how many supplemental essays does uf have

University of Florida (UF) Supplemental Essays Guide: 2021-2022

Not sure how to approach the University of Florida supplemental essays? CollegeAdvisor.com’s guide to the University of Florida supplemental essays will show you exactly how to write engaging UF supplemental essays and maximize your chances of admission. If you need help responding to the UF essay topics, create your free  account  or  schedule a free advising assessment  by calling (844) 343-6272.

University of Florida Essay Guide Quick Facts:

• UF has an acceptance rate of 31.0%— U.S. News  ranks the University of Florida as a  highly selective  school.
• There is  one  school-specific UF supplemental essay required for all applicants. If you are planning to apply to the UF Honors Program, you will complete an additional  two  UF essays. This means applicants to the UF Honors Program will complete a total of three UF supplemental essays.

Does the University of Florida have supplemental essays?

Yes. Whether you apply through the  Common App  or  Coalition App , you will respond to at least one UF essay prompt. Your UF admissions essay lets the admissions team learn more about you as they review your application.

Any freshman applying through the Common App or Coalition App also can apply to FHP, the University of Florida’s First-Year Honors Program. In addition to the required UF admissions essay, students applying to FHP must complete two additional UF supplemental essays.

While some schools handle honors admissions separately, UF includes all application materials for FHP in the standard UF application. This includes every UF admissions essay. Students completing the UF supplemental essays for the Honors Program, therefore, will submit all three UF essays through the Common or Coalition App. This means that you must complete the UF essays for the Honors Program before you submit your final application.

Need some help writing your Common App essay? Get great tips from our Common App essay  guide .

How many supplemental essays does the University of Florida have?

There are  three  total University of Florida supplemental essays included on the 2021-2022 application.

The University of Florida has  one  UF essay prompt every student is required to complete. Additionally, if you choose to apply to their Honors Program, you must write another  two  UF supplemental essays. The first required UF essay prompt asks about your extracurricular engagements. In contrast, the UF essay topics for the Honors Program ask about your interest in the program and your academic priorities.

Before writing your essays, you’ll want to have an idea of your intended major. If you haven’t already, use our College Search Feature to explore the wide range of majors offered at UF!

How do I write the University of Florida supplemental essays?

Here are some helpful tips to help you get started on the University of Florida supplemental essays!

To begin, the University of Florida supplemental essays give you an opportunity to showcase what motivates you, which academic topics interest you, and how you engage with the world around you. Therefore, think of the UF supplemental essays as your chance to introduce yourself to the admissions team on your own terms.

As you brainstorm the UF essay topics, remember your audience. Admissions officers read thousands of UF supplemental essays. Ultimately, if you are vague, superficial, or misleading, your UF essays won’t help the UF admissions team understand who you are. To maximize your UF supplemental essays’ impact, you’ll want to be as specific, genuine, and authentic as possible.

If you’re having trouble finding topics for your UF essays, don’t worry! We will discuss each UF essay prompt individually below. But first, here are some more technical tips to keep in mind when writing your University of Florida supplemental essays.

Overall, the most important thing your University of Florida supplemental essays should do is answer the UF essay prompt. Even if you write a perfect UF admissions essay, it has failed to serve its main purpose if it doesn’t answer every aspect of the prompt.

Each of the University of Florida supplemental essays has a maximum word limit. In each essay, make sure to stick to the word limit and use your space wisely. For example, if you find yourself quoting someone famous or writing about a friends’ experiences, ask yourself how it relates back to you. In fact, the more “you” that you include in your UF admissions essay, the better!

The admissions team reads countless UF essays every year. This makes it particularly important that your UF admissions essay is as clear and polished as possible. Essentially, the more straightforward and refined your writing is, the more easily your ideas and personality will shine through! For this reason, you’ll want to be sure to give yourself enough time to draft, revise, and proofread your University of Florida supplemental essays.

Below, we have provided the 2021-2022 UF admissions essay prompts. Along with the prompts, you’ll find a breakdown of how to approach each UF admissions essay. As a bonus, we included both the general UF essay prompt and the Honors Program prompts. Additionally, we’ll also discuss tips for narrowing down your UF essay topics. If you follow these tips, you’ll write University of Florida supplemental essays that will help you stand out in admissions.

University of Florida Supplemental Essays – Question 1 (Required)

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity (250 words or less).

To start, this UF essay prompt asks you to choose your single “most meaningful commitment.” Even if multiple experiences pop into your head, you must narrow your UF essay topic down to just one commitment. The best University of Florida supplemental essays will use one commitment to reveal fundamental aspects of an applicant’s identity.

If you need help choosing your UF essay topics, try making a list using UF’s suggested categories. These include: Extracurricular, Work, Volunteering, Academic Activity, Family Responsibility, Other. While writing, remember that this list can include a sport you’ve played, a job you’ve held, or even a responsibility toward a sibling. Once you’ve completed your list, circle three to five topics that engage you most. Do a five-minute free-write for each. If there’s a topic you can’t stop writing about, there’s a good chance that might be your most meaningful commitment!

Once you’ve selected your essay topic, you can consider the rest of the UF essay prompt. This first UF essay prompt is quite open-ended, which gives you plenty of opportunities to showcase your identity. While “Please provide more details” isn’t very specific, remember that your UF admissions essay is an opportunity for the admissions team to get to know you. As you write, make sure to always connect your topic back to who you are.

Struggling to answer this UF essay prompt? Here are some questions to guide your response:

What did I do?  Be specific. If your topic is a sport, like basketball, discuss details of playing basketball that your reader might not know. For instance, you might describe waking up at 6 am for practice, practicing drills and collaborating with teammates, or performing under the pressure of a crowd.

Why did I do it?  What was the motivation behind your commitment? Let’s continue with the basketball example. Is basketball something you and your little brother grew up playing together? Does playing a sport help with your anxiety? Were you inspired by a certain professional athlete? Including the reason why you pursue the activity will strengthen your response to this UF essay prompt.

What did I take away from this commitment? Learning happens in all places. While this UF admissions essay asks you to describe an activity outside the classroom, asking “what did I learn?” will help take your response to this UF essay prompt from a summary into a story. Maybe you discovered a new passion, a new skill, or a new way of problem-solving. Maybe your commitment to basketball translated into commitment in your classes? Or maybe the teamwork you cultivated in practice changed the way you helped your family at home?

As you expand upon your UF essay topics, think about how your commitment shaped who you are. This will give you a compelling ending to your UF admissions essay.

UF Supplemental Essay Draft Key Questions:

• Does my UF admissions essay reference one (not two, or three) commitment outside of my classes?
• Does my essay show why this is important to me?
• Do I show how I engaged in this activity?
• Does my essay reflect what I gained from this experience?

University of Florida Honors Program Supplemental Essays – Question 1 (Required)

Why is applying for the UF Honors Program important to you? Which aspects of the program’s three pillars of opportunity, community, and challenge pique your interests? How would you engage with the program to exemplify these pillars yourself? How does the program factor into your long-term goals? Please be specific (400 words or less).

The first step in tackling this UF essay prompt is to read about the UF Honors Program’s  3 Pillars of Value . As you think about your UF essay topics, ask yourself what about these pillars draws you to the program. Why are these ideals crucial to your college experience?

If you’re struggling to find specific details to discuss in your UF essays, think about your current situation. What are you missing in your high school academic career that you want to experience in college? If your classes aren’t challenging enough, you might want to talk about “challenge” and why the Honors Program would give you the academic rigor you need to reach your greatest potential. Or, if you feel you haven’t met many like-minded individuals in your high school, you might want to talk about “community” and why the Honors Program would provide opportunities to support and be supported by peers. If you aspire to do research or attend a graduate school, you might want to talk about “opportunity” and how the Honors Program will connect you with advisors to put you on track for those experiences.

Think about the future

While this brainstorm can help you begin choosing your UF essay topics, the Honors Program  Application Tips  reminds prospective students that this UF essay prompt is meant to be forward-facing. This means the admissions team wants to hear about what you imagine for your future rather than what you’ve completed in your past. This is where the second half of the UF essay prompt comes into play.

Imagine the Honors Program as a stepping-stone: what will you do in the Honors Program, and how will that help you reach your goals? Be sure to answer these questions with specific details about the Honors Program. For example, if your dream is to join the medical field, you might reference the Honors Program’s Pre-Health Coordinator and the Professional Development courses you will take to prepare you for medical school.

No matter what draws you to the Honors Program, remember to be specific, answer all four questions in the UF essay prompt, and proofread, proofread, proofread!

• Does my UF admissions essay reference specific details about the Honors Program?
• Do I include both why I am interested in the Honors Program and what I plan to do if I get in?
• Does my essay communicate why the Honors Program is important in reaching my academic goals?

University of Florida Honors Program Supplemental Essays – Question 2 (Required)

Identify two topics you have previously studied that do not traditionally overlap. How do you envision you might bring these topics together during your time in Honors to engage a pressing societal, medical or technological concern? The concern you wish to engage could be of local, national, or global scope, but you should be clear about the issue you want to address. For the purposes of this essay, the topics you identify need not have been formally studied in high school, but you should have studied them since beginning in high school (300 words or less).

This UF essay prompt asks you to think along interdisciplinary lines to express your unique academic goals. This gives you a crucial opportunity to illustrate why you belong in an intellectually rigorous space like UF’s Honors Program.

Choosing a Topic

The first challenge of this UF essay prompt is to choose two topics that do not traditionally overlap. If you are having trouble choosing your UF essay topics, use your transcript and make a bulleted list of your classes divided into basic high school subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, and the Arts. Think about which classes on this list you most enjoyed, and start combining subjects with seemingly little relation. The more unorthodox your combination, the more unique your UF admissions essay will be. For example, if you first choose Statistics and Chemistry, you may want to keep brainstorming as those have quite a bit of overlap. However, if you choose Chemistry and Music, you’ll have a less traditional pair that will make for a fascinating UF admissions essay. Strong UF essays can come from unexpected places!

Choosing a Concern

Next, turn away from your academic interests and choose the societal, medical, or technological concern you’d like to address. Unlike some other UF essays, this UF essay prompt focuses on how you think rather than who you are. As you choose your concern, therefore, focus on how you will engage the topic rather than why it is important to you. Remember, you’ve chosen this topic because it needs to be addressed, and your reader knows that. If you have a specific, personal connection that impacts the way you view the problem (and will ultimately tackle it), keep your justification brief and always connect back to how you will engage with the topic at hand. The best UF essays will offer concrete, specific details on how an applicant plans to tackle their chosen concern.

As you complete your University of Florida supplemental essays, be sure to reference their Application Tips to ensure you have a strong application.

• Does my essay include two topics that I will combine to solve a problem (not one, not three)?
• Do I show how my two chosen topics inform and relate to one another?
• Does my essay reflect how I plan to engage with this topic (not just why I am interested)?

How hard is it to get into the University of Florida honors program?

The University of Florida Honors Program is a highly challenging and therefore highly competitive program. Last year, the acceptance rate was 13%—well below the University’s acceptance rate. Students who are accepted have excellent scholarly credentials, are leaders in their communities, and plan to push themselves alongside their fellow Honors Gators.

It is important your University of Florida supplemental essays showcase why you belong in the Honors Program. Students accepted to the UF Honors program also have high test scores and GPAs as well as strong UF supplemental essays. You can read more about the 2020 Admitted Student Profile, the Honors review process, and the timeline for the 2021-2022 application cycle  here .

What are the requirements to get into the University of Florida?

Your University of Florida supplemental essays are only one element of your UF application. The University of Florida’s Admissions page provides a list of minimum  requirements for freshman applicants . That means you need to meet or exceed the following benchmarks to have a competitive application outside of your UF supplemental essays:

• Graduation:  You must be on track to graduate from a regionally accredited or state-approved secondary school or the equivalent (G.E.D., etc.).
• Academic Credits:  You need 16 academic units distributed across English, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Foreign Language.
• Grade Point Average:  Your cumulative GPA must be at least a C.
• Conduct:  You must have a record of good conduct. Any major issues may disqualify your application from being considered, regardless of your academic credentials.
• SAT or ACT:  You must submit test scores from the SAT and/or the ACT. If you have taken a test multiple times, UF will take the highest scores for each subsection and superscore to create the highest possible total score.

University of Florida Supplemental Essays: Final Thoughts

As you think about the University of Florida supplemental essays, remember that no single element of your application will determine your admissions results. The UF admissions team uses a  holistic review process , meaning they take everything into consideration: your grades, test scores, extracurriculars, background, and UF supplemental essays. Admissions will consider your UF supplemental essays alongside your other academic credentials to better understand who you are as a student and how you will enrich the University of Florida community. While your transcript and test scores reflect the kind of student you already are, your UF essays will help them see what kind of student you can become.

While writing the University of Florida supplemental essays can be time-consuming, remember your UF essays—including both your Personal Statement and your UF supplemental essays—are the one part of your application where you have complete control. Be sure to take your time and make your University of Florida supplemental essays as strong as they can be! Give yourself time to think about the UF essay topics before you get started. Consider what you’ve already included in the rest of your application and use the UF essays to share something new about who you are.

If the thought of distilling yourself into a few short essays seems daunting, spend some time daydreaming about what going to the University of Florida could mean to your future. Think about the possibilities and opportunities you are excited to take on. Let that excitement shine through in your UF supplemental essays. Good luck!

This 2021-2022 essay guide on UF was written by Stefanie Tedards. For more CollegeAdvisor.com resources, click  here . Want help crafting your University of Florida supplemental essays? Create your free account or schedule a no-cost advising consultation by calling (844) 343-6272.

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University of Florida Supplemental Essays 2023-24

September 8, 2023

At the turn of the millennium, the University of Florida welcomed 63% of Gator applicants to Gainesville and functioned as a fairly accessible and highly affordable option for residents of the Sunshine State. However, by 2023, while still extremely affordable, the task of becoming a Gator has become far more difficult. They now receive over 67,000 applications and accept fewer than 30% of those who apply. Incoming freshmen now possess mid-50% weighted GPAs of 4.4-4.6 and ACT scores of 30-34. Another commonality amongst accepted students is that they write an excellent University of Florida supplemental essay.

 (Want to learn more about How to Get Into UF? Visit our blog entitled:  How to Get Into the University of Florida: Admissions Data and Strategies  for all of the most recent admissions data as well as tips for gaining acceptance.)

When applying to an institution like the University of Florida that rejects more than 7 of every 10 applicants, you’ll need to put maximum effort into every area of the application, including the Common App and supplemental essay. Below is the University of Florida’s required supplemental prompt for the 2023-24 admissions cycle along with our advice for composing a winning essay.

University of Florida Supplemental Essays – Question 1 (Required)

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity. (250 Word Limit)

The University of Florida is not necessarily asking you to write about the activity where you earned the most prestigious awards or held the highest position of leadership. The university is going to see all of your activities in that section of the Common App. As such, you want to ask yourself which of your entries is crying out for more explanation and detail? Which one is closest to your heart and most representative of your unique passions? Pick the option that will allow you to deliver additional detail that may be memorable to the admissions reader. Start this process by asking yourself, “What is the most interesting and consequential moment that I have experienced in one of my extracurricular activities?” If you can identify one clear-cut moment, that is likely the activity worth sharing with the UF admissions staff.

University of Florida Supplemental Essays (Continued)

What kind of campus community member will you be?

At the core of this essay prompt, the UF admissions officers are really trying to figure out what you will bring to the Gainesville campus community. Again, what you achieved in a particular extracurricular activity will already be viewable in your Common App Activities Section and the Common App Honors Section , so you don’t want to make that the focus of this essay. Instead, you may want to touch on some of the following areas related to your role as a community member:

• How you function as a member of a team.
• Your leadership ability.
• Your passion, commitment, and drive.
• A commitment to social justice and equity.
• How you respond to challenges and obstacles.
• Illustrate how you have demonstrated maturity and dependability.

How important are the University of Florida supplemental essays?

The University of Florida lists six factors as being “very important” to the admissions committee. They are: GPA, standardized test scores, talent/ability, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, and the rigor of your secondary school record and most relevant to this blog—the application essay. It’s important to keep in mind that UF places both the essays and extracurricular involvement in the top tier of importance. Therefore, this essay is something of a two-for-one. Further, the essay is rated as being of greater importance than class rank, standardized test scores, or your state residency status.

Want personalized assistance with your University of Florida supplemental essays?

If you are interested in working with one of College Transitions’ experienced and knowledgeable essay coaches as you craft your main Common App essay and University of Florida supplemental essay, we encourage you to get a quote  today.

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University of Florida Supplemental Essays 2024 | Strategies and Insights for Success

In recent years, gaining admission to the University of Florida (UF) has become increasingly competitive. Once known for its accessibility and affordability, UF now grapples with a surge in applications, accepting fewer than 30% of its applicants. With an influx of over 67,000 applications, securing a spot at UF has become a formidable challenge. Successful applicants boast impressive academic credentials, with mid-50% weighted GPAs ranging from 4.4 to 4.6 and ACT scores between 30 and 34. Notably, many accepted students attribute their success to crafting outstanding University of Florida supplemental essays.

When vying for admission to UF, applicants must excel in all aspects of their application, including the Common App and supplemental essay. Let’s delve into UF’s required supplemental prompt for the 2023-24 admissions cycle and offer guidance on crafting a compelling essay.

Also read University of Florida Acceptance Rate | Strategies and Insights for Admission Success 2024 

University of Florida Supplemental Essays

Question 1 (Required)

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity. (250 Word Limit)

At the University of Florida, this essay prompt invites you to delve into the essence of your high school experience beyond academics. Here’s how you can ace this essay:

• Choose Significance Over Prestige : Focus on an activity that resonates deeply with you rather than one where you garnered the most accolades.
• Highlight Personal Growth : Reflect on a pivotal moment within your chosen commitment and how it shaped your character or perspective.
• Demonstrate Community Contribution : Showcase your role as a contributing member of your community, emphasizing qualities like teamwork, leadership, passion, and resilience.
• Connect to Future Campus Engagement : Illustrate how your experiences will enrich the University of Florida community, emphasizing your potential contributions to campus life.

What kind of campus community member will you be?

This essay isn’t just about showcasing your past accomplishments; it’s about painting a vivid picture of your future role as a member of the UF community. Here’s what you should focus on:

• Teamwork and Leadership : Highlight your ability to collaborate effectively with others and your capacity for leadership roles.
• Passion and Drive : Showcase your enthusiasm and commitment to making a difference, whether it’s in academics, extracurriculars, or community service.
• Social Justice and Equity : If relevant, discuss your dedication to promoting fairness and inclusivity within your community.
• Maturity and Dependability : Provide examples of how you’ve demonstrated responsibility and maturity in the face of challenges.

Also see University of Florida Transfer Acceptance Rate 2024 | Strategies and Insights for Success

How important are the University of Florida supplemental essays?

The UF admissions committee considers the supplemental essays as one of the top factors in the evaluation process. Alongside GPA, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities, these essays provide valuable insights into your character, passions, and potential contributions to the UF community. Therefore, investing time and effort into crafting compelling essays can significantly enhance your chances of admission.

The University of Florida’s supplemental essays offer applicants a crucial opportunity to showcase their unique experiences, values, and aspirations beyond their academic achievements. By carefully crafting thoughtful responses to these prompts, students can demonstrate their personal growth, community engagement, and readiness to contribute meaningfully to campus life. As UF continues to evolve as a highly competitive institution, these essays play a vital role in helping the admissions committee select candidates who not only excel academically but also embody the values of leadership, resilience, and service. Therefore, applicants should approach these essays with diligence and authenticity, recognizing their importance in shaping their admissions outcomes at the University of Florida.

Nailing the UF Supplemental Essays for the 2023-2024 Admissions Cycle

The college application process is a crucial period in any student's life, and when it comes to the University of Florida (UF), this process includes crafting a captivating set of supplemental essays. In this blog post, we will offer targeted, step-by-step guidance to ace each University of Florida essay prompt.

General Prompt

Please submit a personal essay about who you are. We suggest a limit of 500 words.

This is your opportunity to tell your story in your own unique voice. Who are you as an individual? What experiences have shaped you, and what do you value most? Be sure to weave in your personality, values, and motivations. This essay is broad, but the key is to be authentic and introspective.

Example Essay

I come from a vibrant cultural melting pot nestled within the sun-kissed landscapes of Miami, Florida, where my Cuban heritage and American upbringing intersect. The enchanting salsa music echoing down the streets, my grandmother's tantalizingly spiced arroz con pollo, and the passionate baseball debates at the local café - these elements of my Cuban heritage provide a rhythm and warmth to my everyday life. Simultaneously, the annual traditions of roasting a Thanksgiving turkey or watching the Fourth of July fireworks paint the canvas of my American identity. These diverse cultural threads have woven the tapestry of my values and perspective, celebrating resilience, diversity, and tradition.

As I anticipate my journey at the University of Florida, I aim to contribute to the rich diversity of the campus community. I am particularly intrigued by the Multicultural & Diversity Affairs Program. The prospect of fostering meaningful cross-cultural dialogues through this initiative aligns closely with my personal goals and cultural background.

Optional Prompts

Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution. (450 words)

Here, UF wants to understand your community involvement and ethical values. Choose a specific moment when you positively impacted others. Discuss the challenges faced, solutions found, and the rewarding outcomes. Demonstrate your growth and commitment to contributing to the greater good.

When Hurricane Irma mercilessly ripped through my hometown of Miami in 2017, it left in its wake a trail of destruction. The poorer neighborhoods, including my own, bore the brunt of the calamity. Amid the chaos, I felt a deep-rooted urge to contribute to my community. Using my high school as a platform, I coordinated a relief drive, urging my peers to donate food, clothes, and their time.

Organizing such an endeavor was not without its hurdles. Power outages disrupted communication, making coordination a significant challenge. Despite the logistical problems, the community response was astounding. We gathered a sizable amount of supplies, enough to assist over 100 families. Witnessing my community unite in the face of adversity and knowing my role in facilitating that unity was a reward in itself. This endeavor reaffirmed my commitment to community service and is a value I intend to bring to the University of Florida, especially through initiatives like the Gator Good.

Has there been a time when you've had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs? (450 words)

This prompt seeks to gauge your ability to handle intellectual challenges and personal growth. Choose a belief, explain why you held it, discuss the event that challenged it, and delve into the aftermath. This essay showcases your ability to adapt, learn, and evolve.

As a product of a devout Catholic family, my religious faith was an integral part of my identity. However, a close friendship with an agnostic classmate put my long-cherished beliefs under a new lens. Our stimulating dialogues revolving around faith, science, and morality invoked in me a sense of discomfort, yet these conversations were enlightening.

To reconcile my faith with the emerging questions, I turned to literature, reading about theology and secular humanism. Rather than eroding my faith, this intellectual journey deepened it, lending it a nuanced, empathetic, and more tolerant nature. I learned the significance of open dialogue, the strength in acknowledging differences, and the beauty of diversity. I aim to bring this attitude of acceptance and respect for differing viewpoints to UF's multicultural campus.

Prompts for Specific Schools

Each college within UF has its own prompt. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your clear interest in your chosen field and how studying it at UF will benefit you.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Describe a problem in your life. Include how you dealt with it and how it influenced your growth. (400 words)

For this prompt, think about a significant challenge or problem in your life, how you approached it, and how it influenced your personal development. It allows you to display your problem-solving skills and resilience. Link this back to your academic pursuits within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

When my younger brother was diagnosed with dyslexia, my family and I found ourselves navigating a maze of challenges. In addition to managing my school work, I found myself tutoring my brother, researching his condition, and grappling with my feelings of helplessness. Instead of being overwhelmed, I chose to confront the problem proactively. I dedicated myself to understand dyslexia and developed a personalized learning plan for my brother.

This incident provided me with first-hand experience of the power of personalized learning and ignited my interest in psychology and cognitive science. I look forward to delving into these subjects at UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Cognitive Psychology and Developmental Science courses seem particularly interesting, aligning perfectly with my academic aspirations.

College of the Arts: Describe an experience that has shaped your artistic practice. (400 words)

UF wants to understand your artistic journey. Describe a significant artistic experience, how it shaped your craft, and why it matters. Connect this to the offerings of the College of the Arts, highlighting specific programs or opportunities that you are excited about.

Witnessing Frida Kahlo's "The Two Fridas" for the first time was an experience of profound artistic awakening for me. Kahlo’s raw portrayal of emotional pain and inner turmoil resonated deeply with me, inspiring me to view art as a potent vehicle for personal expression and social commentary. This interaction with Kahlo's masterpiece was transformative for my artistic style and approach, leading me to explore themes of identity and cultural dichotomy through vibrant colors and symbolic elements.

The University of Florida's College of the Arts offers the ideal environment for me to further hone my artistic skills and broaden my conceptual understanding. The Art and Social Change course is particularly appealing to me, promising a rich exploration of the interplay between art, society, and transformation.

The key to excelling in these UF essays is to be reflective, personal, and precise. Illustrate why you are an ideal fit for UF and how UF is the perfect environment for you to achieve your goals.

Good luck, future Gators!

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How to Write the University of Florida Essays 2020-2021

We’ve updated this post! Check out the 2021-2022 UF essay guide .

The University of Florida is a top public research university in the suburban center of vibrant Gainesville, Florida. Known for its abundant research opportunities, business programs, and engineering school, the university is widely considered the strongest public school in Florida.

With over 37,000 undergraduates spread out over 2,000 acres, the university is famed for its fantastic sports teams —the Gators—which are supported by a strong undercurrent of school spirit.

With an acceptance rate of 39%, admission to the University of Florida is rather competitive. To win over admissions officers, you need to go beyond strong grades and test scores by crafting compelling essays, especially if you hope to join the Honors College. Want to know your chances at UF? Calculate them for free right now .

Want to learn what UF will actually cost you based on your income? And how long your application to the school should take? Here’s what every student considering the University of Florida needs to know.

University of Florida Short Answers

All applicants.

List and describe your community service activities. Please include your role in the activity and level of responsibility. (250 words)

List and describe each job you’ve had, including dates of employment, job titles, and hours worked each week. (250 words)

List any programs or activities that helped you prepare for higher education, such as university outreach, talent search, upward bound, boys and girls club, etc. (250 words), do you have any employment or family obligations that limit your participation in extracurricular activities if so, please describe. (250 words), is there any other information for the admission committee to consider when your application is reviewed (250 words), honors program .

Prompt 1: Why is applying for the UF Honors Program important to you? Which aspects of the program’s three pillars of opportunity, community, and challenge pique your interests? How would you engage with the program to exemplify these pillars yourself? How does the program factor into your long-term goals? (400 words)

Prompt 2: During high school, what is the most enriching long-term or ongoing activity in which you have participated outside of the classroom? Tell us about it– Why is it enriching to you? What have you learned about yourself by participating in it? How does this activity fit into plans to maximize your college experience? The activity does not have to be sponsored by your school, but you should have participated in it since you started high school. Please limit to one activity that has been significantly meaningful to you, and be specific. (300 words)

List and describe your community service activities. Please include your role in the activity and level of responsibility (250 words)

These three prompts are straightforward and very similar, so we will be breaking them down together. Notice the use of the word “list;” these aren’t meant to be “essays” in the typical sense, so don’t worry about flowery language or complex literary devices here. 

Instead, enter all of the information they ask for with as much specificity and detail as possible. Don’t worry if you end up re-mentioning experiences you’ve already noted in the Common Application’s Activity Sheet; if anything, see this short answer as an opportunity to elaborate on some of them.

See the below example of a student explaining a community service activity:

During the summer of 2018, I was a volunteer counselor for Happy Earth Horizons, a day camp for children in grades K-6 focused on environmentalism and service. I led groups of children through hikes, team-building activities, cooking activities, and field trips to the aquarium. I helped them build social skills, cooking skills, and a deeper ecological understanding through communicating clearly, practicing patience, and leading social-emotional skillset exercises.

This is similar to the Additional Information section listed in the Common App. Explain what the employment/obligation entailed and why you had to take it on, as well as the results of you taking on said extra responsibility.

Some potential obligations involve working to contribute financially to your family, taking care of an ill relative, or babysitting younger siblings.

For example:

For a period, my single mother was let go when the insurance company she worked at was struggling financially and going through a period of transition. As a result, we both had to take on additional jobs to make ends meet, so I briefly left the Robotics Team throughout the second semester and summer following junior year. Instead, I worked at a local grocery store after school and on the weekends, learning how to work efficiently under pressure while supporting my family.

If you have no obligations to write about, just write in “Not Applicable” or leave it blank.

This also resembles the Additional Information section listed in the Common App. This is essentially your shot to either explain a lapse in your performance somewhere or to introduce something new about yourself that isn’t evident elsewhere in your application. 

You may elaborate further upon an extracurricular activity you feel isn’t clearly explained throughout your application (For example, say you were a Head Designer for your town’s Environmental and Aesthetic Initiative, and admissions officers may not know what that is). You could also talk about a personal story or history that has affected you greatly. You may even discuss a previously unmentioned extracurricular activity which says a lot about you.

This is a wonderfully free space for you to dive into whichever information you feel will give adcoms the most complete version of your identity. If you don’t think this space is necessary for you, that’s fine too! Just write “Not Applicable” or leave it blank.

Honors Program Applicants

Why is applying for the uf honors program important to you which aspects of the program’s three pillars of opportunity, community, and challenge pique your interests how would you engage with the program to exemplify these pillars yourself how does the program factor into your long-term goals (400 words).

The Honors Program offers many unique opportunities to its students, including honors-specific course selections and their respective professors, smaller class sizes, sponsorship for study abroad programs, undergraduate research, unique internship programs, and specialized advising.

This wealth of opportunity is abundantly available to Honors College students, but the University of Florida is looking for the students who will actually push themselves to engage with said opportunities.

This essay is looking for elements of not only a “ Why this College? ” essay, but also a “Why this Program?” essay. Of course, you should incorporate concrete examples of what UF has to offer here, but notice how they ask you to engage with their core values in chasing after your goals.

Remember, this prompt is asking four key questions, so you have a lot to cover in only 400 words. Write concisely and try to tie related ideas together. 

We recommend starting off with a brief introduction stating what drew you to apply —i.e., why the Honors Program is important to you. Perhaps you felt unchallenged academically in your high school, so you would like a more rigorous education, or you cherished your close academic relationships with your high school teachers and you would like to pursue meaningful relationships with your new professors as well. In a sentence or two, make a careful distinction in explaining why you are aiming for honors instead of just matriculating as a “regular” Gator. 

Avoid saying or implying that you’re applying for the impressiveness or prestige of being in an honors program.

Next, dive into the program’s three pillars. The Honors Program offers an array of opportunities, each of which may be viewed as contributing to values of opportunity, community, and challenge. For example, study abroad program sponsorships foster a greater sense of global community, while rigorous course selections and research are both opportunities and challenges. 

Making these connections between values and concrete examples isn’t enough, however. You must also explain how engaging with each exemplified pillar of this program will play into your long-term goals. 

Write with enthusiasm, curiosity, and energy to convey your genuine excitement about each aspect of this program. For example, a prospective engineer may write about how challenging themselves through the mandatory Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering thesis project (which requires completion of a written thesis and research) will make them a better writer and analytical thinker, spark their innate curiosity, and make them a more resilient and focused engineer.

Here are some suggestions for exploring the UF Honors Program’s core values throughout your essay.

Opportunity : Quite literally every offering under this program, from course selection to mentorship to internships, is an opportunity, so we recommend focusing on how you will use it to achieve your goals. 

Here’s an essay excerpt from Sophia, a prospective doctor who hopes to join UF’s summer study abroad program in Merida, Mexico:

The University of Florida is rich with opportunity, a quality which extends far beyond the university borders. I’ll have three college summers, and I hope to spend one studying abroad in Merida, Mexico. While shadowing a doctor in high school, I quickly realized just how many patients were Spanish-speaking. Nearly a fifth of Floridians are, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. 

I know now that developing bilingual fluency is essential to becoming the doctor that my patients need me to be, and there is no better way to do so than to immerse myself in Spanish language and a Hispanic culture by living with a Mexican family. I’ll build upon the mechanical grammar and semantics I rotely studied in high school through developing a rich, well-rounded, near-intangible cultural understanding to make my treatments and communications accessible to my patients. 

I have the same love for math and science as most pre-meds, but truly earning the title of “Doctor” entails a love of people, and with it, a willingness to learn for and from them. 

This essay works for a few reasons. Sophia highlights a past experience which reveals the roots of her motivation to learn Spanish and a simultaneous passion for her career path paired with a desire to do it well. Importantly, it’s clear why the particular study-abroad program at the University of Florida appeals to her so strongly; after all, not all university study-abroad programs allow you to live with a native host family.

Community : Community is a wide-spanning term, and you can build it almost anywhere within the honors program, especially considering its small class sizes, mentorship opportunities, student organizations, and study abroad programs. 

Consider this sample from John, an applicant planning to join the PRISM Honors Student Magazine:

When I entered high school, my introverted disposition and general nervousness initially inhibited me from reaching out to people. I had a small, lifelong group of friends with whom I had everything in common, but it wasn’t until I joined the school Newspaper Club that I truly understood the meaning of community. 

I saw then that community wasn’t about commonality, but bridging the gaps built by differences. I challenged my shyness through becoming a strong interviewer and worked with my introversion in collaboration with club members on layout designs. 

As a journalism major and PRISM contributor, I hope to find that same sense of community, surrounded by a like-minded and diversely-minded group of individuals. I know we’ll be a mixed bag of writers, editors, planners, and visual artists, but we’ll be unified by a common desire to create a fantastic magazine. This desire to create quality and to collaborate creatively will push and enhance my skills in written and verbal communication, making me a stronger and more empathetic journalist.

John’s essay works because he is able to tie past experiences into his future aspirations at UF and beyond. He kept his aspirations specific to the school and was able to connect it to his goals in journalism. He also connected it to his own understanding of the word “community” and how both UF and his career plans relate to it.

Challenge : Surprise, surprise! Being an honors student will challenge you and hold you up to high academic and personal standards. Here, you will have to develop strong work ethic, time management skills, and even interpersonal skills as you engage with your professors and peers. Write with specificity about how you expect to be challenged in your own way and where it will take you.

For example, a first-generation student may write about how she expects to be challenged as a first generation college student. With no parents to tell her how to apply to college or what to expect when she gets there, she doesn’t expect things to be easy, though she has faith in her ability to persevere. The Honors First Generation organization provides mentorship to first-generation freshmen, so as an upperclassman, this student plans to give back, helping younger students navigate this challenge and growing her leadership skills as a mentor.

At the end of this essay, admissions officers should be able to see you as someone who embodies the values of the University of Florida’s Honors Program. Do your research and write about the aspects of their programs which interest you the most so that your genuine enthusiasm will shine through. Write with specificity and care, tailoring your goals to the opportunities you will find as a UF Honors Student.

During high school, what is the most enriching long-term or ongoing activity in which you have participated outside of the classroom? Tell us about it – Why is it enriching to you? What have you learned about yourself by participating in it? How does this activity fit into plans to maximize your college experience? The activity does not have to be sponsored by your school, but you should have participated in it since you started high school. Please limit to one activity that has been significantly meaningful to you, and be specific. (300 words)

This question is written with specificity that renders it almost self-explanatory, and in detail that demands you write concisely to cover everything you need to. Luckily, they ask you to write about just one experience, allowing you to go in-depth about its impact on your life.

Introduce your chosen subject quickly. We encourage you to use lively, animated language in demonstrating how this activity was enriching to you. Invoke anecdotes and a narrative-like tone to engage your readers. Take some time to reflect deeply upon how you learned about yourself through this activity so you can write with depth and self-awareness. Ideally, this new self-knowledge will translate into your college plans.

Consider this example answer from a student who was a member of their school’s Mock Trial team:

We were fake-defending a fake suspect in a fake trial, so we carried ourselves with an almost laughable solemnity. Still, we sat stone-faced in front of the judge’s bench. 

Standing to deliver our opening statement, my carefully coiffed curls and opaque foundation masked the hours of work we’d poured into an airtight argument. Despite sleepless nights, I cherish those times of sifting through dense law texts, memorizing legal jargon and case details, and bouncing new ideas off of my dynamic and intellectually diverse team. 

Instead of growing tired of the heavy paperwork and long hours, I felt invigorated by the stories I found in our case studies and told to our judges. My empathy grew as I learned to accommodate diverse perspectives, as did my attention to detail while ensuring nothing would slip through the cracks.

Mock Trial showed me my deep interests and skills in close communication, critical analysis, and human connection. As a pre-law student and philosophy major at the University of Florida, I’ll pour those same newfound skills into my studies and career. 

It’s one of my biggest goals to debate my fellow Gators during an Ethics Cafe. There, I’ll build my intellectual diversity while publicly addressing important advocacy issues close to my heart such as wealth inequality and free speech.  

I look forward to questioning commonly-held beliefs surrounding material reality and free will as I craft my honors thesis. The depth of the research I embark upon will be further enhanced through the close connections I’ll foster with mentors and professors.

An endeavor of depth and breadth, Mock Trial has taught me more lessons than I can count, but above all, it has shown me that I thrive under pressure, that I throw myself into complexity and nuance, and that the courtroom is where I belong.

This essay works for a few reasons. A quirky anecdote draws the reader in before the author delves into what makes them so passionate about Mock Trial (without actually using the oft-hackneyed buzzword “passion,” of course!) We quickly understand that the author sees Mock Trial as an enriching experience, as it is intellectually rigorous, fulfilling, and requires deep empathy. We understand that Mock Trial helped her both grow her skills and learn where they lie, fulfilling the “What have you learned about yourself?” requirement. These play into her future goals, which are well articulated in the context of both college in general and the University of Florida’s Ethics Cafe program specifically.

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University of Florida’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Honors program short response.

American novelist Henry Miller once said, “My hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once.” Students in the University of Florida Honors Program are known for pursuing multiple interests and passions.

Tell us about a subject or topic that you find intellectually stimulating and are curious to learn more about while in college. Which direction(s) do you imagine your hunger for that subject or topic will take you while at UF? How do you envision the honors program’s academic and extracurricular resources will support you along the way?

Extracurricular Short Response

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity.

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The Admissions Strategist

How to write the university of florida essays: the easy-breezy guide.

Apply to the University of Florida with powerful essays.  Apply to college with your admissions advantage by  enrolling in one of our college application boot camps .

Does your college fantasy include reading outside in the sunshine underneath a palm tree? What about sipping 100% all-natural orange juice on your way to math class? Okay, I might be pushing the Florida stereotype a little hard here.

In all seriousness, if you are craving some sunshine and an incredible academic environment, the University of Florida might be the place for you.

The University of Florida has an acceptance rate of 38%.

While not located directly adjacent to the ocean, Gainesville is a close enough drive to the beach that you can flip through a good chunk of your psych flashcards on the way there (in the passenger seat, of course).

According to their website , the University of Florida is ranked as one of the top ten public colleges in the United States. Their student body is made up of students from the United States and all over the world.

What are the University of Florida essay requirements?

Prospective students must apply for admission via the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success application. Personal essays are limited to 2,500 characters, and there are five options to choose from.  To learn more about writing the Coalition essays, check out our guide here .

In addition to the personal essay, the University of Florida requires that you answer five short-answer questions.

These responses can be no longer than 950 characters. With this limitation, it’s especially important for you to carefully craft your responses and make every word count.

List and describe your community service activities. Please include your role in the activity and level of responsibility. List and describe each job you’ve had, including dates of employment, job titles and hours worked each week. Do you have any employment or family obligations that limit your participation in extracurricular activities? Please describe. List any programs or activities that helped you prepare for higher education, such as University Outreach, Talent Search, Upward Bound, etc. Is there any other information for the Admissions Committee to consider when your application is reviewed?

These questions are fairly straightforward but also incredibly important, as they allow the admissions committee to gain a deeper understanding of your day-to-day life and journey to college.

While few of these questions may not apply to you, you should still read each of the following paragraphs carefully in order to get the most out of your answers.

Community Service

List and describe your community service activities. Please include your role in the activity and level of responsibility.

The first short-answer question asks you to list your community service activities, including your roles and level of responsibility. Let’s first clarify what constitutes as community service.

• Of course, volunteering for an organization such as the American Red Cross or the Boys and Girls Club certainly is community service.
• However, community service is also any time you willfully volunteer your time or resources in order to do good for the public.
• If you have used your skill sets to help an organization in your community, be it a business or community outreach nonprofit, it is community service.
• You might have built an app for a local environmental protection group.
• You might have used your skills in photography to help document some events for a brochure for a nonprofit organization. These types of activities are community service.

For example:

• Have you ever helped to organize a Thanksgiving canned food drive at your school?
• Have you collected clothing donations at your church or other religious institution?
• Do you volunteer to help your dad out at work, where he cares for elderly patients?
• Have you volunteered to tutor the neighbor’s children in Mandarin?

All of the above examples would be appropriate to list.

There is one caveat:

• Perhaps you volunteered at Goodwill in order to meet the requirements of a court order to have a crime expunged from your record.
• While that’s a good outcome for you, it is not an appropriate example for this short-answer question.

Next, you should list your role and level of responsibility.

This provides more context about how you interact during your volunteer work.

• This doesn’t mean that your role as an entry level volunteer is “useless.”

Admissions officers know that volunteers at all levels are important to the success and mission of any organization or cause.

When listing your role, try to be specific. Instead of listing “volunteer,” try a title similar to one of the following:

• Volunteer Coordinator
• Front Desk Volunteer
• Research Assistant
• Community Relations Volunteer
• Bookshop Assistant
• Food Donation Manager
• Social Media Manager
• Graphics Consultant

These examples are much more specific than “volunteer” and can give the committee a hint to the type of work you were doing in your position.

The term “level” refers to whether you had any standing in the hierarchy of the organization.

• For example, “manager” and “assistant” are terms that indicate level.

In this prompt, the University of Florida specifically uses the term “list” and “describe” in the directions.

This is important because it means you should do both (albeit briefly). For example, your response might start with:

• Social Media Coordinator, Asheville Arts Foundation: shared articles about new exhibits, posted Facebook event pages, and created graphics to promote those events.

The above example is brief, descriptive, and follows the directions. It may be true that you have more community service activities to list than the character count allows.

As such, you should only write about the experiences that you have participated in the longest, are most invested in, and demonstrate your uniqueness.

Work Experience

List and describe each job you’ve had, including dates of employment, job titles and hours worked each week.

The work experience section has very similar requirements to the community service short response. You might be thinking, “Hey! This sounds just like a resume.” It is similar to writing a resume, except you don’t have to mess with pesky formatting.

Beyond listing and describing your work experience, you should also mention how many hours you work a week, how long you have been with a company, and your job title.

Check out this example:

• January 2018-Present, Chic-Fil-A, Team Member: Work 15 hours a week running the cash register, refilling customer drinks, and assisting drive-thru.

If you only have one job to list, you have room to be a bit more descriptive. If you have had multiple jobs, you will need to be consistently brief.

When listing your jobs, consider whether it is appropriate to list every job.

• Perhaps you worked for three days at Urban Outfitters and then quit because you found out you couldn’t take off during Spring Break.
• This is not an appropriate job to list because, to the admissions committee, it would appear that you are not committed.

To streamline your response, list your work experience starting with the most recent. If you still work in a position, you can note “present” for the end date.

If you simply haven’t had any work experiences, enter “Not Applicable.”

By taking the time to write “Not Applicable,” the committee understands that you are not refusing to answer the question but that it does not apply to you.

Obligations

Do you have any employment or family obligations that limit your participation in extracurricular activities? Please describe.

In the third question, you should list any work or home obligations that have interfered with your ability to participate in extracurricular activities. If you have a list of activities that is a mile long, type in “Not Applicable” and move on to the next question.

However, not everyone is able to participate in extracurricular activities. The following list includes obligations that may have interfered with your participation:

• Helping parents to run a family restaurant
• Working full-time to be able to afford bills
• Having a young baby to care for at home
• Caring for younger siblings
• No or limited access to transportation
• No or limited access to funds to pay for the extras associated with extracurricular activities, such as cleats for soccer or canvas for the art club
• Caring for disabled or elderly parents/family members

Don’t be hesitant to list this information.

There is no shame in needing to put family obligations above extracurricular activities. However, admissions can’t read your mind, and it is important that you describe these obligations so that they can have a broader context when considering your application.

For this section, you are asked to describe the obligation. Be cautious here.

The admissions committee doesn’t need to know the entire backstory that led up to an obligation. Instead, briefly discuss the obligation(s), how you are involved, and why this prevents you from participating in extracurricular activities.

Preparing for Higher Education

List any programs or activities that helped you prepare for higher education, such as University Outreach, Talent Search, Upward Bound, etc.

There are a variety of organizations that help students to attain their dreams of higher education.

• If you participated in groups such as Advance via Individual Determination (AVID), Upward Bound, Talent Search, University Outreach, or any others, you should list them.

Sometimes, universities reserve spots or give preference to students who have participated in these programs. Colleges also like to see that you have been planning ahead for college.

Although it’s not stated explicitly, if you have enough room, briefly describe in what way you worked with the organization. This information will be helpful to admissions, especially if you participated in a program for multiple years.

• From 6th-12th grade, I participated in the AVID program during the school day. While I had to give up an extracurricular class, it was worth it because by participating in the program, I learned…

It’s important to be honest on your application. If you’ve heard that a program exists in your school but you didn’t participate, you should not list it.

If the question does not apply to you, write “Not Applicable.”

Other Considerations for the Committee  

Is there any other information for the Admissions Committee to consider when your application is reviewed?

In the final section, you are provided the opportunity to add additional comments that you believe admissions should consider with your application. This is a chance to provide background information on anything that might look “off” on your application.

• For example, perhaps you attended four different high schools because your parents serve in the military.
• If that information did not appear anywhere else in your application, it would be appropriate to list that here.
• If you sustained a serious injury while playing sports and missed 40 consecutive school days, list that information in this section.
• You should explain to admissions that you were participating in physical therapy and on bed rest during this time.

If there is space, it wouldn’t hurt to mention that you Skyped into class and submitted work digitally in order to stay up-to-date with your schoolwork.

Another appropriate example would be if you had to take a class online because it was not offered at your school.

• Some schools do not have enough students demonstrate interest in AP courses, such as Computer Science A or the Physics C courses.
• If you took the initiative to be the only person in the school taking such a course through an online program, that deserves to be highlighted to the admissions committee.

As with all other responses above, simply list “Not Applicable” if you have nothing to write in a section.

Conclusion: Writing the University of Florida Essays

While responding to the above questions, remember that you are limited in your character count.

Since these are short-answer questions, the admissions committee does not want to know why you volunteer with Meals on Wheels or what you get out of the experience. Instead, focus briefly on what you do for the organization.

Overall, you should only elaborate when absolutely necessary. It’s important to show the committee that you can explicitly follow directions. While there is so much more you might have to say, save it for the personal essay! Remember, you can read more about how to write that essay here .

As with any writing, be sure to proofread and have another person review your work. You want to put your best foot forward on every application.

Short-answer responses are just as important to review as your personal essay.

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3 Writing Tips for the University of Florida Essay Prompts

College Essays

Are you applying to the University of Florida? You'll need to answer some essay prompts as part of your application.   Read this guide to learn what the University of Florida essay prompts are, what admissions officers are looking for in your response, what you should include and avoid in your answers, and what strong UF college essay examples look like.

What Are the University of Florida Essays?

The University of Florida accepts both the Common Application and the Coalition Application, and applicants must answer one of the Common Application prompts. 

As part of your application, you'll also need to answer an additional UF-specific essay prompt, and you'll have the option of answering three additional essay prompts. Your answer to each prompt can be up to 250 words. Here's the prompt:

• Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity

We'll go over how to best answer this supplement question in the next section.

The UF Essay Prompt, Analyzed

In this section, we explain what the prompt is asking for, why UF is interested in this information, what information you should include (and what information to avoid), and what a strong example answer could look like.

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity.

What the prompt is asking for: A description of the one extracurricular you feel is most important to you.

Why UF is interested: Students who are dedicated to something show they are passionate, interested in learning, and have a strong work ethic. These are all characteristics colleges want their students to have, so having something you're committed to is a major boost to your application. Seeing what you choose also gives UF a better sense of who you are and what you value.

Potential topics to discuss: What the extracurricular, is how long you've involved with it, how much time per week/month/etc. you dedicate to it, what activities your involvement includes, why you consider it meaningful. 

Topics to avoid: Listing multiple activities or simply describing the extracurricular without explaining why it's important to you.

Example: "The extracurricular most important to me is my involvement in my high school's Model UN team . I've been involved for four years, since I was a freshman. We meet once a week during the school year to prepare for the four conferences we participate in each year. As a Model UN member, I research different political events and international relations topics, then debate the issues with other team members to build my skills in those areas. Model UN is so important to me because, not only did it solidify my choice to major in International Relations, it strengthened me personally. As a result of my participation, I've improved my debate skills, become a more confident public speaker, and have much more experience finding a compromise even between very different groups."

Tips for the UF Essay Prompt

Follow these three tips when completing the University of Florida supplement essays to make sure your answers are as strong as possible.

#1: Keep Your Answers Concise

You only have 250 words per prompt. That isn't that much! This means your responses need to be brief and to the point if you're trying to fit a lot of information in. You likely have a lot of reasons why a particular extracurricular is the most important to you.

#2: Show Your Strengths

Even though the prompt is short, it’s still an opportunity for you to impress the admissions committee. You can dive into how you've been involved in your extracurricular, as well as any leadership roles you may have had. Try to include themes you've mentioned in other parts of your application , such as your longer essay. For example, if you mentioned that your dream is to be a doctor, try to highlight experiences that reflect that, such as volunteering at a hospital.

#3: Be Honest and Passionate

Sometimes students think they need to tell a story that the admissions committee wants to hear...so they make things up. Do not lie in your college essay—admissions counselors are  great  at sniffing out fibs! 

Instead, lean into the passions and experiences that make you unique . For instance, maybe you made a quilt and entered it in the fair. That's awesome! Just make sure you're explaining why it's meaningful for you! Maybe your grandmother taught you how to quilt and you worked on it together, which taught you the importance passing knowledge down from one generation to the next. 

Summary: UF College Essay Examples

There is one main University of Florida essay, and it'll be the Coalition or Common Application (depending on which application you use) prompt of your choice. But there are also additional UF essay prompts to answer. These shorter prompts are a way for the UF admissions committee to learn more about you and have the most accurate look at your application.

Here is where you can discuss extracurricular activities, anything that prevented you from participating in extracurriculars, certain programs you took part in, and anything else you think is important for the people reviewing your application to know. As you answer these UF essay prompts, remember to keep your responses short, don't feel pressured to answer every prompt, and highlight your strengths.

What's Next?

Considering the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship? Our guide to Bright Futures Scholarship programs answers all the questions you're wondering about.

Want to bring up your GPA? Read about four ways to bring up your high school grades fast .

Interested in community service ideas? Check out our guide to 129 great community service projects .

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Supplemental Essay Guide 2024-25

What do the 2024-25 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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Agnes Scott College 2023-24 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

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columbia university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, cornell university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, culver-stockton college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, d’youville university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, dartmouth college 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, davidson college 2024-25 supplemental essay guide, drexel university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, duke university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, earlham college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, elon university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, emerson college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, emory university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, flagler college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, fordham university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, george mason university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, georgetown university 2023-24 essay prompt guide, georgia state university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt 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university (lmu) 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide , lynn university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, macalester college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, malone university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, manchester university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, marist college 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, mary baldwin university 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, massachusetts institute of technology (mit) 2023-24 essay prompt guide, meredith college 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, monmouth college 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, moravian university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, morehouse college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, mount holyoke college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, new york university (nyu) 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, north park university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, northwestern university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, occidental college 2024-25 supplemental 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america 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, southern methodist university 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, st. john’s college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, stanford university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, stanford university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, stonehill college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide  , swarthmore college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, syracuse university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, texas a&m university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, texas christian university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, the college of idaho 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide  , the george washington university 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, the new school 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, trinity college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, tufts university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, tulane university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of california 2024-25 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guide, university of north carolina at greensboro 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of notre dame 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of oklahoma 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide , university of oregon 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of pennsylvania (upenn) 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of pittsburgh 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide , university of richmond 2024-25 supplemental essay guide, university of san diego 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide , university of san francisco 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of southern california (usc) 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of texas at austin 2024-25 essay prompt guide, university of tulsa 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of vermont 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of washington (uw) 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, university of wisconsin-madison 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, vanderbilt university 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, vassar college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, villanova university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, virginia tech 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, wake forest university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide, washington and lee university 2023-24 supplemental essay guide, washington university in st. louis 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, wellesley college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, williams college 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, worcester polytechnic institute (wpi) 2023-24 supplemental essay prompt guide, yale university 2024-25 supplemental essay prompt guide.

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Your Definitive Guide to Supplemental College Application Essays

Including supplemental essay examples to inspire your own.

Supplemental college application essays come in a vast range of topics and sizes and are often the biggest challenge for students after getting through the grueling initial application stages. These essays are crucial in the admissions process, as they provide a more personal and detailed context of your candidacy. They allow you to speak about more specific topics than the more general and broadly-structured personal statement or Common App essay that you submit in your primary application.

In this blog, our college essay advisors go over the general categories and purposes for the various supplemental essays you may have to navigate, and offer examples of short, medium, and lengthy supplemental essays.

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Article Contents 25 min read

Why are supplemental college application essays so important.

Supplemental essay prompts are usually provided directly by colleges as part of the secondary application, after you’ve submitted your primary application. Some colleges ask for multiple essays of varying lengths while others may ask for just one long-form supplemental essay. The specific prompts and word count requirements vary widely between schools. Every admissions committee creates their own supplemental requirements, including secondary essay prompts, to help them form a holistic picture of the applicant and judge how well-suited they would be for their school.

At the outset, it’s vital to understand that the term “supplemental” does not mean optional or second in importance. A supplement fills or makes up for an absence or imbalance, and that’s precisely the role these essays play in your application. Think of it a bit like adding colored paint to a black and white drawing. Your high school resume , transcripts, and test scores have given admissions committees an initial sense of what your candidacy. Supplemental essays, when correctly attuned to the personal statement, create a more nuanced portrait of your as an applicant.

Supplemental essays present a unique challenge as they have to be written in a short period of time, typically in 2 weeks or a month. Colleges send out secondary applications only after receiving your primary application and they provide strict submission deadlines. Additionally, unlike your personal statement, it’s not always possible to write supplemental college essays in advance since colleges frequently change their exact prompts from one year to the next and secondary essays need to always be tailored in response to specific prompts. However, that doesn’t mean you have to wait till you actually receive your specific prompts to start work on the essays.

A good strategy to tackle advance work on supplemental college essays is to spend 2 to 3 weeks writing rough drafts of the most common supplemental college essay types. Depending on the colleges you’re applying to, you can focus on specific prompts they’ve frequently asked in previous years. You can also check out college essay examples to get a better idea of what kind of content you need to come up with.

As you’re working on your primary application in the summer before senior year of high school or in September/October of your senior year, you can spend a few minutes each day brainstorming ideas for the previous year’s secondary essay prompts from colleges you’re applying to and creating a few rough drafts. For instance, most colleges ask for the “why us” essay, so you should definitely brainstorm your answer to that question in advance for all the colleges you’re applying to.

The advantage of following this strategy is that you will probably be wrapping up your primary application, including your personal statement or Common App essay, just as you begin work on your secondaries. Writing an effective personal statement requires a lot of brainstorming, journaling, introspection, free writing, rough drafts, and revisions. In the process, you’re sure to have spent plenty of time identifying key experiences, events, incidents, and people in your life, and also thinking about your own strengths, weaknesses, motivations, ambitions, and failures. Not all of this would have made it into your personal statement, and you can re-use a lot of this rough material as inspiration for your supplemental essay content. Moreover, you would have already honed your structuring and writing skills working on your personal statement, and the basic written communication skills required for the secondary essays are the same.

The goal of this advanced writing process is to have ideas and inspiration ready for when you actually receive your specific essay prompts. All your pre-writing and brainstorming will give you plenty of base material to work with, and rather than starting from scratch, you can spend the critical time before your supplemental deadline tailoring your essays to respond to the specific prompts and word counts. Remember, this is going to be a very busy period for you: while different colleges have different supplemental application dates and timelines, they generally occur within a similar period of time, typically between October and November for early decision programs and December and January for regular applications. So, you’re bound to have some overlap between the secondary essay deadlines for different colleges you’re applying to. You might end up having to work on secondary essays for multiple colleges within the same 1 month period. That’s why it’s all the more important that you complete your brainstorming in advance and create a few rough drafts of essays in response to the most commonly expected prompts.

Now, let’s discuss some general trends and categories frequently used for supplemental college application essays.

How to Tackle Different Supplemental Essays Prompts

While these categories cover the general focus of most supplemental essays, it’s important to note that schools change their secondary and supplemental essay prompts regularly, sometimes every year, and as a result, topics and categories evolve over time. Nonetheless, these are the most common categories both historically and currently.

Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind while working on any essay type:

The School-Specific Supplemental Essay

What is it?

As we mentioned previously, this is one of the most frequently used supplemental college prompts. These are typically between 250-350 words in length, although this varies widely from school to school. This is actually one of the easiest types of secondary college prompts to answer. Students don’t usually choose their undergraduate institutions randomly, rather, they make their choice after careful deliberation and research. To answer the school-specific essays, use that research! Schools want to know you’re engaged with their overall mission and clearly understand their place in the world, as well as what you specifically hope to get out of the campus experience aside from a Bachelor’s degree.

Sample essay prompts

Dartmouth : While arguing a Dartmouth-related case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1818, Daniel Webster, Class of 1801, delivered this memorable line: \"It is, sir,\u2026a small college, and yet there are those who love it!\" As you seek admission to the Class of 2026, what aspects of the College's program, community, or campus environment attract your interest? (maximum 100 words) ","label":"Dartmouth","title":"Dartmouth"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

How to write this type of essay

• Provide specific details that tie to an overarching theme : It’s very important to set up the connection between your academic ambitions and what the college has to offer. Think deeply about what you hope to achieve and why you’ve identified this specific college. Back up your thesis with specific details about the college. It’s not enough to say – “I love XYZ college, and I’d love to pursue ABC major there.” The why is crucial. Remember, in this essay, colleges don’t want to see you simply discuss you and your journey; they want to know how that journey led you to them. Back up your claims with details about what attracts you to them, which could be anything from the campus and famous alumni, to the college’s unique values, or their innovative curriculum.
• Go beyond the obvious : This type of essay is, crucially, asking you to do your research and go beyond the obvious. Don’t just talk about a school’s generally known reputation or what’s on their homepage. Instead, try to identify specific projects, academic opportunities, research avenues, extracurriculars, or faculty that interest you, and relate them to your goals.
• Consider what you can do for them : Think not only about why this college is a great choice for you, but why you are a great choice for them. Why do you think you’ll fit into their campus? Are there college traditions you would be proud to continue? Can you contribute to any on-going projects or initiatives on campus? Demonstrate why they should choose you by using a concrete example.

The Extracurricular Essay

In this essay, you may be asked to talk about a particularly meaningful extracurricular activity. You might have already covered the basic details of this activity in the activities section of your application, but supplemental essays dealing with your extracurricular activities get into more overtly personal territory. Remember, the intent here is not to simply get a rehash of your activities section or transcript; rather, in these essays, schools want you to get into the deeper aspects and psychological nuances of your involvement in those activities.

It’s important to keep in mind that most prompts will not directly reference extracurriculars, but the most likely answer to these kinds of prompt will include a discussion of an extracurricular activity. For instance, some colleges ask you to elaborate on an activity where you demonstrated leadership or what helps you explore your creative side.

University of California: Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. (maximum 350 words) ","label":"University of California 2","title":"University of California 2"}]" code="tab2" template="BlogArticle">

• Pick the right activity : It’s important to pick the right activities to talk about in your supplemental essays. Research the school’s website and social media to see their mission, values, and what kind of qualities they value in their matriculants, and choose an activity that reflects these. While you obviously want to remain genuine in your essays, it does not mean you cannot be strategic. Choose an activity you know will resonate with the college you’re applying to. Another tip: If you’ve already discussed one activity in detail in your personal statement, avoid repeating that here. Additionally, don’t pick achievement-oriented activities just because you think this might impress the admissions committee. You’ve already communicated your achievements in the activities section – in this essay, you have a chance to share another side of your personality and show the admissions committee more of what makes you unique. So, you can either focus on activities you are passionate about but haven’t mentioned elsewhere, such as cooking, woodworking, non-competitive chess playing, and so on. Or pick a compelling angle for activities you’ve already mentioned. For instance, if you’ve noted being a musician in your application elsewhere, this essay would be an opportunity to discuss why and how it’s been meaningful in your life, and potentially the lives of others.
• Do not be repetitive : Think of the personal circumstances, feelings, failures, and learnings surrounding your extracurriculars and write an essay that elaborates on one of these aspects. For example, even if you do end up picking your top activity from your primary application to write about, make sure the essay you write covers a unique aspect of your experience that you haven’t discussed elsewhere in your application before. Continuing our previous example, don’t just cover the obvious aspects of musical performance, but get into the psychological impact of performing, and of what specific types or music have impacted you through immersive practice or playing. 

Check out this infographic:

This type of essay is often the hardest for students to navigate, and also comes with the longest minimum word count requirement, often 500 or more words. If you’ve had your head down in the grind of coursework and achievement-oriented activities for most of your time in high school, odds are, you haven’t had a lot of time to engage in community service or collective projects outside of school. In a sense, this is a supplemental essay that requires some advanced planning: volunteer or community service work is a widely-understood key to getting admitted to competitive universities, so you will need something to refer to in this regard. Moreover, in this essay more than any other, colleges want to see an account of meaningful experience rather than a mere description of activities performed. They’re looking for long-term involvement, thoughtful self-reflection, and a clear personal growth journey. It’s a lot to ask from a high school student writing a 500 word essay!

However, part of the brilliance of this type of essay is its flexibility. You don’t need to have built a new community center with your bare hands to have impacted your community. Maybe you’ve participated in a group project that benefitted other students, or maybe you took part in planning a school event. Even a part-time job likely had some impact on your neighbors and fellow citizens. You could also discuss “informal” activities, such as helping your elderly neighbor with her grocery shopping, helping your family with a cultural project, your background as a member of a minority group, and so on. Think creatively about the ways you’ve acted in the world, and from that, determine how those actions have impacted others.

MIT : At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world\u2019s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200\u2013250 words) ","label":"MIT","title":"MIT"}]" code="tab3" template="BlogArticle">

• Find what makes you unique : If you’re having trouble identifying which communities you’ve been a part of, or which part of your identity to focus on, try the “what makes me unique?” angle. This is definitely something you would have brainstormed for your personal statement, so bring those notes out! We are all a part of various communities, whether we realize it or not, and we all contribute to them in our own unique way. You might have a unique skill or talent, or maybe it’s a personal quality that helped you deal with an issue in the community. Alternatively, maybe your background and identity are a key part of your life’s journey, and you have many experiences related to that. There’s no “wrong” community you could discuss, whether it’s a Dungeons and Dragons club you created with your friends, the ethnic community you’re a part of, or the neighborhood where you grew up. The key is to identify what makes you unique.
• Focus on your growth journey: The easiest way to discuss community engagement in a “meaningful” way is to focus on how you, individually, found growth and learning through your participation in a larger community, and how you simultaneously impacted them. No matter what the community is, the growth narrative is important. There has to be a clear two-way impact that demonstrates how your engagement and contributions affected those around you.

Create Your Own Class Essay

One of the more creative type of essays, these prompts ask students to come up with their own class, reimagine a whole department, conceptualize their ideal lecture series, and so on. This essay is your chance to show your creative and out-of-the-box thinking, while also expanding upon your academic interests and sharing your passions with the admissions committee. This essay is essentially a more creative alternative to the “why this major” essay.

Boston College : Boston College strives to provide an undergraduate learning experience emphasizing the liberal arts, quality teaching, personal formation, and engagement of critical issues. If you had the opportunity to create your own college course, what enduring question or contemporary problem would you address and why. (maximum 400 words) ","label":"Boston College","title":"Boston College"}]" code="tab4" template="BlogArticle">

• Get creative : You can really use this essay topic to stand out from the crowd. Come up with a creative answer and expand upon it with fun, yet thoughtful details that show your intellectual curiosity and unique perspective on the world.
• Align your answer with the college : Remember, you’re being asked to come up with a course for the specific college you’re applying to. What’s their mission? What kind of curriculum do they have? What type of learning do they value? Find out the answer to these questions and incorporate these details in your essay. For example, if the college you’re applying to values an interdisciplinary learning environment, try to come up with a course that incorporates both science and humanities concepts.
• Use your experience : This prompt is also the school’s way to learn more about your personal goals and experiences. Try to ground your motivation for creating this course in your own life. For example, if you want to create a curriculum that covers the influence of fashion on punk rock culture, try to connect it to your own interests or skills, such as a sewing hobby or your love of underground culture.

The Major or Field of Study Essay

This can be a tricky essay type to handle for college students who are still undecided about their major, which is very natural for high school students. Luckily, not all colleges ask for this type of essay. You can expect this essay mostly from colleges focused on a specific stream of study, who want to know why you’re attracted to that field. Some elite universities, like Ivy League schools , also ask this question because they want to see the applicants’ long-term academic ambitions and how well these fit in with their own mission.

Sample essay prompt

MIT: Pick what field of study at MIT appeals to you the most right now, and tell us more about why this field of study appeals to you. (maximum 100 words) ","label":"MIT","title":"MIT"}]" code="tab5" template="BlogArticle">

• Include personal as well as college-specific details : Similar to the “why us” essay, you need to refer to specific details of the college program, faculty, academic curriculum, research opportunities, and campus life. Connect these details with your own experiences and passions and explain why this college or program aligns with your academic or professional interests. Think about key formative events and personal motivators for your interest. For example, if you’re applying to a top science, technology, engineering, or medicine (STEM) college such as MIT, you obviously have a specific passion for one of these subjects. While you can and should expand on your personal ambitions, don’t forget to explain why MIT is the best option to help you achieve them.
• Focus on the long-term : In a way, this type of essay is analogous to the “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” interview question. If you do have a clear plan of how you see your future academic and professional life developing, this essay is where you share it. However, you need to make sure you don’t just spin a beautiful story that isn’t based in reality. Your ambitions should be supported by thorough research, real-world industry knowledge, and a careful consideration of your own strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, don’t just include grand ambitions for the sake of sounding impressive – back them up with personal motivations, or better yet, include concrete, achievable goals. For instance, if you’re applying to the best undergrad business schools , your supplemental essay shouldn’t simply say “I want to be youngest CEO in the USA” or “I want to feature in a 30 under 30 article” – instead, it should focus on specific business interests and goals, for example – “I want to use my leadership skills, business training, and community engagement experience to eventually pay it forward by expanding the economic and business opportunities in my own community.”

The Quirky Essay

This type of essay is meant to catch you off-guard or ask you to write about something not often discussed in the context of admissions. These essays are often among the shortest in terms of length, and generally hope to evince some humor and self-awareness from the writers. Topics for these essays include odd talents, strange experiences, or hyper-specific situational questions like what superpower you’d choose if given the chance. They can also be quite general: Princeton, for instance, includes a prompt asking, simply, “what brings you joy?”.

Princeton: What brings you joy? (maximum 50 words) ","label":"Princeton","title":"Princeton"}]" code="tab6" template="BlogArticle">

• Keep the tone light : When responding to such prompts, don’t get too caught up in trying to be ultra-intellectual, serious, or different from the crowd. Be creative, have fun, and try and show a lighter side of your personality to the admissions committee. Match the tone of the question and don’t overthink this one too much!
• Be genuine : The tricky part about responding to these random and creative prompts is to make your answer humorous while also being as honest and genuine as possible. Sincerity is key – make sure you don’t pick an answer you think sounds funny, or impressive, but that isn’t strictly true and backed up by the rest of your application. For instance, if asked “what kind of bird are you”, if you respond with something like “eagle” and talk generically about your leadership qualities without any specific details, admissions committees will be able to tell you aren’t being genuine. You can give any answer you like here! The important thing is to justify it with real aspects of your personality that add some interesting color to your application.

Now, let’s look at how to structure essays depending on the length. We’ll also go over an example for each essay type. 

Short Supplemental Essay (250 Words or Fewer) Examples

According to our college admissions consulting experts, these can be quite dangerous for some students, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because an essay has a short word count, you don’t need to spend much time on it. This can actually be one of the toughest types of essays, since you have very limited space in which to capture the admission committee’s attention and make your point. When you start writing, you might find that by the time you’ve set up your premise, you’re already done with 80% of the available word count! The key here is to include crisp, well-structured sentences to directly address the question being asked. There’s not really any space for a “hook” here, such as a quote, story, or layered personal experience. Only include a story or a personal experience if the question explicitly asks you too. In just 250 words or less, you won’t be able to describe too complex an event or activity, so just cut straight to the point.

Recommended Structure

• Direct opening sentence : Your first sentence should clearly address the essay prompt and set up the topic. Don’t worry about this being a boring or straightforward strategy – that’s what you need here!
• Specific details to support the topic : Add personal details and self-reflections suitable for the prompt to support your opening sentence. Remember, every word is crucial here so leave out any unnecessary facts and descriptions – stick to what’s relevant. Try and focus on a single experience, reflection, opinion, or topic, as you really won’t be able to do justice to any more. At the same time, make sure you don’t sacrifice flow to brevity. Each sentence should connect smoothly to the next, setting up a logical pathway from your opening thesis to your conclusion.
• Conclusion : Add the key takeaway or reflection and tie it back to the prompt.

To see how a short essay should be structured, let’s take a look at this prompt from Brandeis :

“Justice Brandeis once said, ‘If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.’ Tell us about something bold that you’ve recently done.”

Here’s a sample answer:

Although painting isn't itself an especially wild or bold activity, showing my art for the first time felt very bold indeed. As someone with a motor impairment, I've never been able to draw well, and found art classes throughout elementary school incredibly frustrating and embarrassing. However, discovering the wide and extremely varied world of abstract art a few years ago, I was finally bitten by the art bug, and began experimenting with acrylic paint. At first, I just learned how to operate the varying dilutions and textures of paint, but over time I became obsessed with the idea of color gradients and shading, and how the paint itself can do a lot of work that doesn't depend on a completely steady hand. I amassed a small stack of canvasses, and this past year asked around at the two art galleries in town to see if anyone was interested in putting some of my pieces up. Fortunately, and to my surprise, one independent gallery offered to show my entire collected work for a month. Not only did I receive a tonne of really positive and encouraging messages from visitors to the gallery, but I even sold 3 pieces! I was honestly terrified at every step of the way, but that first sale was about the most confidence-building event I've ever experienced. It felt bold, but also made me hungry to continue making art and sharing it with others. (237 words) 

Medium Supplemental Essay (250-500 Words) Examples

Shorter than your personal statement, longer than a short answer, these essays require you to balance a logical flow with a crisp central narrative.

While the basic structure of this essay can be similar to the long-form 650 word essay, you’ll need to make a few adjustments to suit the shorter length.

• Opening paragraph : You can choose to add an “anchor experience” for these essays, or you can write it in a more direct style, responding to the prompt and getting straight to the point. It depends on what you want to say and how you want to say it. For example, if your essay is focused on personal experiences, then an evocatively described personal experience could be a great hook. However, if the prompt asks you to provide your opinion about a specific issue or creatively imagine a specific scenario, then getting right to the point is a better idea.
• Main body : Here, you describe your central thesis and add further details to support it. You have to be very efficient with your choice of experiences and even with the details of any experience you chose to include. Each sentence should be in service of the essay prompt. Review this section with the questions “Is this related to the essay prompt? Does this help to answer the question being asked?”.
• Conclusion : The key to an efficient, memorable conclusion of a medium length supplemental essay is economy of words. In a single sentence, you should address the question being asked and also communicate your own central thesis, with a focus on what makes you special. Crafting this conclusion will take you time! First, identify the points you want to make, and then figure out a way to compress them into as few words as possible, without sacrificing clarity.

Let’s check out an example of this type of essay.

University of California: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? (maximum 350 words)

Growing up as the precocious daughter of hard-working immigrant parents, academic excellence and achievements were always the two key cornerstones of my life. My parents inculcated the importance of doing well in school in me from a young age. After all, it was education that had enabled my parents to escape the poverty and trauma of their homeland and find refuge in this country. With a natural penchant for academics and a love for learning, I never had cause to question this life-long commitment – not until junior year of high school.

That was the year when my parents’ restaurant business took a huge hit, and from a regular middle-class American immigrant success story, we were brought to the brink of bleak poverty. It was a shock to our family that took us through some of the toughest times I’ve ever experienced. We all had to make sacrifices, and one of the most profound changes I experienced in that period was a total shift in my priorities, as I had to work at my parents’ restaurant every day after school to help keep the business afloat. From being a grade-A student, I became a struggling straggler who could barely keep up with tests and exams, much less take on extra credit projects. At one point, I even considered quitting school! The worst part was watching the pain in my parents’ eyes, knowing they couldn’t provide the ideal home environment they had envisioned for me, which they themselves had never received.

However, looking back, I consider that period one of the most significant learning experiences of my life. It tested my commitment to my academic interests, which had previously always been so easy to pursue, and I came through with a system that allowed me to contribute at home and also excel at school. It made me further appreciate the struggles my parents had gone through as immigrants juggling family, work, education, and a major cultural adjustment. And finally, it made me appreciate what a gift and privilege education truly is, and vow never to take it for granted. (347 words)

Want to know a surprising fact? You might actually find the long-form supplemental essays easier to write than their shorter counterparts! These essays are typically 500 to 650 words long, which means you have plenty of space to build a coherent narrative, expand on your thesis, and support it with relevant details. When writing a longer supplemental essay, you can actually re-use many of the same strategies you employed for your Common App essay or personal statement. The basic structure (which we’ll explain in a moment) will be similar, and you can even recycle some of your rejected personal statement ideas to write an exemplary supplemental essay.

You can go for the commonly used 3 to 5 paragraph essay structure here. Include the following:

• Introduction : For longer essays, it’s critical to have a strong opening that hooks the reader and draws them into your narrative immediately. Admissions committees are reading thousands of essays, so you want to shake them out of their “reading fatigue” by capturing their attention with story, personal experience, unique quote, etc. In this paragraph, you should also clearly set up the central thesis of your essay. Critically for supplemental essays, ensure that your central thesis directly addresses or answers the prompt. Tie the “hook” of your opening paragraph in with this central thesis.
• Body paragraphs 1/2/3 : While the 5-paragraph structure is the most commonly used essay format for long-form essays, you can include more or fewer, as per the requirements of your specific narrative. Remember to be selective when you choose the experiences to support your thesis. In these paragraphs, you build on the central narrative you set up in introduction, supported with your self-reflections and personal examples. Include only the necessary details that help to build the central theme of the essay. Your essay should be written in a natural, direct style, but you can try and include evocative details and personal reflections to help communicate your point.
• Conclusion : As with all other supplemental essays, the conclusion is critical. You must include a key takeaway, learning, or crisp one-liner to sum up your answer to the question being asked.

Harvard : An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science, or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you. (maximum 650 words)

“It is the sandbox of men who care not where they are going; they merely want to know where everyone else has been.”

It’s a hot summer’s day, I’m red-faced, sweaty, and out-of-breath, hunched over a pile of earth, delicately brushing away tiny amounts of ancient mud, and John Bishop’s words suddenly pop into my mind. Our project director, Professor Saltzman, had led a brief session that morning concluding with this memorable quote, and it stayed with me for one clear reason: I felt it perfectly encapsulated my own journey, from a guy who cared too much about where he was going, to someone who now primarily cared about the business of these long, long, dead ancient women and their kitchen tools. The irony of the realization made me chuckle a little, disturbing the earth around the little kitchen mound I was excavating, and then I went back to my gentle brushing, once again fully absorbed.

It was simply not a picture of myself I could have believed merely months prior. From a very young age, I had a vision of myself as a lawyer. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my father and grandfather, carving an illustrious career that would begin, like theirs, at Harvard, and end with me on the Supreme Court. This dream hit a minor snag when, due to a medical absence is junior year, I missed my AP History exam. Mr. Griffin, my history teacher, suggested that I complete a summer archeology program he was affiliated with to make up the credit. And that was how this “minor snag” actually ended up diverting my passions, interests, and ambitions away from law and firmly into the field of archeology.

It wasn’t exactly love at first sight. I was resistant to what I perceived was a distraction from my true interest, the practice of law – I thought then I’d much rather be shadowing my father in a cushy air conditioned office than sweating it out in a desert, digging for broken bits of ancient pottery. But within a couple of days, I found to my surprise that I loved every second of it. The director of the program, Professor Saltzman, liked to walk us through our findings, however minor, at the end of each day. For the benefit of the younger students present, he often delivered lectures expanding upon the critical contextual history of that period. I was amazed at how these small, faded pieces of pottery could tell us so much about the socio-cultural norms of 8000 years ago; from which countries they traded with to what they ate, from their dominant gender roles to the kinds of currency they used.

Most amazing of all, at least to me, was how archeology could actually help envision the lived reality of these people from long ago. Our key findings in that dig were the kitchen utensils of a woman we nicknamed “Leda”, a widowed fisherwoman with two children. Every day, we would discover a new piece of evidence and spend hours classifying, dissecting, and contextualizing it to discover all it could tell us about how Leda lived her life. I realized that all the physical discomforts were worth the thrill of bringing these tiny pieces of history back to life.

In those 4 weeks, I experienced a kind of wonder, and joy in learning, and intrinsically motivated intellectual curiosity, that I had never experienced before in my life. With law, I was primarily attracted to all the perceived prestige and privileges that accrued to the profession; with archeology, the subject matter itself drew me onwards to push past my prejudices and discomforts. Today, I hope to continue to pursue my passion for archeology by continuing my work under Professor Saltzman as an undergraduate at Harvard, and hopefully discover the secret lives of many more Ledas in the future. (643)

The personal statement is a more general essay with a broader scope, typically submitted as part of your primary application, whereas supplemental essays respond to specific prompts and are submitted with your secondary application directly to each school. You only need to write one personal statement (such as the Common App essay) which goes out to all your colleges, and it should therefore never include any college-specific details. On the other hand, each college asks for their own set of supplemental essays, and they may often ask you to expand upon your interest in the specific college, program, or major you are applying to. A personal statement is a single long-form essay of 650 words or more, whereas colleges can ask for multiple supplemental essays that can range in length from 35 to 650 words.

The most commonly used supplemental college essay prompts are:

• The “why us” essay that asks you to discuss why you want go to a specific college
• The extracurricular essay that asks you to discuss your activities, talents, or skills
• The community essay that asks you to expand upon your identity, diversity, community engagement, and so on
• The “why this major” essay that asks you to discuss your specific academic interests
• The “create a class” essay that asks you to creatively design a major or come up with your own class
• The “quirky” essay that can include creative, zany, out-of-the-box, informal prompts

Supplemental college essays can range in length from 35 words to 650 words. Every college has their own prompts and requirements, so you should check the admissions website of your colleges to learn more.

The “why this school” college essay is one of the most common supplemental college essay types. It’s very important to be college-specific in this essay, and to include details of your special interest in the concerned college supported by your knowledge of their unique offerings. You will have to do some research on the college so you can make your essay as specific and unique as possible.

Yes, supplemental essays are a critical part of your application. They help to personalize and flesh out your application, building on your achievements, transcripts, and scores, to show the admissions committee a well-rounded, unique individual. Crucially, supplemental essays are a chance for you to show how well your thinking and experiences align with the college’s missions and values and why you would be an excellent candidate for their program.

A word count of 250 words or less can pose a significant challenge for students. To write an effective short answer, you need to be concise and direct, addressing the question asked while building a logical flow from introduction to conclusion. There’s no space in such questions for fancy opening hooks and elaborate narratives – just stick to the relevant experiences and reflections and always connect back to the prompt itself.

It depends on the topic! It’s not a good idea to copy paste the essay content for college-specific prompts such as “why us” or “why this major”, where the expectation is that you will talk in detail about the unique features of that college which attract you. However, for more generic topics like “what inspires you” or “how did you serve your community”, you can certainly re-use topics and themes between essays. Just make sure you edit each essay to meet the specific word count and include college specific details wherever possible. Additionally, you should always read and understand the prompt thoroughly before drafting your essay. Respond to the spirit as well as the letter of the prompts in your opening and concluding sentences, even if you’ve re-used most of the main body content from another similar essay.

Supplemental college essays certainly afford you greater room to be creative and informal than your personal statement. However, the extent to which this style of writing would be appropriate depends on the prompts. The short answer, zany, creative prompts, are the perfect place to show a lighter side of your personality and introduce a little humor in your application. But an essay about significant obstacles you’re overcome, or your long-term academic goals, might not be an ideal place to get overtly casual and humorous.

You will receive your secondary application directly from the college after you submit your primary application. The deadline to complete secondary applications varies from college to college. Most colleges ask you to submit your completed supplemental application, including essays, within 2 weeks or a month of receiving the prompts. This isn’t a lot of time, especially considering most colleges will be sending out secondary applications in the same rough time period and you’ll have to work on multiple applications at once. However, you can prepare in advance for your supplemental essays by brainstorming ideas and writing rough drafts in response to previous years’ prompts.

Every college has their own unique secondary application requirements. You should check the admissions websites of your colleges to learn more about their specific requirements. Some colleges may ask for just a single 650-word essay, while others may provide 5 or 6 prompts of varying lengths. Generally speaking, most colleges don’t ask for more than 1 or 2 long supplemental essays (500+ words), along with 2 or 3 shorter essays.

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Can extracurricular activities contain sth like assisting family ,and socal activities that doesn't encounter certificate?

BeMo Academic Consulting

Hello Phoebe! Thanks for your question. Yes, you can definitely consider these extracurriculars, depending on the activity you did. For example, if you assisted a family member after an illness or organized social activities like fund raisers.

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How to Write Great Supplemental College Application Essays

Check out our Just Admit It! Podcast

IvyWise counselors Eric  and Zach discuss what admissions officers are looking for in supplemental essays and what students can do to stand out on the Just Admit It! college admissions podcast , giving listeners expert insight from former admissions officers.

Aside from grades, standardized test scores, and your high school courses, one of the most important elements of the college application is the essay. Supplemental essays give admissions officers the chance to get to know students, and they’re also great gauges for demonstrated interest. So how can students master college admission essays?

What Is a Supplemental Essay? 

While the Common Application and the Coalition Application each have a required essay, many colleges include their own school-specific essays, known as writing supplements. These supplemental essays are designed to help the admissions committee gain a better understanding of who you are and how you will fit in on campus.

Tell Admissions Officers Something They Don’t Already Know

Admissions officers want to get to know applicants. There’s only so much that application readers can deduce from your extracurricular activities, transcripts, test scores, recommendation letters, and other application materials. Many times the best way to get a clear picture of a student’s goals, accomplishments, and character is to hear it directly from the student themself.

Instead of using the essay to regurgitate the information that’s already available, reveal something that can’t be found anywhere else in the application. For example, if captain of the school’s soccer team is on the activity list, don’t write an essay about the biggest game of the season. The admissions officers already know soccer is an interest, so choose a deeper topic that reveals something meaningful.

One example: A student’s top activity on her activity list was horseback riding. Instead of writing an essay about riding, she instead wrote about her faith and how she reconciled that with what she was learning in her advanced science courses.

Approaching “Quirky” Essay Prompts

It’s a college admissions trend that keeps growing in popularity: the quirky college application essay question . From questions about what advice a wisdom tooth would have to inquiries about how students would design their own courses, many colleges are asking applicants some strange questions. For many students, these wild and wacky application prompts can be extremely intimidating. Many struggle with the balance between writing creative, witty responses and sounding cheesy and forced.

When tackling these odd application essay prompts, remember the main goal of the admissions essay — to reveal something not obvious about yourself. These essays are about you, not what you think the college wants to hear, so keep your interests in mind! The same applies to the “short-take” supplement questions (those that seek a one-word or one-sentence response). Dig deep, but remember that your answer doesn’t have to be as strange as the prompt — it just needs to reflect your character and passions.

The Common “Why This College?” Essay

One of the most common supplemental essays that students will come across is the infamous “ Why This College? ” essay. Whether it’s simply “Why XX University?” or a more specific question about how a student plans to contribute to the campus, colleges are looking for detailed and well-researched responses.

It’s not enough to say, “I want to go to XX University because it’s a great school,” or “XX College is my favorite.” When evaluating these responses, colleges want to know that a student has done their homework on the institution and has really thought about how they will fit into the campus community. If supplemental essays are good gauges for demonstrated interest , this particular type of essay is the most important.

When answering this essay question, use specific details. Mention courses and professors of interest. Students should elaborate on campus organizations or programs that fit certain goals, and specific aspects of the campus community that make it a good social and academic fit. Be as detailed as possible, but be sure to relate these details to specific goals and interests. Don’t just rattle off some course names and expect to wow the admissions committee.

The best writing supplements will add great context and personality to a student’s application, and elevate their chances of admission. Often it can be the difference between the ‘no’ and the ‘maybe’ pile. Research and preparation are key to writing stand-out supplements, so don’t wait until the last minute! If you’re still unsure about how your essay could come across to admissions officers, it’s not too late for our team of expert counselors to review your supplements and give guidance on how to draft and revise your essays. Contact us to learn more.

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Home » IvyWise KnowledgeBase » IvyWise Resources » All Articles » How to Write Great Supplemental College Application Essays

UF Essay Prompts and Helpful Tips

University of Florida or UF is a public institution of higher learning that was established in 1853. The highly esteemed university is home to 16 academic colleges and over 150 research facilities. UF is committed to producing graduates ready for the global economy, which is why thousands of students apply to it each year. Luckily for hopeful applicants, UF’s acceptance rates are not in the single digits. This fact notwithstanding, prospective students should work hard on crafting a winning application essay. Anyone who has tried writing such a piece knows that the process is complicated, frustrating, and daunting.

This article has been written by Florida Essay staff to get you off on the right foot in crafting a powerful application essay for the 2018-2019 admissions season. Read it to get some writing help and drastically increase your chances of getting into UF.

If you find yourself overwhelmed by essay writing requirements, let our specialists help you. They have assisted thousands of students with getting into UF. You can be next!

Acceptance Rate for University of Florida

University hopefuls entering the 2018 admission season know that the hardest thing about UF is getting in. Indeed, many students who apply online to the educational institution are rejected and their essay crafting efforts have been for naught. The acceptance rate of the institution is 42%, which means that the majority of prospective students who charge ahead to breach the walls of the university will not succeed. Fortunately, as has been mentioned above, the acceptance rate is not a single digit; therefore, applicants stand a solid chance of getting into the university of their dream. All they have to do is work hard on their personal statement essay. Keep reading to get the edge over other applicants.

University of Florida Application Requirements

The ever-increasing number of applicants along with the frantic climate of the current job market have driven UF acceptance rate to meager 42%. It means that in order to get accepted, you have to think and act fast. For starters, you must choose your start dates for online application:

• Fall application process and file completion deadlines are June 10, 2019 and July 8, 2019, respectively.
• Spring application process and file completion deadlines are October 1, 2018 and October 29, 2018, respectively.
• Summer application process and file completion deadlines are March 4, 2019 and April 1, 2019, respectively.

Note that application deadlines for university hopefuls living in areas impacted by Hurricane Michael have been extended to November 15th. Applicants resided outside these territories should meet the priority application deadline – November 1st.

If you are a freshman (a person with less than 12 college credits) who wants to benefit from the rich academic experience offered by UF, consider the following minimum admission requirements:

• An applicant should pay a non-refundable fee of $30 and a $7 processing fee.
• An applicant has graduated from a state or regionally-approved secondary school;
• An applicant has earned fourteen academic units: 4 years English, 4 years Mathematics, 3 years Natural Sciences, and 3 years Social Sciences;
• An applicant with two or more years of foreign language instruction or an equivalent level of proficiency will earn additional credits.
• C average as calculated by UF.
• 2.0 GPA for dual-enrollment students.
• Test scores should be submitted by applicants who graduated from a high school less than 5 years ago. Other applicants do not have to submit the scores.
• Before March 1, 2016 SAT (200-800): Reading 460 and Mathematics 460.
• After March 1, 2016 SAT (10-40): Reading 24, Writing 25, and Mathematics 24.
• ACT (1-36): Reading 19, Writing 17, and Mathematics 19.

Note that mixed scores from different tests will not be accepted.

• An applicant must provide a record of good conduct. A record of problematic student behavior can render an applicant ineligible.

UF Admissions Essay is a Key to College

Among all application requirements put forward by the Offices of Admissions an essay is probably the most important one. UF applicants are advised to stay within the 500-word limit when crafting their essays. In their essays and UF’s supplemental sections containing several short-answer style prompts, students are encouraged to be frank and direct. Check examples below to write an essay in which each word counts.

Unlike other prestigious institutions of higher learning, UF is not known for throwing off-the-wall essay topics like “tell us your favorite childhood book” (Kalamazoo College) or “what does #YOLO mean to you” (Tufts University). The University of Florida application essay example topics provided by the Offices of Admissions are pretty basic. Therefore, all you have to do is make sure your essay stands out among other submissions.

• A first-person narrative is expected from UF applicants. Remember, your application essay is a story about you.
• A great essay shows what makes an applicant unique. Avoid boring and overused topics such as winnings or losses, friendships, pet deaths, etc.
• A powerful essay evokes vivid imagery and helps the readers to rise above the straight text. It tingles their senses.
• Application essays worth reading are not repetitive. Avoid restating information provided in the supplemental documents and/or your test scores.
• Essays that are not transferred into the rejection pile are appropriately professional. Do not use contractions and follow proper grammar.

Application to University of Florida

Many college hopefuls ask how to apply to UF. Fortunately, the online application procedure developed by the Offices of Admissions has made it easier than ever to submit your documents. The procedure takes about 30 minutes to finish and can be used for a nominal fee of $37. Online application menu can be accessed here .

UF Essay Topics and Word Limit

Your application essay to UF should not exceed the required 500-word count. As for the supplemental section, each prompt should be answered in 200 words or fewer. With such a short word limit, you have to be brief and precise.

• Tell a story showing your character.
• Describe an experience of making a meaningful contribution to others.
• Present a story about your cherished belief being challenged.
• What are the hardest and easiest experiences of being a teenager?
• Topic of your choice.

If you don’t know how to approach the essay writing process, let our talented writers help you.

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Sample Supplemental Essay for College Admissions: Why This College?

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

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

The essay prompt reads:

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

Sample Supplemental Essay

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

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

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

Understanding the Essay Prompt

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

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

From the Admissions Desk

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

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

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

A Critique of the Supplemental Essay

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

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

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

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

A Final Word About Supplemental Essays

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

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