?
• Identify why you’re proud of them.
• For instance, you might be proud of building a drone, managing a CMS integration or raising thousands of dollars for your former employer.

Then, you want to discuss what makes that accomplishment so special. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Were there any obstacles that you had to overcome?
• Besides a desire for job security and a paycheck, what inspired you to push yourself and overcome said obstacles?
• Name the things you learned from these challenges.
• How did you build a bond with your team members?
• What made you look forward to a day at work?
• What accomplishment left you feeling enthusiastic about your impact within the company?

Even if you’re new to the professional workforce, you can still pull from your experiences in college, internships , or volunteer opportunities.

• Maybe there was a club or class in which you were responsible for putting together a project.
• Maybe you helped organize a fundraiser or improved a nonprofit’s website.
• What motivated you to complete the project?

Here are some great examples of motivators for people:

Great Idea #1: Teamwork

“I consider myself a team player at heart. In my last position, I was responsible for managing several teams developing new marketing strategies. We all had different ideas about how to approach the goal. Collaborating with my coworkers, bouncing new ideas, and fine-tuning others kept me invested in my work because I found that I was always learning something else. It also kept me motivated by holding me accountable to contribute just as much to the team as anyone else.”

Teamwork is a great skill to talk about because you’ll likely be required to work within a team at your new company. Culture is such an important part of professional life that companies are willing to hire and fire based on the value of teamwork.

An answer based on teamwork demonstrates your ability to embrace company goals.

Great Idea #2: Helping Others

“I love helping someone solve a problem. When I worked in customer service, I frequently changed my customer’s mood from frustrated to pleased because of my quick thinking polite attitude. In sales, I feel motivated when a customer leaves the conversation excited about their purchase. In my last job, I made sure that each and every customer I spoke to felt respected, and didn’t feel pressured to go through with a transaction. In fact, many of them were satisfied and made repeat purchases. My approach to sales increased our district’s earnings by 27 percent, which drove me to continue working on improving customer satisfaction.”

Companies in competitive markets need to serve their customers to the best of their abilities. That’s why customer service is such an important part of doing business.

Employers want to hire team members who prioritize happy customers and clients. This is good for their bottom line.

Giving an answer on wanting help others is a great way to demonstrate your potential value to the company, its customers, and its growth.

Great Idea #3: Completing or Achieving Something

“I’m a goal-oriented kind of person. I regularly set challenging but attainable goals, and I push myself to complete them by the deadline. At my last position, I was in charge of a software development team, and we were working on a huge project. I broke down the project into manageable weekly tasks and divvied up the work equally between all of us. My management kept our team ahead of schedule, and we were able to release our product well within our deadline. Seeing a project to completion is always the biggest motivator for me.”

Speaking about your desire to achieve something in life is a great way to demonstrate your work ethic and ambitions. Companies want to hire people who don’t need external motivation to go the extra mile.

The best employees don’t need excessive direction or guidance. They know how to get things done on their own. They know how to produce high-quality work.

Great Idea #4: Interest and Innovation

“I just love finding new and better ways to write program code. I often strive for perfection, and finding more efficient algorithms or creating more intuitive user interfaces for our clients drives me every day. At my previous job, I worked on the front-end development to improve the usability of our software. As a result, our clients loved it so much that they recommended it to others via word-of-mouth and social media. Our sales nearly doubled, and many customers continue using our software and downloading the updates. I’m always interested in finding creative solutions to old problems.”

Passion drives human beings forward. Harboring a love for something is one of the best ways to find solutions to a problem.

Think about it.

If you’re really interested in a problem, you’re going to think about it all the time. The more you think about it, the more solutions you’ll find. Companies make money when their employees think of better products for their customers.

That’s why companies love hiring dreamers and passionate individuals.

Great Idea #5: Personal History

“I didn’t grow up with much. I was born in a small town in southeast Ohio – my dad was a sheet metal worker and my mom died when I was young. It was just my dad and me growing up. I remember eating grits all the time and not having health insurance. Luckily, I earned a scholarship to Ohio State, which is how I was able to study political science and learn more about the problems plaguing our communities, like the one I grew up in. As I move up in my career, I want to work for nonprofits and companies that place ethics and values above profits. Everyone can chase money, and money’s important. We can also chase the idea of making our country a better place. I want to work with people who want to do better for those that get left behind.”

Connecting your personal history to a problem is a great way to show why you’re so invested in a field. Hiring managers and CEOs want to hire employees who are invested.

You can discuss your personal history with the following, plus more:

• Food allergies
• Ocean cleanup
• Mental illness

Personal connections make your story relatable, so think of why you’re motivated as a result of your past.

Advice from Experts and Employers

We’ve included advice from people who have been directly responsible for hiring.

They also know what works best when answering this interview question. Enjoy!

From Barbara Watts, director of career services at Sweet Briar College:

It’s important to understand that an interviewer is asking you this question because they want to better understand what makes you tick and what drives you to succeed. It’s critical for them to understand whether your motivators are going to be a fit for the job duties and culture of the organization. Answering this question gives them a window into your personality. Use specific examples from your work, academic studies and/or extracurricular activities to give credibility to your answer. Your answer needs to have direct tie-ins to the position you are applying for. Providing this context allows an interviewer to see you not just as another applicant, but as a future employee of that organization. More than anything, be honest in your response! This benefits you and the employer in helping to determine if the position is a good fit for both of you.

From Nate Masterson, HR Manager of Maple Holistics :

It’s common for an interviewer to ask what motivates you, so you’ll want to have a good response prepared. But really, the best way to answer is based on the truth, so take time to consider what actually does motivate you. Depending on the situation, you might be driven by the pursuit of knowledge, a desire to help people, or the desire to be a problem-solver. Consider an anecdote that can help you demonstrate your point, and use it to highlight the strengths, skills, and passion that you can bring to the institution you are applying to. But always make sure to present things in a positive light. So, for example, if what motivates you the most is simply deadlines quickly approaching, a good way to phrase this is to say that you are motivated by the desire to get a job done in a timely fashion.

From Michael Leonard, creator of Inspire Your Success :

The best way to answer is the question is truthfully and honestly. But that means putting in the work behind the scenes to know what truly motivates you. And it’s not something you should just do for an interview question, it’s something you should do to improve the quality of your life. If you’re clear on your “Why” then you can answer this question effortlessly. Find time and put in some work on your own growth and development by journaling, writing down your goals, and doing things you’re passionate about. The more you do this, the more clear you’ll get. Ultimately, you want to have everything you do align in your life so everything is motivating you to achieve your goals.

From Jonathan Faccone, managing member and founder of Halo Homebuyers L.L.C. :

As an employer, I always love to hear stories where an individual’s motivation is derived from selflessness. An example could be that the reason why an individual works so hard is because they want to give back to their parents, or they don’t want to squander an opportunity their parents have worked so hard to provide them. Additionally, intrinsic motivation is something that every employer should come to learn about you. If you are a person who genuinely takes pride in their work, speak about this. If you like to work with people and concerned about taking care of their needs by doing the right thing by them, this is also a great selling point to an interviewer. An employer will not only come to learn that you want to do the right job and are capable of doing it, but they can also trust you in front of their customer as well.

From Brett Helling, who runs Ridester and has been mentioned in Entrepreneur, Inc., Forbes, and Reader’s Digest:

Motivation is an internal force that allows you to perform your daily or specific tasks more efficiently. It can be related to any physical attribute or spiritual entity. But, being working and maintaining to achieving your goals is the best motivation to go further than anyone can have. Interviewing or being interviewed are two very different things, an interviewer must first understand the individual from a piece of paper that can be a cover letter or its resume. Judge a person by the piece of paper is not the right way to asking brutal questions. The interviewer should adjust itself towards the individual who’s being interviewed and maintain eye contact and make them comfortable with first knowing them. A person who’s being interviewed should be prepared and conceptualize the situation before going in. A knowledge about the company and its management can score higher rather than having a blank mind. Being interviewed can be the toughest situation, but having a sound knowledge about what you are and what you can do, can make a much better candidate for that specific position. The best motivation for me is to allow myself to conquer the most difficult task in an easy way. It doesn’t matter you win or lose, it’s the experience that counts and can make you a much better person in life and in a career.

From Janet Ferone, president of Ferone Educational Consulting :

Tell a story. If what motivates you is to teach students who struggle with learning, don’t just say you are motivated to help all children learn. Add a story that links to when you first discovered your passion and why. For example, if you are motivated to help students who struggle, tell a story of how you struggled in school and felt inadequate, and then suddenly in 4th grade, your teacher connected with you in such a way that you finally saw the light and began to excel. Explain how you now want to be that teacher for others. Make sure your motivation is about what you can offer and how you can make a difference. While good pay and lots of vacation time are motivators, don’t use that as your sole criteria. You can certainly say that you have a passion for caring for animals and do so for your friends and family for free, so you would love a job where you could put your expertise to use for pay. Think about the employer! It’s not all about you and what you want.. Answer in such a way that you show that you would meet their needs, not just yours. In the case of the teacher who wants to work with struggling students, elaborate that you will connect with students in a way that will improve attendance and test scores, for example. Do your homework to know what the employer needs. Connect on a human level. Make eye contact, smile, and call people by name. Make sure you research who the interview team members are, if possible, and the goals and values of the organization. Show your interest and ability to connect with people. Employers can teach job skills, but not people skills, so show you are social and collaborative. If it fits your personality, a little humor goes a long way and can put everyone at ease. Be authentic in your words and also in how you present yourself. Young folks often think they must dress older and more conservative, and then appear ill at ease at the interview. Of course, dress professionally but don’t be afraid to wear a unique color accent or scarf or jewelry that will make them remember you. I have a business card case from my husband’s country of Malaysia and it’s a great conversation piece, as when I reconnect with someone I can reference Malaysia, so they will remember me in a sea of candidates.

Conclusion: How to Answer “What Motivates You?”

These are just a few examples of how to approach the question, “What motivates you?”

If there’s something completely unrelated to any of the categories above that makes you giddy about going to work, go for it. Whatever makes you enthusiastic is most likely a great answer.

The interviewer primarily wants to get a feel for your personality and how you work.

In your answer, be cognizant of the job you’re applying for.

• For instance, if the job you’re applying for is performed primarily in a cubicle with minimal interaction with others outside of meetings, playing up your drive to be a better team might not fit in with the position.
• Similarly, if you plan to say that you’re inspired by innovation and reinventing the wheel while the company you’re interviewing for strongly believes in the phrase, “don’t fix what isn’t broken,” you might want to reconsider your answer.

If you’re prone to interview anxiety, try writing down and rehearsing some potential answers with a friend.

You may also consider imagining yourself as an esteemed guest on a late night talk show. Watch the guests’ relaxed frame and cheerful disposition, and try to emulate that in your interview.

But overall, try to stay relaxed about the interview. You’ve impressed the hiring manager enough to make it to an interview – now’s the time to play up all of your good sides.

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• How to Answer “What...

How to Answer “What Motivates You?” - With Examples

11 min read · Updated on October 26, 2023

Knowing how to explain what motivates you tells an interviewer that you not only can do the job - you'll enjoy it, too

When a recruiter or hiring manager asks, “What motivates you?” it sounds like a simple-enough question and one that should be easy to answer - but this is another one of those open-ended questions that need a bit of preparation to answer effectively and keep you in the running for the job.

While there might be many things that motivate you, your answer must be crafted to align with the specific position you're after and the company hiring you to do it.

Why do interviewers ask “What motivates you?”

This question is similar to asking  “What makes you unique?” It's meant to discover whether or not you're the right fit for the job and, more importantly, if you'll fit within that company's particular workplace  culture and goals.

It provides insight into how and why you're motivated to be a successful employee, as well as what fulfills you in your job or career, which in turn offers some additional insight into your personality and approach to work. All these things - plus your skills and experience - help the interviewer to determine whether you're the best person to hire.

It is important to remember that employers who ask what motivates you are not asking you why you've decided to pursue your career options or apply for their open position. They are simply trying to figure out your motivations and drive to do a great job, achieve your mission, and contribute to your employer's success.

“What drives you?” and other ways this question is asked

Some interviewers won't ask this specific question. You need to recognize it when it's asked in different ways, so you can still provide the answers they're after. Instead of “what motivates you?” you might hear:

What inspires you?

What drives you to meet challenges?

What excites you about your job (or about working in general)?

What drives you to be successful?

What makes you want to get up every day for work?

How to prepare an answer to “What motivates you?” 

As with all interview preparation, begin by researching the company in detail. The more you know about the company (and the position), the more you can tailor your answer to match the company's needs. Try to learn about the employer's mission and values, as that can be critical in framing your answers.

In most cases, the hiring manager is asking this in the context of your work life, not your personal life. Most importantly, don't start off with the obvious answer of “a good salary” or “excellent benefits.” It's a given that these things are generally part of everyone's motivation for taking a job and, for the right candidate, these discussions come later in the hiring process.

Possible motivations to focus on as you develop your answer

Taking on or overcoming challenges

Developing new skills

Working with others

Working independently

Having little (or more frequent) direct supervision

Being part of, or leading, a team

Teaching or mentoring others

Creating new processes or improving existing ones

Learning new things

Being innovative or creative

Having challenging goals and deadlines

Aligning your answer with the position you're seeking

As we noted, it's important to know as much as possible about the employer and the job you're seeking, so that you can tailor your response to align with the position. For example, if you're seeking a job dealing with data and analysis, you should try to include those concerns in your answer. You can find an example of this type of data-focused answer in our sample answer section below.

One way to ensure that your answer aligns with the position is to review the job description. Figure out which responsibilities seem to inspire you and build your answer around those duties. Remember to be honest with yourself as you do this, since your response will be more believable if it truly conveys your motivations.

It's also important to not stray too far from that alignment. If the job you're seeking requires a great deal of collaboration with others, then you shouldn't respond by talking about how much you love studying spreadsheets by yourself in a corner office.

Other factors to consider as you create an answer

Consider your strengths . Generally, what motivates someone is also what they're good at, so your answer can highlight skills as well as motivation.

Reflect on the past. Think back to one of your best days at work. Why was it such a good day? What were you doing? Who were you working with? What made you happiest?

Use actual examples. Sharing a specific example from your current job or a previous position means backing up your motivation with the skills that will also make you successful in the job. This often makes a recruiter sit up and take notice.

Keep it short - or as short as possible . Be sure your answer isn't too long or rambling. Keep it as short as possible while still getting across what motivates you the most.

Stay positive. Don't frame your answers using negative examples about you or about others. Share the things you enjoy doing and show how they've helped you to be an excellent employee in all your jobs.

Be honest. Hopefully, you're applying for a position that you really do feel is a good fit for your skills and abilities, as well as for what drives you to be successful. That said, it's important to be honest about your motivation for a job, or it's quite possible you won't have the job for long once your employer discovers you're not a great fit. For example, being motivated by leading a team and consistently interacting with others is not the same as being fulfilled by working mostly on your own crunching numbers or researching data. Neither is good or bad. It's just a question of which one is best for you and that specific role.

Use the STAR method . Describe your motivation examples around S ituations, T asks, A ctions, and R esults. The benefit of this method is that it can show how your motivation ultimately benefited your past company or could benefit a future one. What's more, you end up telling a story rather than just rattling off an answer. That approach can make you sound more interesting and make the interviewer more interested in you.

Practice. Share your answer with a family member or friend and get their feedback. Practicing will help you to answer confidently and concisely.

If you're interviewing for your first full-time job, talk about what motivated you while working in an internship or volunteer role. The outcome should be the same: to convey what's meaningful to you in a job and help the company to see that you'll be a motivated employee who's a good fit for their role.

Sample answers to “What motivates you?”

As you develop your answers, consider the things that attracted you to your current career or specific job. Think about why this kind of work feels right for you and how you've become even more talented over time.

Hopefully, you'll discover more about why you're after any specific position and, in turn, be able to clearly communicate that to the hiring manager or recruiter. Here are some examples to get you started:

Example of someone motivated by learning and skill development

“Learning new skills really motivates me. It's so satisfying to see myself improve as I gain more knowledge about a job or market sector. In my last job, I consistently signed up for training or courses that would grow my skill set, paying for some out of my own pocket. I really believe that ongoing learning makes you more innovative and valuable in the workplace.”

Example for someone motivated by a desire to solve problems

“ I've been coding since middle school, when I was first exposed to it. My mom is a Software Developer and helped me whenever I needed it. Coding has been “it” for me ever since and I've become an expert in Java and C++. I think about coding from the minute I wake up until I go to sleep. Solving problems with code is what challenges me, motivates me, and drives me to be successful. ”

Example for someone who loves organizing projects and activities

“ I'm addicted to planning! Being organized at work and at home drives me to make sure I have enough time to achieve my goals and give my best in all I do. It ensures that I don't overtask myself, so I can focus on doing quality work and not get burned out by working long hours on any one project. Good time management helps me to maintain consistently excellent standards.”

Example for someone who's motivated by serving others

“ Providing outstanding customer service is what drives me. I worked as a Mobile Sales Associate for a local credit union. The days were hectic with solving customer issues and answering questions. I worked hard to understand their queries and explain the how and why of our processes and operations. It really motivated me and upped my confidence whenever customers gave me a great review and a high rating.”

Example for a team player or leader

“I was a Team Lead in my last position, managing a team of 10. Our task was to improve outcomes, so the team had to work efficiently and deliver consistently accurate results. I made it my goal to streamline the team's processes and be more productive with less “busy work.” Working with a team to complete tasks accurately and ahead of schedule was and is what drives me every day. I want to help any company I'm with to always meet their bottom line.” 

Example for someone who's driven by managing successful teams

“I've been responsible for directing software development teams and implementing repeatable processes for a variety of companies. My teams achieved 100% on-time product delivery for six straight months. The challenge of finishing the projects ahead of schedule and successfully managing teams to reach our goals is the kind of thing that's always motivated me.”

Example for a person who's driven to get results

“I'm motivated by results. I'm always excited when I have a tangible goal to meet and enough time to develop a sound strategy to accomplish it. In my current job, we have very aggressive quarterly and yearly goals. I was tasked to work with my manager and my team to create a month-by-month strategy to meet our quarter-end and year-end numbers. Accomplishing that was a great thrill and made me even more result oriented.”

Example for a person who's motivated by data

“I love numbers. Analyzing data and providing results really drives and motivates me. I love getting my hands on a spreadsheet to figure out what's driving the numbers and sharing my conclusions. In my current position, I generate our monthly sales analytics reports. Being able to provide this essential information is really motivating because the data from these reports helps the company to determine its sales goals for the upcoming months and clarifies how the organization will move forward, and I know I've made a big contribution to that.”

Proper preparation can help you approach your interview with greater confidence

Knowing what motivates you means you can clearly and confidently convey to an interviewer that you not only have the skills to do the job but that you will also fit well with the company's culture and values. As long as you've done your research and preparation, you'll conquer your fear of this particular interview question and be ready to promote yourself as the best candidate to hire.

Your motivators are simply what you love to do and, as the saying goes, “find something you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life.”

Learn how to ace every part of your interview with our  expert interview tips , and let our free resume review make your resume shine! This article was originally written by Lisa Tynan and has been updated by Ken Chase.

Recommended reading:

Ask Amanda: How Can I Be More Confident During Interviews?

5 Tricky Interview Questions and How to Handle Them

What to Say at an Interview: 5 Boring Interview Lines to Avoid

Related Articles:

From Bland to Beautiful: How We Made This Professional's Resume Shine

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Storytelling: Your Secret Career-Making Weapon

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, yale essay prompt: what inspires you.

Hey guys! I'm working on my Yale application, and there's an essay prompt about what inspires me. Do any of you have examples or tips on how to approach this essay? I want to make sure I'm conveying my passion effectively. Thanks!

Hey! It's great that you're working on your Yale application. Tackling the "What inspires you?" essay prompt can be an excellent opportunity to share your unique passions and experiences. Here are some tips on how to approach this essay:

1. Reflect on your interests: Start by reflecting on what genuinely inspires and motivates you. What are you passionate about? It could be related to academics, extracurricular activities, social issues, hobbies, or anything else that fuels your curiosity and drive. Remember, the essay should be personal and genuine, so pick something that truly resonates with you.

2. Be specific: Once you've identified your inspiration, be specific about why it excites you. Don't just give a general description. Instead, try to think about the particular aspects, instances, or people that kindled your interest. Providing specific examples can effectively convey your passion and make your essay engaging.

3. Show, don't tell: When writing about your passion, rather than just stating what you feel, try to show how your inspiration has influenced your actions, choices, and accomplishments. This will not only make your essay more persuasive but also provide a clear picture of your personality and values.

4. Keep it concise and focused: This prompt is a short answer question. Stay focused on the prompt and ensure that the essay is well-structured and easy to follow. While you may feel tempted to connect your inspiration to Yale, you have the "Why Yale" essay to write about the school itself, so focus on your inspiration here.

Here's an example: maybe you’re passionate about competitive weightlifting and computer programming. You love the two very different activities because they allow you to constantly push your limits. You can always lift more, and create a more efficient program. Your response to this prompt might focus on your desire to continually improve yourself and what you’ve built.

Here's what the short answer could look like: "Sweat inspires me—the sweat on my brow when I'm weightlifting or writing a computer program. Sweat means I'm working towards something, constantly improving myself and the things I'm building."

Check out this CollegeVine blog post with more in-depth guidance on how to write the Yale essays, including this prompt: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-the-yale-university-essays

Good luck with your essay!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

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

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How to Answer “What Motivates You?” Interview Question (+ Examples)

Mike Simpson 0 Comments

By Mike Simpson

Updated 6/30/2022.

Motivation is a powerful tool. It drives you to complete tasks and encourages you to keep going when times get tough. Whether it’s physical, mental, or emotional, selfish or altruistic, motivation matters, particularly on the job.

The issue is that motivation is often highly personal. That’s why answering “What motivates you?” during a job interview can be so tricky. If you’re trying to figure out how to answer the “What motivates you,” interview question, here’s what you need to know…

Why Do Hiring Managers Ask “What Motivates You?”

So, why do hiring managers like to ask this question? Is it because they want to see job seekers stumble?

No, that isn’t the case. There are actually several important things an interviewer can learn about the interviewee based on their answer, including just what sort of person they really are and how that matches up with what the company is looking for in a new hire.

Hiring managers want to know what you like doing and why you like doing it. They also want to know what you’re good at.

They’re looking for answers that show them examples of characteristics you possess that will help them decide if you’re going to be a great employee:

• Are you a team player or a lone wolf?
• Do your strengths align with the job?
• Do they align with the company overall?
• Are you applying for a position that you’ll want to excel at, or are you just there for a paycheck?

To sum it up even more, they’re trying to figure out exactly how you view and approach success and what drives you. In the end, motivation leads to a more effective performance at work, and that’s why hiring managers care about what motivates you.

How to Answer This Interview Question

In order to give a good answer to this question, you need to understand that it is actually two interview questions in one. Namely, it’s asking, “What motivates you in life?” and “What motivates you at work?”

This question requires serious self-examination, and it’s something you should be asking yourself long before the interviewer does. This isn’t something you can typically answer off the top of your head. Instead, it’s better to prepare.

What Motivates You in Life?

Another way to ask this question is, “ What are you passionate about ?” What is it that gets you out of bed every day with enthusiasm? Where does your mind go when you’re allowed to daydream? What hobbies do you enjoy? How do you like to spend your time?

Now, dig deeper. What is it about these activities that you enjoy? Is it the satisfaction that comes from making something from nothing? Is it the sense of accomplishment after finishing an intricate project that drives you? Maybe it’s seeing how much others enjoy seeing what you’ve done?

Maybe it’s the feeling you get from helping others or leading them through something and teaching them new skills? Perhaps it was how you felt when you learned a new skill?

Whatever it is, focus on that. That helps create a foundation for a strong answer to this question and ones like it.

What Motivates You at Work?

Yes, we all know that the paycheck is a big reason why we get jobs. However, that alone isn’t usually enough to lead to job satisfaction, even if your salary is pretty high. After all, only about 36 percent of employees are engaged at work, so money alone isn’t enough to keep people focused.

So, what motivates you to do a great job at work? Is it similar to what drives you in life? Do you love the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing a big project on time and under budget? Is it the glow you get from being told you did a great job on a difficult task?

Look back on everything you’ve done both job and career-wise so far. What was it about your best days that made them the best days? When you tell stories about what you do that highlight what you enjoy, what specifically do you tell people about?

Can you take those feelings and apply them to specific moments from your life and past work experiences? Remember, real-life examples make your answers not only more compelling to a hiring manager but also give them a great idea of how you’ll behave in future situations as well.

Finally, take a long look at the job you’re applying for and see how the things you’re motivated by in both life and at work match up with the skills and abilities required. That way, you can integrate those points in when you’re answering questions like “What motivates you to do a good job?”

What Not to Say When Asked About Your Motivation

Now that we’ve gone over the subtext of what a hiring manager is actually asking you when they ask, “What motivates you,” let’s talk about what not to say in response.

First, never mention the paycheck. Hiring managers know that money is part of the equation, so it’s not necessary to bring it up in your answer.

Similarly, focusing solely on fast promotions or rising up through the ranks as much as possible, particularly if you mention anything that alludes to loving power, it’s a bad move. While ambition isn’t inherently wrong, you need to phrase it carefully if you don’t want to raise any red flags.

While these bad answers may seem obvious, it’s still a tricky question, and it’s easy to make small mistakes when answering, including:

Being too generic or vague in your answer

Remember, specific examples and direct tie-ins to the position you’re applying for will highlight your position as the perfect candidate and make it easier for the hiring manager to see you not just as an applicant but as a future employee.

Being too focused on the paycheck

Again, we all know that’s a major motivator, but an employer wants to see beyond that. Even if you’re applying for a commission-based job, where money could motivate you to perform better, it’s best to leave money out of the discussion. Instead, focus on the other metrics or the general drive to improve your performance.

Being dishonest with your motivation

As with all interview questions, honesty is the best policy. While telling your future boss you’re motivated by the opportunity to interact with customers might get you the job, if it turns out you actually hate dealing with people, it’s just going to come back to bite you.

Good Motivators to Discuss in Your Job Interview

Just as there are points you want to avoid, there are a few good motivators that can be a strong foundation for your answer.

First, there are company motivators. These are specific to the opportunity, outlining what you want to find in a job and an employer. Maybe a particular work environment or company culture helps you thrive? Or perhaps there are job duties or types of work that light your fire?

Second, you have social motivators. These generally include motivations relating to interactions with others. That could consist of your family and friends, as well as coworkers or colleagues. Teamwork, collaboration, and similar skills can also fall in this category.

Finally, there are career motivators. This category usually includes opportunities to advance, chances to grow skills, and abilities to expand responsibilities. While compensation could also come into the equation, it’s usually best to avoid discussing money as a motivator, as coming across as only being interested in the paycheck isn’t ideal.

Five Tips for Answering a “Motivation” Type Question

Now that we’ve covered some good motivators and what not to say, it’s time to talk strategy. Here are five easy tips to help you answer “What motivates you?”

1. Be prepared

Ask yourself this question ahead of time and outline possible answers, as well as examples from your life and work history that relate to the job.

2. Be self-aware

This goes hand-in-hand with being prepared. Hiring managers want to know that you’re genuinely thinking of what motivates you. A fast answer with a generic response isn’t going to win you any points. Take time to really answer the question by first really looking at who you are and what you love, and most importantly, what drives you!

3. Be enthusiastic

This is what drives you. This is what you’re passionate about. Let that enthusiasm show! The more enthusiasm you have for what motivates you, the more enthusiasm the hiring manager will have for you.

4. Be self-motivated

Hiring managers love self-motivated people. Even if the job you’re applying for has you working on a team, hiring managers want to know that you’re strong enough on your own to complete the tasks assigned to you. If all your motivation comes from outside forces, a hiring manager might feel some concern about your ability to complete tasks if not constantly supervised.

5. Be honest

We’ve already gone over this, but just in case, it’s worth mentioning again. Be honest.

“What Motivates You?” Example Answers to Guide You

In order to get you ready to craft your own answer to the interview question “What motivates you,” we thought we’d give you some example answers. Use these as a jumping-off point for your own answers, and don’t forget to tailor them!

EXAMPLE 1 – Sales

“One thing that motivates me, unlike anything else, is seeing my numbers improve. As a sales professional, I know the importance of metrics. Whether it’s the number of leads I turn into customers, the amount of repeat business I secure, or the customer satisfaction scores after engaging with a client, I continuously strive to reach new heights. It’s a genuine point of pride, and not just when my performance rises. If I’m able to help a team excel, that’s even better, as it lets me do my part to ensure the success of the whole.”

EXAMPLE 2 – Design

“As a product designer, nothing is as magical as watching someone use an item I created and genuinely enjoy the experience. In my career, I have had the opportunity to impact people’s lives in an incredibly unique way. Whenever I see someone discovering that the product I made can solve their problem, I’m legitimately overjoyed, and that inspires me to keep creating and innovating.”

EXAMPLE 3 – Tech

“Overall, I relish learning opportunities. That’s part of the reason I pursued a career in technology. The tech world changes so quickly, and I enjoy spending time exploring what’s on the horizon and figuring out how I can harness emerging technologies to improve my workplace or assist customers.”

EXAMPLE 4 – Marketing

“What motivates me at work is knowing that I can reach someone on an emotional level in just 30 seconds with a commercial or even a quick glance with a print ad. It’s amazing to see someone connect with an idea based on my efforts. When that turns into increased sales for my client, that’s a demonstration of my success.”

EXAMPLE 5 – Management

“I’ve worked in management for five years, and the one thing that makes all of the challenges worthwhile is seeing my team grow and advance. I genuinely enjoy coaching and harnessing the potential of constructive feedback. When I’m able to help a struggling employee start exceeding expectations or a thriving team member take the next step in their career, I’m always elated. That’s what sustains me at work, and it will likely do so for the rest of my career.”

Putting It All Together

While there are right ways and wrong ways to “What motivates you?” you still want to make sure your answer will resonate with the hiring manager. Use the tips above to get moving in the right direction. That way, you’ll stand out as an exceptional candidate.

And as always…

P.S. Don’t forget we wanted to let you know that there are over 100 other difficult interview questions you could be asked in your job interview. Sounds stressful right?

Don’t worry, because we created a free PDF that outlines the most common questions and gives you word for word sample answers that you can use at your next interview. Click the link below to get your copy now!

FREE : Job Interview Questions & Answers PDF Cheat Sheet!

Here's what you're getting:

• Word-for-word sample answers to the most common interview questions
• Tell me about yourself, why should we hire you?, What's your greatest weakness and more!
• Free Access to our VIP resources area

Click Here To Get The Job Interview Questions & Answers Cheat Sheet

Co-Founder and CEO of TheInterviewGuys.com. Mike is a job interview and career expert and the head writer at TheInterviewGuys.com.

His advice and insights have been shared and featured by publications such as Forbes , Entrepreneur , CNBC and more as well as educational institutions such as the University of Michigan , Penn State , Northeastern and others.

Learn more about The Interview Guys on our About Us page .

About The Author

Mike simpson.

Co-Founder and CEO of TheInterviewGuys.com. Mike is a job interview and career expert and the head writer at TheInterviewGuys.com. His advice and insights have been shared and featured by publications such as Forbes , Entrepreneur , CNBC and more as well as educational institutions such as the University of Michigan , Penn State , Northeastern and others. Learn more about The Interview Guys on our About Us page .

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write a perfect "why this college" essay.

College Essays

Did you think you were all done pouring out your blood, sweat, and tears in written form for your personal statement , only to be faced with the "why this college?" supplemental essay? This question might seem simple but is in fact a crucial and potentially tricky part of many college applications. What exactly is the "why us?" essay trying to understand about you? And how do you answer this question without falling into its many pitfalls or making any rookie mistakes?

In this article, I'll explain why colleges want you to be able to explain why you are applying. I'll also discuss how to generate and brainstorm topics for this question and how to make yourself sound sincere and committed. Finally, we'll go over some "why this school?" essay do s and don't s.

This article is pretty detailed, so here's a brief overview of what we'll be covering:

Why Do Colleges Want You to Write a "Why Us?" Essay?

Two types of "why this college" essay prompts, step 1: research the school, step 2: brainstorm potential essay topics, step 3: nail the execution, example of a great "why this college" essay.

College admissions officers have to read an incredible amount of student work to put together a winning class, so trust me when I say that everything they ask you to write is meaningful and important .

The purpose of the "why us?" essay goes two ways. On one hand, seeing how you answer this question gives admissions officers a sense of whether you know and value their school .

On the other hand, having to verbalize why you are applying gives you the chance to think about what you want to get out of your college experience  and whether your target schools fit your goals and aspirations.

What Colleges Get Out Of Reading Your "Why This College?" Essay

Colleges want to check three things when they read this essay.

First, they want to see that you have a sense of what makes this college different and special.

• Do you know something about the school's mission, history, or values?
• Have you thought about the school's specific approach to learning?
• Are you comfortable with the school's traditions and the overall feel of student life here?

Second, they want proof that you will be a good fit for the school.

• Where do your interests lie? Do they correspond to this school's strengths?
• Is there something about you that meshes well with some aspect of the school?
• How will you contribute to college life? How will you make your mark on campus?

And third, they want to see that this school will, in turn, be a good fit for you.

• What do you want to get out of college? Will this college be able to provide that? Will this school contribute to your future success?
• What will you take advantage of on campus (e.g., academic programs, volunteer or travel opportunities, internships, or student organizations)?
• Will you succeed academically? Does this school provide the right rigor and pace for your ideal learning environment?

What You Get Out Of Writing Your "Why This College?" Essay

Throughout this process of articulating your answers to the questions above, you will also benefit in a couple of key ways:

It Lets You Build Excitement about the School

Finding specific programs and opportunities at schools you are already happy about will give you a grounded sense of direction for when you start school . At the same time, by describing what is great about schools that are low on your list, you'll likely boost your enthusiasm for these colleges and keep yourself from feeling that they're nothing more than lackluster fallbacks.

It Helps You Ensure That You're Making the Right Choice

Writing the "why us?" essay can act as a moment of clarity. It's possible that you won't be able to come up with any reasons for applying to a particular school. If further research fails to reveal any appealing characteristics that fit with your goals and interests, this school is likely not for you.

At the end of your four years, you want to feel like this, so take your "Why This College?" essay to heart.

The "why this college?" essay is best thought of as a back-and-forth between you and the college . This means that your essay will really be answering two separate, albeit related, questions:

• "Why us?": This is where you explain what makes the school special in your eyes, what attracted you to it, and what you think you'll get out of your experience there.
• "Why you?": This is the part where you talk about why you'll fit in at the school; what qualities, skills, talents, or abilities you'll contribute to student life; and how your future will be impacted by the school and its opportunities.

Colleges usually use one of these approaches to frame this essay , meaning that your essay will lean heavier toward whichever question is favored in the prompt. For example, if the prompt is all about "why us?" you'll want to put your main focus on praising the school. If the prompt instead is mostly configured as "why you?" you'll want to dwell at length on your fit and potential.

It's good to remember that these two prompts are simply two sides of the same coin. Your reasons for wanting to apply to a particular school can be made to fit either of these questions.

For instance, say you really want the chance to learn from the world-famous Professor X. A "why us?" essay might dwell on how amazing an opportunity studying with him would be for you, and how he anchors the Telepathy department.

Meanwhile, a "why you?" essay would point out that your own academic telepathy credentials and future career goals make you an ideal student to learn from Professor X, a renowned master of the field.

Next up, I'll show you some real-life examples of what these two different approaches to the same prompt look like.

Clarifying why you want to study with a particular professor in a specific department can demonstrate to college admissions staff that you've done your research on the school.

"Why Us?" Prompts

• Why [this college]?
• Why are you interested in [this college]?
• Why is [this college] a good choice for you?
• What do you like best about [this college]?
• Why do you want to attend [this college]?

Below are some examples of actual "why us?" college essay prompts:

• Colorado College : "Describe how your personal experiences with a particular community make you a student who would benefit from Colorado College’s Block Plan."
• Tufts University : " I am applying to Tufts because… "
• Tulane University : "Describe why you are interested in joining the Tulane community. Consider your experiences, talents, and values to illustrate what you would contribute to the Tulane community if admitted." (via the Common App )
• University of Michigan : "Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?"
• Wellesley College : " When choosing a college, you are choosing an intellectual community and a place where you believe that you can live, learn, and flourish. We know that there are more than 100 reasons to choose Wellesley, but it's a good place to start. Visit the Wellesley 100 and select two items that attract, inspire, or celebrate what you would bring to our community. Have fun! Use this opportunity to reflect personally on what items appeal to you most and why. "

In a "why us?" essay, focus on the specific aspects of the school that appeal to you and how you will flourish because of those offerings.

"Why You?" Prompts

• Why are you a good match or fit for us?
• What are your interests, and how will you pursue them at [this college]?
• What do you want to study, and how will that correspond to our program?
• What or how will you contribute?
• Why you at [this college]?
• Why are you applying to [this college]?

Here are some examples of the "why you?" version of the college essay:

• Babson College : " A defining element of the Babson experience is learning and thriving in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives and interests. Please share something about your background, lived experiences, or viewpoint(s) that speaks to how you will contribute to and learn from Babson's collaborative community. "
• Bowdoin College : "Generations of students have found connection and meaning in Bowdoin's 'The Offer of the College.' ... Which line from the Offer resonates most with you? Optional: The Offer represents Bowdoin's values. Please reflect on the line you selected and how it has meaning to you." (via the Common App )

In a "why you?" essay, focus on how your values, interests, and motivations align with the school's offerings and how you'll contribute to campus life.

No matter how the prompt is worded, this essay is a give-and-take of what you and the college have to offer each other. Your job is to quickly zoom in on your main points and use both precision and detail to sound sincere, excited, and authentic.

How do you effectively explain the benefits you see this particular school providing for you and the contributions you will bring to the table as a student there? And how can you do this best using the small amount of space that you have (usually just one to two paragraphs)?

In this section, we'll go through the process of writing the "Why This College?" essay, step-by-step. First, I'll talk about the prep work you'll need to do. Next, we'll go through how to brainstorm good topics (and touch on what topics to avoid). I'll give you some tips on transforming your ideas and research into an actual essay. Finally, I'll take apart an actual "why us?" essay to show you why and how it works.

Before you can write about a school, you'll need to know specific things that make it stand out and appeal to you and your interests . So where do you look for these? And how do you find the details that will speak to you? Here are some ways you can learn more about a school.

In-Person Campus Visits

If you're going on college tours , you've got the perfect opportunity to gather information about the school. Bring a notepad and write down the following:

• Your tour guide's name
• One to two funny, surprising, or enthusiastic things your guide said about the school
• Any unusual features of the campus, such as buildings, sculptures, layout, history, or traditions

Try to also connect with students or faculty while you're there. If you visit a class, note which class it is and who teaches it. See whether you can briefly chat with a student (e.g., in the class you visit, around campus, or in a dining hall), and ask what they like most about the school or what has been most surprising about being there.

Don't forget to write down the answer! Trust me, you'll forget it otherwise—especially if you do this on multiple college visits.

Virtual Campus Visits

If you can't visit a campus in person, the next best thing is an online tour , either from the school's own website or from other websites, such as YOUniversityTV , CampusTours , or YouTube (search "[School Name] + tour").

You can also connect with students without visiting the campus in person . Some admissions websites list contact information for currently enrolled students you can email to ask one or two questions about what their experience of the school has been like.

Or if you know what department, sport, or activity you're interested in, you can ask the admissions office to put you in touch with a student who is involved with that particular interest.

If you can't visit a campus in person, request a video chat with admissions staff, a current student, or a faculty member to get a better sense of specific topics you might write about in your essay.

Alumni Interview

If you have an interview , ask your interviewer questions about their experience at the school and about what going to that school has done for them since graduation. As always, take notes!

College Fairs

If you have a chance to go to a college fair where your ideal college has representatives, don't just attend and pick up a brochure. Instead, e ngage the representatives in conversation, and ask them about what they think makes the school unique .  Jot down notes on any interesting details they tell you.

The College's Own Materials

Colleges publish lots and lots of different admissions materials—and all of these will be useful for your research. Here are some suggestions for what you can use. (You should be able to find all of the following resources online.)

Brochures and Course Catalogs

Read the mission statement of the school; does its educational philosophy align with yours? You should also read through its catalogs. Are there any programs, classes, departments, or activities that seem tailor-made for you in some way?

Pro Tip: These interesting features you find should be unusual in some way or different from what other schools offer. For example, being fascinated with the English department isn't going to cut it unless you can discuss its unusual focus, its world-renowned professors, or the different way it structures the major that appeals to you specifically.

Alumni Magazine

Are any professors highlighted? Does their research speak to you or connect with a project you did in high school or for an extracurricular?

Sometimes alumni magazines will highlight a college's new focus or new expansion. Does the construction of a new engineering school relate to your intended major? There might also be some columns or letters written by alumni who talk about what going to this particular school has meant to them. What stands out about their experiences?

School or Campus Newspaper

Students write about the hot issues of the day, which means that the articles will be about the best and worst things on campus . It'll also give you insight into student life, opportunities that are available to students, activities you can do off campus, and so on.

The College's Social Media

Your ideal school is most likely on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. Follow the school to see what it's posting about.  Are there any exciting new campus developments? Professors in the news? Interesting events, clubs, or activities?

The Internet

Wikipedia is a great resource for learning basic details about a college's history, traditions, and values. I also recommend looking for forums on College Confidential that specifically deal with the school you're researching.

Another option is to search on Google for interesting phrases, such as "What students really think about [School Name]" or "[School Name] student forum." This will help you get detailed points of view, comments about specific programs or courses, and insight into real student life.

So what should you do now that you've completed a bunch of research? Answer: use it to develop connection points between you and your dream school. These connections will be the skeleton of your "why this college?" essay.

Find the Gems in Your Research

You have on hand all kinds of information, from your own personal experiences on campus and your conversations with people affiliated with your ideal school to what you've learned from campus publications and tidbits gleaned from the web.

Now, it's time to sift through all of your notes to find the three to five things that really speak to you. Link what you've learned about the school to how you can plug into this school's life, approach, and environment. That way, no matter whether your school's prompt is more heavily focused on the "why us?" or "why you?" part of the give-and-take, you'll have an entry point into the essay.

But what should these three to five things be? What should you keep in mind when you're looking for the gem that will become your topic?

Here are some words of wisdom from Calvin Wise , director of recruitment and former associate director of admissions at Johns Hopkins University (emphasis mine):

" Focus on what makes us unique and why that interests you. Do your research, and articulate a multidimensional connection to the specific college or university. We do not want broad statements (the brick pathways and historic buildings are beautiful) or a rehash of the information on our website (College X offers a strong liberal arts curriculum). All institutions have similarities. We want you to talk about our differences. "

Time to find that diamond, amethyst, opal, tourmaline, or amber in the rough.

Check Your Gems for Color and Clarity

When I say "check your gems," I mean make sure that each of the three to five things you've found is something your ideal school has that other schools don't have.

This something should be seen from your own perspective. The point isn't to generically praise the school but instead to go into detail about why it's so great for you that they have this thing.

This something you find should be meaningful to the school and specific to you. For example, if you focus on academics (e.g., courses, instructors, opportunities, or educational philosophy), find a way to link them either to your previous work or to your future aspirations.

This something should not be shallow and nonspecific. Want to live in a city? Every city has more than one college in it. Find a way to explain why this specific college in this specific city calls to you. Like pretty architecture? Many schools are beautiful, so dwell on why this particular place feels unlike any other. Like good weather, beach, skiing, or some other geographical attribute? There are many schools located near these places, and they know that people enjoy sunbathing. Either build a deeper connection or skip these as reasons.

Convert Your Gems into Essay Topics

Every "why this college?" essay is going to answer both the "why us?" and the "why you?" parts of the back-and-forth equation. But depending on which way your target school has worded its prompt, you'll lean more heavily on that part . This is why I'm going to split this brainstorming into two parts—to go with the "why us?" and "why you?" types of questions.

Of course, since they are both sides of the same coin, you can always easily flip each of these ideas around to have it work well for the other type of prompt . For example, a "why us?" essay might talk about how interesting the XYZ interdisciplinary project is and how it fits well with your senior project.

By contrast, a "why you?" essay would take the same idea but flip it to say that you've learned through your senior project how you deeply value an interdisciplinary approach to academics, making you a great fit for this school and its commitment to such work, as evidenced by project XYZ.

Describing how project XYZ demonstrates your investment in a particular course of study that then happens to align with a specific program at the university is an effective approach to the "why you?" essay.

Possible "Why Us?" Topics

• How a particular program of study, internship requirement, or volunteer connection will help further your specific career goals .
• The school's interesting approach to your future major (if you know what that will be) or a major that combines several disciplines that appeal to you and fit with your current academic work and interests.
• How the school handles financial aid and the infrastructure setup for low-income students and what that means for you in terms of opening doors.
• A story about how you became interested in the school (if you learned about it in an interesting way). For example, did the institution host a high school contest you took part in? Did you attend an art exhibit or stage performance there that you enjoyed and that your own artistic work aligns with?
• How you overcame an initial disinterest in the school (be sure to minimize this first negative impression). Did you do more research? Interact with someone on campus? Learn about the school's commitment to the community? Learn about interesting research being done there?
• A positive interaction you had with current students, faculty, or staff, as long as this is more than just, "Everyone I met was really nice."
• An experience you had while on a campus tour. Was there a super-passionate tour guide? Any information that surprised you? Did something happen to transform your idea about the school or campus life (in a good way)?
• Interesting interdisciplinary work going on at the university and how that connects with your academic interests, career goals, or previous high school work.
• The history of the school —but only if it's meaningful to you in some way. Has the school always been committed to fostering minority, first-generation, or immigrant students? Was it founded by someone you admire? Did it take an unpopular (but, to you, morally correct) stance at some crucial moment in history?
• An amazing professor you can't wait to learn from. Is there a chemistry professor whose current research meshes with a science fair project you did? A professor who's a renowned scholar on your favorite literary or artistic period or genre? A professor whose book on economics finally made you understand the most recent financial crisis?
• A class that sounds fascinating , especially if it's in a field you want to major in.
• A facility or piece of equipment you can't wait to work in or with  and that doesn't exist in many other places. Is there a specialty library with rare medieval manuscripts? Is there an observatory?
• A required curriculum that appeals to you because it provides a solid grounding in the classics, shakes up the traditional canon, connects all the students on campus in one intellectual project, or is taught in a unique way.

If the school can boast a cutting-edge laboratory where you dream of conducting research, that would be a strong focus for a "Why Us?" essay.

Possible "Why You?" Topics

• Do you want to continue a project you worked on in high school? Talk about how or where in the current course, club, and program offerings this work would fit in. Why will you be a good addition to the team?
• Have you always been involved in a community service project that's already being done on campus? Write about integrating life on campus with events in the surrounding community.
• Do you plan to keep performing in the arts, playing music, working on the newspaper, or engaging in something else you were seriously committed to in high school? Discuss how excited you are to join that existing organization.
• Are you the perfect person to take advantage of an internship program (e.g., because you have already worked in this field, were exposed to it through your parents, or have completed academic work that gives you some experience with it)?
• Are you the ideal candidate for a study abroad opportunity (e.g., because you can speak the language of the country, it's a place where you've worked or studied before, or your career goals are international in some respect)?
• Are you a stand-out match for an undergraduate research project (e.g., because you'll major in this field, you've always wanted to work with this professor, or you want to pursue research as a career option)?
• Is there something you were deeply involved with that doesn't currently exist on campus? Offer to start a club for it. And I mean a club; you aren't going to magically create a new academic department or even a new academic course, so don't try offering that. If you do write about this, make double (and even triple) sure that the school doesn't already have a club, course, or program for this interest.
• What are some of the programs or activities you plan to get involved with on campus , and what unique qualities will you bring to them?
• Make this a mini version of a personal statement you never wrote.  Use this essay as another chance to show a few more of the skills, talents, or passions that don't appear in your actual college essay. What's the runner-up interest that you didn't write about? What opportunity, program, or offering at the school lines up with it?

One way to impress admissions staff in a "Why You?" essay is to discuss your fascination with a particular topic in a specific discipline, such as kinetic sculpture, and how you want to pursue that passion (e.g., as a studio art major).

Possible Topics for a College That's Not Your First Choice

• If you're writing about a school you're not completely psyched about, one way to sidestep the issue is to focus on what getting this degree will do for you in the future . How do you see yourself changing existing systems, helping others, or otherwise succeeding?
• Alternatively, discuss what the school values academically, socially, environmentally, or philosophically and how this connects with what you also care about . Does it have a vegan, organic, and cruelty-free cafeteria? A relationship with a local farm or garden? De-emphasized fraternity involvement? Strong commitment to environmental issues? Lots of opportunities to contribute to the community surrounding the school? Active inclusion and a sense of belonging for various underrepresented groups?
• Try to find at least one or two features you're excited about for each of the schools on your list. If you can't think of a single reason why this would be a good place for you to go, maybe you shouldn't be applying there!

Topics to Avoid in Your Essay

• Don't write about general characteristics, such as a school's location (or the weather in that location), reputation, or student body size. For example, anyone applying to the Webb Institute , which has just about 100 students , should by all means talk about having a preference for tiny, close-knit communities. By contrast, schools in sunny climates know that people enjoy good weather, but if you can't connect the outdoors with the college itself, think of something else to say.
• Don't talk about your sports fandom. Saying, "I can see myself in crimson and white/blue and orange/[some color] and [some other color]" is both overused and not a persuasive reason for wanting to go to a particular college. After all, you could cheer for a team without going to the school! Unless you're an athlete, you're an aspiring mascot performer, or you have a truly one-of-a-kind story to tell about your link to the team, opt for a different track.
• Don't copy descriptions from the college's website to tell admissions officers how great their institution is. They don't want to hear praise; they want to hear how you connect with their school. So if something on the college brochure speaks to you, explain why this specific detail matters to you and how your past experiences, academic work, extracurricular interests, or hobbies relate to that detail.
• Don't use college rankings as a reason you want to go to a school. Of course prestige matters, but schools that are ranked right next to each other on the list are at about the same level of prestige. What makes you choose one over the other?
• If you decide to write about a future major, don't just talk about what you want to study and why . Make sure that you also explain why you want to study this thing at this particular school . What do they do differently from other colleges?
• Don't wax poetic about the school's pretty campus. "From the moment I stepped on your campus, I knew it was the place for me" is another cliché—and another way to say basically nothing about why you actually want to go to this particular school. Lots of schools are pretty, and many are pretty in the exact same way.

Pop quiz: This pretty gothic building is on what college campus? Yes, that's right—it could be anywhere.

When you've put together the ideas that will make up your answer to the "why us?" question, it's time to build them into a memorable essay. Here are some tips for doing that successfully:

• Jump right in. The essay is short, so there's no need for an introduction or conclusion. Spend the first paragraph delving into your best one or two reasons for applying. Then, use the second paragraph to go into slightly less detail about reasons 2 (or 3) through 5.
• To thine own self be true. Write in your own voice, and be sincere about what you're saying. Believe me—the reader can tell when you mean it and when you're just blathering!
• Details, details, details. Show the school that you've done your research. Are there any classes, professors, clubs, or activities you're excited about at the school? Be specific (e.g., "I'm fascinated by the work Dr. Jenny Johnson has done with interactive sound installations").
• If you plan on attending if admitted, say so. Colleges care about the numbers of acceptances deeply, so it might help to know you're a sure thing. But don't write this if you don't mean it!
• Don't cut and paste the same essay for every school. At least once, you'll most likely forget to change the school name or some other telling detail. You also don't want to have too much vague, cookie-cutter reasoning, or else you'll start to sound bland and forgettable.

For more tips, check out our step-by-step essay-writing advice .

Avoid cookie-cutter responses to "why this college?" essay prompts. Instead, provide an essay that's personalized to that particular institution.

At this point, it'll be helpful to take a look at a "why us?" essay that works and figure out what the author did to create a meaningful answer to this challenging question.

Here is a "Why Tufts?" essay from James Gregoire '19 for Tufts University :

It was on my official visit with the cross country team that I realized Tufts was the perfect school for me. Our topics of conversation ranged from Asian geography to efficient movement patterns, and everyone spoke enthusiastically about what they were involved in on campus. I really related with the guys I met, and I think they represent the passion that Tufts' students have. I can pursue my dream of being a successful entrepreneur by joining the Tufts Entrepreneurs Society, pursuing an Entrepreneurial Leadership minor, and taking part in an up-and-coming computer science program.

Here are some of the main reasons this essay is so effective:

• Interaction with current students. James writes about hanging out with the cross-country team and sounds excited about meeting them.
• "I'm a great fit." He uses the conversation with the cross-country team members to talk about his own good fit here ("I really related with the guys I met").
• Why the school is special. James also uses the conversation as a way to show that he enjoys the variety of opportunities Tufts offers (their fun conversation covers Asian geography, movement patterns, and other things they "were involved with on campus").
• Taking advantage of this specialness. James doesn't just list things Tufts offers but also explains which of them are of specific value to him. He's interested in being an entrepreneur, so the Tufts Entrepreneurs Society and the Entrepreneurial Leadership courses appeal to him.
• Awareness of what the school is up to. Finally, James shows that he's aware of the latest Tufts developments when he mentions the new computer science program.

The Bottom Line: Writing a Great "Why This College?" Essay

• Proof that you understand what makes this college different and special
• Evidence that you'll be a good fit at this school
• Evidence that this college will, in turn, be a good fit for you

The prompt may be phrased in one of two ways: "Why us?" or "Why you?" But these are sides of the same coin and will be addressed in your essay regardless of the prompt style.

Writing the perfect "why this school?" essay requires you to first research the specific qualities and characteristics of this school that appeal to you. You can find this information by doing any or all of the following:

• Visiting campuses in person or virtually to interact with current students and faculty
• Posing questions to your college interviewer or to representatives at college fairs
• Reading the college's own materials , such as its brochures, official website, alumni magazine, campus newspaper, and social media
• Looking at other websites that talk about the school

To find a topic to write about for your essay, find the three to five things that really speak to you about the school , and then link each of them to yourself, your interests, your goals, or your strengths.

Avoid using clichés that could be true for any school, such as architecture, geography, weather, or sports fandom. Instead, focus on the details that differentiate your intended school from all the others .

What's Next?

Are you also working on your personal statement? If you're using the Common App, check out our complete breakdown of the Common App prompts and learn how to pick the best prompt for you .

If you're applying to a University of California school, we've got an in-depth article on how to write effective UC personal statements .

And if you're submitting ApplyTexas applications, read our helpful guide on how to approach the many different ApplyTexas essay prompts .

Struggling with the college application process as a whole? Our expert guides teach you how to ask for recommendations , how to write about extracurriculars , and how to research colleges .

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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6 Unique Tips for Writing a Brilliant Motivational Essay

Fortunately, in the contemporary world we live in, we can pursue have numerous education paths.

However, choosing college and career path is only half the battle.

The hard part is gaining admissions into the school of your dreams. Make no mistake: this is not an easy task. Most schools require not only outstanding grades, but also a thorough motivational essay explaining your motives for pursuing your chosen major at their institution.

This is the opportunity to stand out and show your character and ability to turn your education into a successful venture.

In the following article, we will give you some writing tips and practical advice on how to write a superb essay for college admissions and earn that acceptance letter.

1. Do your research

One of the most common mistakes people make when writing a motivational essay is creating a template piece for every college they apply to. This is a huge no-no, and here’s why: each academic establishment has its own agenda and preferences.

Some appreciate social initiatives and volunteering experience, some look for passion and determination to succeed, while others pay more attention to grades and test scores.

Try to research your chosen school as much as possible and write a unique essay accordingly. Sometimes colleges provide specific questions they want to see answered in your essay, so be sure to read the instructions carefully. Edit your work so the readers will feel the school’s spirit in your essay. It’s a good start to help your application stand out from the crowd.

2. Be personal

This part may surprise you: you don’t need to be an excellent writer. Sites like EduBirdie might save you some time, but they skip over the real reasons colleges want a motivational letter. Colleges want to get to know you — the person behind the application forms, documents, and numbers.

They want to see what your aspirations are, what you like to do, why you decided to pursue this particular path, and what you consider your strengths to be.

A generic, standard letter with no personality simply won’t. Don’t just repeat your application verbatim — embrace your life and interests and show off the real you! Try to present yourself in an informal way; don’t worry about formalities.

Let the university staff get to see your unique character and way of thinking; perhaps you can include a relevant joke or an anecdote from your life that is connected with your choice of profession, etc.

A strong personal approach goes a very long way here — trust us.

3. Drafts are important

First impressions matters. In the case of college applications, your first impression is in your motivational essay . Of course, you want to give a good first impression. Proper grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation are the key. This is why editing and revising your text is crucial.

Play around with word choice, ensure the paragraphs are clear and concise, and pay close attention to sentence structure. You can even use an Online Word Counter Tool to help you size up your draft properly.

Online programs like Grammarly are great for checking spelling and other possible issues in your writing. If the admission committee reads an essay with a clear sense of purpose, excellent grammar, and determination, they will see the applicant as a good fit because they understand the applicant’s goals and abilities. Don’t underestimate the power of proper styling and grammar.

4. Survey your essay

This may seem like an odd tip, but it can help with your essay quite a lot. If you’re unsure about the motivational essay you’ve written, or maybe you’re looking for ways to make it more memorable, try creating an online survey. You can put it out to the masses on social media, or even ask a few close friends to take a read and give you their thoughts.

Ask their opinion on your writing: what points are the strongest, what areas did you struggle, and how could you improve. This will provide you with real feedback to identify any issues you may have overlooked.

5. Get to the point

It may seem alluring to include every seemingly-relevant detail in your motivational essay. However, this can make the whole piece come across as vague and all over the place. Pick a couple of routes to follow, assess your best qualities, and decide what areas of your life and background you wish to include.

Don’t try to cram in every idea that crosses your mind; this will only clutter your essay! One good suggestion is to ask your friends and family to list your best characteristics, skills, and talents, then pick a few of most common to include in your essay.

6.Professional goals matter

While showing personality in your essay is essential, don’t forget to talk about your professional goals. Clearly state your motivation for choosing this career path and why you’re most suited for it. Explain why you are the best candidate for the program. Don’t overdo it by showing off or praising yourself too much.

Instead, talk about what personality traits will help you success, and where you plan on going with the degree you earn.

Remember, balance is the key to a good motivational essay; putting less information than needed is just as bad as putting too much. Getting too personal and informal will harm your application,but so will being too bland and official.

The secret is to maintain balance, and include only the points that matter. The most important advice is be yourself and be inspired.

For more great college tips, check out the other blogs on College Basics.

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What Motivates You to Teach—and Inspires You When You Need a Boost

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• Perspectives

E ducators have spent the last two years trudging through the muck and overcoming the various challenges thrown their way. Now many are soon to take a well-deserved break—which will end much too quickly, as they always do. So let’s relish this moment and reflect: What keeps you in this job, anyway?

To start that conversation, we recently asked you to share what motivates you to come back to the classroom each term—no matter the challenges—and what strategies you use to give yourself a burst of inspiration when needed. Here’s what you had to say.

Q. What motivates and inspires you to keep teaching, no matter the challenges?

Exequiel Hernandez, Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: More than anything else, it’s the students. I think of the love and responsibility I have toward them. They’re putting an enormous amount of trust in me, hoping that they’ll learn something useful for their professional and personal development. They’re also paying a lot of money for each minute of class. If I can make it about them and not me, it’s really motivating.

Lilian Ajayi-Ore, adjunct professor, New York University School of Professional Studies: I am inspired by my passion for teaching and my intrinsic commitment to supporting students in the classroom and in navigating their careers post-program.

“More than anything else, it’s the students.” Exequiel Hernandez

Pedro Monagas Asensio, STEM education professor and research professor, Polytechnic University of Catalonia: Being a reference and a guide to my students—while avoiding being a theoretician without practical resources—is what motivates me. I always try to ensure my syllabus has content and practical meaning to stimulate my students. I also try to set an example for my students, both as a person and as a professional, and connect with them as much as possible. After graduation, many of my students working in the industry consult me and inform me of their professional advances.

I am also motivated by having the ability to make educational visits to industrial companies and to invite professionals to my classroom to give my students a master class.

Susan Lee, lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore: Meeting new students, testing iterations of teaching approaches, and refreshing and customizing content that reflects dynamic changes in reality are all immensely rewarding experiences of teaching term after term. It always excites me to motivate students to learn and apply skills in their world immediately.

It’s a priority for me that students recognize the relevance and usefulness of classroom learning in authentic settings. This includes integrating examples that are current and of interest to my students. Often, these are drawn from research and reflections of related trends and news. Last year, as the demand for office space fell during the pandemic, I created a proposal-writing task that required real estate students to suggest ways to re-configure office spaces for lease. Discussing real-world challenges and relevance motivates students to communicate their ideas more persuasively.

Nellie El Enany, assistant professor, School of Business, The American University in Cairo: I get excited about learning new things—whether it be through podcasts, documentaries, or the news—and always want to share what I learn with my students. I want to not only teach my students and pass on invaluable information, but also inspire them, particularly when it relates to how they can be activists—social or corporate—and changemakers in society.

Before the start of term, I always think about classes that were fantastic. I wonder if they will be the same and hope that they will be even better, and perhaps that desire to make each term more exciting and innovative than previous ones is what drives me to start all over again with a new dose of passion.

Q. What strategies do you use to give yourself an extra boost of inspiration when you need it?

Hernandez: I find a quiet place a few minutes before class where I can ponder and pray to focus my thoughts and emotions. I express gratitude for the opportunity to be with my students for a few minutes that day. I visualize the students, imagine what they might need, and anticipate what the most positive interaction with them might look like.

I also plan exactly what will happen during the first moment of that day’s class—if I can get that right, the rest flows more easily. If it’s a particularly hard day to get motivated, I remember past successes: students from prior semesters who expressed gratitude, conversations in which we learned deeply from one another, and stuff like that. It’s all about getting into a student-focused mindset instead of a professor-focused mindset.

“I became more active in participating in academic events and programming—working with my departments on critical initiatives and offering myself as a resource.” Lilian Ajayi-Ore

Ajayi-Ore: Teaching through the pandemic wasn’t easy emotionally for me, and I know it was the same for my fellow educators. For an extra boost of inspiration, I became more active in participating in academic events and programming—working with my departments on critical initiatives and offering myself as a resource.

The other thing I did was increase my coping mechanism knowledge by being proactive in reading interviews and articles about how other faculty cope with various academic situations.

Asensio: Some of the projects my students work on in class become real products for the market. The satisfaction of knowing that my students go out to the labor market giving work and not asking for it, and that they leave my teachings generating and licensing industrial properties such as patents and trademarks, makes me proud.

Lee: I take breaks and get inspired by trekking (long hikes), reading resources on professional sharing platforms like The Marginalian , news sources, and thoughtful sharing from individuals like Susan Cain , Simon Sinek , and Adam Grant .

I am often refreshed and recharged with a mini routine change or engagement in novel challenges. Learning something new is my energy booster. A quick way to do this is to try a new recipe or navigate a different hike. During vacation, I do workshops like pottery. These activities give me the headspace to distance myself from the day-to-day thinking patterns, which are geared toward completing work-related tasks. My own struggle to learn also develops empathy for challenged learners.

“I am often refreshed and recharged with a mini routine change or engagement in novel challenges. Learning something new is my energy booster.” Susan Lee

Enany: I’ve been lucky at my university to be able to teach so many different courses and integrate new and up-to-date research and topics into existing ones. Many of my students, past and present, know that I am passionate about community work with stray dogs in Cairo, the natural environment, teaching children in my community, and visiting orphanages. This always keeps me energetic and humble, and I love getting my students involved in any community work I do.

I am really proud of so many of my students for being social activists and coming along to events and activities around a whole range of community initiatives. Seeing them do this always keeps me inspired.

Staying grateful and happy, as cliche as it sounds, is something I always try to focus on. I’m grateful for being able to be back physically in the classroom post–COVID-19, for being able to learn from my students, and for being connected to so many fantastic educators around the world.

You’re Not in This Alone

Although we weren’t surprised to hear that your passion for ideas and your deep respect for your students are the main reasons many of you stay motivated to teach each term, we were touched by the depth of your responses. If anything, they remind us that we are all in this together, even if we have different ways of managing stress and rejuvenating our energy.

For those of you striving to reignite that spark, try reaching out to colleagues or friends who can share their own stories and motivation tactics. You may just find another tool to help keep you going.

Join the conversation by letting us know how you stay motivated to teach.

Exequiel (Zeke) Hernandez is the Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studies how global networks created by human migration and corporate partnerships affect the innovation, internationalization, and performance of organizations. He has won three Emerging Scholar awards and was selected by Poets & Quants as one of the Best 40 Under 40 business professors in the world. He also provides training to executives from leading companies globally.

Lilian Ajayi-Ore is a faculty member at Columbia University and New York University School of Professional Studies. She teaches digital marketing, interactive marketing, and data analytics. She is also a digital marketing strategist and big data analytics executive with over 16 years of industry expertise helping brands and organizations identify key market trends and implement marketing strategies.

Pedro Monagas Asensio is a STEM education professor and research professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, CRESCA Food Safety and Control Research Center.

Susan Lee is a lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore. She designs and facilitates workshops on English as a medium of instruction, professional communication, job interviews, networking, and internship preparation. Besides communication-related subjects, Lee is currently teaching a Critique and Expression module she developed on film adaptation.

Nellie El Enany   is an assistant professor in the School of Business at The American University in Cairo. El Enany teaches human resource management, entrepreneurship and innovation, international business, and entrepreneurial leadership for solving critical global issues. El Enany’s research interests center on issues of identity, including identity construction, stigma, legitimacy, and identity work.

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How to Write the “Why this Major” College Essay + Examples

What’s covered:.

• What is the “Why This Major” Essay?
• Examples of “Why This Major?” Essay Prompts
• Tips for Writing the “Why This Major?” Essay
• “Why This Major?” Essay Examples

What to Do If You’re Undecided

The “Why This Major?” essay is a common prompt that nearly every college applicant will have to answer at least once. In this post, we’ll go over the purpose of this essay, examples of real prompts, sample responses, and expert tips for writing your own essay. If one of the colleges on your list asks you to respond to this prompt, you’ll be well-prepared after reading this post. 

What is the “Why This Major” Essay? 

In the college admissions process, you’ll need to submit two main types of essays: the personal statement and supplemental essays. The personal statement is your main application essay that goes to every school you apply to. The goal of this essay is to share more about who you are and your development. 

On the other hand, supplemental essays only go to specific schools, and each school requests their own essays. The goal of these essays is to showcase your fit with the school. Common prompts include “ Why This College? ”, “ Describe an Extracurricular ,” and “Why This Major?” 

The “Why This Major?” prompt in particular asks you, unsurprisingly, to explain your interest in your intended major. Colleges want to understand where you’re coming from academically, what your intellectual passions are, and what you plan to do professionally (at least roughly). If you aren’t 100% sure about what you want to study, that’s totally fine, but you do want to show that you’re an overall curious, engaged student.

It’s also meant to gauge your academic fit with the college, so you should be sure to cover school-specific resources related to your intended major that will help you achieve your goals. In other words, this prompt should actually be considered “Why This Major at This School?” 

Examples of “Why This Major?” Essay Prompts 

Before we dive in, let’s first take a look at some real-life examples of these prompts. 

For example, Yale requests that students write a 200-word supplemental essay based on the following prompt: 

Similarly, Purdue asks applicants to write 250 words in response to the below statement:

Carnegie Mellon , another top college, requires students to discuss the evolution of their proposed field of study, in 300 words or less: 

Finally, the University of Michigan asks students to craft a slightly longer essay, up to 500 words, about the qualities that attracted them to the college or school they’re applying to and how the curriculum will support their interests.

Tips for Writing the “Why This Major?” Essay 

Answering the “Why This Major?” prompt may seem like a difficult task. However, there are tips to help simplify the process and ensure your response addresses the question fully and effectively. Here are three steps for writing a standout essay about your major of choice: 

1. Share how your academic interest developed.  

The first step in crafting an effective “Why This Major?” essay is explaining your emotional resonance with the subject, and your background in it. While you might be tempted to write about your passion for the subject in flowery language, it’s better to share specific experiences that show how your interest developed. You should cover both the coursework that you’ve done in the field and any relevant extracurricular experiences. If you have space, you can also add in the specific subtopics that interest you within the major (i.e. analyzing gender relations or racism within the broader topic of sociology). 

You might also consider sharing a short anecdote related to your interest in the major. This strategy is especially effective at the beginning of the essay, as telling a story will both draw in the reader and provide context for your academic interest. For example, if you’re interested in studying English at Yale, you could start your essay by describing a childhood ritual in which you and your dad went to the library every Saturday.  

However, while anecdotes are crucial components of a college essay, students should choose what details to include with care. The most impactful essays tell a story, so you should refrain from listing all of your extracurricular activities that relate to your chosen major. This is not a resume! Instead, find ways of connecting your initial anecdote with your desire to pursue your major. For example, perhaps your early experiences at the library led you to get a job at a local bookstore and organize author readings for the community.

2. Detail your reasoning and goals.  

It’s not enough to express your passion for a particular subject. You also want to describe your goals and explain how majoring in your chosen field will help you achieve them. Perhaps your early experiences with authors inspired you to start a novel. You can further explain how majoring in English will enable you to study the great works of literature, thereby providing you with the background and foundation needed to find success as a writer.  

3. Explain your school choice.  

Finally, a “Why This Major?” essay should reveal how the college in question will help you achieve your goals. Your reasons should extend beyond “the college is highly ranked for this major,” as no matter how excellent the school’s reputation is, there are assuredly other colleges out there that are also strong in this department. Instead, dive into the curriculum, teaching methodology, specific classes, professors who are doing work in your area of interest, or other resources that can be found only at that school. 

For example, if you’re passionate about becoming a writer one day, take time to explain how Yale’s English program will set you on the road to success. Perhaps you’re interested in studying British greats through the famed Yale in London study abroad program. Or, maybe you plan on pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration as a senior to further refine your abilities to craft engaging narratives with compelling characters. 

You could also mention a desire to take a particular course, study with a certain professor, or work on the school newspaper. Just be careful not to “name-drop” professors⁠—only mention a specific faculty member if their work is highly relevant to your interests. Otherwise, your interest will look disingenuous.

“Why This Major?” Essay Examples 

To give you a better idea of what these essays should look like, below are a few example responses to the “Why This Major?” prompt.

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering. Later, in a high school biology class, I learned that engineering didn’t only apply to circuits, but also to medical devices that could improve people’s quality of life. Biomedical engineering allows me to pursue my academic passions and help people at the same time.

Just as biology and engineering interact in biomedical engineering, I am fascinated by interdisciplinary research in my chosen career path. Duke offers unmatched resources, such as DUhatch and The Foundry, that will enrich my engineering education and help me practice creative problem-solving skills. The emphasis on entrepreneurship within these resources will also help me to make a helpful product. Duke’s Bass Connections program also interests me; I firmly believe that the most creative and necessary problem-solving comes by bringing people together from different backgrounds. Through this program, I can use my engineering education to solve complicated societal problems such as creating sustainable surgical tools for low-income countries. Along the way, I can learn alongside experts in the field. Duke’s openness and collaborative culture span across its academic disciplines, making Duke the best place for me to grow both as an engineer and as a social advocate. 

This student does a great job of sharing how their interest in biomedical engineering developed. They begin the essay with an anecdote, which is more engaging and personal than simply stating “I want to study X major because…” and then smoothly take us into the present, and show how their understanding of the field has become more sophisticated over time. It’s also clear this student has done their research on how Duke specifically can help them achieve their goal of being an engineer and social advocate, as they’re able to name several relevant resources at Duke, such as DUhatch, The Foundry, and the Bass Connections program. 

I woke up. The curtains filtered the sun’s rays, hitting my face directly. I got up, looked from the bathroom to the kitchen, but my dad wasn’t there. I plopped on the couch, then the door opened. My dad walked in, clutching a brown paper bag with ninety-nine cent breakfast tacos. After eating, we drove to a customer’s house. He sat me in a chair, lifted the floorboard, and crawled under the house to fix the pipes. As he emerged, he talked, but my mind drifted to the weight of the eleven-millimeter hex wrench in my hand. My interest in mechanical engineering originates from my dad, who was a plumber. When I was fifteen, my dad passed away from cancer that constricted his throat. Holding his calloused hand on his deathbed, I wanted to prevent the suffering of others from cancer. Two years later, when I was given a topic of choice for my chemistry research paper, I stumbled upon an article about gold nanoparticles used for HIV treatment. I decided to steer the topic of gold nanoparticles used for cancer treatment instead, entering the field of nanotechnology. After reading numerous articles and watching college lectures on YouTube, I was utterly captivated by topics like using minuscule devices to induce hyperthermia as a safe method of cancer treatment. Nanotechnology is multi-disciplinary, reinforcing my interest in pursuing mechanical engineering as a gateway to participate in nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the University of Texas at Austin. I have learned that nanotechnology is not limited to stories like mine, but to other issues such as sustainable energy and water development that I hope to work towards. It is important for me to continue helping others without forfeiting my interest in nanotechnology, working in collaboration with both engineering and the medical field.

The narrative style of this essay engages readers and keeps us eager to know what’s going to happen next. In terms of content, the student does a great job of sharing personal and specific details about themselves, the roots of their academic interests, and their motivation to pursue them in college. While this essay is very strong overall, it is missing the “Why nanotechnology at UT Austin?” element of this kind of prompt, and would be even more successful if the student mentioned a particular professor at UT Austin doing research in their area of interest, or a lab dedicated to work in the field of nanotechnology.

I held my breath and hit RUN. Yes! A plump white cat jumped out and began to catch the falling pizzas. Although my Fat Cat project seems simple now, it was the beginning of an enthusiastic passion for computer science. Four years and thousands of hours of programming later, that passion has grown into an intense desire to explore how computer science can serve society. Every day, surrounded by technology that can recognize my face and recommend scarily-specific ads, I’m reminded of Uncle Ben’s advice to a young Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility”. Likewise, the need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed with AI’s far-reaching presence in society; and I believe that digital fairness starts with equality in education. 

The unique use of threads at the College of Computing perfectly matches my interests in AI and its potential use in education; the path of combined threads on Intelligence and People gives me the rare opportunity to delve deep into both areas. I’m particularly intrigued by the rich sets of both knowledge-based and data-driven intelligence courses, as I believe AI should not only show correlation of events, but also provide insight into why they occur. 

In my four years as an enthusiastic online English tutor, I’ve worked hard to help students overcome both financial and technological obstacles in hopes of bringing quality education to people from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, I’m extremely excited by the many courses in the People thread that focus on education and human-centered technology. I’d love to explore how to integrate AI technology into the teaching process to make education more available, affordable, and effective for people everywhere. And with the innumerable opportunities that Georgia Tech has to offer, I know that I will be able to go further here than anywhere else.

This essay has a great hook—it captures the reader’s attention and draws them into the story right away. Through this anecdote, the student shows their personality and interests, and then deftly transitions into talking about why Georgia Tech’s computer science program is the right match for them. The student explains how the College of Computing at Georgia Tech fits into their future by referencing “threads,” which are unique to the College of Computing’s curriculum and allow students to apply their CS coursework to particular areas. 

Just because you haven’t decided on a concentration doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to writing the “Why This Major?” essay. Ultimately, schools care less about knowing that you have your whole academic career planned out, and more about seeing that you are a genuinely curious, engaged student who does have intellectual passions, even if you’re still figuring out which one you want to pursue as a major. 

If you’re still undecided, you can opt to write about 1-3 potential majors (depending on the word count), while detailing how the school can help you choose one, as well as meet your broader academic goals. For best results, include personal anecdotes about a few academic subjects or courses that have inspired you, and share some potential career paths stemming from them. For more tips, see our post on how to write the “Why this major?” essay if you’re undecided . 

Where to Get Your “Why This Major?” Essay Edited 

Do you want feedback on your “Why This Major?” essay? 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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In the campus protests over the war in Gaza, language and rhetoric are—as they have always been when it comes to Israel and Palestine—weapons of mass destruction.

By Zadie Smith

A philosophy without a politics is common enough. Aesthetes, ethicists, novelists—all may be easily critiqued and found wanting on this basis. But there is also the danger of a politics without a philosophy. A politics unmoored, unprincipled, which holds as its most fundamental commitment its own perpetuation. A Realpolitik that believes itself too subtle—or too pragmatic—to deal with such ethical platitudes as thou shalt not kill. Or: rape is a crime, everywhere and always. But sometimes ethical philosophy reënters the arena, as is happening right now on college campuses all over America. I understand the ethics underpinning the protests to be based on two widely recognized principles:

There is an ethical duty to express solidarity with the weak in any situation that involves oppressive power.

If the machinery of oppressive power is to be trained on the weak, then there is a duty to stop the gears by any means necessary.

The first principle sometimes takes the “weak” to mean “whoever has the least power,” and sometimes “whoever suffers most,” but most often a combination of both. The second principle, meanwhile, may be used to defend revolutionary violence, although this interpretation has just as often been repudiated by pacifistic radicals, among whom two of the most famous are, of course, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr . In the pacifist’s interpretation, the body that we must place between the gears is not that of our enemy but our own. In doing this, we may pay the ultimate price with our actual bodies, in the non-metaphorical sense. More usually, the risk is to our livelihoods, our reputations, our futures. Before these most recent campus protests began, we had an example of this kind of action in the climate movement. For several years now, many people have been protesting the economic and political machinery that perpetuates climate change, by blocking roads, throwing paint, interrupting plays, and committing many other arrestable offenses that can appear ridiculous to skeptics (or, at the very least, performative), but which in truth represent a level of personal sacrifice unimaginable to many of us.

I experienced this not long ago while participating in an XR climate rally in London. When it came to the point in the proceedings where I was asked by my fellow-protesters whether I’d be willing to commit an arrestable offense—one that would likely lead to a conviction and thus make travelling to the United States difficult or even impossible—I’m ashamed to say that I declined that offer. Turns out, I could not give up my relationship with New York City for the future of the planet. I’d just about managed to stop buying plastic bottles (except when very thirsty) and was trying to fly less. But never to see New York again? What pitiful ethical creatures we are (I am)! Falling at the first hurdle! Anyone who finds themselves rolling their eyes at any young person willing to put their own future into jeopardy for an ethical principle should ask themselves where the limits of their own commitments lie—also whether they’ve bought a plastic bottle or booked a flight recently. A humbling inquiry.

It is difficult to look at the recent Columbia University protests in particular without being reminded of the campus protests of the nineteen-sixties and seventies, some of which happened on the very same lawns. At that time, a cynical political class was forced to observe the spectacle of its own privileged youth standing in solidarity with the weakest historical actors of the moment, a group that included, but was not restricted to, African Americans and the Vietnamese. By placing such people within their ethical zone of interest, young Americans risked both their own academic and personal futures and—in the infamous case of Kent State—their lives. I imagine that the students at Columbia—and protesters on other campuses—fully intend this echo, and, in their unequivocal demand for both a ceasefire and financial divestment from this terrible war, to a certain extent they have achieved it.

But, when I open newspapers and see students dismissing the idea that some of their fellow-students feel, at this particular moment, unsafe on campus, or arguing that such a feeling is simply not worth attending to, given the magnitude of what is occurring in Gaza, I find such sentiments cynical and unworthy of this movement. For it may well be—within the ethical zone of interest that is a campus, which was not so long ago defined as a safe space, delineated by the boundary of a generation’s ethical ideas— it may well be that a Jewish student walking past the tents, who finds herself referred to as a Zionist, and then is warned to keep her distance, is, in that moment, the weakest participant in the zone. If the concept of safety is foundational to these students’ ethical philosophy (as I take it to be), and, if the protests are committed to reinserting ethical principles into a cynical and corrupt politics, it is not right to divest from these same ethics at the very moment they come into conflict with other imperatives. The point of a foundational ethics is that it is not contingent but foundational. That is precisely its challenge to a corrupt politics.

Practicing our ethics in the real world involves a constant testing of them, a recognition that our zones of ethical interest have no fixed boundaries and may need to widen and shrink moment by moment as the situation demands. (Those brave students who—in supporting the ethical necessity of a ceasefire—find themselves at painful odds with family, friends, faith, or community have already made this calculation.) This flexibility can also have the positive long-term political effect of allowing us to comprehend that, although our duty to the weakest is permanent, the role of “the weakest” is not an existential matter independent of time and space but, rather, a contingent situation, continually subject to change. By contrast, there is a dangerous rigidity to be found in the idea that concern for the dreadful situation of the hostages is somehow in opposition to, or incompatible with, the demand for a ceasefire. Surely a ceasefire—as well as being an ethical necessity—is also in the immediate absolute interest of the hostages, a fact that cannot be erased by tearing their posters off walls.

Part of the significance of a student protest is the ways in which it gives young people the opportunity to insist upon an ethical principle while still being, comparatively speaking, a more rational force than the supposed adults in the room, against whose crazed magical thinking they have been forced to define themselves. The equality of all human life was never a self-evident truth in racially segregated America. There was no way to “win” in Vietnam. Hamas will not be “eliminated.” The more than seven million Jewish human beings who live in the gap between the river and the sea will not simply vanish because you think that they should. All of that is just rhetoric. Words. Cathartic to chant, perhaps, but essentially meaningless. A ceasefire, meanwhile, is both a potential reality and an ethical necessity. The monstrous and brutal mass murder of more than eleven hundred people, the majority of them civilians, dozens of them children, on October 7th, has been followed by the monstrous and brutal mass murder (at the time of writing) of a reported fourteen thousand five hundred children. And many more human beings besides, but it’s impossible not to notice that the sort of people who take at face value phrases like “surgical strikes” and “controlled military operation” sometimes need to look at and/or think about dead children specifically in order to refocus their minds on reality.

To send the police in to arrest young people peacefully insisting upon a ceasefire represents a moral injury to us all. To do it with violence is a scandal. How could they do less than protest, in this moment? They are putting their own bodies into the machine. They deserve our support and praise. As to which postwar political arrangement any of these students may favor, and on what basis they favor it—that is all an argument for the day after a ceasefire. One state, two states, river to the sea—in my view, their views have no real weight in this particular moment, or very little weight next to the significance of their collective action, which (if I understand it correctly) is focussed on stopping the flow of money that is funding bloody murder, and calling for a ceasefire, the political euphemism that we use to mark the end of bloody murder. After a ceasefire, the criminal events of the past seven months should be tried and judged, and the infinitely difficult business of creating just, humane, and habitable political structures in the region must begin anew. Right now: ceasefire. And, as we make this demand, we might remind ourselves that a ceasefire is not, primarily, a political demand. Primarily, it is an ethical one.

But it is in the nature of the political that we cannot even attend to such ethical imperatives unless we first know the political position of whoever is speaking. (“Where do you stand on Israel/Palestine?”) In these constructed narratives, there are always a series of shibboleths, that is, phrases that can’t be said, or, conversely, phrases that must be said. Once these words or phrases have been spoken ( river to the sea, existential threat, right to defend, one state, two states, Zionist, colonialist, imperialist, terrorist ) and one’s positionality established, then and only then will the ethics of the question be attended to (or absolutely ignored). The objection may be raised at this point that I am behaving like a novelist, expressing a philosophy without a politics, or making some rarefied point about language and rhetoric while people commit bloody murder. This would normally be my own view, but, in the case of Israel/Palestine, language and rhetoric are and always have been weapons of mass destruction.

It is in fact perhaps the most acute example in the world of the use of words to justify bloody murder, to flatten and erase unbelievably labyrinthine histories, and to deliver the atavistic pleasure of violent simplicity to the many people who seem to believe that merely by saying something they make it so. It is no doubt a great relief to say the word “Hamas” as if it purely and solely described a terrorist entity. A great relief to say “There is no such thing as the Palestinian people” as they stand in front of you. A great relief to say “Zionist colonialist state” and accept those three words as a full and unimpeachable definition of the state of Israel, not only under the disastrous leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu but at every stage of its long and complex history, and also to hear them as a perfectly sufficient description of every man, woman, and child who has ever lived in Israel or happened to find themselves born within it. It is perhaps because we know these simplifications to be impossible that we insist upon them so passionately. They are shibboleths; they describe a people, by defining them against other people—but the people being described are ourselves. The person who says “We must eliminate Hamas” says this not necessarily because she thinks this is a possible outcome on this earth but because this sentence is the shibboleth that marks her membership in the community that says that. The person who uses the word “Zionist” as if that word were an unchanged and unchangeable monolith, meaning exactly the same thing in 2024 and 1948 as it meant in 1890 or 1901 or 1920—that person does not so much bring definitive clarity to the entangled history of Jews and Palestinians as they successfully and soothingly draw a line to mark their own zone of interest and where it ends. And while we all talk, carefully curating our shibboleths, presenting them to others and waiting for them to reveal themselves as with us or against us—while we do all that, bloody murder.

And now here we are, almost at the end of this little stream of words. We’ve arrived at the point at which I must state clearly “where I stand on the issue,” that is, which particular political settlement should, in my own, personal view, occur on the other side of a ceasefire. This is the point wherein—by my stating of a position—you are at once liberated into the simple pleasure of placing me firmly on one side or the other, putting me over there with those who lisp or those who don’t, with the Ephraimites, or with the people of Gilead. Yes, this is the point at which I stake my rhetorical flag in that fantastical, linguistical, conceptual, unreal place—built with words—where rapes are minimized as needs be, and the definition of genocide quibbled over, where the killing of babies is denied, and the precision of drones glorified, where histories are reconsidered or rewritten or analogized or simply ignored, and “Jew” and “colonialist” are synonymous, and “Palestinian” and “terrorist” are synonymous, and language is your accomplice and alibi in all of it. Language euphemized, instrumentalized, and abused, put to work for your cause and only for your cause, so that it does exactly and only what you want it to do. Let me make it easy for you. Put me wherever you want: misguided socialist, toothless humanist, naïve novelist, useful idiot, apologist, denier, ally, contrarian, collaborator, traitor, inexcusable coward. It is my view that my personal views have no more weight than an ear of corn in this particular essay. The only thing that has any weight in this particular essay is the dead. ♦

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Class of 2024, It’s Not in Your Head: The Job Market Is Tough

By Peter Coy

Opinion Writer

Here is a brutal fact for the college class of 2024: There aren’t enough college-level jobs out there for all of you. Some of you will snag them. Others will have to settle for jobs that don’t require a college education. And history shows that many of those who start out in a job that doesn’t require a college education are still toiling in that kind of job a decade later.

One mystery is why college grads’ lifetime earnings are so much higher than those of people with just a high school degree or less, if indeed so many college grads don’t do college-graduate-level work. I’ll get to that in a minute. I’ll also finish on a slightly hopeful note.

I invite college seniors to tell me about your job searches and how you feel about what you learned or wish you had learned in college by filling out the form below. Parents and employers are also welcome to write in. (And forward it to others who you think would be interested in contributing by using the gift link in the article’s share tools.) I hope to feature some of your responses in a future newsletter.

Fifty-two percent of college grads are underemployed a year after graduation, meaning they are working in jobs that don’t require the degrees they earned, according to a February report by the Burning Glass Institute, which analyzes the job market, and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work.

Five years out from school, about 88 percent of those who are underemployed are “severely” underemployed, the report said. These are the top five jobs they’re doing: information and record clerk, supervisor of sales, retail sales worker, sales representative in services, and secretary and administrative assistant.

“Even a decade after graduation, 45 percent of graduates are underemployed,” the report said.

The best way to avoid underemployment is to pick a major that employers want and to complete an internship, Burning Glass found. If you didn’t do those things and you’re a few weeks from commencement without a job lined up … um, potentially not good.

I dug a little deeper into this rather depressing report by interviewing the president of the Burning Glass Institute, Matt Sigelman, along with other labor market experts.

The first thing I asked Sigelman is whether the United States is generating too many college graduates, oversupplying the market and setting up a lot of graduates for disappointment.

“In the immediate term, it’s hard to conclude otherwise,” he said. He added that the supply-demand imbalance has gotten worse in the past four years because the strongest growth has been in jobs that have lower educational qualifications.

In the longer term, Sigelman said, “I do believe that America benefits from having a highly educated work force.” He added: “Demand for talent is not fixed. The center of gravity of our economy is increasingly in the knowledge economy. Jobs follow talent.”

That makes sense. Over time, employers should seize the opportunity to profit by reconfiguring jobs to make full use of the talent that’s currently being underused. They’ve been finding ways to put brains to work since the start of the Industrial Revolution, a time when even a high school diploma was rare and special.

In the here and now, you’re in pretty good shape if you studied computer science, engineering, mathematics or math-intensive business fields such as finance and accounting, according to Burning Glass’s research. Education and health majors are also sought after.

Not so in demand: graduates in public safety and security, recreation and wellness studies and general business fields such as marketing.

Employers are desperate to hire accounting majors, Michael Steinitz, the senior executive director of professional talent solutions at Robert Half International, a human resources consulting firm, told me.

New college grads in general are attractive to employers because they tend to be tech savvy, they cost less and they can be trained for whatever needs employers have, Steinitz said.

Underemployment of college grads is not a new problem. If anything, grads’ prospects are better than usual because of the low overall unemployment rate (3.8 percent in March). In an informal survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 83 percent of employers expected to increase or maintain the rate of hiring of new grads this spring, roughly the same as last year but down from 2022, when employers were hiring aggressively coming out of the pandemic.

I want to come back to the paradox that pay for college grads is relatively high even though they appear to be in surplus. I think the biggest reason is that the average numbers for college grads are pulled up a lot by those who make it big.

There are some blue-collar jobs, such as truck driver and plumber, that pay well but have a flat lifetime earnings profile — that is, a 55-year-old truck driver doesn’t make a lot more than a 25-year-old one. In contrast, white-collar jobs that require college degrees tend to have more growth potential in know-how and thus in earnings.

“College acts as a gateway to professional occupations, which offer more opportunity for wage growth through on-the-job learning,” David Deming, an economist at Harvard’s Kennedy School, writes in the abstract of a new working paper.

The classes of ’25, ’26 and beyond could have it rougher because artificial intelligence could come to perform some of the functions of new hires, knocking out the lowest rungs on the career ladder.

The (partial) solution is to develop a mix of skills that’s hard for A.I. to duplicate. The most successful grads have a combination of technical skills and what might be broadly called people skills, including the ability to communicate in print and in person, motivate and work in teams. Examples from Sigelman: data scientists who are good at writing and humanities majors in marketing who learn structured query language.

“If you were to design universities from scratch” with employers’ needs in mind, Deming told me, they would focus a lot more on teaching teamwork and the broad range of skills that are needed in the workplace.

Such ideas are of little use to today’s jobless seniors, of course. Then again, there will be many opportunities to overcome a poor start. Deming is guardedly optimistic, despite Burning Glass’s warnings. Life is long. He did a quick calculation for me, based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, that about 60 percent of the college grads who start in a non-college-level job find their way into a managerial or professional occupation eventually.

“It’s definitely better to get a good first job than not to get a good first job,” Deming said. But “the jury is out on this idea that if you don’t get a good job right out of college, all is lost.”

2024 college grads, how’s that job market looking?

If you expect to graduate from college this spring or winter, Times Opinion wants to hear from you.

Outlook: Consumers Are Hurting

“The savings rate is falling, and interest paid on mounting debt is spiraling higher, suggesting consumers may be nearing the breaking point,” Dana Peterson, the chief economist of the Conference Board, a business-supported research group, wrote on Friday. She added, “Our call for slower real G.D.P. growth over the second and third quarters still makes sense.” Higher-than-expected inflation has made interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve to buoy the economy less likely, Peterson wrote.

Quote of the Day

“Complex adaptive systems have the property that if you run them — by just letting the mathematical variable of ‘time’ go forward — they’ll naturally progress from chaotic, disorganized, undifferentiated, independent states to organized, highly differentiated and highly interdependent states.”

— J. Doyne Farmer in “The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution,” edited by John Brockman (1995)

Peter Coy is a writer for the Opinion section of The Times, covering economics and business. Email him at [email protected] . @ petercoy

Can you trust 2024 election polls on Donald Trump and Joe Biden? Here's how to cut through the noise.

Love them or hate them, political polls aren’t going anywhere. As the 2024 presidential election kicks into high gear, the internet will be flooded with surveys tracking the horserace between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Keeping track of the numbers can be daunting: Who's ahead in national polls? Who's ahead in state-level surveys? Figuring out which numbers to pay attention to – and whether any of it actually matters – can be even more challenging.  

Luckily, the USA TODAY Network has got you covered. Here’s a refresher on why polls matter, whether you can trust them and what to look out for this year.  

What do polls tell us about the election?  

Think of polls as quick snapshots rather than crystal ball readings.  

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

They don’t necessarily predict the results of an election. Rather, they’re used to gauge how people feel about a race during a specific period. Pollsters may ask questions about the future, but surveys have more to say about the voters' current temperature.

Polls also tend to have a short shelf life. Public opinion can shift quickly, meaning that the results of polls are often only a reliable measure of the state of a race during the time they were taken. 

A survey taken two months ago won’t reflect the state of a race today, and a poll fielded tomorrow won’t tell us who is going to win the presidential election in November.

However, that doesn't mean polls captured at the beginning of a campaign cycle don't matter. The insights from early polls tease out the major issues voters are thinking about that could shape the race.  They also help trace the trendlines of how a candidate is performing – whether they’re gaining traction, stagnating or losing support. 

Pollster John Zogby likened the importance of looking at early polling to checking benchmarks while trying to reach an exercise goal.  

“Am I going to get on the scale the day before to see how I did?” said Zogby. “No, I get on the scale every so often to say what am I doing? How am I doing? What am I doing right?” 

Conducting polls early in a race and often throughout the course of an election allows political scientists, journalists and the public to track trends and spot major inflection points in campaigns.  

Beware of two-candidate polls  

Not all polls are built the same. The way a survey is designed, from how questions are worded to the demographics of the participants chosen, can influence the accuracy of its results.  

David Paleologos , director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said political polls are most accurate when they replicate as closely as possible the questions and options voters will see on their ballot.

For instance, he said that polls on the 2024 presidential election should include choices beyond the two major party candidates – Trump and Biden – because most ballots will contain third-party and independent candidates who will garner some support.  

“If the polls only show a binary choice, between Trump or Biden, you're not getting the full picture,” Paleologos said.

He pointed to close margins in critical swing states, including Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia, during the 2020 election as an example. Trump lost in those states by fewer votes than Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen received.  

If Jorgensen had not been in the race, the results in those battlegrounds, and possibly the outcome of the election nationally, could have looked markedly different, Paleologos said.

The Libertarian Party hasn’t yet chosen its candidate for the 2024 election. But early polls that include the party and other independent candidates as options are likely to more accurately show how disaffected voters are looking at their options, he explained.

Suffolk University and USA TODAY have a partnership collecting polling data and insights.

Who's being polled?

Another factor that can impact a poll’s accuracy is the sample population surveyed. Polls randomly select a small sample of people designed to represent the broader views and attitudes of a larger population. But every organization uses different methodologies to create their samples.  

For instance, some election polls take the temperature of the general population, while others only include active voters or likely voters. They also may weigh demographic information, such as the ratio of Democrats to Republicans, differently.  

In the 2024 race, Zogby, author of the forthcoming book "Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should," suggested that the most accurate polls include only likely voters, the pool of people already planning to cast a ballot in November.

“A likely voter today may not be a likely voter on October 31,” Zogby said, but capturing these voters allows political scientists to better understand the Americans who will choose the next president.

Should I pay attention to national polls or state surveys?

Pollsters were lambasted in 2016 for projecting that then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win the election over Trump.

But national polls , which are supposed to reflect the popular vote across all states, were technically right. Overall, Clinton won nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump.  

So, what went wrong? Many analysts overstated Clinton’s lead in national polls, and few organizations conducted state-specific polls in former Democratic strongholds, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, that Trump was able to capture. His wins in those states ultimately landed him the electoral college victory.  

That’s not to say that national polls are inferior to state polls, but you should think of them differently.

“National polls are more valuable to understand what the issues are impacting likely voters,” Paleologos said, while state polls better represent the horserace.

He and other polling experts told USA TODAY that Biden needs to lead Trump by three to four percentage points in a national poll to be tied with the Republican in the electoral college . That's because large liberal-leaning states like California and New York tend to tilt the results of national polls in Democrats’ favor, whereas the "electoral college these days skews Republican," Zogby said.

In other words, a national poll showing Biden and Trump tied would tell a similar story to a swing state poll that shows Trump leading Biden by a few points.  But generally, experts warn against comparing national and state surveys, which are built off of different methodologies, against one another.

Can you trust the polls?  

Mostly. Because polls are analyzing a myriad of shifting factors, they'll always have some level of uncertainty baked in, regardless of the specific election. Organizations also don’t collaborate on what states they plan to poll, or when, which means there’s always potential for blind spots, like in 2016. 

Some political observers rely on poll averages, such as a tally from Real Clear Politics. These are generally reliable, but they can miss trends.

But when interpreted properly, polls often provide an accurate portrait of the state of an election. 

“There are folks that will say, ‘Oh, you missed the election by two points,’” Zogby said. "Well, two points – that showed the ballpark of what was going to happen.” 

And the more polls there are, the easier it is to evaluate the race.