examples of supplemental essays

Sample Supplemental Essay for College Admissions: Why This College?

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Most college applicants fail to put adequate time into a supplemental college essay. The Common Application's personal essay allows a student to write a single essay for multiple colleges. The supplemental college essay, however, needs to be different for every application. Thus, it's tempting to dash off a generic and vague piece that can be used at multiple schools, resulting in a  weak essay .

Don't make this mistake. Your "Why This College" essay must be specific, demonstrating a high level of interest in and commitment to this particular school. To better understand how to ace this supplemental essay prompt, let's analyze a sample essay written for Oberlin College .

The essay prompt reads:

"Given your interests, values, and goals, explain why Oberlin College will help you grow (as a student and a person) during your undergraduate years."

Sample Supplemental Essay

I visited 18 colleges over the past year, yet Oberlin is the one place that most spoke to my interests. Early in my college search I learned that I prefer a liberal arts college to a larger university. The collaboration between the faculty and undergraduate students, the sense of community, and the flexible, interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum are all important to me. Also, my high school experience was greatly enriched by the diversity of the student body, and I am impressed by Oberlin’s rich history and its current efforts connected to inclusiveness and equality. To say the least, I’d be proud to say I attended the first coeducational college in the country.

I plan to major in Environmental Studies at Oberlin. After my campus tour , I took some extra time to visit the Adam Joseph Lewis Center. It’s an amazing space and the students I chatted with spoke highly of their professors. I became truly interested in issues of sustainability during my volunteer work in the Hudson River Valley, and everything I’ve learned about Oberlin makes it seem the ideal place for me to continue exploring and building upon those interests. I am also impressed by Oberlin’s Creativity and Leadership Project. I’ve been a bit of an entrepreneur ever since second grade when I made a dollar producing and performing The Runaway Bunny for my extended family. I’m drawn to a program that supports the move from classroom learning to creative hands-on, real-world applications.

Finally, as the rest of my application clearly demonstrates, music is an important part of my life. I’ve been playing the trumpet since fourth grade, and I hope to continue performing and developing my skills throughout college. What better place than Oberlin to do so? With more performances than days in the year and a large group of talented musicians in the Conservatory of Music, Oberlin is an ideal place for exploring my love of both music and the environment.

Understanding the Essay Prompt

To understand the strength of the essay, we must first look at the prompt: the admissions officers at Oberlin want you to "explain why Oberlin College will help you grow." This sounds straightforward, but be careful. You're not being asked to explain how college, in general, will help you grow, nor are you being asked how attending a small liberal arts school will help you grow. The admissions offers want to hear how  Oberlin , in particular, will help you grow, so the essay needs to include specific information about Oberlin College.

A strong "Why This College" essay will make a case for why the school in question is a good fit for the student. The case should be made by connecting facts about the school—unique opportunities, educational values, campus culture, et cetera—with the student's goals, values, and interests.

From the Admissions Desk

"We want to see [in the "Why This School" essay] that students understand the unique educational model at High Point University. We know that students have access to more information than ever before and that most colleges focus on the classroom experience. We want students who desire 25% of their time to be experiential ... who want to grow as people of character with strong values and to fully immerse themselves in our life skills education."

–Kerr Ramsay Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions, High Point University

A good way to see if you've responded to the prompt well is to swap out the name of the college you're applying to with the name of any other college. If the essay still makes sense once you do a global replace of the school name, you haven't written a good supplemental essay.

A Critique of the Supplemental Essay

The sample essay certainly succeeds on this front. If we were to substitute "Kenyon College" for "Oberlin College" in the essay, the essay would not make sense. The details in the essay are unique to Oberlin. Demonstrated interest can play a meaningful role in the admissions process, and this applicant has clearly demonstrated that she knows Oberlin well and her interest in the school is sincere.

Let's look at some of the essay's strengths:

• The first paragraph makes several important points. First of all, we learn that the applicant has visited Oberlin. This may not seem like a big deal, but you'd be surprised how many students apply to a large number of colleges based on nothing but the schools' reputations. Also, the student notes that she wants to go to a  liberal arts college , not a larger  university . This information isn't really specific to Oberlin, but it does show that she has thought about the options available to her. The final point in this first paragraph gets more specific—the applicant is familiar with Oberlin and knows the school's socially progressive history.
• The second paragraph is really the heart of this essay—the applicant wants to major in Environmental Studies, and she is clearly impressed with the program at Oberlin. She has visited the Environmental Studies building, and she knows of some of the unique opportunities offered at Oberlin. She has even talked with Oberlin students. This paragraph can't help but make a favorable impression on the admissions folks—the applicant is drawn to Oberlin, and she clearly knows exactly  why  she likes Oberlin.
• The final paragraph adds another important dimension to the application. Not only does the student find the Environmental Studies program attractive, but her love of music makes Oberlin an even better match. Oberlin has a top-rated music conservatory, so the applicant's dual love of music and Environmental Studies makes Oberlin a natural match for her.

Admissions officers can't help but feel that Oberlin is a great match for this applicant. She knows the school well, and her interests and goals line up perfectly with Oberlin's strengths. This short essay will certainly be a positive piece of her application.

A Final Word About Supplemental Essays

The content of your supplemental essay is extremely important, and poor decisions on this front can lead to a weak supplemental essay . But content isn't everything. You also need to focus on the presentation of your ideas. Make sure your essay is entirely free of any grammatical errors, and be sure to avoid common stylistic problems . The admissions officers need to conclude that you are sincerely interested in attending their school and that you are an excellent writer.

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How to Write a Supplemental Essay for College Applications

Discover tips for tackling writing supplements, and read a sample essay from a current student.

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A supplemental essay gives you an opportunity to tell the admissions committee about something you weren't able to cover in your main essay.

Prospective students are usually aware that they must write an essay as part of the college application process . But they may not know that some schools will ask for additional writing samples such as a supplemental essay.

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These writing supplements are usually shorter than the main college essay , but they're no less important, experts say.

"Every word counts in getting your story across," says Deborah Davis, president and founder of Davis Education & Career Consultants LLC, based in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Some colleges ask for just one supplemental essay while others may require several.

For example, Wake Forest University in North Carolina had six additional questions for prospective students to respond to on its 2020 undergraduate admissions application. However, a couple of the questions asked applicants to write lists – for instance, a personal top 10 list – rather than a full paragraph or two.

Supplemental essay prompts come in all shapes and sizes. In some cases, schools let applicants choose from several options. For instance, the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill 's fall 2019-20 application included four prompts – such as "What do you hope will change about the place where you live?" – from which prospective students had to select two.

Davis says two of the most common prompts she's seen are "What do you want to major in?" and "Tell us about a favorite activity."

While word counts for supplemental essays vary, they tend to be limited.

Wake Forest has a 150-word limit for each of its supplements, says Tamara Blocker, the university's senior associate dean of admissions. UNC caps applicants' short answer responses at 250 words each, according to the school's website.

In contrast, The Common Application , a platform that allows students to apply to multiple colleges at once, has a suggested 650-word limit for the main essay and 250 words for others.

These types of written responses are more like vignettes or snapshots, rather than full-blown essays, says Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions at UNC.

"I think – I hope, anyway – that students feel the opportunity maybe in the shorter responses to worry less about form and just be a little more open with us," he says.

To help prospective students familiarize themselves with supplemental essays, U.S. News obtained an example from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Ryan Sheehan from Wallingford, Pennsylvania, wrote the short piece and is a computer science major in the class of 2021.

As part of his application, Sheehan responded to the following prompt: "There is a Quaker saying: 'Let your life speak.' Describe the environment in which you were raised – your family, home, neighborhood, or community – and how it influenced the person you are today."

"As the son of two journalists, I have grown up under a lifelong inquisition: How is your room such a mess? Can you please stop chasing the cat? Will you come down from the tree already? Granted, those are all from this past year, but the point still stands. Like any good journalists, my parents have also always had a propensity for uncovering the truth. On the third night that I had my license, I decided to go to the library to study. Before 15 minutes had passed, I noticed the librarian peering at me through the shelves before quickly averting her eyes and whispering, "He's here," into her phone. Even so, regardless of how many spies they've hired over the years, I have always looked up to my parents immensely. However, I have found my inherited inquisitiveness to be a trait most useful in a place far from the realm of reporting: the robotics lab. After four years of spending almost more time in the lab than at home, I have learned that nothing is more important than asking the right questions. As a programmer, I need to be able to communicate with my builders. Come press time, if I don't interview them properly, our robot will invariably end up as a hunk of unresponsive aluminum. To make a machine, the team must work as one. So although I may be writing source code instead of a breaking story, I am glad I had such nosy parents after all."

Karen Richardson, former dean of undergraduate admissions and enrollment management at Tufts who is now dean of admission at Princeton University in New Jersey, explained why she liked this response: "This is a great essay because, in just 250 words, it shows rather than tells the reader who Ryan is and the things that matter to him. It gives us a sense of his family life and academic interests, and it even shows us he has a sense of humor. As an admissions committee, we learned a lot about Ryan in just one paragraph."

Here are five additional tips from admissions officers to help prospective college students craft strong supplemental essays.

Answer the Question

This may seem obvious, but applicants should carefully read a supplemental essay prompt and make sure they understand what it is asking before answering it, Richardson says.

Prospective students may want to reuse an essay they wrote for another college, but that doesn't always work because supplemental questions tend to be more tailored to an individual institution, she says.

Start With an Outline

Applicants may have their own writing process, but Davis encourages those she works with to create outlines. She says prospective students should brainstorm the personal qualities, skills or experiences they would like to convey in their supplemental essays.

Don't Repeat Yourself

Supplemental essays are a chance for applicants to give more information to an admissions committee to further show why they are a good fit for a school, Davis says. So prospective students should make sure they aren't repeating something that's already been covered in their main essay.

Narrow Your Focus

Probably the biggest mistake applicants make in supplemental essays is choosing a topic that's too big, Farmer says. For example, he says prospective students may attempt to settle a complex political issue in just one paragraph.

"I think it's better to do something small and do it well than to do something big and skate over the surface," he says.

Maintain Your Voice

It's a good idea for applicants to ask another person for editing help, but too much input can be detrimental to an essay, experts say. If lots of people – teachers, parents, peers – read and weigh in on an essay, they can weaken how clearly a student's voice comes through in the writing.

"It's great to read something that sounds like it was written by an 18-year-old and not by a machine," Farmer says, "or by someone who's trying to be prematurely middle-aged."

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Supplemental Essays Guide: How to Write, Tips & Examples

Reviewed by:

Former Admissions Committee Member, Columbia University

Reviewed: 9/11/23

Writing stand-out supplemental essays may be your ticket into your dream school. Follow along for our complete guide on writing perfect supplemental essays for college.

If you’re working on supplemental essays, you’ve already spent countless hours perfecting your application. However, even the perfect application must be followed by stellar supplementals to get you into your dream school. That’s right, supplementals are a highly important piece of the application process - so how can you perfect yours? 

In this complete guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about writing excellent supplemental essays, including examples from well-written essays , tips for common essay prompts, and each possible length. To top it all off, we’ve also included answers to the most frequently asked questions about writing stand-out supplemental essays.

Let’s get started!

What are Supplemental Essays? 

Supplemental essays are additional writing samples that you submit along with the rest of your college application. Many high-ranking schools ask for these essays, as they are intended to be more specific than your personal statement. It’s a chance for you to further demonstrate why you are a good fit for the school you’re applying to.

How Important are Supplemental Essays?

In short, supplemental essays are an extremely valuable part of your application. Your application allows schools to see the base of your work ethic through numbers (grades, extracurriculars, awards, and more), but it doesn’t give any indication of your personality. 

These essays are your first opportunity to give your university an idea of who you are and what you are passionate about. 

Excellent essays can tip the scales in your favor, especially for highly competitive schools where most candidates have excellent grades. An in-depth, well-written essay can set your application apart from others.

What are Colleges Looking For in Supplemental Essays? 

In supplemental essays, colleges look for honesty, specificity, and the ability to answer the prompt accurately and succinctly. We will look at several common prompts that colleges often use: 

• “Why This Major?”
• Community/diversity
• Extracurricular

Using these prompts helps college admissions get a better idea of who you are as an applicant.

How to Write Different Supplemental Essay Prompts

Every college has a unique set of prompts they distribute to their applicants each year. However, most prompts follow core formats. Here are some of the most common types of supplemental essays and how to write them.

The “Why Us?” Essay

The “Why Us?” or "Why This School?” essay is one of the most common prompts in circulation. Top schools such as Brown, Columbia, and Cornell have all been known to ask applicants to answer this prompt as part of their application. So, how do you write the “Why Us?” essay? Let’s talk about it. 

When a college asks you why you want to go there, the admissions committee wants to know a few things:

• The specific things about this school that appeal to you (have you done your research?)
• How you will contribute to this school’s college life
• How attending this school will help you achieve short and long-term goals

With this prompt, avoid listing reasons you want to go to the school unless you are directly instructed to do so. This is an opportunity to show the admissions committee how much their school matters to you, what programs and courses most interest you, and how the school will help you develop your passion and achieve your goals. 

You should do thorough research on the school and consider what sets it apart from other colleges on your list . Avoid providing general reasons that could be said about any other college. 

Writing this essay is your chance to showcase why you are passionate about attending this specific school and why it matters to you. Finally, conclude your essay by explaining how and why attending this school will help your long-term goals. 

‍ “Why Us?” Essay Sample from Columbia University:

“Computer science is at the core of my academic passions and my life ambitions. What I value in life is being around brilliant technologists. At Columbia, I have worked with and befriended the most driven and gifted programmers I’ve ever met. In January, I formed a team with three Columbia freshmen for MIT’s annual strategy-game-playing artificial intelligence competition. Ben, Ryan, Koh and I spent the month reviewing matches, debating approaches and tweaking our models. More than once we coded through the night. Their caliber was clear in the subtle insights that their multi-disciplinary backgrounds gave them and they gave me something to aspire to.

I have many interests that lie outside of my intended major but that I want to continue to pursue, and Columbia provides an environment for those diverse passions. Recently, while at a Columbia math club meeting with Ben, I ran into a political science major, Mathieu. He was elated to point out the insights that a love of math granted him in his courses and his conviction encouraged me to explore the peculiar intersection of the two fields.

I love teachers who love to teach. At Columbia, I’ve seen faculty who have a love for what they do and who care about students. While touring, I sat in on a quantum mechanics lecture. Professor Norman Christ strode into the room at eight on-the-dot and jumped into a discussion of WKB complex value approximation. For three straight hours, he guided us through the intricate world of QM without any notes. His enthusiasm brightened that drizzling Monday morning. That I could follow the lecture at all is a testament to his lucid explanations and extraordinary knowledge. When I came to him with questions afterward, he helped me truly understand a topic that initially felt years out of reach.”

Why this is a successful essay: In this essay , the writer starts by talking about their major and how Columbia provides an excellent program. They continue to add how they could positively impact Columbia if accepted. Take note of how the writer lists their key topic at the beginning of each paragraph and then connects Columbia to each topic. 

This student also mentioned that they enjoyed a Columbia professor's lecture, which is an excellent way of showing their deep interest in the school. Showing in your essay that you are passionate about the program and that you’ve done your research can be a point in your favor. 

The “Why This Major?” Essay

Although this prompt is very similar to the “Why Us?” essay, your answer should focus entirely on why you’re passionate about your degree. Think of this essay as an opportunity to tell the story of how you developed your passion. Try creating a timeline before you start writing to help organize your ideas. It should look something like this:

1. The first time I thought about pursuing this major was: __________________                              

2. I started to get more serious about pursuing this passion when:___________________

3. I’m now applying to this program so that in the future, I can: ___________________

Creating a timeline can help you easily convey how important your major is to you and the journey you’ve taken to build upon your passion. 

You can also include, if it applies, what specific things about your school’s program that drew you to your current selection. However, the main focus of this essay should be how you developed your passion for the subject and what you want to do in this field later on.

"Why This Major" Essay Sample from Yale:

“Literature and anthropology are telescopes into the past; philosophy, a prism into the mind. I want to ask the hard questions: Do I have free will? Is meaning lost in translation? Is there eternal truth? What is an “I”? Am I my mind, body or something more? Literature is an empathetic account of the past, anthropology a scientific documentation of human lives. I want to find commonality in lives separated by time and space, find meaning within them, partake in the collective memory of humanity, and interrogate what it means to be human.”

Why this essay works: 

In this short essay example from a Literature and Anthropology student from Yale, the student gets straight to the point. Demonstrating the questions they have that they hope to answer throughout their education is an excellent way to show that you’ve given your major a lot of thought. 

They’ve also captured the true essence of their major in the last sentence by stating they want to “partake in the collective memory of humanity” and “interrogate what it means to be human.” Whatever major you choose, write honestly about what calls you to the subject and demonstrate that you have a thorough understanding of the genre of material you’ll be studying. 

The Adversity Essay

As one of the most challenging essay prompts, the adversity essay presents students with the uncomfortable task of recalling a difficult life experience and explaining how they overcame it. 

For some, choosing an instance of adversity can be the most challenging part of this prompt. Keep in mind that adversity looks different to everyone. Your story doesn’t have to be overly tragic to write a good adversity essay; you simply need to approach your issue from a place of growth. 

One of the main mistakes applicants make when writing the adversity essay is thinking that their adversity story needs to be overly tragic or complex. Instead of focusing on the actual adversity, your essay should mainly focus on the steps you took to overcome the adversity and learn valuable lessons moving forward. 

If a school asks you to write an adversity essay, the admissions committee wants to know how you handle a challenge. If you buckle under pressure, you may not be able to handle the intensity of a heavy workload. 

Therefore, schools want to know that you are capable of facing challenges head-on and have the capacity to learn from your mistakes. 

Adversity Essay Sample from Harvard University:

“When I was a freshman in high school, I didn't care about school or my education. I couldn't see a future where it mattered whether I knew how to say 'how are you' in Spanish or how to use the Pythagorean theorem. Because I couldn't see the point of these classes, I found myself disconnected from the high school experience as a whole, which resulted in low grades. My parents expressed their disappointment in me, but I still couldn't bring myself to care; I was feeling disconnected from my family, too.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I was depressed. I stopped spending time with my friends and stopped enjoying the things I used to enjoy. I was feeling hopeless. How could I get through three and a half more years of high school if I couldn't even get through a semester? I couldn't stand the thought of feeling this way for so long – at least it felt so long at the time.

After a few failed tests, one of my teachers approached me after class one day. She said she also noticed a difference in my demeanor in the last few weeks and asked if I was okay. At that moment, I realized that no one had asked me that in a long time. I didn't feel okay, so I told her that. She asked me what was wrong, and I told her that I was feeling disconnected from school and classes and just about everything at that point.

My teacher suggested I visit my guidance counselor. So the next day, during study hall, I got a pass to visit with my guidance counselor and told her I was feeling disconnected from classes and school. She asked me what my interests were and suggested that I take an elective like art or music or a vocational tech class like culinary arts or computer coding. I told her that I wasn't sure what I was interested in at this point and she told me to take a couple of classes to see what I like. At her persistence, I signed up for art and computer coding.

It turns out art was not my thing. But it also turns out that computer coding is my thing, and I am not sure I would have realized that had I not gone to see my guidance counselor at my teacher's recommendation. After taking computer coding and other similar classes, I had something to look forward to during school. So even when I still dreaded taking Spanish and Geometry, I knew I could look forward to an enjoyable class later in the day. Having something to look forward to really helped me raise my grades because I started caring about my future and the possibility of applying for college to study computer science.

The best thing that I took away from this experience is that I can't always control what happens to me, especially as a minor, but I can control how I handle things. In full transparency: there were still bad days and bad grades, but by taking action and adding a couple of classes into my schedule that I felt passionate about, I started feeling connected to school again. From there, my overall experience with school – and life in general – improved 100%."

Why this is a good essay: In this essay , the applicant focuses on personal development. They begin by addressing their low grades and poor mental health at a younger age and how the experience affected them. The main focus of the essay, however, is how they found the motivation to get back on track and improve their grades. 

The student has taken this essay opportunity to not only explain the poor grades that Harvard will see from freshman year but has also proven that they have the ability to pull through when times get tough. Remember, the adversity essay should focus mainly on how you’ve learned and grown from a negative experience rather than focusing on the experience itself. 

Community/Diversity Essay

Essay prompts that ask about your experiences in your community help colleges to better understand your unique perspective. Many schools aim to cultivate a diverse environment to enrich the student experience and make sure students from all different backgrounds feel welcome on campus. 

Diversity can relate to your ethnicity, culture, birthplace, health, socioeconomic status, interests, talents, values, and many other things. There is no “correct experience” when it comes to choosing a topic here. In this essay, you have the opportunity to celebrate your unique perspective.

Think about experiences that are important to your identity. For example, you could write about your hometown, a family tradition, a community event, a generational story, or whatever feels most authentic to you. 

Keep this essay authentic; avoid fabricating a story or using someone else's experience. This story needs to come completely from you and let your school get some more information on who you are.

Community/Diversity Essay Sample from Duke University:

“The pitter patter of droplets, the sweet smell that permeates throughout the air, the dark grey clouds that fill the sky, shielding me from the otherwise intense gaze of the sun, create a landscape unparalleled by any natural beauty. I have gazed upon the towering cliffs of Yosemite, stood next to Niagara Falls as the water roars, succumbing to the power of gravity, and seen the beaches of Mexico basked in moonlight, yet none of these wonders compares to the simple beauty of an Arizona rainstorm. To me, our rain represents more than humidity and darkness; its rarity gives it beauty. The uncertainty of when the next day of rain will come compels me to slow down, and enjoy the moment.

Out of the three realms of time; past, present, and future, the present is the only one we can experience, and I take advantage of every moment I have. When I pause my running to enjoy a sunset that dazzles the sky with brilliant colors of purple and orange, when I touch my brush to a canvas and focus on my movements in the present, when I drive home after a long day of improving our robot, and decide to drive around my neighborhood to finish “Garota de Ipanema”, which just popped up from my playlist of 700 songs, I am taking advantage of the moment.

So next time it rains, step outside. Close your eyes. Hear the symphony of millions of water droplets. And enjoy the moment.”

Why this is a successful essay: This essay is an excellent example of pulling a unique experience from your life and expressing its importance. The applicant tells a compelling story about their unique perspective on rain in Arizona and does an excellent job of expressing how special the seemingly mundane event is to them. 

The language used here is visually descriptive, which makes the reader feel as if we are experiencing the event with the writer. This is an excellent way to get the admissions committee to feel connected to your story and get a better understanding of who you are and what you enjoy doing in life. 

The Extracurricular Essay

Many schools are interested in how you spend your time outside of the classroom. Extracurricular essays are quite common as supplemental essays, although students often struggle with how to make an entire essay out of their extracurricular activities. That’s why it’s important to brainstorm and create a story.

Think of a problem that arose while you were participating in one of your extracurricular activities, such as:

• Your sports team lost an important player
• You were injured during a dance recital
• Your music group needed funding 
• Your local soup kitchen was at risk of being shut down, etc.

The problem you choose can be big or small as long as it lends itself to a story. Think about the problem and how you took steps to solve it with your team or other members of your community. 

Use your extracurricular essay to show how your passion and motivation extend beyond the classroom. You can choose any activity to write about, as long as it was not during regular school hours or related to a specific course. 

Extracurricular Essay Sample from Yale:

“ Haunted romanticism, ravaged gaze, desperation bordering on lunacy, Saturn Devouring His Son first caught my attention as a bored nine-year-old wandering around a museum, and once again as a high-school student, after catching a glimpse of it in a textbook. 

Because after looking at angelic frescos after more Church frescos, I could not stop myself from flipping back to the tiny printing of this unholy piece. I sought to discover the story behind it—what caused this artist to create something so raw and naked, in the age of staid royal family portraits?

I became immersed in unraveling each bit of the story, how Goya had long transitioned from a royal painter, to a harsh, but veiled critic of society, the desolation that occurred during the French occupation of Spain, the corruption of Charles IV— who was really only a puppet ruler to Godoy. I learned how kingdoms rose and fell—and rose again, how art is unafraid to capture the seditious attitudes of the common people, and how it has endured to teach us of past mistakes.

I fell in love with dissecting the messages from the past, and discovering how we still have not listened to them.”

Why this essay is successful: 

The prompt for this Yale extracurricular essay was “Write about something that you love to do,” and the writer has certainly delivered. Here, the writer goes into detail about why they enjoy going to art museums outside of school. They’ve kept their essay focused on the meanings behind the paintings, giving the reader a deeper understanding of not only what fascinates them - but why it does.

The real key to an extracurricular essay is showing your passions outside of school. There is no right answer; you should simply focus on what interests you and explain why. Try to make the reader feel as if they are there with you. Think about the smells, the sights, and the feelings that surround your extracurricular interest and include them in your essay. 

College Supplemental Essay Length 

All of the essay types above come in different lengths. Some essays will ask only 150 words or less, while some have no word limit at all. Here, we’ll go over how to adjust your writing depending on your word count. 

Short Essay

There is a broad misconception that writing a short essay is “less work,” which we are unfortunately here to squash. Writing shorter-form essays (150 to 500 words) can be more challenging because you have less room to make your point, and your writing must be concise. 

To write an excellent short-form essay, start by brainstorming your ideas and move on to writing once you have a solid idea of the main points you want to include. Avoid fluff, repeating the question, reciting your resume, and run-on sentences. The best short essays are honest and to the point. 

If your essay is too long when you’ve finished writing, go through each sentence and ask yourself: “Could I tell this story without this sentence?” If yes, cut it completely. If you answered no, find ways to subtract unnecessary words. Having a friend help you edit is a great way to find out which parts are making the text longer without lending anything to the story. 

Medium Essay 

A medium essay is a sweet spot. Typically, a length of one to three pages flows easily and allows the writer to include all necessary information without repeating themselves or taking anything away. 

Because of this, make sure not to go over or under the word count. Most students do not struggle to keep their writing within these parameters, so it’s important to respect them. 

Although you have more room in a medium-length essay, your writing should still be concise and flow well without including excess information. It’s always a good idea to have a teacher, friend, or family member look over your story. 

Make sure that when they edit, they are looking for things like grammatical errors, run-on sentences, and unnecessary information. They shouldn’t take too much out of your essay because you don’t want the voice of the essay to change. 

Long Essay 

When tasked with writing a long essay (three pages or more), it can be challenging to continuously provide fresh information and avoid repetition. However, repetition and dragging sentences is the main thing you’ll want to avoid in a long-form essay. To do this, you should rely heavily on planning and your thesis statement.

Your thesis statement sets up your article, allowing you to break the information into parts and tackle each step individually. Brainstorming before you start writing is critical as it ensures you have enough relevant information to fill out the full length of your paper. 

How to Write School-Specific Supplemental Essays? 

It’s a good idea to tailor your supplemental essays to match the expectations of the school you’re applying to. Here are some guides on how to write outstanding essays for specific schools: 

• How to Write the Harvard Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Vanderbilt Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the University of Michigan Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Duke Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Princeton Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Northwestern University Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the UPenn Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the University of Washington Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Boston College Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Cornell Supplemental Essays
• How to Write the Bowdoin Supplemental Essays ‍
• How to Write the Pepperdine Supplemental Essays

These guides will help you write stellar essays!

FAQs: Supplemental Essays

Here are our answers to some frequently asked questions about supplemental essays.

1. Do Colleges Care About Supplemental Essays?

Yes, colleges care about supplemental essays. Your writing gives colleges extra insight into who you are as a person beyond your grades. Strong essays can give you an advantage in your application to many different schools. 

2. What to Include in Supplemental Essays?

Stick to the prompt. Your response should approach each aspect of the prompt while providing genuine information about your life experience. 

Each essay prompt is different, but admissions committees always love to hear a good story. Use descriptive yet concise language to get your points across while transporting the reader into your world.

3. When Should I Start My Supplemental Essays?

You should start planning your essays as soon as you receive the prompts for each. Once you’re confident in your plan, begin writing your essay as soon as you can to give yourself plenty of time to edit before submitting. 

4. Are Supplemental Essays Hard?

For students who are not strong writers, it can be challenging to get started on your essays. However, the most important part of your essay is to remain genuine, tell your story, and be concise. 

5. How Do I Start Writing My Supplemental Essay?

Before you start writing, brainstorm and create a solid plan for what you want to include. This will help you write with ease and remain on track while you’re writing your paper. You can also look at good essay examples for inspiration. 

6. Where Do You Submit Supplemental Essays? 

If using the Common Application, you can submit your essays in the Writing Supplements section. Generally, you will submit your essays along with the rest of your application.

Final Thoughts

Your supplemental essays are an important part of your application and should be given plenty of time and attention. No matter what essay prompts you are given, ensure that you are consistently speaking from the heart and telling a compelling story. 

Keep in mind that your experiences are what make you unique, and you do not have to exaggerate or fabricate anything to craft an excellent supplemental essay.

If you are still struggling with writing compelling essays, you can always seek professional help to get assistance with writing, editing, brainstorming, and overall crafting stellar supplementals. 

Good luck with your essays!

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How To Write The Duke Supplemental Essays

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College Supplemental Essays That Worked: Tips & Inspiration

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As summer winds down, it’s time to start thinking about supplemental essays as well! How do they fit into your college application?

College supplemental essays are what makes the application process so challenging. With students applying to 5-8 schools and each school requiring 2-3 additional writing supplements, students are looking at writing 25 essays (including the personal statement!) in 4 months time.

That doesn’t end up being a lot of time, especially given the effort that goes into  brainstorming, writing and editing each essay.

While it’s tempting, students shouldn’t reuse application essays. Most supplemental essays prompts are tailored to the university and reflects what the university is looking for in their student body. Thus, you should also tailor your response to the schools you’re applying to in order to demonstrate good fit.

Supplemental essays may initially seem tedious, but they offer applicants a great opportunity to share more about themselves. You can elaborate on your extracurriculars, your interest in a specific major, your cultural background, or just something unique about yourself that’s not represented in your academics or resume.

Here are 5 supplemental essay writing tips to help you make the most out of them and craft a winning application:

Supplemental Essay Tip 1: Bigger Picture

View your application holistically. Don’t just focus on your personal statement or your supplemental essays, or even your SAT/ACT score as individual components of your application. If they are reviewed by the admissions office altogether, you should aim to do the same. Think of the bigger picture.

Why is this important? To make sure you’ve highlighted everything you want to about yourself in your application. Think strategically about your grades, test scores, classes you took, extracurriculars and recommendation letters—what will each of these components highlight about you? These are things that reflect your high school career that you can no longer change. So consider these anchoring points that you can build off of. 

Is there a particular passion of yours that isn’t readily apparent from reviewing other parts of your application?  Maybe you want to devote more room to discussing a specific major you want to pursue. Or perhaps it’s an extracurricular you dedicated 4 years too that didn’t get much airtime in your personal statement. While your personal statement should highlight the most integral part of your identity, your supplements are a great place to elaborate on aspects of your candidacy that more fully develop you as an applicant. Remember to tie your essays back to why you’re a good fit for the schools you’re applying to.

Read more: UChicago Supplemental Essay Prompts 2018-2019

Supplemental Essay Tip 2: Do Your Research

Supplemental essay prompts are developed by the university’s admissions office, and are often inspired by past successful applicants. You can tell a lot about a university based on their supplemental essay prompts and what they want to know more about from their applicants. In order to respond accordingly, it’s important you do your research.

Research comes in many different ways. You can explore and read the university website or blog, follow them on social media channels, reach out to professors or current students, or visit campus. The point is to learn as much as you can about the school you’re applying to. More than being able to respond to the essay prompts, it’s crucial to make sure you’re applying to the right school for you. Consider incorporating details from the information session or the overnight stay that highlight aspects of the school that appeal to you. It’s also an opportunity to discuss a fact that may be lesser known or speak to an experience that’s personal to you; the more specific you can be about your interest in the school, the better.

Supplemental Essay Tip 3: Know Your Essay Prompts

Universities that require additional supplemental essays usually come in 4 categories of prompts. They will either ask you to respond to one of these prompts, or a combination of the following:

1. ‘Why Us’ School Specific Supplement

This is probably the most common supplemental essay question that is required. With increasing applications every year, universities want to be able to set applicants apart based on why they want to attend their institution. Do applicants really understand what the university stands for? Do they know what the campus culture is like and would they be a good fit? And finally, if accepted, how would they contribute to university’s community?

This is where your research is important. Based on your understanding of the university, respond in relation to your own strengths. This then ties back to thinking about the bigger picture. Is there a quality that makes the university a great fit for you and vice versa? Or a specific major you’re interested in that would be best studied at this institution? This is how all these different elements come together!

Big universities with many different undergraduate schools and colleges will typically offer this as their only additional supplement. If you need help on this particular supplemental essay, here are some tips and examples for the Why NYU supplemental essay  and the Why Cornell supplemental essay . 

2. Extracurricular Supplement

Some universities will ask you to elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. This is a great opportunity for you to share more about your extracurricular resume, especially if you haven’t been able to highlight too much of it in your personal statement. If you come across this supplement, choose the extracurricular that was most important to you, or perhaps the one you’d like to continue to pursue in college.

Admissions offices ask for this supplement to see how you’ve engaged in your community, what you enjoy doing outside of the classroom, and what you’ve learned by participating in it. College isn’t just about going to class, so they want to see how else you’d potentially engage with the rest of the student body if given the opportunity.

This supplement is often disguised as a community question. For example, how have you contributed to your community and what would you contribute to our community? Schools like MIT  and Princeton  both ask for this supplement.

3. Unique Question Supplement

This supplement is usually the one that stumps most applicants. Universities will offer multiple thought provoking essay prompts for applicants to respond to. While it gives students a lot of freedom to be creative and share something different about themselves, it also takes up a lot of time when they are brainstorming and responding to this prompt.

The most stressful part of the process is just breaking down the essay prompts to figure out what they are really trying to ask you. Take Boston College’s supplemental essay prompts  for example. All the prompts are 2-3 sentences long and cover a lot ground. Follow our blog to get the breakdown of all the different supplemental essay prompts. It’ll make it easier for you to choose which one to respond to, and what to write about.

Finally, don’t forget to think about the bigger picture. Go back to the qualities you want to show off with your application and see if there is an essay prompt that gives you the opportunity to do that.

4. Short Questions

Last but not least, there are the short questions. A few universities will have a few questions for you to list out your favorite film, book, website, role model, and so on. This is another way for the admissions office to learn more about you as an individual. Don’t agonize over these short questions and waste too much time on them. Just be genuine about who you are and let your voice come through in how you answer these (meaning word choice and tone). It’ll read authentically to the admissions officer if you do. 

Supplemental Essay Tip 4: Be Genuine

If there’s one advice that is constantly reiterated by people in the college admissions field, it’s this: “Be Genuine.” It seems intuitive, but it is a hard to do when you are trying to appeal to these selective universities to choose you over thousands of other applicants. It goes without saying that you certainly should not lie about anything in your application, and also be careful you’re not exaggerating any of your achievements. When applicants try to make certain activities sound more impressive than they are, this often backfires. Same goes for trying to sound too mature or intellectual; if your essay doesn’t sound like your writing, it’s easy to spot (admissions officers have been doing this a long time!). Give the admissions officers a chance to know the real you, and they, too, will give you a chance at their university.

Read more: UNC Chapel Hill 2018-2019 Essay Prompts

Supplemental Essay Tip 5: Pay Attention to Detail & Plan Ahead

At best, you won’t have any supplemental essays to write (woohoo!). At worst, you’ll have 24 additional writing requirements. So, finalize your school list and create a list of supplemental essay prompts you have to respond to. You don’t want to find out late in the game you’ve missed a prompt for one of your schools, and have to scramble last minute.

One more time: think about the bigger picture. Consider all  the major themes you want to convey with your essays, then attribute them accordingly to each essay prompt. Look at your application as whole and strategize what you should emphasize in what essay. It’ll be helpful to plan ahead, so it doesn’t feel like you’re starting fresh every time you begin a new supplemental essay—you have a plan.

Don’t slack off just because these are “supplemental” essays. They should receive the same kind of attention as your personal statement. Get your friends, family or a trusted teacher to proofread them. Everything you submit with your application should be meaningful and impactful. Make everything count.

If there are any additional supplemental essay prompts you need help breaking down, comment the school name below! For supplemental essay examples, you can now search by supplemental essay topics on our search page. Or, you can check out our curated packages to find what you’re looking! For further access, upgrade to our  premium plans  offer different levels of profile access and data insights that can help you get into your dream school. 

About The Author

Frances was born in Hong Kong and received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. She loves super sad drama television, cooking, and reading. Her favorite person on Earth isn’t actually a member of the AdmitSee team - it’s her dog Cooper.

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Highly-selective colleges and universities often require supplemental application materials. These materials help further personalize the admissions process so that each college’s admissions committee has the information it needs to select a vibrant and diverse incoming class. 

In this article, we will look at 10 supplemental essay prompts from top colleges and universities for the 2022-23 admissions cycle. Once you get a better sense of what to expect from a supplemental essay prompt, we will outline key strategies for answering these prompts, as well as provide practical writing tips to help you get started.

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What are supplemental essays and are they important?

Each college has its own sets of values and criteria that it looks for in applicants. This is why determining college fit is so important. By carefully researching each school on your college list and having several clear and compelling reasons for wanting to attend, you will increase your overall chances of admission.    

One way that colleges gauge whether or not a student would be a good fit for their university is by posing unique supplemental essay prompts. This is why knowing how to write a supplemental essay is so important. Most colleges with supplemental essays will have applicants write the “why this college” essay . 

Many selective colleges will require additional supplemental essays as well. In some cases, you will need to prepare an additional five essays per school, so give yourself plenty of time to complete each essay thoughtfully, write multiple drafts, seek out feedback, and proofread. The college application process can feel overwhelming at times, so make sure you brainstorm ways to stay organized during the college application process . 

Although the style and content of the actual prompts can vary greatly, at the core these prompts have one thing in common: They are designed to get to know who you are as a person, what your values are, and whether you demonstrate compatibility with the university’s overall mission. 

How to write supplemental essays

If you’re looking for supplemental essay tips, you’ve come to the right place! In this section, we will discuss how to write a good supplemental essay, by providing several key application essay tips. 

To start, it’s important to remember that the process of writing supplemental essays is similar to the process of writing a successful personal statement . Review components of a strong personal statement to give yourself a fresh perspective before beginning your supplemental essays.

Tips for writing supplemental essays

Supplemental essays are typically pretty brief. This is why it’s important to learn how to write concisely and powerfully. Having very few words to respond does not mean that you should prepare your responses casually or that your responses shouldn’t include lots of details. Rather, approach each word limit creatively. Whether you have 50 words, 200 words, or 500 words, try to use each sentence and detail to your advantage. One of the best ways to do this is to begin by freewriting. Write down everything that comes to mind. Take time to fully flush out your ideas. Then review what you’ve written and see what feels most important. These are the details you will want to highlight in your response.

Some colleges will require three to five additional essays. Maybe even more! This is why it’s important to be prepared and plan ahead. Supplemental essays are an important part of your college application and they require a lot of time and effort. While some supplemental essay prompts may be similar between schools, in general, you want to avoid recycling your college essays. Admissions officers can tell when a student is tweaking an existing essay to fit a prompt.

While some essay prompts are required, others are optional. In general, try to answer each prompt thoughtfully and creatively. After all, it’s no secret that college admissions are highly competitive so it’s great to give your application “an edge” whenever possible. That said, there are times when you should pass on writing an optional essay. If you’re not sure whether or not you should submit an essay for an optional prompt, begin by drafting a response. Then ask yourself if the essay feels forced or genuine. Does the essay convey something new about you that isn’t included in the rest of your application? If the question doesn’t seem to apply to you and you are genuinely unsure what to contribute, you should probably skip that particular essay. After all, no one wants to read an uninspired essay that doesn’t contribute to your overall application.

2022-23 supplemental essay prompts

As mentioned, supplemental essay prompts can vary significantly. Some prompts ask you to respond in 50 words while other prompts ask you to respond in 500 words. Some prompts focus on academics while others ask you to reflect carefully on your cultural upbringing or life philosophies. Still, other prompts will ask you to introduce who you are as a person or discuss something that you enjoy.

Just as supplemental essay prompts vary in style, your responses will also vary. Some prompts will require you to be thoughtful and serious, while other prompts may encourage you to be humorous or creative. It all depends.

Brown University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Brown University requires three supplemental essays. One of the supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

Brown’s culture fosters a community in which students challenge the ideas of others and have their ideas challenged in return, promoting a deeper and clearer understanding of the complex issues confronting society. This active engagement in dialogue is as present outside the classroom as it is in academic spaces. Tell us about a time you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond? (200-250 words)

Columbia University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Columbia University requires the following supplemental materials: 1 list of 75 words, 1 list of 125 words, 3 essays of 200 words each, and 1 short answer of 35 words. One of their supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

For the following questions, we ask that you list each individual response using commas or semicolons; the items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order. No explanatory text or formatting is needed. (For example, it is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications. No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.)  

List the titles of the books, essays, poetry, short stories or plays you read outside of academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school. (75 words or fewer)

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Dartmouth college supplemental essay prompt.

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Dartmouth College requires three supplemental essays. One of the supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

“Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself in 200-250 words. 

Duke University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Duke University requires at least one supplemental essay, with the option to submit an additional two supplemental essays. One of the optional supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

What has been your best academic experience in the last two years, and what made it so good?

Emory University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Emory University requires two supplemental essays. One of the supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

Emory If you could witness a historic event (past, present or future) first-hand, what would it be, and why?

Harvard University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Harvard University requires three supplemental essays. One of the supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (50-150 words)

MIT supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, MIT requires five supplemental essays. One of the supplemental essay prompts is as follows:

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

Princeton University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Princeton University requires three supplemental essays and three short responses. One of the short-answer prompts is as follows:

Please respond to each question in 75 words or fewer. There are no right or wrong answers. Be yourself!

What is a new skill you would like to learn in college?

What brings you joy? 

What song represents the soundtrack of your life at this moment?

Stanford University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Stanford University requires three supplemental essays and five short answer responses. One of the short-answer prompts is as follows:

How did you spend your last two summers? (50-word limit)

UPenn supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, UPenn requires three supplemental essays. One of the supplemental essay prompts is as follows: 

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

Yale University supplemental essay prompt

As a part of the 2022-23 college applications, Yale University requires the following supplemental materials: 1 list; 6 short answer questions; 1 additional short essay of 400 words. One of the short answer prompts is as follows:

Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What would you ask them to discuss? (200 characters or fewer)

Supplemental essay examples

One of the best ways to prepare your supplemental essay responses is to look at successful past examples. In this section, we will look at three examples and explain why each response is successful. 

This first example was submitted as a part of Harvard’s college application. This essay is in response to the prompt: Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (50-150 words).

Feet moving, eyes up, every shot back, chants the silent mantra in my head. The ball becomes a beacon of neon green as I dart forward and backward, shuffling from corner to far corner of the court, determined not to let a single point escape me. With bated breath, I swing my racquet upwards and outwards and it catches the ball just in time to propel it, spinning, over the net. My heart soars as my grinning teammates cheer from the sidelines. While I greatly value the endurance, tenacity, and persistence that I have developed while playing tennis throughout the last four years, I will always most cherish the bonds that I have created and maintained each year with my team.

This essay uses rich, descriptive language to evoke a clear sense of movement and place. The first paragraph shows a creative and expert control of language, whereas the second paragraph uses straightforward language to highlight key characteristics. Overall, this response is creative, well-balanced, and uses each word to its advantage. 

Source: https://www.collegeadvisor.com/essay-guides/harvard-university-essay-examples-and-why-they-worked/  

This essay was submitted as a part of an MIT college application. The supplemental essay prompt that it addresses is: Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?

We were moving away from my home of thirteen years to go miles and miles away, from my whole life. Worst of all: away from New York City – the only place in the world worth knowing – or so I thought. The town might as well have been called “Miniscule Ville”. I resented every second of it. The real shocking thing to me was almost that anything existed outside of New York City. NYC is a world of its own, with its own pulses and lifeblood. I still think it’s a great place, and I’ll likely at least visit it someday, but right now, I want to visit everywhere. My move humbled me. I began to love nature walks, the friendly camaraderie of the small town, and saw a world I never imagined. I thought I knew it all just because I lived in New York. Here was a great place, hidden from view. I loved experiencing that new world, learning local history, and most of all, learning the life stories of my new neighbors, each one of whom had a fascinating life. My greatest dream is to be a journalist, covering other countries, and learning about new worlds and neighbors. My old perspective feels so limited. If I can share global stories, I can open up my perspective, and I can share those stories with a thousand homes so readers can learn about other perspectives as well. The world is full of different lives. Everywhere is somebody’s home.

This essay covers a lot of material; most impressively, it shows a shift in perspective and its effect on the student’s lived experience. It also clearly explains the student’s academic and professional goals. The tone of this essay is both confident and humble. It demonstrates who this student is as a person, what their goals are, and what they value.  

Source: https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/blog/mit-supplemental-essay-examples  

This essay was submitted as a part of a Duke college application. The essay addresses the prompt: What has been your best academic experience in the last two years, and what made it so good?

Most teachers who taught me talked a big game about wanting students to engage in debate, or “dialectic” as they called it, and to challenge their ideas. In my experience, most of this was a fabrication. The best essay grades and participation marks were found through parroting what was dictated from on high. Did the teacher think such-and-such is the “correct” interpretation of a novel? You did, too, or you lost points. None of that was true for Ms. Jackie Winters. The first essay I sent her came back with the note, “This doesn’t sound like you; it sounds like me.” I asked her about the note, and this initiated a marvelous learning environment, in which I grew faster than I ever have in any other class. Discussions were lively, and the more I presented my authentic views, the more I was respected. My grades were dependent on being backed up by rhetoric, sources, and logic, not by compliance. Due to this engagement, this was the most enjoyable English literature class I had, and I feel like my viewpoints were challenged. I learned to question my ideas and dig into a text for the best results. Best of all, I was putting in more and more effort to find good, quality sources to back up my arguments. I was held to a high standard and shown respect, and I believe that those qualities made for the best learning environment possible

This essay clearly shows a shift in perspective and the effects it had on this student’s ability to think, speak, and write critically. Structurally, this essay uses an anecdote to introduce and contextualize a topic, but the essay itself isn’t overly narrative. Rather, the student explains, in detail, how this teacher’s encouragement and guidance have influenced their willingness and ability to engage with the source material and academic discourse.

Source: https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/blog/duke-supplemental-essay-examples  

Key takeaways and moving forward

Supplemental essays are an important part of your college applications. In fact, they are a key factor in what college admissions officers look for in an applicant . Highly-selective colleges and universities use supplemental essays to further personalize the college admissions process. After all, thousands of qualified students apply to Ivy League institutions each year and only a small fraction are admitted. Supplemental essays allow you to share more about who you are as a person and as a student. Use each prompt as an opportunity to add something new to your college application. If you feel like you could benefit from professional guidance throughout this process, reach out to learn more about our services .

Frequently asked questions and answers

Still have questions about supplemental essays and the effects they have on college applications? Review the following frequently asked questions and answers for further insight on supplemental essays. 

How important are supplemental essays?

Supplemental essays are an incredibly important part of your college applications and should be properly prioritized. If a college didn’t care about your response, they wouldn’t ask you in the first place. Put plenty of time and care into your responses. Write several drafts, seek out feedback, and always proofread.

How long should supplemental essays be?

Always follow directions. Colleges will specify how long each supplemental essay should be, usually right after the prompt itself. Depending on the college, and the prompt, a supplemental essay’s word count may range anywhere from 50 to 500 words.

Do supplemental essays change every year?

It all depends on the college. Colleges often reuse past prompts, but there are no guarantees. This is why it’s important to plan ahead and make a list of supplemental essay prompts early on in the college application process.

Are supplemental essays required?

Sometimes colleges will have both required and optional supplemental essays. That said, the essay prompts are clearly labeled. In short, each college will specify whether supplemental essays are required. 

Do all colleges have supplemental essays?

No, not all colleges have supplemental essays. Highly-selective colleges, however, often require at least one additional essay.

• December 14, 2022

Supplemental Essay Guide for 2022-23 Prompts

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How to write the Princeton supplemental essays (2023-2024)

Bonus Material: PrepMaven’s 50+ Real Supplemental Essays for Ivy+ Schools

Last year, Princeton admitted just 5.6% of applicants, meaning that if you want a shot at an admission for the 2023-2024 cycle, your application has to be just about perfect. 

One element of the Princeton application that many students struggle with is the Princeton writing supplement. It’s tricky to know exactly how to approach these supplemental essays: what can you write to stand out from the thousands of other applicants? What exactly are Princeton admissions officers looking for?

Fortunately, at PrepMaven, we’ve helped thousands of students craft compelling college application essays. It doesn’t hurt that many of our expert tutors have been admitted to Princeton themselves, and so they know exactly what works. 

In this guide, we’ll break down the 2023-2024 Princeton writing supplement, explaining exactly what you need to do to maximize your chances at a Princeton acceptance. 

As you read on, check out our free resource linked below: it contains real, successful examples of supplemental essays written for Princeton and other top schools. 

Download 50+ Real Supplemental Essays for Ivy+ Schools

Jump to section:

• Princeton 2023-2024 supplemental essay prompts 
• How to write Princeton’s first essay
• How to write Princeton’s second essay
• How to write Princeton’s third essay

Princeton’s 2023-2024 short answer questions

Princeton’s 2023-2024 supplemental essays .

This year, Princeton has three fairly intensive supplemental essays and three short answer questions. 

The supplemental essays are as follows: 

For A.B. Degree Applicants or Those Who Are Undecided As a research institution that also prides itself on its liberal arts curriculum, Princeton allows students to explore areas across the humanities and the arts, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. What academic areas most pique your curiosity, and how do the programs offered at Princeton suit your particular interests? (Please respond in 250 words or fewer.)  For B.S.E Degree Applicants Please describe why you are interested in studying engineering at Princeton. Include any of your experiences in or exposure to engineering, and how you think the programs offered at the University suit your particular interests. (Please respond in 250 words or fewer.) Your Voice (all applicants) Princeton values community and encourages students, faculty, staff and leadership to engage in respectful conversations that can expand their perspectives and challenge their ideas and beliefs. As a prospective member of this community, reflect on how your lived experiences will impact the conversations you will have in the classroom, the dining hall or other campus spaces. What lessons have you learned in life thus far? What will your classmates learn from you? In short, how has your lived experience shaped you?  (Please respond in 500 words or fewer.) Princeton has a longstanding commitment to understanding our responsibility to society through service and civic engagement. How does your own story intersect with these ideals? (Please respond in 250 words or fewer.)

The first thing to notice is that these essays all fall into well-known categories of the college essay. 

The first prompt, which will vary slightly depending on whether you’re applying to the engineering school or not, is simply a “Why Major?” essay, which asks you to explain your academic interests. 

What’s the key to a successful “Why Major?” essay for Princeton? We’ve written a comprehensive guide on this essay type here that covers all the ins and outs of what schools really want when they ask this question. 

The second prompt is one you’re likely to see from just about any school, and is a version of a Community/Diversity prompt. 

The third prompt is a classic Service essay prompt, which you can also think of as an Extracurricular essay with a slightly more specific focus. 

Read on below for break-downs of each of these prompts!

How to write Princeton’s first essay: “Why this major?”

The key to answering this supplemental prompt about your intended area of study is to answer three key questions: 

• What specifically are you interested in?
• Why , using specific details from your life, are you interested in that subject?
• How , using the specific resources available at Princeton, will you pursue that subject?

Now, if you’ve read our guide on how to write Why Major essays, then you likely already know that you should have a basic template you reuse anytime a school asks you this question. If you’ve already written a Why Major essay for another school, you should be able to save a lot of time by reusing the basic structure of that essay, and simply replacing the school-specific portions. 

If you don’t already have a template, here’s what it should look like: 

• Start with a brief anecdote from your life or academic question that interests you. 

The anecdote should show where your interest comes from, the moment you realized you wished to pursue this subject, or simply dramatize an important learning experience related to your chosen field of study. 

You can use this portion of the template for any school that asks a Why Major supplemental. 

• Use that anecdote to launch into a discussion of why the subject matter interests you/why you want to pursue it as a major. 

Do you want to study biology? Explain what about it fascinates you: what are the burning questions you hope to answer? What about the process of research or lab work speaks to you? Is there a practical purpose you hope to achieve through your study?

More of a humanities person who wants to study art history? The same rules apply: what about art history captivates you? Where does this passion come from? Why is it something you’d dedicate your life (or at least 4 years) to exploring?

Whatever your major, the rules of the game are basically identical: convincingly convey your passion for a particular subject to the admissions officers at Princeton, and they’ll be far more likely to see you as someone who will seriously pursue your interests–which is, of course, what they’re looking for. 

As with the anecdote, you can reuse this portion of the essay for any school with a similar prompt.

• Explain how you’ll use specific resources at Princeton to pursue your academic interests. 

This is the school-specific portion of the essay, which you’ll have to modify for every school you apply to. And the first step here is research: identify specific, unique offerings of Princeton University that you hope to take advantage of. 

Your best friend here will be the departmental website of the program/major to which you’re applying. Invest time in exploring that website: you’ll find all the information you need about curriculum, research, and work opportunities there. 

Then, you’ll take this specific information and focus on 1-2 key points at the end of the essay, favoring depth over breadth. Don’t just rattle off the first 10 things you see on the website: pick just a couple and spend a few sentences on each, explaining how the particular resource aligns with your academic interests and goals. 

Why do it this way? Well, the goal here is to: 

• Show Princeton you’ve done your research
• Convince the Princeton admissions committee that you really do think they’re a great fit for you. 

By picking just a few specifics and connecting them with your own interests and story, you’ll be able to do both of these things without coming off as inauthentic. 

Some great things to focus on would be: 

• Research programs
• Work/internship/coop opportunities
• Unique curricular offerings
• Unusual minors or specializations
• Service learning opportunities 
• Thesis/honors opportunities

While you’re doing all this, there are a few things you should avoid writing in the Princeton Why Major essay. Some of the Don’ts we list below are just too cliche; others are actually red flags for college admissions committees. 

Don’t: 

• Reference money as a primary reason for your major choice.
• It’s fine to be undecided! But even then you should discuss what kinds of things interest you and why. 
• Randomly Princeton name-drop professors or classes just because you came across them on the website.
• Forget to include a specific story, question, or hook to get the reader interested.

And that’s it! Do all of the above, and you’ll have the first of Princeton supplemental essays locked down tight–plus, you’ll have a great template for any other schools that ask the same question. 

Ready to get started? A great resource to begin with is our collection of real, successful supplemental essays. For stellar examples of the “Why Major” essay, check out the last supplemental essay for Princeton, as well as the first sample essay for UPenn. 

How to write Princeton’s second essay: Diversity/community

Here’s the second supplemental prompt:

Princeton values community and encourages students, faculty, staff and leadership to engage in respectful conversations that can expand their perspectives and challenge their ideas and beliefs. As a prospective member of this community, reflect on how your lived experiences will impact the conversations you will have in the classroom, the dining hall or other campus spaces. What lessons have you learned in life thus far? What will your classmates learn from you? In short, how has your lived experience shaped you?  (Please respond in 500 words or fewer.)

If you haven’t already, you’ll soon come to recognize this essay prompt, as well as the language of “lived experience,” which will come up more and more often. The Oxford dictionary has a pretty straightforward definition here , but all that “lived experience” really means is your first-hand experience of the world, as opposed to things you may have read, heard, or learned. 

At heart, this kind of prompt is asking you to discuss how–based on specific elements of your life–you view your role as a potential member of Princeton’s diverse community. We call this the Diversity/community essay, because those are really always two sides of the same coin. 

With the Princeton Diversity/community essay, there are 2 basic options for structuring your response:

• Discuss community through the lens of your identity. 
• Discuss community through the lens of other events/activities/pursuits in your life. 

Which path you take will actually be easy to decide: 

If your identity (racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, etc.) has significantly influenced your worldview or experiences, go with option 1. 

In other words, if you know you have something meaningful to say about how your identity has shaped you, that should structure your response. This might mean writing an essay about how discrimination or systemic biases have affected you or your family; it could just as well, however, mean writing about specific experiences you’ve cherished as a member of a particular culture. 

A few great examples from recent essays we’ve worked on: 

• An essay that focuses on a student’s biracial background and how she learned to use others’ ignorant/racist comments as opportunities for starting difficult conversations. 
• An essay exploring how a first-generation immigrant served as a translator for his parents. 
• An essay from a young woman exploring how she navigated the contradictions between her feminist views and the emphasis on tradition within her religion. 

If your identity has not significantly experienced how you view the world, go with option 2. 

If you don’t feel particularly connected to a specific identity, or if you can’t think of specific ways that your identity has affected you, you should instead focus on other elements of your life that have shaped your view of community. 

Think about what you want out of a community: then, think about what aspect of your life (an extracurricular, a hobby, a social circle) has shaped that desire. Tell that story. It may sound a bit tough to thread that needle, but it really isn’t so bad: here are a few really successful topics from recent students in response to this kind of prompt:

• An essay about how a student’s participation in yearly music recitals with strangers shaped how he views community as a place for everyone to share their gifts/talents. 
• An essay from an avid hiker about how his experiences maintaining hiking trails taught him to think of community as a shared, daily effort in the service of others. 
• An essay from a student who moved countries multiple times reflecting on what in each place contributed to creating a cohesive community. 

All the examples are different, but share one thing in common: using your personal experiences to reflect on your role in a diverse community. 

For successful examples of Diversity/community essays, check out the first Princeton essay and the first three UMich essays in the free collection below!

How to write Princeton’s third essay: Service

Princeton’s third supplemental essay is an essay on the topic of service and community engagement–another fairly standard kind of supplemental essay you’re almost certain to see pop up again! 

Princeton has a longstanding commitment to understanding our responsibility to society through service and civic engagement. How does your own story intersect with these ideals? (Please respond in 250 words or fewer.)

You’ll notice the word count here is much shorter than that of Princeton’s second supplemental essay, so you’re really just going to have enough time to tell a short story and then reflect on why/how service matters in your life. 

This essay can be quite difficult if you haven’t directly engaged in service-oriented work. If you have, then your job is a lot easier: as with the other essays, tell the story of the service you’ve done, then reflect on the lesson you learned. Ideally, work in a brief discussion of how you plan to continue this kind of service at Princeton. 

If you don’t have anything that’s directly related to service, you might want to interpret the prompt more broadly: formally or informally, how has your life been affected by service? Have you or your family benefited from someone else’s service? Have you had obligations or responsibility to family or loved ones? Do you feel strongly about a particular social issue? 

Any and all of those would work. For now, though, we recommend taking a look at a real response to this prompt below, which helped get one of our star tutors into Princeton. 

Over the pandemic, I tutored two middle school boys. Now, I love kids, but middle schoolers are not my number one favorites. They are often dismissive of authority and it’s very hard to hold their attention for longer than two minutes. So working with them on Zoom for an hour became my new challenge. I tried many tactics. When fun warm-ups, writing prompts, and Zoom games all failed, I was officially stumped. I couldn’t understand why they found me so uninteresting. I decided to pay closer attention to the passions they mentioned. Instead of imposing my own ideas, I listened to what they had to say. It turned out Lucian loved running. Getting him to read was like pulling teeth, but I found a Jason Reynolds book called Ghost, part of a series about a track team. We would spend ten or fifteen minutes at the beginning of each session reading it aloud to each other, and while he seemed to be engaged, I couldn’t tell exactly how much he was enjoying it. But when we finally finished, he asked me shyly, “What did you say the next one was called?” Sajiah proved to be tougher to please. He wasn’t swayed by any books I suggested to him, no matter the topic. He often hummed or rapped while working, which I found to be endlessly annoying, until I started listening to the actual words. I Googled the lyrics and noticed that he particularly enjoyed Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. So we began a project investigating the origins of hip hop, and created a website as the final product. He loved finding out more about the music he listened to every day, and I loved seeing him so happy with his work. I don’t pretend I saved the world by helping these boys, but I am proud of the creative way I found projects and topics they genuinely enjoyed investigating. I hope to continue working with children as a form of civic engagement throughout college and beyond; if I can help students like Sajiah and Lucian, it’ll be well worth it.

There’s a few key things to notice with this essay. 

First, it’s about a small, simple act of service. You don’t need to have started a non-profit or spent years volunteering: something as simple as tutoring two students can work perfectly well for this Princeton essay. 

Second, it treats this act with the appropriate level of seriousness. If your act of service isn’t on a large scale, don’t try to make out as if it is: something as simple as “I don’t pretend I saved the world by helping these boys, but I am proud of the creative way I found projects and topics they genuinely enjoyed investigating” will feel much more honest and convincing. 

Finally, this essay is a story. All the best essays are! Don’t just give us the broad strokes: really show us the details of whatever service work you’ve done. Once you’ve shown Princeton’s admissions officers that story, they’ll be far more likely to believe that you actually do take service seriously. 

The third Princeton supplemental essay doesn’t have to be difficult: stay honest, stay direct, and tell your story. 

To read other responses to this very prompt (and many other sample supplemental essays), download our collection below. And if you’d like the guidance of one of our expert tutors (some of whom wrote the very essays in that packet), just contact us . 

In addition to the three essays above, Princeton asks you to respond to three short answer questions, each in a bite-size 50 words or fewer. The questions are below: 

What is a new skill you would like to learn in college? What brings you joy?  What song represents the soundtrack of your life at this moment?

For these, the simplest advice is best: be yourself. Don’t overthink these! While the longer essays are quite important and will require multiple drafts and redrafts, you won’t need to put the same level of work into these short answer questions. 

You should, however, use up the 50-word limit they give you. Don’t just give Princeton a one-word answer to these questions. Instead, use the opportunity to show them as much of your personality and character as you can within 50 words, ideally by explaining each of your answers. 

So, for short answer prompt 1, don’t just say, “I want to learn public speaking skills.” Instead, elaborate on why : the explanation is always more interesting than the answer itself. 

The same applies to the other questions: convey your passion, tell us an anecdote, or just show us how your mind works. These are low stakes, but still worth your careful time and attention–this is Princeton, after all. 

If you’re applying to Princeton, the place to start is our comprehensive guide to the Princeton application for the 2023-2024 cycle , which you can find here. That guide doesn’t just cover what Princeton’s application requires of you: it uses the latest statistics and insights from our own Princeton undergraduate tutors to walk you through exactly what you’ll need to do to have a shot at Princeton.

Once you’re ready to start writing supplemental essays for Princeton and your other schools, we have two main pieces of advice. 

First: read real, successful sample supplemental essays that helped get students into Princeton and other hyper-selective schools. Most people don’t really know what schools like Princeton actually want from the supplemental essays, and the best solution is to spend lots of time reviewing sample essays. We’ve collected dozens of these essays in the free resource below. 

Second: get expert help. Whether you’re a brilliant writer or just an okay one, you’ll benefit tremendously from the advice of someone who’s already successfully navigated the college application process. Our college essay coaches aren’t just writing experts who can make your essay shine: they’re trained to know exactly what schools like Princeton expect to see . 

Check out the free sample essays below, and, when you’re ready to start writing, contact us to get paired with a college essay expert. 

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How to Write the Yale University Essays 2023-2024

Hoping to become a Yale bulldog? When applying to such a selective school, writing standout supplemental essays can certainly give you a boost. Through your supplemental essays, you can create a complete picture of who you are and humanize yourself to readers.

Read on for our best advice on Yale’s short answer and longer essay prompts.

You can also check out these Yale essay examples to inspire your writing.

Yale University Supplemental Essay Prompts

Students can apply to Yale University using the Common Application, the Coalition Application, or Questbridge. All applicants are required to respond to two short answer questions that involve exploring your areas of interest and outlining your reasons for applying to Yale. 

Additionally, all applicants must write one 400-word essay. Students applying through the Common App or the Coalition App are required to answer four very short answer questions, around 35 words each.

Short Answer Questions (For all applicants, including Questbridge)

Short Answer 1: Students at Yale have plenty of time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the list provided.

Tell us about a topic or idea that excites you and is related to one or more academic areas you selected above. Why are you drawn to it? (200 words or fewer)

Short Answer 2: What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)

Common App and Coalition App Supplemental Questions (200 characters, ~35 words) 

What inspires you?

If you could teach any college course, write a book, or create an original piece of art of any kind, what would it be?

Other than a family member, who is someone who has had a significant influence on you? What has been the impact of their influence?

What is something about you that is not included anywhere else in your application?

Essays (For all applicants)

Please respond to one of the following prompts in 400 words or fewer. Please indicate the number of the prompt you choose.

Option 1: Reflect on a time you discussed an issue important to you with someone holding an opposing view. Why did you find the experience meaningful?

Option 2: Reflect on your membership in a community to which you feel connected. Why is this community meaningful to you? You may define community however you like.

Option 3: Reflect on an element of your personal experience that you feel will enrich your college. How has it shaped you?

Short Answer Questions

Short answer 1, students at yale have plenty of time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. as of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably please indicate up to three from the list provided..

For context, as part of answering this prompt, you’ll be asked to pick three of several different academic areas from a long list. This prompt is similar to a traditional “ Why This Major ” prompt, however, 200 words is a tight amount of space, so you need to be comprehensive and clear. Whether or not you plan on majoring in physics, economics, or neuroscience, the same basic strategy can be applied across the board. Of course, this essay prompt, like many, can usually be answered through several different possible angles. 

One strategy involves tying your past and future together through your present interest. As directly as possible, you would describe how your academic interests developed, what exactly is compelling about your intended major (which will likely be directly connected to one or more of your academic interests), and perhaps what your professional goals are. 

For example, maybe you’re interested in Linguistics because you’re a third culture kind, and have always struggled to get rid of your American accent in Portuguese, but your younger brother speaks without an accent. You want to explore the science behind language acquisition, as well as the human impact of language (culture, identity, language preservation). You’re potentially interested in becoming a translator one day, primarily to expand great works of literature across language barriers.

Or, maybe you’re interested in Psychology and Political Science because you’re fascinated by today’s polarized political climate. You want to understand why people hold the beliefs they do, and why voters act the way they do. One day, you hope to work on the campaigns of progressive candidates who support the causes you care about.

Secondly, a respondent to this question could dive more deeply into the topic itself, with less of a focus on career and future and more on how you think. You could begin with a hook that loops readers into the very marrow of your interest, perhaps with a personal anecdote. Then, you could fully nerd out on whatever your interest is, from fine art to molecular biology to Spanish Literature. In order to explain why you are drawn to this interest, you can discuss your chosen topic or idea in a way that truly showcases your particular passion.

For example, a student with an interest in evolutionary biology could note the field’s tendency to challenge common assumptions surrounding anything from the innateness of gender norms to the “why’s” of our biological realities, while an international relations aficionado could say that being raised in a bilingual household triggered a lifelong love of translation, not only of language but also of  social norms, and cultural phenomena, between differing worlds. 

Whatever your interest is, waste no space in diving right into the most specific details. Then, work to connect the details to future goals and interests. While a traditional “Why This Major” essay should include why you want to study that major at that specific school, you may not have any space, given the small word count. Luckily, the next question allows you to discuss how Yale can support your academic goals.

Short Answer 2

What is it about yale that has led you to apply (125 words or fewer).

This is a classic example of the “ Why This College ” essay. For this prompt, you’ll want to cite specific reasons Yale is a good fit to support your academic goals. You may also want to include any compelling extracurricular reasons, as college is not only about what you do in the classroom. 

Let’s go back to the example of the student who’s passionate about Psych and PoliSci. A specific Yale resource they might want to highlight is the PoliSci Department’s funding for students working on election campaigns . This funding allows students to develop and implement a campaign strategy related to their unique skills. For example, they might choose to create a social media campaign, using their knowledge of voter psychology. 

Aim to get just as granular in your essay, and do extensive research on resources at Yale. See our post How to Research a School for the “Why This College” essay if you don’t know where to start.

In an essay of only 125 words, you’ll likely only be able to mention 2-4 aspects of Yale that resonate with you. That’s totally okay! It’s better to show a deeper understanding of what Yale offers than to list a bunch of general characteristics. 

Under no circumstances should you mention anything vague that could apply to other schools, such as the location, prestige, or even a strong academic department. If you could copy and paste your essay for another school and just switch out the school name, that’s a sign that your essay isn’t specific enough. Take it to the next level; what courses, programs, organizations, or grants could support your goals? 

Common App and Coalition App Supplemental Questions

What inspires you (200 characters).

This sounds a lot like “vision statements” that many business professionals write for themselves. The idea here is to give a concise summary of what drives you every day.

While brainstorming an answer to this question, it’s a good idea to think about how you would summarize your application in a few sentences. What are your recommenders saying about you? What do your classwork and extracurriculars demonstrate an interest in? What sentence instantly helps to combine the disparate elements of your application into a cohesive narrative? This should help guide an answer to the question that’s consistent with your overall application.

For 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.

Or, maybe the focus of your high school career was leadership and service. You served in Student Government, participated in Model UN, and started an organization to combat the food desert in your local community. In this case, you might write that working with governing bodies to enact meaningful change is what motivates you.

Of course, you could derive your inspiration from something external, like a certain group of people you interact with every day or even your favorite musician. This is fine and can make a meaningful essay, but it’s the sort of thing a person has to be very careful about. For example, writing an essay about how inspired you are by your mother’s diligence as a hand surgeon can be a great read, but these types of essays make it easy to accidentally focus more so on your inspirational subject than about you. Make sure to always tie back the source of your inspiration to yourself, your drive, your actions, and your values. 

If you could teach any college course, write a book, or create an original piece of art of any kind, what would it be? (200 characters )

This is just a proxy to ask “what interests you?” That is, what interests you enough that you’d want to share that passion with others? You can let your creativity run wild here; if you have a niche interest, this is the perfect place to mention it.

For a college course, share the title and give a brief description of the course, such as the works you’ll study and the themes covered.

Remember that an answer like “Designing and Testing Role Playing Games” is a lot better than “Economics 101.” Alternatively, think about two interests you have. For example, if you like cartoon shows and politics, a class called “The Politics of Cartoon Shows” will definitely catch the eye of an admissions officer.

For a book, you’ll want to share the title and a brief synopsis. An example might be: “ Who Made My Clothes? Stories from Garment Workers Around the World. This book will humanize these workers, sharing their backgrounds, their reasons for sewing, and the conditions they work in.”

For the original work of art, also share the title and give a visual description mixed with the inspiration for the piece. An example would be: “ Mushroom Forest , mixed media. This work depicts an ethereal forest of colorful, self-foraged mushrooms and moss. A small, painted frog looks onward, shielded from the rain by the mushroom canopy.”

Keep it engaging, witty, and quick!

Other than a family member, who is someone who has had a significant influence on you? What has been the impact of their influence? (200 characters)

People with great mentors and role models usually become successful in their fields, and Yale wants to admit successful students. This prompt also gives you an opportunity to show self-awareness and gratitude for someone else’s impact on your growth.

If no one comes to mind immediately, it may be easier to think of traits or aspects of your application you want to highlight, and then consider who had the biggest impact on that area of your life. For example, pretend you’re Beth from The Queen’s Gambit, and your obvious talent is playing chess. You might choose to write about Mr. Shaibel, the janitor who introduced you to chess:

Mr. Shaibel, my orphanage’s janitor, not only taught me chess; he helped me grasp opportunities I didn’t have, introducing me to the HS coach and even giving me money to enter my first tournament.

You have an extremely limited character count, so get straight to the point, and feel free to use well-known abbreviations/acronyms to maximize space.

What is something about you that is not included anywhere else in your application? (200 characters)

This one is incredibly open-ended, which can be as terrifying or as exciting as you decide it to be. It gives you a great opportunity to showcase something that wouldn’t traditionally show up in a letter of recommendation or a resume. Here are a few questions to consider for brainstorming:

• What are your hobbies?
• What could you talk about endlessly?
• What are you known for in your friend group? How about your family?
• What’s your guilty (or not so guilty) pleasure? Reality TV? In-n-Out runs? Gummy worms?
• Do you have a random skill, like cutting hair or making friendship bracelets?
• Do you have siblings, and does your role in the sibling hierarchy affect your life?
• What’s a weird story of yours? A spontaneous thing you’ve done or something that happened to you and the way you reacted to it?
• What’s a value you were raised to have?
• What’s something you like doing, regardless of whether you’re good at it or not?
• On that subject, what’s something you’re bad at but do anyway?

Brainstorm as freely as you can and leave no stone unturned; nothing is too stupid or frivolous to make it into your essay! The important thing in any college essay is rarely the subject itself, but what the subject reveals about you. For example, you can write about how, as the most skilled hair-braider on your cross-country team, you’ve gotten to know all of your teammates better through being the unofficial “team braider,” or that as a middle child, you’ve developed dual penchants for observation and conflict resolution. You only have a few words and it’s implied in this prompt that this essay can be an off-the-resume one, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be deep. But it should still be revealing in some way!

Essays for All Applicants

Reflect on a time you discussed an issue important to you with someone holding an opposing view. why did you find the experience meaningful (400 words).

This essay presents a fantastic opportunity to showcase both your intellectual vitality and your social skills. At its core, it’s an essay about your growth as a thinker and person. 

We disagree with people often, often multiple times a day, so there’s plenty of material to brainstorm from. This may be especially pertinent for members of argument-based extracurriculars, like debate, Mock Trial, and Model UN students. Activists and researchers, too. But remember— it doesn’t have to be an argument, just a discussion with a dissenter. 

Write down a list of possible topics, and don’t worry too much about the context of the discussion so much as its content and impact. When this essay is well-written, quarrels with the woman in front of you in line for grocery checkout can be just as fascinating as a national debate closing argument. 

Also, determining whether an issue is “important” or not can be a subjective matter. Your essay doesn’t necessarily need to be about traditional political debate topics, such as abortion or gun control. In fact, we encourage you to write about issues that will be a little less common, if you can think of some relevant experiences (local issues can be especially promising). Topics such as cultural appropriation, the ethics of thrifting and reselling, or whether your school district should get rid of its gifted program are all fair game.

Just remember that Yale is a liberal university, so you don’t want to alienate your audience by sharing that you have a particularly conservative point of view.

After creating your list, scan your potential topic ideas for varied points of interest. Pay special attention to the second half of the prompt and consider which experiences either helped you sharpen your reasoning or change your opinion. Which experience was the most transformative? Intellectually stimulating? Emotional? Unique? Which do you remember the most clearly and why? Once you’ve narrowed down your options into a few viable ones, pick the one that you feel will make it easiest to craft a compelling story.

When starting this essay, include just enough to set the scene. Don’t dwell on exposition, irrelevant details of the conversation, or negative emotions surrounding the event for too long. Who was there? How did you disagree, and why? Introduce each viewpoint as succinctly as possible while still preserving important details, keeping in mind the strict word count. 

Explain the important points within the conversation before fully diving into the essay. Often essays around any sort of challenge are better-written when the writer focuses on the growth aspects of the story rather than whatever challenging circumstances came before. 

Really dive into how your thinking was shifted or augmented by your experience or even what broader lessons you may have learned after better understanding a specific issue. What did you do during or after the discussion? Did you research it more deeply or take action in support of your final opinion?

For example, maybe your environmental club thought that your school should ban plastic straws because of their negative impact on the planet, but then you learned from disabled students how important plastic straws can be for accessibility. As a result, you shifted the campaign to introducing a composting system instead, and learned the importance of inviting more diverse voices to weigh in on the club’s initiatives.

By the end of the argument, your reader should feel that you’ve truly gotten to know your topic well and experienced positive change as a result. Feel free to mention specific logical progressions, newfound evidence, or novel philosophical perspectives you’ve discovered.

This essay is also an exercise in open-mindedness, so make sure to avoid ad hominem attacks against your “opponent.” As a general rule of thumb, frame your viewpoint throughout as a respectful one, regardless of how the discussion actually went. 

Reflect on your membership in a community to which you feel connected. Why is this community meaningful to you? You may define community however you like. (400 words)

With this prompt, admissions officers are trying to learn what is important to you in a community and why you are important in a community. Yale’s essay prompts have historically stressed the importance of community, as it’s an understandable priority for them. When applying to a university, you are applying to join their community—so think about what they want! They want to accept students who form deep bonds, care for their peers, and have strong guiding values and principles. This essay allows you to show that you are already well-versed in forming meaningful connections. 

Most people are a part of various communities, whether they realize it or not or whether these communities are formal (town, soccer team, religious organization, school) or informal (group of friends, coworkers, family) ones. If you are having trouble identifying which yours are, consider which people you feel a sense of community with. Volunteer groups, families, cultures, and clubs may spring to mind. Really, though, anything can make the cut: your Dungeons and Dragons group, those sharing your gender or sexual identity, people with similar life experiences to you. 

You can aim to organize your essay in the following way:

First, define and describe the community you are writing about. Defining the community is especially important for applicants writing about informal communities. For example, if you are writing about your siblings, make sure that this is clear. When describing the community, be sure to describe the culture. How do you interact as a group? For example, your soccer team may be more than teammates – perhaps you have special moments while traveling on the bus for a match. Make sure you discuss the dynamic. As a group, are you sarcastic, silly, or serious? Does your community have a specific kind of humor or tradition? 

To draw readers into your story, feel free to lead with a charming sensory anecdote, like that of your family cooking their favorite traditional dish or the roars of laughter emerging from gameplay. In just a few sentences, show your reader just how important this community is to you and in which ways you feel connected to it. Do they make you laugh harder or understand you better than anyone else? Do you feel particularly passionate about an issue they represent? 

When you are outlining the aspects of a community that are meaningful to you, you are also outlining your values! If you want to position yourself as fun-loving, you may want to focus on the sarcastic or silly aspects of your community. If you want to be seen as deep and thoughtful, you may want to focus on your community values and traditions.

Secondly, discuss your engagement with the community. You can lead by introducing your motivation for your efforts to explain them. For example, did you create a Snapchat group chat for your debate team that allowed you to bond outside the context of serious competitions, opening up a channel for close friendship among teammates? Did you regularly grab lunch with your co-workers at a local bakery? Or, did you meet survivors of gender-based violence through your work with a local organization? In this way, your efforts and their meaning can be covered in one fell swoop. Describing your role in your community will allow admissions officers to get a more full picture of what you value and how you act on your values.

Finally, reflect on why your involvement was important to you , and how it’s shaped you. For example, did the Snapchat group chat teach you to empathize with your competition, improving your sportsmanship? Did conversations with your coworkers over lunch spark your interest in food science? Or, did volunteering at a non-profit increase your interest in being a human rights lawyer? You could also talk about how being the oldest sibling taught you to be a caretaker and sparked your interest in becoming a doctor. Regardless, you want to write about how you have become who you are through your engagement with this community.

Although this essay presents an opportunity to show off what you’ve done, there should be just as much emphasis—if not more so—on your personal connection to your achievements as on your achievements themselves. Remember that admissions officers will already be looking over your activities and awards information, so there’s a good chance they’ll see it soon before or after reading your essays! Take this chance to display your core values, because in a way, this prompt is asking a sub-question: What is meaningful to you?

In this video, we read a successful Yale essay for a similar prompt: “What is a community to which you belong?”

This essay can take on a narrative form if you want to tell a brief story that exemplifies your community involvement or you can write it as a simple description/explanation. If you choose to be more explanatory in your writing, you should make sure to give yourself some sentences for deep reflection. While there is a prompt to answer, make sure that your writing stays engaging and thoughtful!

Where to Get Your Yale Essays Edited

We hope this post was helpful in at least getting the ball rolling on your submission. While your essays do play a substantial role in landing you an acceptance letter in the spring, they aren’t the only thing that matters. Also, assessing the quality of your own hypothetical essays is one of the less objective ways of estimating the chances of your application’s success. 

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!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s zero in on the supplemental essay . 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy writing! 

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

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

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Supplemental College Essay Prompt Examples

What is a supplemental essay?

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

How many supplemental essays do I need to complete?

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

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

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

What are common supplemental essay topics?

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

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

What makes a good supplemental essay?

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

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

-Princeton University Supplemental Essays

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

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

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

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

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

5) What brings you joy? (50 words)

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

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

-Harvard University Supplemental Essays

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

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

– Columbia University Supplemental Essays

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

List Questions:

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

Short Answer Questions:

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

– Massachusetts Institute of Technology Supplemental Essays

MIT has a series of short answer essay questions:

• Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (250 words or fewer)
• Pick what field of study at MIT appeals to you the most right now, and tell us more about why this field of study appeals to you. (100 words or fewer)
• We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (200–250 words)
• At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200–250 words)
• Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (200-250 words)

-Yale University Supplemental Essays

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

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

Stanford University Supplemental Essays

University of Pennsylvania Supplemental Essays

California Institute of Technology Supplemental Essays

Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essays

Northwestern University Supplemental Essays

Duke University Supplemental Essays

Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays

Brown University Supplemental Essays

Vanderbilt University Supplemental Essays

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PA School Supplemental Essay Examples

Writing can be difficult, even with practice and training, and oftentimes, reading over PA school supplemental essay examples can help you with your own forays into that realm.

Prompts will change from year to year, and from school to school, but you can expect to find certain prompts generally repeated, albeit with slightly different wording. These prompts are fairly common, and not just in physician assistant programs ; these prompts can be found in applications for medical school secondary essays , as well.

Each essay you write should be a finely-crafted sample of yourself that shines through, tells your story, and showcases your best side to the admissions committee. It can be tricky to know how to throw in your story, along with pertinent information about your academic accomplishments, or the best extracurriculars for PA school , but if you study these examples, you’ll see how to go about this task.

Below, we give you several examples of likely and possible prompts that you will encounter, as well as answers to those questions. Studying these will help you craft your own answers, showing your schools-of-choice how you meet the PA school requirements for their program.

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 11 min read

Why do you want to be a pa.

My first memory is, literally, playing with my father’s stethoscope. I was fascinated by it. While this is hardly the first step on my journey to medicine, I like to imagine that there has always been something in my DNA or my psyche which has demanded that I pursue healthcare as a vocation.

I was sick a lot as a child and was in and out of the hospital, finding myself needing help with allergies, asthma, and the occasional broken bone. This early exposure to healthcare, as well as my father’s profession as a doctor, made me familiar with what went on in a hospital.

One day, my dad let me come with him to the hospital to see what it was he did. I was still as fascinated with the trappings of the medical field as I was as a child with that stethoscope. Because of my fascination, he let me come along. I sat in the balcony of an operating room, watching my father carefully controlling the anesthetic to keep the patient unconscious, but alive – safe.

Allow me a moment to talk about another passion of my life: sports. I’ve always been an avid sportsman, enjoying soccer and baseball as a boy. What I love most about sports is the teamwork: the offense and defense working in tandem, under a team captain’s plan, to win the game. What I saw in the operating theater was exactly the same kind of teamwork, with nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals operating together to heal their patient.

That interest in the complete healthcare team got me researching the different positions and kinds of medical experts there were – and I looked up everything from anesthesiologists to x-ray techs. Along the way, I discovered the physician assistant. This resonated with me. It seemed like this role had something special to offer their team. They were versatile, worked under doctors to provide a variety of care, and seemed like they could help a lot of people.

Your program has a strong emphasis on patient interaction and foundational knowledge. I love the former, and know I will need the latter.

Patient interaction is my favorite part over any other aspect of healthcare. I love bringing somebody a smile and peace as much as a medical cure for their condition. I recognize that medicine is a holistic process and know that a big part of that whole is making sure that the patient is taken care of as a person.

Because your program gets PA students together with patients sooner than other programs, I was immediately drawn to it, knowing that I would feel useful, and like I was making a difference faster than at almost any other school.

Foundational knowledge is also important to me. Rather than rushing into new techniques or fads, your program emphasizes having a strong knowledge of the basics. I know that building on those basic techniques will allow me to place newer ideas on a firm foundation, and help me navigate the strange realms of human physiology and healthcare.

Although foundations are important in your program, that hardly means you are living in the past. You have some of the most state-of-the-art laboratories I have seen. It’s nice to know that I will be able to learn with advanced techniques and the latest elements of medicine.

The obvious answer is “physician assistant,” but of course, there are so many aspects to that job, and I will go into some of my top choices for what kind of PA I want to be and what kind of life I hope to lead.

My ideal situation would be to practice under the auspices of a hospital in a small town, or even out in the country. I have always loved open places and nature, and I think that living in such a community would bring me great personal satisfaction.

On a professional level, assisting with a smaller hospital or a family practice out in the country would maximize the use of my skills – in my opinion. Staffing is an often-encountered hurdle in such small communities, and a PA – or several – would be of tremendous use in a rural area. Since doctors are scarce, being able to add staff members who can assist those physicians would be giving a small community an amount of healthcare that would really make an impact.

Additionally, getting to know a smaller community would be satisfying and allow me to understand my patients a lot better than in a larger city with more distance and less personal contact.

The philosophy of medicine has fascinated me for some time, and I would like to continue my studies in this area. The culmination of these studies would occur after practicing for a short time. At that time, I would like to get my master of physician assistant studies (MPAS), and dedicate some of my time to teaching up and coming PAs and other healthcare professionals. I believe in giving back to my community and offering a helping hand up to the next generation of healthcare professionals.

I didn’t like the first years of my life. Bounced around from foster home to foster home, it took years before I had found my adoptive parents and was finally, permanently accepted into a family. That acceptance meant the world to me, and showed me that you can choose your family and choose to find love and acceptance in even the direst of circumstances.

We lived in a suburb, and the whole place seemed as quiet and tranquil as a Norman Rockwell painting on Prozac. Not unpleasant, just a little lethargic. That was okay. It gave me two important aspects of myself: a desire to explore, and a safe place to return to at the end of any adventure.

I remember one time biking along the train tracks with my buddy Rod. We had each received a new bicycle for our birthdays and knew that this was the most freedom a boy could get before he could get a driver’s license.

Rod didn’t see the train as quickly as I did, and when I yelled, he fell from his bike, and I dropped my own vehicle to race to him. I pulled him back from the edge of speeding death just in time. It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life; Rod was another “family” member I’d chosen.

That brush with near-death was one of the reasons I have that made me want to make a career out of helping people. I knew what could have happened if I’d been slower, and I knew that people faced that moment down every day. When Rod and myself, breathless, returned to safe, secure, sedentary suburbia, I knew I wanted to stand with those that were facing death.

Ironically, it didn’t make either of us scared to try new things. Both Rod and myself go rock climbing. I think, in a counter-intuitive way, the incident with the train made both of us realize that we couldn’t control every outcome, but that we could always count on each other. I don’t know how many risks I’d take without Rod watching my back, but with his help, I feel more stabilized.

Whether through my adoptive family, my familial friends like Rod, or my quiet suburbs, I know that I can go forward on any adventure – rock-climbing or bike-riding, or learning about medicine – and have a safety net made of love at my back. I wouldn’t be me without those people or my joy in adventure and in the care of friends.

Explain Any Gaps or Deficiencies in Your Application

The hardest lesson I’ve ever had to learn was one I had to learn at the expense of some of my GPA. My first year of university was radically different from high school, in terms of its scope and the requirements it placed on me, as well as my response to it. In high school, I had been under the roof of my parents, and they kept me in a very strict environment. At university, I cut loose, like I was a rubber band pulled taut and finally snapping back.

I’m not blaming my parents for what I did, of course, I’m merely saying what led up to my failing my chemistry course in my first semester.

Winter break came, and I knew I had a major decision to make: change majors or press on. I decided to keep going, and with that dedication came great resolve. Over the break, other students spent their time reconnecting with friends and family after their first years away at school. For myself, I studied. In fact, what I did was study how to study.

By the time I got back to school, I arrived with a multitude of study guides, meditation techniques, and day planners with which I would set up a regimen of studying habits to ensure success. I added chemistry back onto my course load and re-took the course that semester.

I had learned a valuable lesson about how to spend my time, how to study, and how to seek out techniques to help me. I also learned not to ignore problems (like a poor grade on a midterm) but to confront my difficulties head-on and keep my goals in sight.

So, while you will see an F on my transcript for one semester’s chemistry class, I encourage you to look to the next semester, which has an A- for the same course. Now, don’t ignore the F, either. An F symbolizes failure, and an A- symbolizes passing, but both together show progress, perseverance, and lessons learned. Those two together are far more valuable than either alone. Because anybody can pass a course, but a true student learns and grows.

My mother is an architect, and I remember invading her home office one day, as a child, staring at her draughts papers and having her explain to me about how she needed to compensate for structural weight, materials, and the terrain the building was being built on. Without a solid foundation, perfect design, and the right materials, the whole structure would collapse. Every element was necessary.

I don’t want to get lost in the metaphor. I don’t want to declare the whole building an allegory with this profession as the materials and that profession as the foundation and so forth. What I want to stress is the essential elements of the team.

To me, a physician assistant, working with a doctor, is somebody who steps in to take burdens off of shoulders, lightening the primary physician’s load enough to allow them to focus on a wider area.

A physician assistant, of course, can step in and accomplish much of what an MD or GP can do. Their scope is limited, yes, and they report to – and work in collaboration with – an MD, but they can still take on many tasks for the MD to essentially extend the effective influence and scope of care of that MD.

I think of PAs as integral insofar as they can bridge a lot of gaps where a full MD isn’t needed, but the patient still needs heavy treatment. They are in the middle of the medical world, and that is a position which I think is as exciting as it is useful.

I’ve always enjoyed mediation and removing burdens from others. I think that is the best role for me, and I think working as a physician assistant will give me exactly that.

Wondering how to navigate your applications?

You have already made a great decision to research your essays before writing them, or while revising them. Professional physician assistant application help is a great choice to make, and we’re glad that you are taking your application seriously enough to study these examples. Apply this same process to the rest of your application, with your PA personal statement , for example; research, look at samples, and go for PA personal statement editing , and so on, with every aspect of your application to PA school.

You could run into anything, really, but generally-speaking, the essays you encounter will fall into a few, basic categories:

Personal, like “Tell us about yourself”

Professional, like “Why do you want to be a PA?”

Quirky, like “If you were a kitchen implement, what would you be?”

Other topics might include: What are your strategies for coping with the stressors of school; Tell us about your family; What books have influenced you in the past year; If you couldn’t be a PA, what other career would you want to have; or Where would you like to work as a PA. 

Follow any direct CASPA guidelines or guidelines issued by your school. Never go longer than the guideline; consider these as unbreakable rules.

If no length is given, aim for about 500 words; don’t go longer than 600, or shorter than 250. These are short essays, so you don’t need pages and pages on each subject.

Yes. Prompts like, “Why did you choose our program?” are obviously specific to an individual school, and you will need to tailor them accordingly. Others are more general or adaptive, such as, “Why do you want to be a PA?”

Check with each school or program to see what their requirements are. They will not all find it necessary to receive supplemental or secondary essays. Likewise, they might have topics which are optional depending on your personal application and background. If an essay asks you to comment on any gaps in education you’ve had, for example, you won’t need to fill that out if there are no gaps and no low scores or other discrepancies that require explanation in your application.

You can , yes, but depending on the essay, you shouldn’t skip it.

In the above example, you truly might just skip over an essay explaining a gap. If you don’t have a gap, you don’t have an essay to write.

But, if at all possible, write every essay. If you have a tenuous connection to the topic, brainstorm for a while and write something. Every essay is another chance to gain a point or stand out in the eyes of the admissions committee.

For instance, if there is an optional essay saying asking you to show your relationship to an underprivileged community, you might think you need not fill it out if you aren’t part of an underrepresented minority group. But, if the essay just asks for your relationship to such a community, you almost certainly have a connection – a friend, relative, mentor, and so on – who fits that description. You can talk about that connection, or perhaps some volunteer work or politically rallies you’ve been to and how they inspire you and affect you.

CASPA is the Centralized Application Service for Physicians Assistants. It is a service of PAEA – the Physician Assistant Education Association, and allows application to multiple programs through one, centralized program.

Essentially, yes, but you’ll need to fit the answer to different places. Let’s take the prompt “Why do you want to be a PA?” and look at three examples.

In a larger essay, a primary application essay, you’ll likely be given a larger character, word, or page count limit to write out your journey. You can expand on ideas, give a little more of your personal story, and you will be expected to provide more detail commensurate with the increased size of the essay.

In the secondary essays section, these prompts will be, as detailed above, shorter and more to the point. You have less room and less detail.

If you encounter such a question in an interview, it is unlikely that your answer will be formally timed, however, the expectation is that it will occupy approximately two minutes of time, not much more or less. You also will have to cover the “bullet points” and fill in detail ex tempore , instead of writing out precise language and memorizing it.

Always ask yourself what the reader – the admissions committee – wants to know and make sure you answer that. “Tell us about yourself,” isn’t just a list of hobbies, it’s you showing your best, personal attributes – for example.

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