rpi essay prompts 2023

College essay resources

How to write every rpi essay | 2022-2023, school supplements.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is known for its awesome undergraduate STEM programs and research opportunities. If you want to join their class, you’ll need to write two supplemental essays. 

Let’s take a look at the first RPI essay prompt!

Why are you interested in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute? (250 words)

To write a strong Why RPI essay, you’ll need to provide specific examples to explain your interest in RPI. Head over to the RPI website and do some research! These brainstorming questions may help.

Experiences: What experiences can RPI offer you? Maybe you are looking for a specific type of academic experience, like the flexibility of the Arch Program curriculum. Or maybe you’re interested in research opportunities at RPI, like the Biomedical Engineering department’s research program in Tissue and Regenerative Medicine. You might also be excited about RPI’s 200+ extracurriculars and student groups, like the Rensselaer Electric Vehicle Team and the Statler & Waldorf literary magazine.

Values: Are you drawn to any of RPI’s values? If so, how do they put those values into practice? For example, you might like the way that RPI values entrepreneurship, and how the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship connects students with resources.

Traits: Do you like any specific traits of students or faculty at RPI? If so, try to include an example. For instance, you might be a future engineer who likes the fact that more than 50% of RPI freshmen are engineering students.

Visit: If you’ve visited RPI or talked to RPI staff at an admissions event, try to work that experience into your essay! What were the moments or conversations that made you really want to attend RPI?

Let’s look at an example student’s brainstorming list for this 250-word essay.

Experiences:

• Interdisciplinary learning - Biomedical Engineering and Medicine program for undergraduates
• Biomedical engineering research with the Center for Modeling, Simulation & Imaging in Medicine
• Study abroad - Nanyang Technological University in Singapore
• Competing with the Club Ski Team
• Experiential learning: the Arch program will allow me to fit a study abroad program into my Biomedical Engineering curriculum
• Intellectual curiosity: When I visited, many students were exploring subjects outside of their major and they were excited to talk about their research projects

Describe an Activity

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (300 words)

In this 300-word RPI essay, try to draw a connection between an activity and one of your values, goals, positive traits, or broader interests. For example, maybe you were drawn to an activity because it aligned with your values, or maybe a work experience inspired one of your future goals. What made this activity a really important part of your life?

Let’s look at a few example students’ topics:

• Activity: Volunteered at the library every summer
• Connection to values: I care about giving back to the community
• Activity: Internship at biomedical research lab
• Connection to goals: I want to be an orthopedic surgeon
• Activity: Started a jewelry business on Etsy
• Connection to interests: I’m interested in entrepreneurship

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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

Undergraduate Admissions

You are here, let's get started, application options.

For students who decide that Rensselaer is their first choice, applying Early Decision (ED) is a great option.  Early Decision is binding - applicants who are admitted to Rensselaer under Early Decision must withdraw all applications to other colleges. Rensselaer offers two rounds of Early Decision applications, EDI and EDII.

What is the difference between EDI and EDII? The main difference between Early Decision I and Early Decision II is the application deadline. The deadline for Early Decision I is November 1, with decision notification in mid-December. The deadline for Early Decision II is December 15, with decision notification in mid-January.

What about financial aid? All applicants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are automatically considered for merit-based aid. If you are interested in  receiving need-based financial assistance , you must submit both the College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile application and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the admission application deadline. If admitted to Rensselaer, you will receive a financial aid award along with or shortly after your acceptance. International students are not eligible for financial aid.

Early Decision Agreement Form : If you submit an Early Decision application, you must also submit a signed Early Decision Agreement Form. This may be completed electronically through the Common Application or Coalition Application. Students using the Candidate's Choice Application should complete the ED agreement form through their application status portal.

Under the Early Decision Plan, an applicant may apply to only one institution as an Early Decision Candidate. Applicants may apply to other institutions provided that none of the applications are made under an Early Decision or an applicable Early Restrictive Action Plan. The obligation stated here and as defined by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) is a commitment on the part of the applicant to withdraw any other applications and to initiate no new applications if accepted under an institution’s Early Decision Plan (this commitment is binding only if the institution offers sufficient financial aid).

Apply by December 1, and receive your decision in late January (non-binding). The priority filing deadline for the CSS Profile and the FAFSA for Early Action applicants is December 1. 

The application deadline for Regular Decision has been extended to January 31.

The decision notification for Regular Decision applicants is in mid-March.

We strongly encourage families seeking  financial assistance  to submit an application for aid as soon as possible once the student submits their application. The priority filing deadline for the CSS Profile and the FAFSA is February 1.

The application deadline for Accelerated Medical Program (B.S./M.D.) is November 1.

Please review the special information section at the bottom of this page for specific information on applying to this program.

Please note that you cannot apply Early Decision or Early Action to the accelerated program, and the application is non-binding. Due to the nature of the program, students enrolled in the accelerated medical program are not able to dual or double major.

The priority filing deadline for the CSS Profile and the FAFSA is February 1 for accelerated program applicants.

Each year, we welcome applications from students who wish to transfer to Rensselaer. We consider applications from students who have attended or are attending other institutions — including international students enrolled overseas.

Rensselaer considers any student with 12 or more transferable college credits completed after high school as a transfer student.

Transfer applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Once we begin reviewing applications for your desired entry term, you may expect a decision approximately 3-4 weeks after your application is completed.

Learn more about transferring to Rensselaer

While a fall term start is typically recommended, a small group of first-year students begin their studies in the spring term each year for a variety of reasons. The application deadline for first-year students for a spring term (January) start is November 1.

Please note, a spring start may not be an option for all majors/programs.

Students who apply for a fall term start may be offered the opportunity to begin in the spring term (January), rather than the fall (September). Details of the start term will be clearly detailed in the acceptance letter.

Please note that Rensselaer considers any student with 12 or more transferable college credits completed after high school as a transfer student.

Spring Admission FAQs

If you have previously been enrolled at Rensselaer and are now seeking to return, please note that the process is handled by Student Success (not the Office of Admissions). Frequently Asked Questions and application information may be found on  the Student Success website . 

How to Apply

We accept any of the following applications for admission. We do not prefer one application over another, and you should submit only one of the applications below. Applications open by August 1 annually. 

We highly encourage students to create a free web-based email account (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) to use for their college search/application process, rather than using a school-based email address. School-based addresses often have deliverability issues, and are no longer accessible after graduation.

Please note that students applying to the Accelerated Physician-Scientist (B.S./M.D.) Program cannot apply using the Coalition on SCOIR Application.

This streamlined application is available to students who have expressed an interest in Rensselaer (available to first-year students only).

Please note that students applying to the Accelerated Physician-Scientist (B.S./M.D.) Program cannot apply using the Candidate’s Choice Application.

Important note for students using the Candidate's Choice Application: Any credentials submitted through Naviance may only be received by Rensselaer if the applicant has submitted the Common Application.

In order for us to receive your documents, you must indicate inside of Naviance that you are NOT using the Common App to apply to RPI. Once you do that, your counselor should be able to choose to send your supporting documents to us electronically through Parchment. Documents may also be sent via SCOIR. 

Be sure to monitor your application portal to ensure that we receive all of your supporting documents.

Application Checklist

Here are the additional supporting documents needed to complete your application. All items are required to complete your file no matter which application you use to apply.  Rensselaer does not offer evaluative interviews as a part of the application process.

An official transcript sent by your school is required.

Early Decision & Early Action Applicants : Please have your first quarter/first trimester grades (or a mid-semester progress report) sent directly to our office as soon as they are available. You may also upload an unofficial copy of a report card or progress report through your application portal.

Regular Decision Applicants : Please have your mid-year/first semester grades sent directly to our office as soon as they are available. You may also upload an unofficial copy of a report card or progress report through your application portal.

Request a letter of recommendation from a counselor or teacher, preferably a math or science teacher who knows you well.

Any student who applies to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an undergraduate in the fall of 2025 will be able to choose whether or not to submit SAT or ACT scores. This is a continuation of the temporary suspension of our standardized testing requirement, and it will be re-evaluated for the fall 2026 application cycle. Test-Optional FAQs

Due to Albany Medical College requirements, students applying to the Physician-Scientist Program will be required to submit the appropriate test scores .

Report your test scores to our office. Rensselaer allows most students* to self-report test scores on the application or through their application portal (available after an application is submitted). Students who choose to enroll at Rensselaer will be required to send their official scores from the testing agency (if they have not already done so). Test scores that appear on an official high school transcript submitted by your school will be considered official test scores.  Be sure to check your online application status page to ensure that the scores are processed into your file.

• SAT Institutional Code:  2757
• ACT College Code:  2866

* Students applying to the accelerated medical program will be required to send official scores at the time of application. Also, official results of English Proficiency Exams will be required at the time of application.

Standardized Test Requirements

The general essay/personal statement submitted with your application satisfies Rensselaer’s essay requirements, except for applicants to the following programs:

• Accelerated Physician-Scientist (B.S./M.D.) Program (BIAM)
• Architecture (ARCH)
• Electronic Arts (EART)
• Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS)
• Music (MUSC)

Essay Requirements

For Fall 2024 freshman applicants, Rensselaer will waive the application fee for students who submit an application by December 1, 2023. 

The nonrefundable application processing fee is $70. Credit card payments should be made through the individual application websites (or through your application portal if you used the Candidate's Choice Application). If you do not wish to pay by credit card, please mail check or money order, payable to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to the mailing address shown in the sidebar. Include your full name and date of birth with your payment. Do not send cash. Please note that the application fee is waived for Rensselaer Medalists.

Fee Waiver Eligibility & Instructions

If your total family income is $70,000 or less, and the application fee presents a hardship for you and your family, you may qualify for a fee waiver.

To request a fee waiver, ask your high school guidance counselor, principal, or other school official to fill out the SAT Request for Waiver of College Application Fee form or to submit an official letter on your behalf. We will also accept the ACT, College Bound, or NACAC Fee waiver forms.

You may assume the waiver has been granted unless you hear otherwise from us.  Be sure to check your online application status page to ensure that your request has been received and processed.

The form, or official letter, may be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to "Fee Waiver Request" at the mailing address shown in the sidebar.

If applying for the Architecture or Music program, prepare your creative portfolio for submission.

Portfolio Requirements & Guidelines

Applicants to the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and Electronic Arts (EART) programs may submit an optional creative portfolio.

Portfolios have the same deadlines as the application.

If you submit an Early Decision or Early Decision II application, you must also submit a signed Early Decision Agreement Form . This may be completed electronically through the Common Application or Coalition Application. Students using the Candidate's Choice Application should complete the ED agreement form through their application status portal.

Rensselaer considers any student who is not a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident to be an international applicant (regardless of where the student currently resides or attends school). Please review the additional requirements international students need to complete their applications.

OPTIONAL: Record your Elevator Pitch – Submit a 90-second video telling us [a little more about your strengths and talents/more about yourself]. You can record it  here  and send it to RPI. We recommend submitting your Elevator Pitch within a week of your application deadline so that it is reviewed as part of your application. This is completely optional.

All U.S. citizen or permanent resident undergraduate students seeking admission are automatically considered for Rensselaer merit-based awards. Both the CSS Profile and FAFSA are required for need-based aid consideration.

There are limited merit aid awards available for international students who live and attend school in the United States. Non-citizens (with the exception of Canadian citizens) should NOT file the CSS Profile. 

To learn more, please visit the Office of Financial Aid website . 

Selecting a Major

While there is flexibility to change your major once you are here, you are encouraged to be as specific as you can when you choose a major (or school) on your application. If you are interested in the Architecture, Electronic Arts, Music, or Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program, we recommend that you apply directly to that program. Students interested in the Accelerated Physician-Scientist (B.S./M.D.) Program must apply directly to that program.

• Declare  specific major
• Undeclared to a specific school (i.e., undeclared engineering)
• Undeclared general studies

You can major in almost anything at Rensselaer while preparing yourself for medical school, but most students who want to pursue medical school choose something in our  School of Science  (often biology or chemistry). Interested students may enlist the assistance of the  Pre-Health Committee , a group of professors who will guide students interested in medical school (or other health professions) through their four years, making sure they are putting themselves in the best position possible when it comes time to apply to the professional school of their choice. Questions about the advising process may be addressed to [email protected] .

Rensselaer offers several  Accelerated & Combined Programs  to give you a one- to two-year head start on your fellow professionals. 

Please note that the Physician-Scientist Program (B.S./M.D.) requires students to apply by November 1 of their senior year of high school.

If you have already submitted your application and would like to change your major, please complete the " Change in Major Form " found in the lower right-hand corner of your application status page. Our operations staff will be in touch through email once the change is confirmed.

Program-Specific Essay

The general essay/personal statement submitted with your application satisfies Rensselaer’s essay requirements, except for the following degree-specific guidelines.

• State your reasons for aspiring to a career in medicine.

You will be prompted for the appropriate essay on the Common Application writing supplement. The essay should be approximately 500-750 words. 

• State your reasons for choosing architecture as your profession.

You will be prompted for the appropriate essay on the application when you select this major. The essay should be no more than 1–2 pages.

• Discuss your interests in the field of electronic arts, and state how this is reflected in your portfolio, if one has been submitted.
• State your reasons for choosing the field of games and simulation arts and sciences, making reference to your portfolio if one has been submitted.
•  Describe your interest in the music major and your goals. Please include completed course work in music, private music instruction, musical performance and production experience, or completed independent projects.

Portfolio Requirements

First-year applicants to the Architecture and Music programs are required to submit a creative portfolio. First-year applicants to the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences and Electronic Arts programs are strongly encouraged to submit a creative portfolio.

Online Portfolio Submission

*Creative portfolios are required to be submitted for transfer applicants into the Architecture (ARCH), Electronic Arts (EART), Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS), and Music (MUSC) programs.

Applicants are required to submit a creative portfolio consisting of 10-20 images of work. The work included within the portfolio may consist of a range of media: pencil, charcoal, oil stick, and water color drawings; acrylic or oil paintings; paper, chipboard, wood, metal, ceramic or mixed media models; measured drawings or digital renderings; and black and white and color photographs, music scores, video, and other creative endeavors.

Applicants may submit a creative portfolio to supplement the application.

Portfolio Information

First-year applicants are encouraged to submit a statement of intent and a portfolio that demonstrates creative excellence and preparation for interdisciplinary studies in games. Transfer applicants are required to submit a portfolio for admission to this program.

Applicants are required to submit a statement of intent, a portfolio, and a portfolio description. There are no live auditions.

Special Applicant Types:

Deadline : The annual application deadline is November 1. Please note that you cannot apply Early Decision/Early Action to the Physician-Scientist Program, and the application is non-binding. All applications must be made complete by November 10 in order to be considered. All standardized tests (ACT/SAT) must be taken by the November test date .

Application : There is no separate application for the program. You must use the Common App and select the "Regular Decision" option. You must select “Physician-Scientist Program-B.S./M.D.” as your major on your application. Students may not apply to the accelerated medical program using the Coalition Application or the Candidate’s Choice Application . Please be advised that Albany Medical College will consider applicants to only ONE of their three combined degree programs. Dual applications will not be considered - applicants who apply to more than one of Albany Medical College's joint programs will be administratively withdrawn by AMC.

Required Courses:  Applicants should meet the basic requirements for admission to Rensselaer, which include three years of science (including biology, chemistry and lab-based physics) and four years of mathematics through pre-calculus (calculus recommended). 

Essay: Students applying for this program will be prompted for a program-specific essay (state your reasons for aspiring to a career in medicine) when they complete the Common App. The essay should be approximately 500-750 words. 

Research Experience: Since this accelerated program is research-focused, it is highly recommended that applicants have some sort of research experience in high school, which should be clearly articulated on the application.

Standardized Testing Requirements:  All standardized tests must be taken by the November test date . It is recommended that students taking the November test have their scores rush sent to Rensselaer. Self-reported scores will not be accepted for applicants to this program.

• Applicants to the Physician-Scientist Program should submit official scores from EITHER the SAT or the ACT .
• The writing portion is NOT required for either exam.
• Self-reported scores will not be accepted for accelerated program applicants.
• We cannot accept test scores later than the November test date for applicants to the Physician-Scientist Program.

Application Process : Rensselaer will review the applications and refer qualified students to Albany Medical College (AMC), which will then review the applications and reach out to certain students for an interview (in January, February, or March). From that pool of students, AMC will make offers of admission to the program. The application process is lengthy and notification begins in early April. Due to the nature of the program, students enrolled in the accelerated medical program are not able to dual or double major.

* Please note — international students (including Canadian citizens) may not apply to the Physician-Scientist program.

Congratulations on being named a Rensselaer Medalist! We look forward to reviewing your application to Rensselaer. 

You may use any of the applications we accept to apply, and, as a Medalist, your application fee is waived. All other requirements are the same as for all incoming freshman applicants.

Every year, we accept hundreds of Medalists into our freshman class; however, please note that being named a Medalist is not an automatic acceptance to Rensselaer. 

To receive the Medal Scholarship, you must apply, be accepted, and enroll at Rensselaer. Please be sure to mention on your application that you are a Medalist.

Medalist Scholarship: As a Medalist, should you apply, be accepted, and enroll at Rensselaer, you will receive a merit scholarship with a value of $40,000 per year. This award is guaranteed to be applied to your tuition for each year of your undergraduate study at Rensselaer. As a Medalist, if you enroll in our School of Architecture, your scholarship will be extended to cover the fifth year of the program.

Accelerated Programs:  As a Medalist, if you enroll in our Physician-Scientist Program, your Medal Scholarship will only apply to the financial aid package you receive for the three years you are studying on Rensselaer’s campus.

Rensselaer Medallion:  As a Medalist, if you enroll at Rensselaer, you will receive your Medallion at Honors Convocation in the fall of your freshman year.

Medal Selection:  Medalists are chosen by each individual participating high school, and Rensselaer provides general guidelines for selecting a Medalist. Each high school selects their Medalist differently, so contact your guidance office to see if your high school participates and what their selection process entails.

As a home-schooled student, you’ll be treated just like any other applicant to Rensselaer.

To fulfill the transcript requirement, you should submit any official transcripts from your high school years (a recognized home school clearing house program, if you’ve attended a traditional high school program for part of your HS career, or if you’ve taken any college-level courses).

You’re encouraged to submit a detailed roster of all academic course work at the secondary level with supporting documentation attached. Also, we’ll need a recommendation from someone other than your parent(s).

Rensselaer has a strong history of collaboration with, and support of, the U.S. military. The campus hosts Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) units for the Air Force, Army, and Navy. The Institute has been educating Naval flag officers, particular in the Civil Engineer Corps, since the 1860s, and, with the exception of the United States Naval Academy, has trained more U.S. Naval Flag officers than any other school in the nation.

We are continually recognized as a top-ranked school for veterans - #26 in Best Colleges for Veterans according to U.S. News & World Report (2022). We welcome veterans and their dependents; our goal is to assist you and/or your dependent(s) as you all work toward your educational aspirations.

Below are some steps to consider as you submit your application to Rensselaer.

1. Determine if you should apply as a transfer or first-year student.

• If you have 12 or more transferable credits after completion of high school, you should apply as a transfer student .
• If you have completed Navy Nuclear Power Training School, you are eligible for 31 credits and should apply as a transfer student .
• If you have fewer than 12 transferable credits, you should apply as a freshman .

2. Submit your application and required materials before the appropriate deadline for either transfer or freshman admission.

We encourage students to apply electronically . If you intend to use Yellow Ribbon benefits to pay for your Rensselaer education, we require you to indicate your eligibility on the application in order to include you on our list of prospective Yellow Ribbon scholarship recipients.

3. Apply for VA Educational Benefits .

Once you have applied for your benefits, you will receive a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) which you will need to submit, via email, to the following:

• Tracey Dame, Assistant Director of Financial Aid: [email protected] or 518-276-6813
• Kelly Dalheim, Associate Registrar and School Certifying Official: [email protected] or 518-276-6996

If you are eligible to receive Yellow Ribbon benefits, please note that we offer a Yellow Ribbon scholarship of $35,000 per year to up to 75 students at a time. We provide this scholarship on a first-come, first-served basis on the order of enrollment deposit date for students who self-identify as being Yellow Ribbon-eligible on their application for admission. Students who do not indicate that they may be eligible will be placed on a waitlist for the scholarship. A Yellow Ribbon recipient is not eligible to receive other Rensselaer scholarship or grant aid programs.

Please note, you will not receive a financial aid award that is inclusive of any/all veteran educational benefits until the COE is received . 

If you have any questions, please contact Meg Whalen, Veterans’ Admissions Coordinator, at [email protected] .

GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website .

Other Useful Resources

To assist veterans in understanding higher education costs, financial aid, and other useful information the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed the following tools:

• College Scorecard : A consumer planning tool and resource to assist prospective students and their families as they evaluate options in selecting a school.
• College Navigator : Provides school information including tuition and fees, retention rates, use of financial aid, student loan default rates and features a cost comparison tool.
• Financial Aid Shopping Sheet : Provides a model aid award letter designed to simplify the information that prospective students receive about costs and financial aid so they can easily compare institutions and make informed decisions about where to attend school.
• Paying for College : A web page that can be used by prospective students to enter the names of up to three schools and receive detailed information on each one and to enter actual financial aid award information.

If you do not currently hold a B.S/B.A. degree in any field, but are interested in taking courses on a non-matriculated basis, you should complete the Non-Matriculated Undergraduate Student Application .

If you hold a B.S./B.A. degree, please visit the Graduate Admissions site for additional information. Please note that the Rensselaer computer store is not able to sell laptop computers to non-matriculated students.

There is no application fee for non-matriculated applicants. Please have most recent transcript(s) sent to the address shown in the sidebar. Transcripts being sent electronically may be addressed to [email protected] .

Center for Talented Youth (CTY) Scholarships

If you are interested in using a CTY scholarship to take courses at Rensselaer, you should complete the  Non-Matriculated Undergraduate Student Application (including an indication of the class desired) along with an uploaded copy of the CTY award letter. We will also require an official copy of your high school transcript.

Please have your transcripts sent to the address shown in the sidebar, attention Center for Talented Youth. Transcripts being sent electronically may be addressed to [email protected] .

If you have any questions, please contact Ulysses deArmas .

What's Next?

You hit submit on your application- now what happens? Please review our application checklist to see what else we need to complete your application. If you applied Early Decision , to the Physician-Scientist (B.S.-M.D) Program , or to a major that requires a portfolio , please be sure we receive the required items to complete your application. Please note there are also a few additional requirements for international students (students who are not a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident).

Once we receive your application, within a few days* you will receive an email (to the email address that you provided on the application) that contains your Rensselaer ID number (RIN) and login information for your online portal where you may check the status of your application. We highly encourage students to create a free web-based email account (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) to use for their college search/application process, rather than using a school-based email address. School-based addresses often have deliverability issues, and are no longer accessible after graduation. If necessary, you may change the email we have on file for you through your application portal.

This application portal is also where you will be able to view your admission decision when it becomes available. Please make sure that you are checking this email address and your portal regularly, and make sure that you check your spam/junk folders, as sometimes the confirmation email gets misdirected. If you need to change the email address we have in your file, you may do so through your application portal or by emailing [email protected] . Nearly all of our correspondence concerning your application will be sent through email or made available on your portal.

*Beginning early October

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How to Respond to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Supplemental Essay Prompts

Prior to coming to Scholarships360 for her first internship in 2022, Savannah utilized her campus publications by joining various fashion publications that are offered at Ohio University. One of those publications is Thread Magazine, where Savannah has had the opportunity to work on articles related to world-wide related fashion news and events, as well as articles closer to home, such as a fashion piece on Athens hometown-hero Joe Burrow. This year, Savannah also had the opportunity to be a content writing intern for Aiken House, as well as a section editor for Southeast Ohio Magazine. In 2023, Savannah served as the Chapter President of her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta. These collective experiences, as well as her experience currently working for Ohio University’s Undergraduate Admissions, has led her to Scholarships360 and aided in her passion for helping students better understand the college admissions process and financial aid. In her free time, Savannah enjoys horseback riding, watching Formula One races, traveling, and spending time with her friends and family. Savannah will graduate from Ohio University in May 2024 with a degree in Journalism News and Information and a certificate in Italian Studies.

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Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College.

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute supplemental essay prompts are a great opportunity to show your true self to the college admissions advisors. Using creative writing and thoughtful responses, you can “wow” the people reading your essays and to allow them to see who you are as a person and as a student. Keep reading to learn more about responding to the RPI supplemental essay prompts!

First, a little about Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America’s oldest technological research university. RPI is located in Troy, New York on the Hudson River. The school offers  bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. With an emphasis on science and technology  (RPI’s sports’ teams are known as the “Engineers”), there are five schools (and certificate programs for working adults) broken into 37 departments. 

The five main areas of research at RPI include:

• Biotechnology and the Life Sciences
• Computational Science and Engineering
• Energy, Environment, and Smart Systems
• Media, Arts, Science, and Technology
• Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials

The above research is divided among the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, the Lally School of Management & Technology, and the School of Science.

Let’s get started on breaking down the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute prompts in a way that allows you to put your best self forward! 

Question #1 (found in the “Activities” section of applciation)

“Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences” (300 words)”

This prompt is simple and straightforward, which is great, but  be mindful that it is a 300 word essay. This means that RPI is expecting you to have a lot to say about whichever extracurricular or work activity you choose to write about– so choose wisely. If it is an activity that you really enjoy doing, there should be a great deal to say about it. Speak from your heart and write what you know. 

Things to consider before you write

• What extracurricular activity did I dedicate the most time to?
• What extracurricular activity am I most passionate about?
• Do you have a part-time job that you are passionate about?
• What has your part-time job taught you to prepare you for college?

Question #2

“Why are you interested in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?” (250 words)

This is the typical “Why us?” college essay. Since you are applying to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, there is obviously a genuine reason that it sparked your interest. Maybe the majors RPI offers drew you to them, or an opportunity to work with a particular professor who is an expert in their field. Share just that! Be specific and try to connect back to facts about RPI. 

Make sure that you write clear and concisely about your interest and be honest about what drew you to the institution. Similar to Prompt #1, the limited word count here (250) means each word counts. Therefore, you might want to free-write without feeling constricted by a word count so you can fully express yourself. After,  go back and cut out words that you don’t need to make your points. 

Questions to ask yourself

• Which of the five RPI schools interests you and why?
• Do you have a field of research that you hope to pursue at RPI?
• Is there someone you know who encouraged you to apply to RPI? What is it about that person that impressed you as an RPI graduate?

Closing thoughts for students

The main thing that you want to focus on is not being repetitive in between your application and your supplemental essays. The essays are meant to be an addition to the application so that admissions professionals can learn more about you. If you are repeating yourself, there is no point in writing an essay. Try to talk about something that you didn’t write about on your application or resume. 

Additional resources

Maybe the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute isn’t for you– and that is okay! Luckily, at Scholarships360, we have tons of resources to help you find the college that is right for you. If you are hoping to stay in the New York area, we have supplemental essay resources for colleges from Barnard to Columbia . Wanting to get a little bit farther away? You can also check out Pepperdine University , or University of Texas-Austin . Whatever you choose, we have your back! Good luck with the rest of your college essays!

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How to Get Into RPI: Admissions Data and Strategies

April 18, 2022

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, most often referred to as RPI, is a private research university in Troy, New York that caters to around 6,300 undergraduate students. Future aerospace, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineers flock to RPI for its top-ranked programs, as do a good number of computer science and business students who wish to take advantage of the school’s strengths in those respective areas. With so many elite academic programs, it’s little wonder that the most recent incoming freshman cohort possessed average SAT scores above 1460 and a 3.9 high school GPA.

Given that RPI is a very selective institution, it is important for future applicants to be aware of:

• RPI’s Class of 2025 acceptance rate
• RPI’s Class of 2025 ED acceptance rate
• SAT, ACT, GPA, and class rank of accepted RPI applicants
• Admissions trends at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• The demographics of current RPI undergraduates
• RPI’s yield rate
• How RPI admissions officers evaluate candidates
• Tips for applying to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• How to assess whether applying to RPI is even worth the $70 application fee (for you)

Many students applying to RPI may also find the following blogs to be of interest:

• How to Get Into Carnegie Mellon
• How to Get Into Georgia Tech
• How to Get Into Cornell University

Let’s begin with an examination of the most recent admissions data.

RPI’s Overall Acceptance Rate – Class of 2025

This school does not release admissions-related data in as timely a fashion as we would like. At this time, the most recent official data comes from the Class of 2024 which saw 57% of the 16,661 applicants gain acceptance.

RPI Early Decision Acceptance Rate

Rensselaer is a school that gives a significant edge to those who apply via binding early decision. In the last cycle, 413 of the 588 applicants were admitted, which equates to an acceptance rate of 70%; the regular decision figure was 55%.

There are two rounds of Early Decision at RPI. The ED I deadline is November 1 and the ED II deadline is December 15.

RPI Admissions – SAT, ACT, GPA, and Class Rank

Those who enrolled in the Class of 2024 (again, most recent data available) had an average high school GPA of 3.6. Fifty-five percent placed in the top decile of their high school class, 87% were in the top 25%, and 95% were in the top 50%. The median SAT score for enrolled students was 1380 and the median ACT composite score was 31. The school did announce that the Class of 2025 sported an average SAT of 1463, the highest in school history.

Admissions Trends & Notes

• RPI has renewed their temporary test-optional policy for those applying in the fall of 2023.
• 154 entering Class of 2025 freshmen received the Rensselaer medal, a merit scholarship offered to outstanding math and science students.
• Incoming 2021-22 students hailed from 41 states and 12 countries.
• The acceptance rate was only 47% prior the onset of the pandemic for the Class of 2023.

Who Attends Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?

Let’s look at the demographics of current RPI undergraduates, beginning with which U.S. states have the greatest representation on campus:

• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• Pennsylvania

As at any selective university, competition is toughest among those hailing from states with endless streams of qualified applicants (the entire Northeast & the West Coast). If you hail from a less populated state like Hawaii, the Dakotas, or Montana, your location is more likely to  provide a boost  to your admissions chances.

Looking at ethnic identity, the breakdown of current undergrads was as follows:

• Asian American: 17%
• Hispanic: 11%
• African American: 5%
• Two or more races: 5%
• International: 16%

The breakdown by gender of all current undergraduates is notably split in favor of men:

• Female: 31%

With female students at RPI being somewhat of an endangered species, one would assume that it is easier to get into the school as a female applicant. Yet, for the Class of 2024, the male and female acceptance rates were an identical 57%.

International students make up 16% of the degree-seeking population at RPI. The greatest number of students hail from the following countries:

• Saudi Arabia

RPI’s yield rate—the percentage of accepted students who elect to enroll, divided by the total number of students who are admitted was an extremely low 15% last year. This is due, in part, to the fact that RPI is competing with the same pool of students as many other elite STEM-oriented institutions. As such, the university considers “demonstrated interest” (more on that in a moment). For comparison, other comparable private institutions have the following yield rates: Purdue (23%), Georgia Tech (38%), and Carnegie Mellon (37%).

How RPI Rates Applicants

There are four factors that RPI ranks as being “very important” to their admissions process: rigor of secondary school record, GPA, class rank, and standardized test scores. The next tier of “important” factors includes: the essays, recommendations, extracurricular activities, and character/personal qualities.

Straight from the RPI admissions staff:

• “While there is flexibility to change your major once you are here, you are encouraged to be as specific as you can when you choose a major (or school) on your application. If you are interested in the Architecture, Electronic Arts, Music, or Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program, we recommend that you apply directly to that program. Students interested in the Accelerated Physician-Scientist (B.S./M.D.) Program must apply directly to that program. ”
• “Rensselaer strives to create an inclusive environment that develops true intellectual, geographic, gender, and ethnic diversity in its students, faculty, and staff. Its commitment to diversity is focused on engaging the best talent available and preparing students to work, communicate across cultural boundaries, and emerge as leaders in the global community.”

Additional Tips for Applying to RPI

If you plan on joining the roughly 17,000 RPI hopefuls for the next admissions cycle, you should know the following:

• RPI weighs “ demonstrated interest ” as “considered” in the admissions process. Therefore, you will be judged on whether or not you made a campus visit (in non-pandemic times), contacted an admissions officer, etc.
• A teacher recommendation is required. For tips on requesting a letter of recommendation, check out  this blog .
• RPI will be asking you for a  mid-year report , so make sure to keep your grades up throughout senior year of high school.
• Certain majors require applicants to submit portfolios through Slideroom .
• Make sure to dedicate sufficient time and effort to the supplemental essays required by RPI. In the 2021-22 cycle, there were 2-3 prompts for each applicant:

1) Why are you interested in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute? (250 words)

2) Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences (300 words)

3) Those looking to study Architecture, Electronic Arts, Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences, Music, or Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication will have to pen an additional essay, stating their reasons for selecting that program of study.

  Should I Apply to RPI?

For a school with a 50-60% acceptance rate, RPI is extremely selective. If RPI is your aim and you don’t have grades and test scores in their 75th percentile range (if electing to submit test scores), make sure to also have a rock-solid backup plan. All students need to make sure that they formulate an  appropriate college list , containing a complement of “target” and “safety” schools. You’ll definitely want to do this in conjunction with an admissions professional.

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The Admissions Strategist

How to write the rensselaer polytechnic institute supplemental essays 2020-2021 (with an example).

Do you need help finding best-fit colleges or writing essays? You can sign up for a free consult here .

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a well-ranked university and has a moderately selective admissions rate at around 44%.

In order to stand out, you need to make sure that every section in your application impresses the admissions office.

This includes writing a knockout personal statement and, if applicable, a powerful program-specific essay.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute accepts the Common Application , the Coalition Application, and the Candidate’s Choice Application. One kind of application is not preferred over the other. However, there are some restrictions on which application you can use depending on what program you are applying to. 

You cannot complete the Coalition Application if you are applying to an accelerated program in law or medicine. The Candidate’s Choice Application, on the other hand, is for students who have expressed an interest in Rensselaer and are first-year applicants only. If you are applying to the accelerated medical program, you cannot use the Candidate’s Choice Application. 

If you plan on submitting your credentials through Naviance, you can only do so by completing the Common Application.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the question and essay prompts offered in Rensselaer’s application to improve your chances of success.

Important Things to Remember For the RPI Essays

While writing your personal statement and essay, you should center your focus on your interest in Rensselaer.

Unlike other colleges, which often offer essay prompts that ask you to elaborate on an important part of your life or what you might want your future roommate to know, RPI’s essay prompts are strictly about Rensselaer or its specific programs.

• That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t inject your personality and interests into the essay.
• You should aim to make your essay personal and use previous achievements or experiences to provide evidence as to why you are interested in the university and the field of study.
• Write about something you haven’t previously mentioned in the Common App essay, or elaborate on a part of your application you’ve only briefly mentioned.

Be authentic in your essay, and let the admissions officers know you as a person and as an academic.

This will help you shine in your essay and prove to RPI that you belong there as a student.

Get personalized advice!

Rpi essays: short-answer questions.

Other than the supplemental essays and personal statement, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute asks one short question:

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences.

While RPI doesn’t specify a minimum or maximum word count, you should keep it at around 300 words or less.

It should be just long enough to fully articulate how the activity or work impacted your life.

Limit your description of the activity to about 100 words.

What’s more important to the university is why you chose that extracurricular and how it affected your personal or professional development.

• Make sure that your development is the focus of your answer.
• Remember, this should be personal to you.

While you may want to write about the National Honor Society or any other activity with high accolades, you should think about an extracurricular activity that has shaped and motivated you.

Writing about an activity that you are passionate about will not only be easier and faster to write but will also more accurately reflect your strengths and interests.

If you’ve started any clubs or organizations, that can be a great topic to write about. It shows ambition and leadership skills, and a drive to create and build communities for your activity.

• Demonstrating that passion for a subject to a college suggests that you will show similar initiative if you are accepted.
• Writing about any sort of leadership position in an extracurricular can also demonstrate your motivation and passion in that club, as well as obvious leadership skills. Maybe you don’t have leadership experience, but you’re at robotics club after school every day for hours.

Perhaps you’re there practicing at marching band rehearsals or doing routines at cheerleading practice.

Activities that take a lot of collaboration, teamwork, and time can be a great topic. Spending a lot of time on an activity shows your dedication and commitment to it, and if you’re part of a team, it can also reflect your interpersonal skills.

Approach it from a unique angle that shows how the skills you developed in the activity can be applied to your college or professional life. Remember that you can write about work experience and not just extracurricular clubs.

If you’ve interned for a company in your field of interest over the summer, or you had a life-changing moment at a part-time job, you can definitely write about those.

Just make sure to tie it back to your personal development and goals in life.

RPI Personal Statement

Why are you interested in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute? (250 words or less)

Notice that Rensselaer gives a 250 word limit to this essay. This is the quintessential “ Why This College ” essay.

That means that you need to be direct, concise, and clear with your answer. The key to being successful with this essay is that it should be short, specific, and not too general. 

No need for fancy phrasings or purple prose. The admissions officers are looking for specific reasons for your interest in this university.

• You need to know why Rensselaer is one of the schools you are hoping to attend. Your essay should touch upon what makes RPI  unique and how those unique attributes can benefit you and your future career.
• First, you should make a list of these reasons, however general or applicable they may be. Once you have compiled your list, you may find that some points are generic.
• Many Rensselaer applicants will likely choose the same reason that you do, and it may be hard to stand out from the crowd. For instance, you may be interested in Rensselaer for its chemical and biological engineering program. Many students are interested in Rensselaer’s engineering programs.

However, maybe you choose to write about its polymer research program, in which scientists work to enhance heat transfer and apply polymer devolatilization (the removal of volatile substances from a solid) technology to unconventional substances.

Lately, you may have noticed news articles that state Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scientists are finding ways to enhance natural enzymes to break down plastic. If you’ve participated in environmental-related activities, you can link your passion for creating a greener earth with the research being done at Rensselaer.

• By doing a little research into the different events, research, or news coming out of RPI, you can set yourself apart from those who just want to attend Rensselaer because it’s a “good school”.

Remember, when incorporating research into your essay, you should focus on why that aspect makes you want to attend Rensselaer. Make it sound like Rensselaer’s programs support your passions and interests like no other school can.

Why RPI Supplemental Essay Example

We’ve provided this essay example to give you an idea of essay structure. Use it to create your outline. Never plagiarize, seriously. Always write with your own voice.

I am a leading member in The Women for Business, an organization that fundraises microloans to empower businesswomen in Peru. I am interested in studying computer science at RPI so I can apply the skills I learn toward improving the Internet infrastructure of villages in developing countries. My goal is to help break the cycle of poverty by connecting educators to innovators and creators. Furthermore, I want to participate in one of the study abroad programs offered at RPI so I can learn more about the benefits technology can provide in addressing global Internet infrastructure needs.

RPI Program-Specific Supplemental Essays

The first thing you should note is that none of the program essays specifies a word count, but does say the essay should be 1-2 pages long.

In other words, you should aim for about 500-700 words.

Remember, your essay should reflect why you want to attend Rensselaer’s various academic programs.

Many of these are rigorous programs; some of which require portfolios.

This means you should treat them as such and make sure that your essay is detailed but concise.

RPI Accelerated Programs in Law/Medicine Supplemental Essay

  State your reasons for aspiring to a career in law or medicine.

These bachelor-professional programs are lengthy commitments that take 6-7 years to complete.

As such, you want to prove that you are committed to the subject and are willing to study it extensively for those years. To begin your essay, you need to lay out your origin story. This essay should be no more than one or two pages in length. What is it about law or medicine that makes it so interesting that you want to pursue it as a career?

It should be personal to you, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a tragic Batman origin story.

• For instance, maybe you saw your family go through legal trouble and felt that the justice system wasn’t fair, or maybe you like convincing people to see something in a different light during a debate team competition.
• Maybe a disease runs in your family, or maybe you learned about an illness in school and it fascinated you so much that you want to be the one to create a vaccine. Remember to focus on how that sparked a passion for law or medicine, not just the ethos of the story.

Next, write about your aspirations themselves. If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer, you should have already given thought into what kind of medicine or law you want to practice.

Let the admissions officers know if you want to be a pediatrician because you like working with the kids you babysit and want to focus on their health. Tell them how you want to be the state prosecutor to ensure guilty defendants face justice.

• Write exactly what you see yourself doing when you graduate college, and explain the kind of impact you want to make on your patients or clients.

If you can, include as much pertinent experience as possible. Any club or internship experience will show Rensselaer that you are serious about your passion in law or medicine, but also look for out-of-the-box connections.

As stated, babysitting children may be a good example for future pediatricians.

• If a cardiologist mentored you, explain how that informed your interest in treating heart disease.

For future lawyers, you could write about your experience in giving a public speech to persuade people to care about an issue.

Remember to focus on your aspirations, not your achievements. Use your past experiences as evidence of your passion and motivation to reach your goals. RPI wants to see you looking toward your future.

RPI Architecture Supplemental Essay

State your reasons for choosing architecture as your profession. 

This 5-year bachelor-professional program requires a portfolio, although Rensselaer writes that “we would prefer that you do not include architectural drafted drawings in the portfolio.”

Instead, you should demonstrate your creativity through other forms of media. Make sure that your essay reflects both your portfolio and Rensselaer’s program.

As with the law/medicine essay, writing an anecdote about an early childhood event that inspired you – seeing the Coliseum in Rome, working with your parents to build a doghouse, etc. – works as great context for your goals and aspirations.

While you may be interested in architecture just because you enjoy designing structures, think outside of yourself during the essay.

• What can your structures do for your community?
• How will your buildings improve society or the environment?
• Is there a problem you see in today’s housing and buildings that you want to change?

All colleges, including Rensselaer, are looking for those who will give back using the education they received.

Your essay should reflect on how you will better your community, your country, or even your world as an architect. Whatever the case, you should make sure that your intent is clear.

Tie in some of your art pieces from your portfolio into your essay if you want so that the admissions officers can see your visions of your work. 

Again, this essay should be no more than one or two pages in length.

RPI Electronic Arts Supplemental Essay

Discuss your interests in the field of electronic arts and state how this is reflected in your portfolio.

Rensselaer’s EA program seeks students who want to use technology to create evocative art. It requires a portfolio of 10-20 pieces of your best creative work.

While they accept all forms of media, you should include at least a few pieces of art using technology. Try to make sure these pieces align with each other and ensure that it is reflected in your essay.

Write about your pieces like you have been featured in an art gallery.

How do you tie these pieces together, and how does technology enable you to amplify that message in a way that traditional mediums might be unable to?

Maybe your art is primarily of nature, but you use unnatural materials and mediums to portray that work of art. You could approach it as an environmentalist – your art doesn’t use paper or you use biodegradable materials with a 3D printer.

You may also approach it as a futurist – the future harmony of nature and technology when before, industrial technology often meant the destruction of nature.

The people reading your essay should be able to see your portfolio holistically, rather than as a collection of random pieces you have assembled.

• Guide them to the raison d’être (reason for existence) of your portfolio.

You also may want to talk about the future of electronic arts as well.

• Are there new forms of media to invent, and how might they change the way we look at art?

How have the current new forms changed the way we think and interact with art?

Use your portfolio to provide evidence for your arguments. As with the other majors, this essay should only be one to two pages in length.

RPI Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Supplemental Essay

State your reasons for choosing the field of games and simulation arts and sciences, making reference to your portfolio if one has been submitted.

While no portfolio is required, you should submit one if you are able.

Because this is an art-related field, your application will perform much better if you can demonstrate some of your creative talents. However, if you can’t assemble a portfolio, your essay becomes that much more important.

• While video games encompass a large part of this field, it also includes a broad spectrum of training and simulation arts as well.

These forms of technology can teach people skills or show people a perspective they couldn’t experience otherwise.

Perhaps you want to build more advanced piloting or aeronautics simulations for future pilots and astronauts. Maybe you just want the chance to bring people together and tell a meaningful story through the medium of video games.

• Whatever the reason, make sure that your intent and your vision is clear.
• Include any experience you have in the field as well.

For instance, maybe you created a simple point-and-click game as a fun and innovative way for your classmates to study.

That can demonstrate your technical skills as well as a desire to use such skills to educate. The essay should be one to two pages long. 

RPI Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication Supplemental Essay

Discuss your interests in the field of electronic arts, and state how this is reflected in your portfolio, if one has been submitted.

This program synthesizes the arts with communication and media, encouraging new and unique ways to communicate and express ourselves.

Like with the gaming arts application, a portfolio is not required, but you should submit one if you can. Electronic media is an open-ended area for exploration, and it changes rapidly throughout the years.

Narrow your scope to a particular way in which you’d like to use it to communicate ideas or ways in which electronic media can be used in the future, and frame your portfolio and essay around that theme.

• In your essay, you should be striving to answer a question or solve a problem in electronic media.
• For instance, what are some new ways that people can communicate ideas through?
• Is there a way to streamline communication between people of all languages without rigorous language study, but rather through symbols such as emojis?

On the other side, are there any ramifications to the rapid spread of information? What structural changes need to happen to fix those issues?

Your essay will demonstrate your eagerness to look toward the future of electronic media and be a part of that change. It should be one to two pages long.

RPI Music Supplemental Essay

Describe your interest in the music major and your goals. Please include completed course work in music, private music instruction, musical performance and production experience, or completed independent projects.

Because this program’s application does not include live auditions, you have to make your essay showcase your musical talent and drive.

A portfolio is required.

• As you write this essay, picture yourself as the musician you want to become.
• Maybe you’re playing in Carnegie Hall alongside an entire symphony as a professional violinist.
• Perhaps you’re in a studio, creating new synthesized sounds to play over someone’s radio.

Maybe you’re composing a score for a new feature-length film.

Clearly state your ambitions in the music world. Include as much of your experience as possible.

Whether through private tutoring in a music store, playing in a school orchestra, performing with a band, or recording a song for download, you should demonstrate your initiative to create and perform music for others.

Tie your experiences to your future vision as a musician, and you will be on the right track. Again, the essay should be one to two pages long. 

Transfer Applicants

For students who have completed four or more semesters of college work and are applying to RPI, only a personal statement is required if you are completing the Common Application or Coalition Application. 

Conclusion: RPI Supplemental Essays

Rensselaer’s questions and program-specific essays give you the opportunity to intricately describe your future goals and plans as a professional and as an academic at RPI.

Remember to showcase your personality and potential to the admissions office.

You have to answer a short answer question on your  extracurricular activities , as well as a 100-word personal statement on your intent to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

If you are applying to a specific, rigorous program, you may also have to submit a 500-700 word essay on why you are interested in that field of study.

Whatever you write, let your essay be as specific and detailed as possible.

Your essays should reveal your personal growth and your potential for much greater at Rensselaer.

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Humanities, arts, and social sciences, the 2023 mckinney writing contest is open.

The 2023 McKinney Writing Contest is open! Submit in any or all of the following categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, or Drama; Poetry;  Academic Essay; Electronic Media Using Language; or our NEW multi-genre category: Language and Empowerment. Undergraduate and graduate divisions. First prize $300; 2nd prize $175; and 3rd prize $75. Submit: info.rpi.edu/mckinney. Current students only. Questions? Email [email protected] or visit  https://info.rpi.edu/mckinney

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60+ College Essay Prompts From Actual 2023-2024 Applications

Ideas to inspire every college applicant.

Writing a college application essay can be a stressful task for a lot of students. The more practice they get in advance, the better! This roundup of college essay prompts gives applicants a chance to explore their thinking, polish their writing, and prepare to make the best possible impression on selection committees. Every one of these questions is taken from real college applications for the 2023-2024 season, so they’re meaningful and applicable to today’s high school seniors.

Common App 2023-2024 College Essay Prompts

2023-2024 coalition for college essay prompts, life experiences college essay prompts, personal college essay prompts, academics college essay prompts, creative college essay prompts.

Hundreds of colleges and universities use the Common App process . For many schools, this includes responding to one of several college essay topics, which can change each year. Here are the essay prompts for the current application cycle (check with your chosen school/s to see if an essay is required).

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

More than 150 colleges and universities use the Coalition for College process . Here are their essay prompts for 2023-2024.

• Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

• What interests or excites you? How does it shape who you are now or who you might become in the future?
• Describe a time when you had a positive impact on others. What were the challenges? What were the rewards?
• Has there been a time when an idea or belief of yours was questioned? How did you respond? What did you learn?
• What success have you achieved or obstacle have you faced? What advice would you give a sibling or friend going through a similar experience?

• Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.

Answer these questions by sharing specific examples from your own experience.

• Who is your favorite conversation partner? What do you discuss with that person?
• Discuss a time when reflection or introspection led to clarity or understanding of an issue that is important to you.
• Share an example of how you have used your own critical-thinking skills on a specific subject, project, idea, or interest.

• Describe a time when you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond?
• What are the best words of advice you have received? Who shared them, and how have you applied them in your own life?
• Elaborate on an activity or experience you have had that made an impact on a community that is important to you.
• Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you.
• Who do you agree with on the big, important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
• Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
• When was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true?
• Discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved.
• Reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.
• Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.

• Describe a time you did not meet expectations and what impact the experience had on you.

These essay topics give schools a better sense of who you are, what you value, and the kind of student citizen you might be.

• What drives you to create, and what do you hope to make or have you made?
• Which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work (fiction or nonfiction) seems made for you? Why?
• What would you want your future college roommate to know about you?
• How has your own background influenced the types of problems you want to solve, the people you want to work with, and the impact you hope your work can have?

• Describe any meaningful travel experiences you’ve had.
• What would you want to be different in your own country or community to further principles of equality, equity, or social justice?
• What strength or quality do you have that most people might not see or recognize?
• If you could live your life fighting for one cause, what would it be and why?
• What gives meaning to your life?
• If you wrote a letter to yourself to be opened in 20 years, what would it say?
• If you had the power to change the course of history in your community or the world, what would you do and why?

• Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.
• What is the greatest compliment you have ever been given? Why was it meaningful to you?
• Explain how a text you’ve read—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or literature of any kind—has helped you to understand the world’s complexity.

Topics like these show your academic interests and demonstrate your commitment to learning and discovery.

• What does it mean to you to be educated?
• What is your motivation for pursuing higher education?
• Describe your reasons for wanting to attend the specific school you’re applying to. Who or what factored into your decision?
• Academic inquiry starts with bold questions. What are some of the bold questions you have pondered that get you excited, and why do they interest you?

• What has been your best academic experience in the last two years, and what made it so good?
• If you decide to take a “gap year” between high school and college, what would you do during that time?
• Many schools place a high value on diverse student populations. How can you contribute to and support a diverse and inclusive student population at your chosen school?
• Imagine you were just awarded a research grant for a project of your choice. What are you researching and why?
• What do you love about the subject(s) you selected as potential major(s)? If undecided, share more about one of your academic passions.

• Describe a time when you’ve felt empowered or represented by an educator.
• Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

Use these college essay topics to show off your creativity and innovative thinking.

• You are tasked with creating a new category for the Nobel Prize. Explain what it would be, why you chose your specific category, and the criteria necessary to achieve this accomplishment.

• Pick one person—a historical figure, fictitious character, or modern individual—to converse with for an hour, and explain your choice.
• If you could witness a historic event (past, present, or future) firsthand, what would it be and why?
• If you could have a theme song, what would it be and why?
• Discuss a book that you would call a “great book.” What makes the book great in your view?
• If you could give any historical figure any piece of technology, who and what would it be, and why do you think they’d work so well together?
• If I could travel anywhere, I would go to …
• My favorite thing about last Tuesday was …
• Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge.
• If you had 10 minutes and the attention of a million people, what would your TED Talk be about?
• What are your three favorite words in the English language? Explain what they mean to you.
• Imagine that you could have one superpower. What would it be and how would you use it? What would be your kryptonite?

• Which Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor (real or imagined) best describes you?
• If you could create a college course that all students would take, what would it be about and why?
• What website is the internet missing?

How do you help your students prepare their college application essays? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out  the ultimate guide to college scholarships.

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Supplemental Essay Guide 2023-24

What do the 2023-24 supplemental essay prompts really mean, and how should you approach them? CEA's experts are here to break them all down.

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2023-2024 Common App essay prompts

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We are pleased to announce that the Common App essay prompts will remain the same for 2023-2024.

It’s not just for the sake of consistency that we have chosen to keep the essay prompts the same for the upcoming application year. Our past research has shown that overall satisfaction with the prompts exceeded 95% across our constituent groups - students, counselors, advisors, teachers, and member colleges. Moving forward, we want to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations.

We know some schools are beginning to have conversations with juniors and transfer students about their college options. As we’ve always said, this is not a call for students to begin writing. We hope that by sharing the prompts now, students will have the time they need to reflect on their own personal stories and begin thinking about what they want to share with colleges. As you assist students with their planning, feel free to share our Common App Ready resource on approaching the essay (in English and Spanish ). You can also visit our YouTube channel to view our breakdown of all 7 Common App essay prompts . 

"Moving forward, we want to learn more about who is choosing certain prompts to see if there are any noteworthy differences among student populations." Meredith Lombardi, Director, Education and Training, Common App

Students who are ready to start exploring the application can create their Common App account prior to August 1. With account rollover , we will retain any responses to questions on the Common App tab, including the personal essay.

Below is the full set of essay prompts for 2023-2024.

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

We will retain the optional community disruption question within the Writing section. 

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What are the 2023-24 Common App essay prompts?

Jul 25, 2023 • knowledge, information, below is the full set of common app essay prompts for 2023-24..

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

We will also retain the optional COVID-19 question within the Additional Information section.

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How to Write the Common Application Essays 2023-2024 (With Examples)

The Common App essay is one of the most important parts of your application, but it can be extremely daunting if you’re not familiar with creative writing or what admissions officers are looking for.

In this blog post, we’ll provide advice on how to break down these prompts, organize your thoughts, and craft a strong, meaningful response that admissions officers will notice. If you’d like more free personalized help, you can get your essays reviewed and explore school-by-school essay help on CollegeVine.

Why the Common App Essay Matters

Admissions is a human process. While admissions committees look at grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, there are five students that have great qualifications in those areas for every spot in a university’s class. As an applicant, you need an admissions counselor to choose you over everyone else — to advocate specifically for you. 

This is where essays come in; they are an opportunity for you to turn an admissions counselor into an advocate for your application! Of your essays, the Common App is the most important since it is seen by most of the colleges to which you apply. It is also your longest essay, which gives you more space to craft a narrative and share your personality, feelings, and perspective.

It’s not hyperbole to say that getting the Common App essay right is the single most important thing you can do to improve your chances of admission as a senior. 

Overview of the Common App

The Common App essay is the best way for admissions committees to get to know you. While SAT scores, your past course load, and your grades provide a quantitative picture of you as a student, the Common App essay offers adcoms a refreshing glimpse into your identity and personality. For this reason, try to treat the essay as an opportunity to tell colleges why you are unique and what matters to you.

Since your Common App essay will be seen by numerous colleges, you will want to paint a portrait of yourself that is accessible to a breadth of institutions and admissions officers (for example, if you are only applying to engineering programs at some schools, don’t focus your Common App on STEM at the expense of your other applications — save that for your supplemental essays).

In short, be open and willing to write about a topic you love, whether it is sports, music, politics, food, or watching movies. The Common App essay is more of a conversation than a job interview.

What Makes a Great Common App Essay?

A great Common App essay is, first and foremost, deeply personal. You are relying on the admissions committee to choose you over someone else, which they are more likely to do if they feel a personal connection to you. In your essay, you should delve into your feelings, how you think about situations/problems, and how you make decisions.

Good essays also usually avoid cliche topics . A couple overdone themes include an immigrant’s journey (particularly if you’re Asian American), and a sports accomplishment or injury. It’s not that these topics are bad, but rather that many students write about these subjects, so they don’t stand out as much. Of course, some students are able to write a genuine and unique essay about one of these topics, but it’s hard to pull off. You’re better off writing about more nuanced aspects of your identity!

You should also, of course, pay close attention to your grammar and spelling, use varied sentence structure and word choice, and be consistent with your tone/writing style. Take full advantage of the available 650 words, as writing less tends to mean missed opportunities.

Finally, it’s a good practice to be aware of your audience – know who you are writing for! For example, admissions officers at BYU will probably be very religious, while those at Oberlin will be deeply committed to social justice.

See some examples of great Common App essays to get a better idea of what makes a strong essay.

How your Common App Essay Fits with Your Other Essays

The Common App is one part of a portfolio of essays that you send to colleges, along with supplemental essays at individual colleges. With all of your essays for a particular college, you want to create a narrative and tell different parts of your story. So, the topics you write about should be cohesive and complementary, but not repetitive or overlapping. 

Before jumping in to write your Common App essay, you should think about the other schools that you’re writing essays for and make sure that you have a strategy for your entire portfolio of essays and cover different topics for each. If you have strong qualifications on paper for the colleges you are targeting, the best narratives tend to humanize you. If you have weaker qualifications on paper for your colleges, the best narratives tend to draw out your passion for the topics or fields of study that are of interest to you and magnify your accomplishments. 

Strategy for Writing the Common App Essays

Because the Common App essay is 650 words long and has few formal directions, organizing a response might seem daunting. Fortunately, at CollegeVine, we’ve developed a straightforward approach to formulating strong, unique responses.

This section outlines how to: 1) Brainstorm , 2) Organize , and 3) Write a Common App essay.

Before reading the prompts, brainstorming is a critical exercise to develop high-level ideas. One way to construct a high-level idea would be to delve into a passion and focus on how you interact with the concept or activity. For example, using “creative writing” as a high-level idea, one could stress their love of world-building, conveying complex emotions, and depicting character interactions, emphasizing how writing stems from real-life experiences.

A different idea that doesn’t involve an activity would be to discuss how your personality has developed in relation to your family; maybe one sibling is hot-headed, the other quiet, and you’re in the middle as the voice of reason (or maybe you’re the hot-head). These are simply two examples of infinitely many ideas you could come up with.

To begin developing your own high-level ideas, you can address these Core Four questions that all good Common App essays should answer:

• “Who Am I?”
• “Why Am I Here?”
• “What is Unique About Me?”
• “What Matters to Me?”

The first question focuses on your personality traits — who you are. The second question targets your progression throughout high school (an arc or journey). The third question is more difficult to grasp, but it involves showing why your personality traits, methods of thinking, areas of interest, and tangible skills form a unique combination. The fourth question is a concluding point that can be answered simply, normally in the conclusion paragraph, i.e., “Running matters to me” or “Ethical fashion matters to me.”

You can brainstorm freeform or start with a specific prompt in mind.

Sometimes, it can be helpful to start by jotting down the 3-5 aspects of your personality or experiences you’ve had on a piece of paper. Play around with narratives that are constructed out of different combinations of these essential attributes before settling on a prompt. 

For example, you might note that you are fascinated by environmental justice, have had success in Model Congress, and are now working with a local politician to create a recycling program in your school district. You may also have tried previous initiatives that failed. These experiences could be constructed and applied to a number of Common App prompts. You could address a specific identity or interest you have associated with public advocacy, discuss what you learned from your failed initiatives, explore how you challenged the lack of recycling at your school, fantasize about solving waste management issues, etc. 

Selecting a prompt that you identify with

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

Perhaps you had been a dedicated and active member of your school’s debate team until one of your parents lost their jobs, leaving you unable to afford the high membership and travel dues. You decided to help out by getting a job after school, and responded to your familial hardship with grace and understanding (as opposed to anger). A few months later, and after speaking with your former debate coach and your parents, you set up a system to save up for your own trips so that you could still participate in debate!

In general, the most common mistake CollegeVine sees with Common App essays is that they aren’t deeply personal. Your essay should be specific enough that it could be identified as yours even if your name wasn’t attached. 

If you get stuck, don’t worry! This is very common as the Common App is often the first personal essay college applicants have ever written. One way of getting unstuck if you feel like you aren’t getting creative or personal enough is to keep asking yourself “why”

For example: I love basketball…

• Because I like having to think on the fly and be creative while running our offense.

It can often help to work with someone and bounce ideas off them. Teachers are often a bad idea – they tend to think of essays in an academic sense, which is to say they often fail to apply the admissions context. Further, it is unlikely that they know you well enough to provide valuable insight. Friends in your own year can be a good idea because they know you, but you should be careful about competitive pressures applying within the same high school. Older friends, siblings, or neighbors who have successfully navigated the admissions process at your target universities (or good universities) strike that medium between no longer being competitive with you for admissions but still being able to help you brainstorm well because they know you.

Overall, there is no single “correct” topic. Your essay will be strong as long as you are comfortable and passionate about your idea and it answers the Core Four questions.

Common App essays are not traditional five-paragraph essays. You are free to be creative in structure, employ dialogue, and use vivid descriptions—and you should! Make sure that context and logic are inherent in your essay, however. From paragraph to paragraph, sentence to sentence, your ideas should be clear and flow naturally. Great ways to ensure this are using a story arc following a few major points, or focusing on cause and effect.

The traditional approach

This involves constructing a narrative out of your experiences and writing a classic personal essay. You are free to be creative in structure, employ dialogue, and use vivid descriptions—and you should! Make sure that context and logic are inherent in your essay, however. From paragraph to paragraph, sentence to sentence, your ideas should be clear and flow naturally. Great ways to ensure this are using a story arc following a few major points, or focusing on cause and effect.

The creative approach

Some students prefer to experiment with an entirely new approach to the personal essay. For example, a student who is passionate about programming could write their essay in alternating lines of Binary and English. A hopeful Literature major could reimagine a moment in their life as a chapter of War and Peace, adopting Tolstoy’s writing style. Or, you could write about a fight with your friend in the form of a third person sports recap to both highlight your interest in journalism and reveal a personal story. Creative essays are incredibly risky and difficult to pull off. However, a creative essay that is well executed may also have the potential for high reward.

Your Common App essay must display excellent writing in terms of grammar and sentence structure. The essay doesn’t need to be a Shakespearean masterpiece, but it should be well-written and clear.

A few tips to accomplish this are:

• Show, don’t tell
• Be specific
• Choose active voice, not passive voice
• Avoid clichés
• Write in a tone that aligns with your goals for the essay. For example, if you are a heavy STEM applicant hoping to use your Common App essay to humanize your application, you will be undermined by writing in a brusque, harsh tone.

“Show, don’t tell” is vital to writing an engaging essay, and this is the point students struggle with most.  Instead of saying, “I struggled to make friends when I transferred schools,” you can show your emotions by writing, “I scanned the bustling school cafeteria, feeling more and more forlorn with each unfamiliar face. I found an empty table and ate my lunch alone.”

In many cases, writing can include more specific word choice . For example, “As a kid, I always played basketball,” can be improved to be “Every day after school as a kid, I ran home, laced up my sneakers, and shot a basketball in my driveway until the sun went down and I could barely see.”

To use active voice over passive voice , be sure that your sentence’s subject performs the action indicated by the verb, rather than the action performing onto the subject. Instead of writing “this project was built by my own hands,” you would say “I built this project with my own hands.”

Finally, avoid clichés like adages, sayings, and quotes that do not bring value to your essay. Examples include phrases like “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (it’s also important to know that sayings like these are often seriously misquoted—Gandhi did not actually utter these words) and lavish claims like “it was the greatest experience of my life.”

A few tips for the writing (and re-writing!) process

• If you have enough time, write a 950 word version of your personal statement first and then cut it down to the official word limit of 650. In many cases, the extra writing you do for this draft will contain compelling content. Using this, you can carve out the various sections and information that allow you to tell your story best. 
• Revise your draft 3-5 times. Any more, you are probably overthinking and overanalyzing. Any less, you are not putting in the work necessary to optimize your Common App essay.
• It can be easy for you to get lost in your words after reading and rereading, writing and rewriting. It is best to have someone else do your final proofread to help you identify typos or sentences that are unclear.

Deciding on a Prompt

This section provides insights and examples for each of the 7 Common App essay prompts for the 2023-2024 cycle. Each of these prompts lends itself to distinct topics and strategies, so selecting the prompt that best aligns with your idea is essential to writing an effective Common App essay.

Here are this year’s prompts (click the link to jump to the specific prompt):

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

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. how did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience, reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. what prompted your thinking what was the outcome, reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. how has this gratitude affected or motivated you, discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others., describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. why does it captivate you what or who do you turn to when you want to learn more, share an essay on any topic of your choice. it can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design..

This prompt offers an opportunity to engage with your favorite extracurricular or academic subject, and it allows you to weave a narrative that displays personal growth in that area. An essay that displays your personality and a unique interest can be attention-grabbing, particularly if you have an unconventional passion, such as blogging about Chinese basketball or unicycling.

Don’t feel intimidated if you don’t have a passion that is immediately “unique,” however. Even an interest like “arctic scuba diving” will fail as an essay topic if it’s not written with insight and personality. Instead of attempting to impress the Admissions Officer by making up unusual or shocking things, think about how you spend your free time and ask yourself why you spend it that way. Also think about your upbringing, identity, and experiences and ask yourself, “What has impacted me in a meaningful way?”

Here Are A Few Response Examples:

Background – A person’s background includes experiences, training, education, and culture. You can discuss the experience of growing up, interacting with family, and how relationships have molded who you are. A background can include long-term interactions with arts, music, sciences, sports, writing, and many other learned skills. Background also includes your social environments and how they’ve influenced your perception. In addition, you can highlight intersections between multiple backgrounds and show how each is integral to you.

One student wrote about how growing up in a poor Vietnamese immigrant family inspired her to seize big opportunities, even if they were risky or challenging. She describes the emotional demand of opening and running a family grocery store. (Note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of the author and subjects in all the examples.)

The callouses on my mother’s hands formed during the years spent scaling fish at the  market in Go Noi, Vietnam. My mother never finished her formal education because she  labored on the streets to help six others survive. Her calloused hands not only scaled fish, they  also slaved over the stove, mustering a meal from the few items in the pantry. This image  resurfaces as I watch my mother’s calloused hands wipe her sweat-beaded forehead while she  manages the family business, compiling resources to provide for the family. 

Living in an impoverished region of Vietnam pushed my parents to emigrate. My two  year-old memory fails me, but my mother vividly recounts my frightened eyes staring up at her on my first plane ride. With life packed into a single suitcase, my mother’s heart, though,  trembled more than mine. Knowing only a few words of English, my mother embarked on a  journey shrouded in a haze of uncertainty. 

Our initial year in America bore an uncanny resemblance to Vietnam – from making one  meal last the entire day to wearing the same four shirts over and over again. Through thin walls, I  heard my parents debating their decision to come to the United States, a land where they knew  no one. My grandparents’ support came in half-hearted whispers cracking through long-distance  phone calls. My dad’s scanty income barely kept food on the table. We lived on soup and rice for  what seemed an interminable time. 

However, an opportunity knocked on my parents’ door: a grocery store in the town of  Decatur, Mississippi, was up for rent. My parents took the chance, risking all of their savings.  To help my parents, I spent most of my adolescent afternoons stocking shelves, mopping floors,  and even translating. My parents’ voices wavered when speaking English; through every attempt to communicate with their customers, a language barrier forged a palpable presence in each  transaction. My parents’ spirits faltered as customers grew impatient. A life of poverty awaited us in Vietnam if the business was not successful. 

On the first day, the business brought in only twenty dollars. Twenty dollars. My mother and my father wept after they closed the shop. Seeing the business as a failure, my mom commenced her packing that night; returning to Vietnam seemed inevitable. 

The next business day, however, sales increased ten-fold. More and more customers  came each successive day. My mom’s tears turned into—well, more tears, but they were tears of  joy. My mother unpacked a bag each night. 

Fifteen years later, my parents now own Blue Bear Grocery. My parents work, work,  work to keep the shelves stocked and the customers coming. The grocery store holds a special  place in my heart: it is the catalyst for my success. My parents serve as my role-models, teaching  me a new lesson with every can placed on the shelf. One lesson that resurfaces is the importance  of pursuing a formal education, something that my parents never had the chance of. 

When the opportunity to attend the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science  (MSMS) presented itself, I took it and ran, as did my parents by leaving Vietnam and by buying  the store. Although I am not managing hundreds of products, I am managing hundreds of  assignments at MSMS – from Mu Alpha Theta tutoring to lab reports to student government to British literature. 

Had I not immigrated, my hands would be calloused from the tight grip of the knife  scaling fish rather than from the tight grip on my pencil. My hands would be calloused from scrubbing my clothes covered in fish scales rather than from long hours spent typing a research paper. 

Although the opportunities that my parents and I pursued are different, our journey is  essentially the same: we walk a road paved with uncertainty and doubt with the prospect of success fortified by our hearts and our hands.

Identity – this can mean racial identity, sexual orientation, gender, or simply one’s place within a specific community (even communities as unique as, say, players of World of Warcraft). With the topic of racial identity, it’s important to remember the audience (college admissions counselors often lean progressive politically), so this might not be the best place to make sweeping claims about today’s state of race relations. However, reflecting on how your culture has shaped your experiences can make for a compelling essay. Alternatively, focusing on a dominant personality trait can also make for a compelling theme. For example, if you’re extremely outgoing, you could explain how your adventurousness has allowed you to learn from a diverse group of friends and the random situations you find yourself in. One important thing to note: the topic of identity can easily lack originality if you cover a common experience such as feeling divided between cultures, or coming out. If such experiences are integral to who you are, you should still write about them, but be sure to show us your unique introspection and reflection.

One student detailed how growing up as an American in Germany led to feelings of displacement. Moving to America in high school only exacerbated her feelings of rootlessness. Her transcultural experiences, however, allowed her to relate to other “New Americans,” particularly refugees. Helping a young refugee girl settle into the US eventually helped the writer find home in America as well:

Growing up, I always wanted to eat, play, visit, watch, and be it all: sloppy joes and spaetzle, Beanie Babies and Steiff, Cape Cod and the Baltic Sea, football and fussball, American and German. 

My American parents relocated our young family to Berlin when I was three years old. My exposure to America was limited to holidays spent stateside and awfully dubbed Disney Channel broadcasts. As the few memories I had of living in the US faded, my affinity for Germany grew. I began to identify as “Germerican,” an ideal marriage of the two cultures. As a child, I viewed my biculturalism as a blessing. I possessed a native fluency in “Denglisch” and my family’s Halloween parties were legendary at a time when the holiday was just starting to gain popularity outside of the American Sector. 

Insidiously, the magic I once felt in loving two homes was replaced by a deep­rooted sense of rootlessness. I stopped feeling American when, while discussing World War II with my grandmother, I said “the US won.” She corrected me, insisting I use “we” when referring to the US’s actions. Before then, I hadn’t realized how directly people associated themselves with their countries. I stopped feeling German during the World Cup when my friends labeled me a “bandwagon fan” for rooting for Germany. Until that moment, my cheers had felt sincere. I wasn’t part of the “we” who won World Wars or World Cups. Caught in a twilight of foreign and familiar, I felt emotionally and psychologically disconnected from the two cultures most familiar to me. 

After moving from Berlin to New York state at age fifteen, my feelings of cultural homelessness thrived in my new environment. Looking and sounding American furthered my feelings of dislocation. Border patrol agents, teachers, classmates, neighbors, and relatives all “welcomed me home” to a land they could not understand was foreign to me. Americans confused me as I relied on Urban Dictionary to understand my peers, the Pledge of Allegiance seemed nationalistic, and the only thing familiar about Fahrenheit was the German after whom it was named. Too German for America and too American for Germany, I felt alienated from both. I wanted desperately to be a member of one, if not both, cultures. 

During my first weeks in Buffalo, I spent my free time googling “Berlin Family Seeks Teen” and “New Americans in Buffalo.” The latter search proved most fruitful: I discovered New Hope, a nonprofit that empowers resettled refugees, or “New Americans,” to thrive. I started volunteering with New Hope’s children’s programs, playing with and tutoring young refugees. 

It was there that I met Leila, a twelve-­year-­old Iraqi girl who lived next to Hopeprint. In between games and snacks, Leila would ask me questions about American life, touching on everything from Halloween to President Obama. Gradually, my confidence in my American identity grew as I recognized my ability to answer most of her questions. American culture was no longer completely foreign to me. I found myself especially qualified to work with young refugees; my experience growing up in a country other than that of my parents’ was similar enough to that of the refugee children New Hope served that I could empathize with them and offer advice. Together, we worked through conflicting allegiances, homesickness, and stretched belonging. 

Forging a special, personal bond with young refugees proved a cathartic outlet for my insecurities as it taught me to value my past. My transculturalism allowed me to help young refugees integrate into American life, and, in doing so, I was able to adjust myself. Now, I have an appreciation of myself that I never felt before. “Home” isn’t the digits in a passport or ZIP code but a sense of contentedness. By helping a young refugee find comfort, happiness, and home in America, I was finally able to find those same things for myself.

The above essay was written by Lydia Schooler, a graduate of Yale University and one of our CollegeVine advisors. If you enjoyed this essay and are looking for expert college essay and admissions advice, consider booking a session with Lydia .

Interests – Interest are basically synonymous to activities, but slightly broader (you could say that interests encompass activities); participation in an interest is often less organized than in an activity. For instance, you might consider cross country an activity, but cooking an interest. Writing about an interest is a way to highlight passions that may not come across in the rest of your application. If you’re a wrestler for example, writing about your interest in stand-up comedy would be a refreshing addition to your application. You should also feel free to use this topic to show what an important activity on your application really means to you. Keep in mind, however, that many schools will ask you to describe one of your activities in their supplemental essays (usually about 250 words), so choose strategically—you don’t want to write twice on the same thing.

Read a successful essay answering this prompt.

This prompt lends itself to consideration of what facets of your personality allow you to overcome adversity. While it’s okay to choose a relatively mundane “failure” such as not winning an award at a Model UN conference, another (perhaps more powerful) tactic is to write about a foundational failure and assess its impact on your development thereafter.

There are times in life when your foundation is uprooted. There are times when you experience failure and you want to give up since you don’t see a solution. This essay is about your response when you are destabilized and your actions when you don’t see an immediate answer.

For example, if you lost a friend due to an argument, you can analyze the positions from both sides, evaluate your decisions, and identify why you were wrong. The key is explaining your thought process and growth following the event to highlight how your thinking has changed. Did you ever admit your fault and seek to fix the problem? Have you treated others differently since then? How has the setback changed the way you view arguments and fights now? Framing the prompt in this way allows you to tackle heavier questions about ethics and demonstrate your self-awareness.

If you haven’t experienced a “big” failure, another angle to take would be to discuss smaller, repeated failures that are either linked or similar thematically. For example, if you used to stutter or get nervous in large social groups, you could discuss the steps you took to find a solution. Even if you don’t have a massive foundational challenge to write about, a recurring challenge can translate to a powerful essay topic, especially if the steps you took to overcome this repeated failure help expose your character.

One student described his ignorance of his brother’s challenges — the writer assumed that because his brother Sam was sociable, Sam  was adjusting fine to their family’s move. After an angry outburst from Sam  and a long late-night conversation, the writer realizes his need to develop greater sensitivity and empathy. He now strives to recognize and understand others’ struggles, even if they’re not immediately apparent.

“You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.

Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.

When my parents learned about The Green Academy, we hoped it would be an opportunity for me to find not only an academically challenging environment, but also – perhaps more importantly – a community. This meant transferring the family from Drumfield to Kingston. And while there was concern about Max, we all believed that given his sociable nature, moving would be far less impactful on him than staying put might be on me.

As it turned out, Green Academy was everything I’d hoped for. I was ecstatic to discover a group of students with whom I shared interests and could truly engage. Preoccupied with new friends and a rigorous course load, I failed to notice that the tables had turned. Max, lost in the fray and grappling with how to make connections in his enormous new high school, had become withdrawn and lonely. It took me until Christmas time – and a massive argument – to recognize how difficult the transition had been for my brother, let alone that he blamed me for it.

Through my own journey of searching for academic peers, in addition to coming out as gay when I was 12, I had developed deep empathy for those who had trouble fitting in. It was a pain I knew well and could easily relate to. Yet after Max’s outburst, my first response was to protest that our parents – not I – had chosen to move us here. In my heart, though, I knew that regardless of who had made the decision, we ended up in Kingston for my benefit. I was ashamed that, while I saw myself as genuinely compassionate, I had been oblivious to the heartache of the person closest to me. I could no longer ignore it – and I didn’t want to.

We stayed up half the night talking, and the conversation took an unexpected turn. Max opened up and shared that it wasn’t just about the move. He told me how challenging school had always been for him, due to his dyslexia, and that the ever-present comparison to me had only deepened his pain.

We had been in parallel battles the whole time and, yet, I only saw that Max was in distress once he experienced problems with which I directly identified. I’d long thought Max had it so easy – all because he had friends. The truth was, he didn’t need to experience my personal brand of sorrow in order for me to relate – he had felt plenty of his own.

My failure to recognize Max’s suffering brought home for me the profound universality and diversity of personal struggle; everyone has insecurities, everyone has woes, and everyone – most certainly – has pain. I am acutely grateful for the conversations he and I shared around all of this, because I believe our relationship has been fundamentally strengthened by a deeper understanding of one another. Further, this experience has reinforced the value of constantly striving for deeper sensitivity to the hidden struggles of those around me. I won’t make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someone’s life reflects their underlying story.

This prompt is difficult to answer because most high schoolers haven’t participated in the types of iconoclastic protests against societal ills that lend themselves to an awe-inspiring response. A more tenable alternative here could be to discuss a time that you went against social norms, whether it was by becoming friends with someone who seemed like an outcast or by proudly showing off a geeky passion.

And if you ever participated in a situation in tandem with adults and found some success (i.e., by blogging, starting a tutoring organization, or participating in political campaigns), you could discuss your experiences as a young person without a college degree in professional circles. However, avoid sounding morally superior (as if you’re the only person who went against this convention, or that you’re better than your peers for doing so).

Another way to answer this prompt is to discuss a time when you noticed a need for change. For example, if you wondered why medical records are often handwritten, or why a doctor’s visit can be long and awkward, maybe you challenged the norm in healthcare by brainstorming an electronic-recording smartphone app or a telemedicine system. In a similar way, if you led a fundraiser and recognized that advertising on social media would be more effective than the traditional use of printed flyers, you could write about a topic along those lines as well. Focus on what action or experience caused you to recognize the need for change and follow with your actions and resulting outcome.

As a whole, this prompt lends itself to reflective writing, and more specifically, talking the reader through your thought processes. In many cases, the exploration of your thought processes and decision-making is more important than the actual outcome or concept in question. In short, this essay is very much about “thinking,” rumination, and inquisition. A good brainstorming exercise for this prompt would be to write your problem on a sheet of paper and then develop various solutions to the problem, including a brief reason for justification. The more thorough you are in justifying and explaining your solutions in the essay, the more compelling your response will be.

While this prompt may seem to be asking a simple question, your answer has the potential to provide deep insights about who you are to the admissions committee. Explaining what you are grateful for can show them your culture, your community, your philosophical outlook on the world, and what makes you tick. 

The first step to writing this essay is to think about the “something” and “someone” of your story. It is imperative to talk about a unique moment in your life, as the prompt asks for gratitude that came about in a surprising way. You will want to write about a story that you are certain no one else would have. To brainstorm, ask yourself: “if I told a stranger that I was grateful for what happened to me without any context, would they be surprised?” 

Note that the most common answers to this prompt involve a family member, teacher, or sports coach giving the narrator an arduous task ─ which, by the end of the story, the narrator becomes grateful for because of the lessons they learned through their hard work. Try to avoid writing an essay along these lines unless you feel that your take on it will be truly original.

Begin your essay by telling a creative story about the “something” that your “someone” did that made you thankful. Paint a picture with words here ─ establish who you were in the context of your story and make the character development of your “someone” thorough. Show the admissions committee that you have a clear understanding of yourself and the details of your world. 

Keep in mind, however, that the essay is ultimately about you and your growth. While you should set the scene clearly, don’t spend too much time talking about the “something” and “someone.”

Your story should then transition into a part about your unexpected epiphany, e.g. “Six months after Leonard gave me that pogo stick, I started to be grateful for the silly thing…” Explain the why of your gratitude as thoroughly as you can before you begin to talk about how your gratitude affected or motivated you. Have a Socratic seminar with yourself in your head ─ ask yourself, “why am I grateful for the pogo stick?” and continue asking why until you arrive at a philosophical conclusion. Perhaps your reason could be that you eventually got used to the odd looks that people gave you as you were pogoing and gained more self-confidence. 

Finally, think about how learning to be grateful for something you would not expect to bring you joy and thankfulness has had a positive impact on your life. Gaining more self-confidence, for example, could motivate you to do an infinite number of things that you were not able to attempt in the past. Try to make a conclusion by connecting this part to your story from the beginning of the essay. You want to ultimately show that had [reference to a snippet of your introduction, ideally an absurd part] never have happened, you would not be who you are today.

Remember to express these lessons implicitly through the experiences in your essay, and not explicitly. Show us your growth through the changes in your life rather than simply stating that you gained confidence. For instance, maybe the pogo stick gift led you to start a pogo dance team at your school, and the team went on to perform at large venues to raise money for charity. But before your pogo days, you had crippling stage fright and hated even giving speeches in your English class. These are the kinds of details that make your essay more engaging. 

This prompt is expansive in that you can choose any accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked personal growth or new understanding.

One option is to discuss a formal accomplishment or event (whether it is a religious ritual or social rite of passage) that reflects personal growth. If you go this route, make sure to discuss why the ritual was meaningful and how specific aspects of said ritual contributed to your personal growth. An example of this could be the meaning of becoming an Eagle Scout to you, the accomplishment of being elected to Senior Leadership, or completing a Confirmation. In the case of religious topics, however, be sure to not get carried away with details, and focus on the nature of your personal growth and new understanding — know your audience.

Alternatively, a more relaxed way to address this prompt is using an informal event or realization, which would allow you to show more personality and creativity. An example of this could be learning how to bake with your mother, thus sparking a newfound connection with her, allowing you to learn about her past. Having a long discussion about life or philosophy with your father could also suffice, thus sparking more thoughts about your identity. You could write about a realization that caused you to join a new organization or quit an activity you did not think you would enjoy, as doing so would force you to grow out of your comfort zone to try new things.

The key to answering this prompt is clearly defining what it is that sparked your growth, and then describing in detail the nature of this growth and how it related to your perception of yourself and others. This part of the essay is crucial, as you must dedicate sufficient time to not undersell the description of how you grew instead of simply explaining the experience and then saying, “I grew.” This description of how you grew must be specific, in-depth, and it does not have to be simple. Your growth can also be left open-ended if you are still learning from your experiences today.

One student wrote about how her single mother’s health crisis prompted her to quickly assume greater responsibility as a fourteen-year-old. This essay describes the new tasks she undertook, as well as how the writer now more greatly cherishes her time with her mother.

Tears streamed down my face and my mind was paralyzed with fear. Sirens blared, but the silent panic in my own head was deafening. I was muted by shock. A few hours earlier, I had anticipated a vacation in Washington, D.C., but unexpectedly, I was rushing to the hospital behind an ambulance carrying my mother. As a fourteen-year-old from a single mother household, without a driver’s license, and seven hours from home, I was distraught over the prospect of losing the only parent I had. My fear turned into action as I made some of the bravest decisions of my life. 

Three blood transfusions later, my mother’s condition was stable, but we were still states away from home, so I coordinated with my mother’s doctors in North Carolina to schedule the emergency operation that would save her life. Throughout her surgery, I anxiously awaited any word from her surgeon, but each time I asked, I was told that there had been another complication or delay. Relying on my faith and positive attitude, I remained optimistic that my mother would survive and that I could embrace new responsibilities.

My mother had been a source of strength for me, and now I would be strong for her through her long recovery ahead. As I started high school, everyone thought the crisis was over, but it had really just started to impact my life. My mother was often fatigued, so I assumed more responsibility, juggling family duties, school, athletics, and work. I made countless trips to the neighborhood pharmacy, cooked dinner, biked to the grocery store, supported my concerned sister, and provided the loving care my mother needed to recover. I didn’t know I was capable of such maturity and resourcefulness until it was called upon. Each day was a stage in my gradual transformation from dependence to relative independence.

Throughout my mother’s health crisis, I matured by learning to put others’ needs before my own. As I worried about my mother’s health, I took nothing for granted, cherished what I had, and used my daily activities as motivation to move forward. I now take ownership over small decisions such as scheduling daily appointments and managing my time but also over major decisions involving my future, including the college admissions process. Although I have become more independent, my mother and I are inseparably close, and the realization that I almost lost her affects me daily. Each morning, I wake up ten minutes early simply to eat breakfast with my mother and spend time with her before our busy days begin. I am aware of how quickly life can change. My mother remains a guiding force in my life, but the feeling of empowerment I discovered within myself is the ultimate form of my independence. Though I thought the summer before my freshman year would be a transition from middle school to high school, it was a transformation from childhood to adulthood.

This prompt allows you to expand and deepen a seemingly small or simple idea, topic, or concept. One example could be “stars,” in that you could describe stargazing as a child, counting them, recognizing constellations, and then transforming that initial captivation into a deeper appreciation of the cosmos as a whole, spurring a love of astronomy and physics.

Another example could be “language,” discussing how it has evolved and changed over the course of history, how it allows you to look deeper into different cultures, and how learning different languages stretches the mind. A tip for expanding on these topics and achieving specificity is to select particular details of the topic that you find intriguing and explain why.

For example, if you’re passionate about cooking or baking, you could use specific details by explaining, in depth, the intricate attention and artistry necessary to make a dish or dessert. You can delve into why certain spices or garnishes are superior in different situations, how flavors blend well together and can be mixed creatively, or even the chemistry differences between steaming, searing, and grilling.

Regardless of your topic, this prompt provides a great opportunity to display writing prowess through elegant, specific descriptions that leverage sensory details. Describing the beauty of the night sky, the rhythms and sounds of different languages, or the scent of a crème brûlée shows passion and captivation in a very direct, evocative way.

The key to writing this essay is answering the question of why something captivates you instead of simply ending with “I love surfing.” A tip would be to play off your senses (for applicable topics), think about what you see, feel, smell, hear, and taste.

In the case of surfing, the salty water, weightlessness of bobbing over the waves, and fresh air could cater to senses. Alternatively, for less physical topics, you can use a train of thought and descriptions to show how deeply and vividly your mind dwells on the topic.

Well-executed trains of thought or similar tactics are successful ways to convey passion for a certain topic. To answer what or who you turn to when you want to learn more, you can be authentic and honest—if it’s Wikipedia, a teacher, friend, YouTube Channel, etc., you simply have to show how you interact with the medium.

When brainstorming this particular essay, a tip would be to use a web diagram, placing the topic in the middle and thinking about branching characteristics, themes, or concepts related to the topic that are directly engaging and captivating to you. In doing so, you’ll be able to gauge the depth of the topic and whether it will suffice for this prompt.

In the following example, a student shares their journey as they learn to appreciate a piece of their culture’s cuisine.

As a wide-eyed, naive seven-year-old, I watched my grandmother’s rough, wrinkled hands pull and knead mercilessly at white dough until the countertop was dusted in flour. She steamed small buns in bamboo baskets, and a light sweetness lingered in the air. Although the mantou looked delicious, their papery, flat taste was always an unpleasant surprise. My grandmother scolded me for failing to finish even one, and when I complained about the lack of flavor she would simply say that I would find it as I grew older. How did my adult relatives seem to enjoy this Taiwanese culinary delight while I found it so plain?

During my journey to discover the essence of mantou, I began to see myself the same way I saw the steamed bun. I believed that my writing would never evolve beyond a hobby and that my quiet nature crippled my ambitions. Ultimately, I thought I had little to offer the world. In middle school, it was easy for me to hide behind the large personalities of my friends, blending into the background and keeping my thoughts company. Although writing had become my emotional outlet, no matter how well I wrote essays, poetry, or fiction, I could not stand out in a sea of talented students. When I finally gained the confidence to submit my poetry to literary journals but was promptly rejected, I stepped back from my work to begin reading from Whitman to Dickinson, Li-Young Lee to Ocean Vuong. It was then that I realized I had been holding back a crucial ingredient–my distinct voice. 

Over time, my taste buds began to mature, as did I. Mantou can be flavored with pork and eggplant, sweetened in condensed milk, and moistened or dried by the steam’s temperature. After I ate the mantou with each of these factors in mind, I noticed its environment enhanced a delicately woven strand of sweetness beneath the taste of side dishes: the sugar I had often watched my grandmother sift into the flour. The taste was nearly untraceable, but once I grasped it I could truly begin to cherish mantou. In the same way the taste had been lost to me for years, my writer’s voice had struggled to shine through because of my self-doubt and fear of vulnerability.

As I acquired a taste for mantou, I also began to strengthen my voice through my surrounding environment. With the support of my parents, peer poets, and the guidance of Amy Tan and the Brontё sisters, I worked tirelessly to uncover my voice: a subtle strand of sweetness. Once I stopped trying to fit into a publishing material mold and infused my uninhibited passion for my Taiwanese heritage into my writing, my poem was published in a literary journal. I wrote about the blatant racism Asians endured during coronavirus, and the editor of Skipping Stones Magazine was touched by both my poem and my heartfelt letter. I opened up about being ridiculed for bringing Asian food to school at Youth Leadership Forum, providing support to younger Asian-American students who reached out with the relief of finding someone they could relate to. I embraced writing as a way to convey my struggle with cultural identity. I joined the school’s creative writing club and read my pieces in front of an audience, honing my voice into one that flourishes out loud as well.

Now, I write and speak unapologetically, falling in love with a voice that I never knew I had. It inspires passion within my communities and imparts tenacity to Asian-American youth, rooting itself deeply into everything I write. Today, my grandmother would say that I have finally unearthed the taste of mantou as I savor every bite with a newfound appreciation. I can imagine her hands shaping the dough that has become my voice, and I am eager to share it with the world.

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This prompt allows you to express what you want to express if it doesn’t align directly with the other prompts. While this prompt is very open-ended, it doesn’t mean you can adapt any essay you’ve written and think it will suffice. Always refer back to the Strategy section of this article and make sure the topic and essay of your choice addresses the Core Four questions necessary for a good Common App essay.

This prompt, more than the others, poses a high risk but also a high-potential reward. Writing your own question allows you to demonstrate individuality and confidence. Here, you can craft an innovative essay that tackles a difficult topic (for example, whether to raise or lower taxes) or presents information with a unique format (such as a conversation with an historical figure).

We encourage you to try something unconventional for this prompt, like comparing your personality to a Picasso painting, using an extended philosophical metaphor to describe your four years of high school, or writing in a poetic style to display your love of poetry. If you are extremely passionate about a topic or an expert in a certain area, for example Renaissance technology or journalism during World War II, you can use this prompt to show your authority on a subject by discussing it at a high level.

Be careful to frame the essay in a way that is accessible to the average reader while still incorporating quality evidence and content that would qualify you as an expert. As always, exercise caution in writing about controversial social or political topics, and always make sure to consider your audience and what they’re looking for in a student.

Sometimes an unconventional essay can capture Admissions Officers’ attention and move them in a profound way; other times, the concept can fly completely over their heads. Be sure to execute the essay clearly and justify your decision by seeking high-quality feedback from reliable sources. As always, the essay should demonstrate something meaningful about you, whether it is your personality, thought process, or values.

Here’s what the experts have to say about this prompt…

This prompt, like the others, is really asking you to tell the story of who you are. Your essay should be personal and should talk about something significant that has shaped your identity.

Here are a few broad themes that can work well: academic interest; culture, values, and diversity; extracurricular interests; and your impact on the community. You should highlight one of these themes using creative, vividly descriptive narrative. Make sure to not fall into the common pitfall of talking about something else -- an extracurricular activity, for example -- more than yourself.

A student I advised had a great idea to respond to this prompt -- an essay about how they do their best thinking while sitting on a tree branch near their home. Not only was it unique and personal, but it allowed the student to show what they think about, dream about, and value. That's the main goal for any applicant responding to prompt 7.

Alex Oddo Advisor on CollegeVine

All of the Common App prompts are broad in scope, but this one really takes the cake! I typically advise using the first six prompts as guardrails for your brainstorm, but in doing so, you may come up with a topic that doesn’t cleanly fit with any of the first six prompts. That’s where this prompt can come in handy.

Or, you might have an idea that’s really out there (like writing about your love of sonnets as a series of sonnets). Essentially, this prompt is a good fit for essays that are anywhere from slightly unconventional to extremely atypical.

If this all feels a bit confusing - don’t worry! How you write your story is much more important than what prompt you end up choosing. At the end of the day, these are just guides to help you cultivate a topic and are not meant to stress you out.

Priya Desai Advisor on CollegeVine

Students who want to complete the CommonApp’s seventh prompt need to have already gone through the other prompts and determined that their story cannot fit with those. Thus, generally speaking, I advise my students to not use the final prompt unless it is absolutely necessary.

If an admission officer believes that your essay could have been used with one of the other prompts, this may lead them to have a perception about you as a student that might not be accurate.

Nevertheless, as my colleagues have pointed out, what matters is the essay the most and not necessarily the prompt. That being said, the test of whether or not you as a student can follow directions is part of the prompt selection and how well you answer it. If you choose the final prompt and yet your answer could work with another available prompt, this will not put you in your best light.

In conclusion, only use this prompt when absolutely necessary, and remember that the purpose of the personal statement is to give the admissions officers a glimpse into who you are as a person, so you want to use this space to showcase beautiful you.

Veronica Prout Advisor on CollegeVine

Where to get your common app essay edited.

At selective schools, your essays account for around 25% of your admissions decision. That’s more than grades (20%) and test scores (15%), and almost as much as extracurriculars (30%). Why is this? Most students applying to top schools will have stellar academics and extracurriculars. Your essays are your chance to stand out and humanize your application. That’s why it’s vital that your essays are engaging, and present you as someone who would enrich the campus community.

Before submitting your application, you should have someone else review your essays. That’s why we created our free  Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

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

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Harvard University

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Want to see your chances of admission at Harvard University?

We take every aspect of your personal profile into consideration when calculating your admissions chances.

Harvard University’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Diversity short response.

Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?

Intellectual Experience Short Response

Briefly describe an intellectual experience that was important to you.

Extracurricular Short Response

Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.

Future Goals Short Response

How do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?

Roommate Short Response

Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.

Common App Personal Essay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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