The essays colleges ask for on top of your personal statement: school-specific prompts like MIT's, plus Why Major, Community, and short answers. These guides break down what each prompt is really asking and how to answer it.
November 8, 2026
Develop Fordham’s optional 300-word response through preparation, personal growth, or a future-self message. Use an original city-learning example and verify current curriculum facts.
Read the essay →November 8, 2026
Write AU’s optional excitement response through the details of a real interest. Explore an original fictional calendar-making example and keep special-program essays distinct.
Read the essay →November 7, 2026
Approach GW’s optional writing supplement with a precise public question, original dialogue example, and a revision method that distinguishes persuasion from a workable decision.
Read the essay →November 7, 2026
Use SCU’s optional 150–300-word portal essay to explain an issue, examine whose choices it affects, and connect your next learning step to Santa Clara’s ethical education.
Read the essay →November 6, 2026
Build Pepperdine’s 300–500-word faith-conversation essay around your real position, a question you can discuss, and a grounded reason to choose its Christian learning environment.
Read the essay →November 6, 2026
Write CU Boulder’s 250-word academic-interest response with a clear learning direction, verified undergraduate fit, and a story that adds something new to your Common App essay.
Read the essay →November 5, 2026
Prepare MSU’s required personal essay without inventing an extra Why MSU supplement. Explore official prompt caveats, an original fictional knot-diagram example, and a method for making intellectual curiosity visible.
Read the essay →November 5, 2026
Check whether your application asks for the Common App essay or the Apply IU 200–400-word plan. Learn to connect experience, study, and a provisional career direction with an original data-science example.
Read the essay →November 4, 2026
Separate your reason for attending UMass Amherst from your reason for choosing a major, then check the conditional Honors or community question. Includes original compact examples and a method for making every sentence count.
Read the essay →November 4, 2026
Explain why your selected academic program fits the questions you want to investigate and why NC State offers a meaningful next step. Includes current official prompt distinctions and an original textile-design example.
Read the essay →November 3, 2026
FSU’s general first-year essay is a required personal statement of no more than 650 words. Learn how to choose a topic, distinguish it from your résumé, and revise a story through the consequences of your own decisions.
Read the essay →November 3, 2026
Choose complementary William & Mary optional responses without repeating your personal statement. Explore prompt facts, institutional values, a fictional town essay, and a method for testing what each answer adds.
Read the essay →November 2, 2026
A guide to Barnard’s two required 2026–27 responses: developing a precise bold question and learning from a woman whose way of bringing people together challenges your own.
Read the essay →November 2, 2026
Use Harvey Mudd’s currently posted experience-and-impact and help-seeking questions to show thoughtful problem selection. Includes original fictional examples and an impact-chain revision method.
Read the essay →November 1, 2026
Connect CMC’s mission to a question you want to study, then make the mechanism of a changed view clear. Includes original fictional examples and an evidence-before/after editing method.
Read the essay →November 1, 2026
Develop Wellesley’s collaboration essay around a real shared task, meaningful differences and a lesson you can practice. Includes an original fictional example about a joint request that preserves different reasons.
Read the essay →October 31, 2026
Approach Bowdoin’s optional Offer and differences essays through lived evidence. Includes an original fictional example about evaluating effort and result and a standard-of-judgment revision method.
Read the essay →October 31, 2026
Build Pomona’s academic-interest statement and chosen personal response from distinct evidence. Includes original fictional examples, guidance for all three short-response choices, and a witness-based revision method.
Read the essay →October 30, 2026
Write Swarthmore’s background and fascination responses as a complementary pair. Explore genuine collaboration, a precise intellectual connection, original fictional examples, and a practical two-lens revision method.
Read the essay →October 30, 2026
Choose among Amherst’s current writing supplement options, develop a personal response to curiosity, experience or disagreement, and revise with a question-trail method. Includes an original fictional example.
Read the essay →October 29, 2026
Williams offers an optional academic writing submission. Learn how to select a paper with an earned argument, distinguish it from your personal statement, and edit without erasing your own thinking.
Read the essay →October 29, 2026
Build a coherent Lehigh application through distinct responses about discovery, present-day joy, and academic goals. Includes original fictional examples and a method for testing interdisciplinary fit.
Read the essay →October 28, 2026
A Brandeis writing guide that separates general application essays from the Myra Kraft Achievers response, with original teaching examples about intellectual independence and reciprocal learning.
Read the essay →October 28, 2026
UConn requires the 250–650 word personal essay but no separate honors or merit supplement. Build an original statement with lived detail, a fictional teaching example, and a voice check.
Read the essay →October 27, 2026
Penn State general admission does not use an application essay, while programs such as Schreyer Honors have separate writing. Learn how to distinguish requirements and submit an accurate application.
Read the essay →October 27, 2026
Rutgers requires an original first-year essay, with different limits for Common App and Rutgers Application. Build a truthful personal statement with a distinct example and a format-switch revision method.
Read the essay →October 26, 2026
Texas A&M asks for a 750-word story plus required short answers. Learn how to assign each response a distinct role, develop original evidence, and revise with a response-role map.
Read the essay →October 26, 2026
Virginia Tech uses its Ut Prosim Profile rather than a required Common App personal essay. Build four concise responses around real evidence, varied dimensions, and a cross-answer audit.
Read the essay →October 25, 2026
Minnesota Twin Cities does not require an admission essay through Fall 2027. Learn what that changes, how to protect accuracy in Courses & Grades, and how to use optional context with restraint.
Read the essay →October 25, 2026
UGA removed its supplemental essay for Fall 2027. Build a memorable Common App personal statement around sustained commitment, with an original teaching example and a continuity revision method.
Read the essay →October 24, 2026
Northeastern generally has no first-year supplement for 2026–27. Build a personal essay around real learning, not a promised co-op, with an original example and competence-boundary revision method.
Read the essay →October 24, 2026
Miami has removed its first-year supplement for 2026–27. Learn how to develop an original Common App personal essay, distinguish creative process from invented autobiography, and revise with a scene-necessity test.
Read the essay →October 23, 2026
Explain Purdue opportunities, your major, and your campus choice as connected decisions. Includes an original bakery-scheduling example, current honors requirements, and a location-and-purpose editing exercise.
Read the essay →October 23, 2026
A Columbus first-year personal-essay guide about identity and belonging, with an original fictional name story, scholarship-route distinctions, and a context-and-choice editing method.
Read the essay →October 22, 2026
Turn BU enthusiasm into a credible account of campus participation. Includes current requirement distinctions, an original cake-division example, and a revision method for connecting resources to actions.
Read the essay →October 22, 2026
Build a personal essay about service without making yourself the whole story. An original community-kitchen example explores continuity, shared work, and the difference between a contribution and a rescue.
Read the essay →October 21, 2026
UW now requires the Common App personal essay. Learn to distinguish narrative from optional context, with an original swimming example and a method for revealing the decisions behind progress.
Read the essay →October 21, 2026
Write a dimensional UMD application essay through an original family card-game example. Learn to distinguish verified essay requirements from older short-answer lists and revise for different sides of yourself.
Read the essay →October 20, 2026
Make UIUC’s short major essays work together without repeating them. Includes an original materials-science example, guidance for Undeclared applicants, and a response-allocation exercise.
Read the essay →October 20, 2026
Build a Wisconsin essay around what you want to study and why Madison can deepen it, with a fictional public-records example and a purpose-to-preparation revision method.
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