2008-9 Personal Statement Prompts:
UC’s:
All freshman applicants to the University of California system must write two essays answering the following prompts:
Prompt #1
• Describe the world you come from – for example, your family, community or school – and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.
Prompt #2
• Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
•
You have a maximum of 1,000 words to answer both prompts, but you may allocate the word count as you wish. However, if you decide to use more words for one prompt, your shorter answer should be no less than 250 words.
n There is also an optional “Additional Information” section where you can add important information about yourself or your background not covered elsewhere in your application. However, this space is NOT meant to be an additional essay! Some examples of information you might include here: special challenges you have faced that were not mentioned in your main Personal Statement, a brief summary of a special talent or activity that you could not include on your application, administrative details, such as course scheduling choices that were beyond your control. Maximum 500 words.
Common Application (Note: See supplements for individual universities!)
Short answer – Please briefly elaborate on one of your activities (extracurricular, personal activities or work experience). Attach your response on a separate sheet (150 words or fewer).
Personal Statement – This personal statement helps us become acquainted with you in ways different from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will demonstrate your ability to organize thoughts and express yourself. We are looking for an essay that will help us know you better as a person and as a student. Please write and essay (250-500 words) on a topic of your choice or one of the options listed below.
1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, an historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences add much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6. Topic of your choice.
American University
Uses the Common Application essay questions or the American University application essay
This is your opportunity to provide the Admissions Committee with a glimpse of you in a way that grades and test scores cannot. This essay is used to determine your ability to organize your thoughts and to express them clearly. Choose one essay topic. Write no more than 500 words on your own paper.
American University embraces the motto: Ideas into Action; Action into Service. How do you embody this philosophy?
Do you believe that the Internet has become a positive or negative force in today's society? Additionally, do you think your life would be better or worse off if you had lived during a time in which the Internet was a construct and not a reality?
Arizona State University
No essays or personal statements required or requested.
Auburn University
This additional information is required for all freshman applicants and will assist the Office of Admissions and Records in your admission evaluation. While the primary factors in any admission decision are academic (high school coursework, grade point average and standardized test scores), the Office of Admissions and Records will consider other factors that contribute to your success.
Describe an intellectual or creative opportunity from your high school years that you have enjoyed. Highlight your personal growth through this experience.
Auburn University encourages undergraduates to participate in the Study Abroad program. If you could spend one semester studying abroad, where would you choose and why?
In the space provided, please explain why you believe that your unique cultural, educational and/or life experiences will enhance the educational experience of the freshman class at Auburn.
If you feel that special circumstances may have adversely affected your high school performance, please summarize.
Boston College
Uses the Common Application essay questions.
Boston University
Uses the Common Application essay questions.
Brigham Young University
Must establish online account before access to application.
Brown University
Uses the Common Application essay questions.
Bucknell University
Uses the Common Application essay questions plus supplemental essays.
Deciding which applicants to admit to Bucknell University can sometimes be difficult. Many candidates possess stellar academic credentials, yet we can admit only a fraction of those who apply. In the end, we must look beyond the numbers and base our decisions on evidence that a person has the potential to take full advantage of – and contribute to –Bucknell’s challenging and inspiring liberal arts environment. Thus, the more we know about you, the easier it will be for us to understand your qualifications as a candidate for the Class of 2013.
The following questions are your opportunity to demonstrate, within the context of the Common Application, what makes you uncommon and uniquely you. In your responses, be bold and take a few calculated risks. Have some fun – really! Don’t be shy. Tell us about your gifts and talents so that we can know the real you behind the transcripts.
Required Essay
What are the three most important things your future faculty and classmates should know about you? (75-150 words total)
Optional Essay
Something fundamental to having the optimal Bucknell experience is a willingness to take risks – to move away from one’s comfort zone and be willing to fail while seeking success. Our best and most fulfilled students are those who cross boundaries with purpose (e.g., the biomedical engineer who dances, the studio artist who studies chemistry, the student-athlete who gets involved in a global political movement, the student who studies abroad in a country where little English is spoken). These are the students who fearlessly approach the process of inquiry, no matter how eclectic, idiosyncratic, and creative the path.
Describe a time when you took a risk – either inside or outside of the classroom. What motivated you to take this risk? Who supported you in taking the risk? What did you learn about yourself in the process? (up to 250 words)
Carnegie-Mellon University
Uses the Common Application essay questions plus supplemental essay.
Please submit a one-page essay that explains why you have chosen your major, department or program. This essay should include the reasons why you’ve chosen the major, any goals or relevant work plans and any other information you would like us to know. If you are applying to more than one college or program, please mention each college or program you are applying to. Because our admission committees review applicants by colleges and programs, your essay can impact our final decision. Please do not exceed one page for this essay.
Columbia University
Write an essay which conveys to the reader a sense of who you are. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, experiences which have shaped your life, the circumstances of your upbringing, you most meaningful, intellectual achievement, the way you see the world – the people in it, events great and small, everyday life – or any personal theme which appeals to your imagination. Please remember that we are concerned not only with the substance of your prose but with the writing style as well. We prefer that you limit yourself to approximately 250-500 words.
Colorado State University
Uses Common Application essay questions
Cornell University
Uses Common Application essay questions.
Dartmouth University
Uses Common Application essay questions.
Dickinson College
Uses the Common Application essay questions plus supplemental essays.
Self-reflection is an important part of the Dickinson application review process. In addition to curriculum, grades, activities and testing, the Admissions Committee looks for purpose and potential. We’ll have questions during our review that only you can answer. Your response to one of the following will be critical to our understanding of your candidacy. Please consider carefully this question and provide your answer on an additional page.
Dickinson College founder, statesman and physician Benjamin Rush wrote several essays on education for this new nation. Listed below are three of Rush's philosophies. Choose one and explain how that philosophy relates to your talents, goals and the reasons you chose to apply to Dickinson.
• Dickinson students shall pursue a useful education in the arts and sciences.
• Dickinson students shall become globally engaged citizen leaders.
• Dickinson students shall understand that they do not belong to themselves.
Emory University
Uses the Common Application essay questions plus supplemental Short-Answer Question.
Many students decide to apply to Emory based on our size, location, reputation, and yes, the weather. Besides these valid reasons to choose Emory as a possible college choice, why is this university a particularly good match for you?
Florida State University
The essay is an important part of your application. It assists the University in learning about you as an individual, independent of your academic grade point average, test scores, and other objective data.
For almost one hundred years, the Latin words ―Vires, Artes, Mores‖ have been the guiding philosophy behind Florida State University. Vires signifies strength of all kinds — moral, physical, and intellectual; Artes alludes to the beauty of intellectual pursuits as exemplified in skill, craft, or art; and Mores refers to character, custom, or tradition. Describe how one or more of the values embodied in these concepts are reflected in your life. Your essay should be no longer than one page (500 words).
Fordham University
Uses the Common Application essay questions.
George Washington University
Uses the Common Application essay questions.
Georgetown University
Short Essay – In the space available discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved.
Long Essay - Compose and attach on separate pages two brief essays (approximately one page each) on the topics given below.
All applicants – the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in your own words. Please submit a brief essay, either autobiographical or creative, which you feel best describes you.
Applicants to Georgetown College – Please relate your interest in studying at Georgetown University to your future goals. How do these thoughts relate to your chosen course of study?
Applicants to the School of Nursing and Health Studies – Describe how your experiences or ideas shaped your decision to pursue a health profession and how these experiences or ideas may aid your future contribution to the field.
Applicants to the Walsh School of Foreign Service – Briefly discuss a current global issue, indicating why you consider it important what you suggest should be done to deal with it.
Applicants to the McDonough School of Business – Briefly describe the factors that have influenced your interest in studying business.
Harvard College
Uses the Common Application essay questions plus optional supplemental essays.
Occasionally, students feel that college application forms do not provide a sufficient opportunity to convey important information about themselves or their accomplishments. If there is something you would like us to know, please inform us in the essay section at the end of the document. If you wish to include an additional essay, you may do so. Possible topics:
Unusual circumstances in your life
Travel or living experiences in other countries
Books that have affected you the most
An academic experience (course, project, paper or research topic) that has meant the most to you
A list of the books you have read during the past twelve months
Indiana University – Bloomington
No application essay is required or requested.
Johns Hopkins University
Students applying as freshmen to Johns Hopkins using the Common Application plus the Johns Hopkins supplement must submit either the Common Application essay OR question 1 below. Question 2 is required.
1. Communities define our lives. Those you are born into, those you make yourself, and those you fall into by accident – communities of all types influence us and help shape us. Describe a defining community in your life and what it means to you.
2. Johns Hopkins offers 50 majors across the schools of Arts & Sciences and Engineering. On this supplement, we ask you to identify one or two that you might like to pursue here. Why did you choose the way you did? If you are undecided, why didn’t you choose? (If any past courses or academic experiences influenced your decision, you may include them in your essay.)
1. We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (This isn’t a trick question. We want to see how you bring balance to your life.)
2. Although you may not yet know what you want to major in, which department or program at MIT appeals to you and why?
Essay
Choose essay A or B. Please limit to approximately 500 words.
A. Tell us about an experience which, at the time, really felt like ―the end of the world‖ – but had it not happened, you would not be who you are today. Describe the process through which you discovered value in the negative.
B. Describe the world you come from, for example you family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?
New York University
Uses the Common Application essay questions plus supplemental personal statements. If you apply online, you must use the online supplemental questions. If you use the paper Common Application, you must answer these questions.
1. Describe a trait or characteristic that has been passed along to you by your family. Tell us why you like or dislike this part of yourself.