2025-26 Common App Supplements

American University students identify as changemakers and describe themselves as passionate. Describe a belief, hobby, idea, issue, or topic about which you’re excited.

Short-Answer Question (max 300 words): Why do you want to study your chosen major, and why do you want to study that major at Georgia Tech?

Please respond to one of the first four prompts below (400 word limit). Students applying to the Human Centered Engineering major should respond to Prompt #5 instead.

1. Strong communities are sustained by traditions. Boston College’s annual calendar is marked with both long-standing and newer traditions that help shape our community. Tell us about a meaningful tradition in your family or community. Why is it important to you, and how does it bring people together or strengthen the bonds of those who participate?

2. The late BC theology professor, Father Michael Himes, argued that a university is not a place to which you go, but instead, a “rigorous and sustained conversation about the great questions of human existence, among the widest possible circle of the best possible conversation partners.” Who has been your most meaningful conversation partner, and what profound questions have you considered together?

3. In her July 2009 Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned viewers against assigning people a “single story” through assumptions about their nationality, appearance, or background. Discuss a time when someone defined you by a single story. What challenges did this present and how did you overcome them?

4. Boston College’s Jesuit mission highlights “the three Be’s”: be attentive, be reflective, be loving – core to Jesuit education (see A Pocket Guide to Jesuit Education). If you could add a fourth “Be,” what would it be and why? How would this new value support your personal development and enrich the BC community?

5. Human-Centered Engineering (HCE) Applicants only: One goal of a Jesuit education is to prepare students to serve the Common Good. Human-Centered Engineering at Boston College integrates technical knowledge, creativity, and a humanistic perspective to address societal challenges and opportunities. What societal problems are important to you and how will you use your HCE education to solve them?.

We all contribute to, and are influenced by, the communities that are meaningful to us. Share how you’ve been shaped by one of the communities you belong to.

Remember that this essay is about you and your lived experience. Define community in the way that is most meaningful to you. Some examples of community you might choose from are: family, school, shared interest, virtual, local, global, cultural.

Think outside the box as you answer the following questions. Take a risk and go somewhere unexpected. Be serious if the moment calls for it, but feel comfortable being playful if that suits you, too.

Applicants to the School of Arts & Sciences or the School of Engineering:

Please respond to one of the following three prompts in 200-250 words:

• It’s cool to love learning. What excites your intellectual curiosity and why?
• How have the environments or experiences of your upbringing – your family, home, neighborhood, or community – shaped the person you are today?
• Using a specific example or two, tell us about a way that you contributed to building a collaborative and/or inclusive community.

Applicants to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts:

Please respond to the following prompt in 200-250 words:

• Art has the power to disrupt our preconceptions, shape public discourse, and imagine new ways of being in the world. What are the ideas you’d like to explore in your work?

In addition, we will ask all applicants to complete this sentence in 250 words or less:

“I am applying to Tufts because…”

All first-year applicants will complete a few Yale-specific short answer questions. These required questions are slightly different based on the application platform an applicant chooses. The 2025-2026 Yale-specific questions for the Coalition Application, Common Application, and QuestBridge Application are detailed below.

Short Answer Questions
Applicants submitting the Coalition Application, Common Application, or QuestBridge Application will respond to the following short answer questions:

• Students at Yale have time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the list provided.
• Tell us about a topic or idea that excites you and is related to one or more academic areas you selected above. Why are you drawn to it? (200 words or fewer)
• Reflect on how your interests, values, and/or experiences have drawn you to Yale. (125 words or fewer)

Applicants submitting the Coalition Application or Common Application will also respond to the following short answer questions, in no more than 200 characters (approximately 35 words):

• What inspires you?
• If you could teach any college course, write a book, or create an original piece of art of any kind, what would it be?
• Other than a family member, who is someone who has had a significant influence on you? What has been the impact of their influence?
• What is something about you that is not included anywhere else in your application?

Essay
Applicants submitting the Coalition Application or Common Application will respond to one of the following prompts in 400 words or fewer.

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

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

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

Dartmouth’s writing supplement requires that applicants write brief responses to three supplemental essay prompts as follows:

1. Required of all applicants. Please respond in 100 words or fewer:

As you seek admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2030, what aspects of the college’s academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you?

2. Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

A. There is a Quaker saying: Let your life speak. Describe the environment in which you were raised and the impact it has had on the person you are today.

B. “Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself.

3. Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

A. What excites you?

B. Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta recommended a life of purpose. “We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things,” she said. “That is what we are put on the earth for.” In what ways do you hope to make—or are you already making—an impact? Why? How?

C. In an Instagram post, best-selling British author Matt Haig cheered the impact of reading. “A good novel is the best invention humans have ever created for imagining other lives,” he wrote. How have you experienced such insight from reading? What did you read and how did it alter the way you understand yourself and others?

D. The social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees have been the focus of Dame Jane Goodall’s research for decades. Her understanding of animal behavior prompted the English primatologist to see a lesson for human communities as well: “Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.” Channel Dame Goodall: Tell us about a moment when you engaged in a difficult conversation or encountered someone with an opinion or perspective that was different from your own. How did you find common ground?

E. Celebrate your nerdy side.

F. “It’s not easy being green…” was the frequent refrain of Kermit the Frog. How has difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity, outlook, or sense of purpose?

G. The Mindy Kaling Theater Lab will be an exciting new addition to Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts. “It’s a place where you can fail,” the actor/producer and Dartmouth alumna said when her gift was announced. “You can try things out, fail, and then revamp and rework things… A thing can be bad on its journey to becoming good.” Share a story of failure, trial runs, revamping, reworking, or journeying from bad to good.

We ask applicants to answer several short questions (limit 50 words each) and to write a short essay on each of the three topics below.

Short Essay Questions
There is a 100-word minimum and a 250-word maximum for each essay.

1. The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning.
2. Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate—and us—get to know you better.
3. Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University.

The following question is required for all Common Application and Coalition with Scoir applicants (optional for QuestBridge applicants). Please respond in 300 words or fewer:

• We want to be sure we’re considering your application in the context of your personal experiences: What aspects of your background (your identity, your school setting, your community, your household, etc.) have most shaped how you see yourself engaging in Northwestern’s community, be it academically, extracurricularly, culturally, politically, socially, or otherwise?

We encourage you to answer at least one and no more than two of the following questions. Please respond in fewer than 200 words per question:

• Painting “The Rock” is a tradition at Northwestern that invites all forms of expression—students promote campus events or extracurricular groups, support social or activist causes, show their Wildcat spirit (what we call “Purple Pride”), celebrate their culture, and more. What would you paint on The Rock, and why?
• Northwestern fosters a distinctively interdisciplinary culture. We believe discovery and innovation thrive at the intersection of diverse ideas, perspectives, and academic interests. Within this setting, if you could dream up an undergraduate class, research project, or creative effort (a start-up, a design prototype, a performance, etc.), what would it be? Who might be some ideal classmates or collaborators?
• Community and belonging matter at Northwestern. Tell us about one or more communities, networks, or student groups you see yourself connecting with on campus.
• Northwestern’s location is special: on the shore of Lake Michigan, steps from downtown Evanston, just a few miles from Chicago. What aspects of our location are most compelling to you, and why?
• Northwestern is a place where people with diverse backgrounds from all over the world can study, live, and talk with one another. This range of experiences and viewpoints immeasurably enriches learning. How might your individual background contribute to this diversity of perspectives in Northwestern’s classrooms and around our campus?

Question 1 (Required): How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago. 

Question 2: Extended Essay (Required; Choose one) 

In an ideal world where inter-species telepathic communication exists, which species would you choose to have a conversation with, and what would you want to learn from them? Would you ask beavers for architectural advice? Octopuses about cognition? Pigeons about navigation? Ants about governance? Make your case—both for the species and the question. 
Inspired by Yvan Sugira, Class of 2029 

If you could uninvent one thing, what would it be — and what would unravel as a result? 
Inspired by Eitan Fischer, Class of 2027 

“Left” can mean remaining or departed. “Dust” can mean to add fine particles or to remove them. “Fast” can mean moving quickly or fixed firmly in place. These contronyms—words that are their own antonyms—somehow hold opposing meanings in perfect tension. Explore a contronym: a role, identity, or experience in your life that has contained its own opposite. 
Inspired by Kristin Yi, Class of 2029 

The penny is on its way out—too small to matter, too costly to keep. But not everything small should disappear. What’s one object the world is phasing out that you think we can’t afford to lose, and why? 
Ella Somaiya, Class of 2028  

From Michelin Tires creating the Michelin Guide, to the audio equipment company Audio-Technica becoming one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sushi robots, brand identity can turn out to be a lot more flexible than we think. Choose an existing brand, company, or institution and propose an unexpected but strangely logical new product or service for them to launch. Why is this unlikely extension exactly what the world (or the brand) needs right now? 
Inspired by Julia Nieberg, Class of 2029 

Statistically speaking, ice cream doesn’t cause shark attacks, pet spending doesn’t drive the number of lawyers in California, and margarine consumption isn’t responsible for Maine’s divorce rate—at least, not according to conventional wisdom. But what if the statisticians got it wrong? Choose your favorite spurious correlation and make the case for why it might actually reveal a deeper, causative truth. 
Inspired by Adam DiMascio, Class of 2025 

The following question is required for all first-year applicants to Duke University during the 2025-26 application cycle. (250 word limit)

• What is your impression of Duke as a university and community, and why do you believe it is a good match for your goals, values, and interests? If there is something specific that attracts you to our academic offerings in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences or the Pratt School of Engineering, or to our co-curricular opportunities, feel free to include that too.

We want to emphasize that the following questions are optional. We invite you to answer one of the four if you believe that doing so will add something meaningful that is not already addressed elsewhere in your application. (250 word limit)

• We believe a wide range of viewpoints and experiences is essential to maintaining Duke’s vibrant living and learning community. Please share anything in this context that might help us better understand you and your potential contributions to Duke.
• Meaningful dialogue often involves respectful disagreement. Provide an example of a difference of opinion you’ve had with someone you care about. What did you learn from it?
• What’s the last thing that you’ve been really excited about?
• Duke recently launched an initiative “to bring together Duke experts across all disciplines who are advancing AI research, addressing the most pressing ethical challenges posed by AI, and shaping the future of AI in the classroom.” Tell us about a situation when you would or would not choose to use AI (when possible and permitted). What shapes your thinking?

At the University of Michigan, we are focused on developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. In your essay, share with us how you are prepared to contribute to these goals. This could include the people, places, experiences, or aspirations that have shaped your journey and future plans (required for all applicants; 100 word minimum; 300 word maximum).

Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate college or school (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests (required for all applicants; 100 word minimum; 500 word maximum)?

For the Villanova-specific essay, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of your thoughts, experiences, and opinions. Choose one of the five topics below and submit a written response in about 250 words. 

Prompt One:
St. Augustine states that well-being is “not concerned with myself alone, but with my neighbor’s good as well.” How have you advocated for equity and justice in your communities?  

Prompt Two:
What is a lesson in life that you have learned that you would want to share with others at Villanova?  

Prompt Three:
“Villanova” means “new home.” Why do you want to call Villanova your new home? 

Prompt Four:
As an Augustinian community, we value recognizing individuals for their true selves. Please share with us a time when you were misjudged based on your identity, background, experiences or interests. 

Prompt Five:
At Villanova, we often say “each of us strengthens all of us.” Please detail a time when someone has borrowed some of your strength in their time of need.

The University of Miami is situated in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, fostering a community filled with varied backgrounds. Our students come from an array of cultures, traditions, languages, and experiences. We value the unique perspectives each student brings and the meaningful contributions they can make.
 
Reflect on a community that has influenced you—be it your school, neighborhood, club, team, ethnic group, or any other group that has played a role in shaping who you are. What significance did that community hold for you, and in what ways did you contribute to it? How will you bring those experiences, values, and insights to enrich our campus community at the University of Miami?

Required STEM Academic Interest Question 

Your STEM Future – STEM Academic Interests 

Caltech has a rigorous core curriculum and students don’t declare a major until the end of their first year. However, some students arrive knowing which academic fields and areas already most excite them, or which novel fields and areas they most want to explore. 

If you had to choose an area of interest or two today, what would you choose? 

*Note that you are under no obligation to follow this choice if admitted. 

Why did you choose your proposed area of interest? If you selected ‘other’, what topics are you interested in pursuing? (Min: 100 / Max: 200 words) 

Required Short Essay Questions 

Your STEM Present – STEM Curiosity 

Regardless of your STEM interest listed above, take this opportunity to nerd out and talk to us about whatever STEM rabbit hole you have found yourself falling into. Be as specific or broad as you would like. (Min: 50 / Max: 150 words) 

Your STEM Past – STEM Experiences 

At Caltech, we investigate some of the most challenging, fundamental problems in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We are interested in learning more about your engagement with STEM. 

Select one of the following two STEM Experience prompts to respond to: 

1. Tell us how you initially found your interest and passion for science or for a particular STEM topic, and how you have pursued or developed your interest or passion over the last few years. (Min: 100 / Max: 200 words) 
2. Tell us about a meaningful STEM-related experience from the last few years and share how and why it inspired your curiosity. (Min: 100 / Max: 200 words) 

Creativity in Action Question 

The creativity, inventiveness, and innovation of Caltech’s students, faculty, and researchers have won Nobel Prizes and put rovers on Mars. But Techers also innovate in smaller-scale ways everyday, from imagining new ways to design solar cells or how to 3D-print dorm decor, to cooking up new recipes in the kitchen. How have you been a creator, inventor, or innovator in your own life? (Min: 50 / Max: 150 words) 

Required Short Answer Questions 

Now it’s time for a little fun! Choose two of the four questions below and answer both in 250 words or less.  

It’s up to you how you use your 250 words, whether that means you use exactly 125 words for each answer or you tell us about a niche interest in 30 words so you can spend 200 telling us about a core piece of your identity. 

There is no ‘right’ way to choose which question to answer. If you’re all STEMmed out, feel free to tell us about a creative hobby. Or if you just can’t get enough math, tell us about a concept you can barely wrap your head around. Just remember the Caltech Honor Code and stick to 250 words for both answers combined.  

• What is an interest or hobby you do for fun, and why does it bring you joy? 
• If you could teach a class on any topic or concept, what would it be and why? 
• What is a core piece of your identity or being that shapes how you view and/or interact with the world? 
• What is a concept that blew your mind or baffled you when you first encountered it? 

(Two Essay Boxes, each with Min:1 Max: 249 words)

• List five books you’ve read that have intrigued you. (150 character limit per book title).
• Tell us what piques your intellectual curiosity or has helped you understand the world’s complexity. This can include a work you’ve read, a project you’ve completed for a class, and even co-curricular activities in which you have been involved. (150 word limit).
• Dr. Maya Angelou, renowned author, poet, civil-rights activist, and former Wake Forest University Reynolds Professor of American Studies, inspired others to celebrate their identities and to honor each person’s dignity. Choose one of Dr. Angelou’s powerful quotes. How does this quote relate to your lived experience or reflect how you plan to contribute to the Wake Forest community? (300 word limit).
• Give us your Top Ten List. (The choice of theme is yours.) (100 character limit per line).

200-300 words suggested:

The transition from middle to high school is a key time for students as they reach new levels of both academic and personal discovery. Please share a book (novel, non-fiction, etc.) that had a serious impact on you during this time. Please focus more on why this book made an impact on you and less on the plot/theme of the book itself (we are not looking for a book report).

• FYI – We are not restricting you to the exact years of 8th-9th grades, but rather the general timeframe of the middle to high school transition, which can extend somewhat further than one year on each end. Feel free to use your discretion in your choice of the timeline focused on the shift to your high school years. As well, while we list word count suggestions/limits, we give a little bit of additional leeway on the actual application essays so students don’t have to stress.

WashU is a place that values a wide range of perspectives. We believe those perspectives come from a variety of experiences and identities. Respond to one of the following prompts to help us understand “Who are you?”:

• WashU supports engagement in the St. Louis community by considering the university as “In St. Louis, For St. Louis.” What is a community you are a part of and your place or impact within it?
• WashU strives to know every undergraduate student “By Name & Story.” How have your life experiences shaped your story?

You’ll answer two to three prompts as part of your application. The questions you’ll answer will depend on whether you’re applying to a major or to our undeclared program, and if you’ve selected a second choice. Each response should be approximately 150 words. If you’re applying through Common App, you’ll find our major-specific writing prompts in the “Writing” tab of our supplemental questions after adding us as one of your colleges.

If You’re Applying to a Major:

1. Explain, in detail, an experience you’ve had in the past 3 to 4 years related to your first-choice major. This can be an experience from an extracurricular activity, in a class you’ve taken, or through something else.
2. Describe your personal and/or career goals after graduating from Illinois and how your selected first-choice major will help you achieve them.

If You’re Applying to Our Undeclared Program in the Division of Exploratory Studies:

1. What are your academic interests? Please include 2-3 majors you’re considering at Illinois and why.
2. What are your future career or academic goals? You may include courses you took in high school and how these impacted your goals.

If You’ve Selected a Second-Choice Major (Including Undeclared):

1. Please explain your interest in your second-choice major or your overall academic or career goals.

In addition to the Coalition Application’s personal statement (you can choose one of six essay prompts), we ask you to submit no more than 250 words in response to each short answer question. For the 2025-2026 admissions cycle, students will be asked to answer both of the following questions:

• Swarthmore College maintains an ongoing commitment of building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive residential community dedicated to rigorous intellectual inquiry.All who engage in our community are empowered through the open exchange of ideas guided by equity and social responsibility to thrive and contribute as bridge builders within global communities.Our identities and perspectives are supported and developed by our immediate contexts and lived experiences – in our neighborhoods, families, classrooms, communities of faith, and more.
  • What aspects of your self-identity or personal background are most significant to you? Reflecting on the elements of your home, school, or other communities that have shaped your life, explain how you have grown in your ability to navigate differences when engaging with others, or demonstrated your ability to collaborate in communities other than your own.

• Swarthmore’s community of learners inspire one another through their collaborative and flexible approach to learning. Swarthmore students are comfortable with intellectual experimentation and connection of ideas across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and interdisciplinary studies through a liberal arts education.
  • Tell us about a topic that has fascinated you recently – either inside or outside of the classroom. What made you curious about this? Has this topic connected across other areas of your interests? How has this experience shaped you and what encourages you to keep exploring?

Academic Interests

This question is required. (200 Words Recommended Length)

• What academic areas are you interested in exploring at Emory University and why?

Getting to Know You

In addition, answer one of the following questions. (150 Words)

• Emory University has a strong commitment to building community. Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your personal participation helped to change or shape the community for the better.
• Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
• Emory University’s unique mission calls for service to humanity. Share how you might personally contribute to this mission of service to humanity.
• In a scholarly community, differing ideas often collide before they converge. How do you personally navigate disagreement in a way that promotes progress and deepens meaningful dialogue?

Choose one of the following quotations, and respond to the question posed, in an essay of not more than 350 words. It is not necessary to research, read, or refer to the texts from which these quotations are taken; we are looking for original, personal responses to these short excerpts. Remember that your essay should be personal in nature and not simply an argumentative essay.

Prompt 1

“Hope and curiosity — these are qualities that are the foundation of what Amherst College means, of everything that we do here. Curiosity is at the core of a liberal arts education — a spirit of inquiry that shapes not only what our students do in the classroom, but also how they learn from and about each other.” — Michael A. Elliott, 20th President of Amherst College, address at Amherst College’s 203rd Commencement

Prompt 1 Question: What does curiosity mean to you? How do you experience curiosity in your own life?

Prompt 2

“We seek an Amherst made stronger because it includes those whose experiences can enhance our understanding of our nation and our world. We do so in the faith that our humanity is an identity forged from diversity, and that our different perspectives enrich our inquiry, deepen our knowledge, strengthen our community, and prepare students to engage with an ever-changing world.” — from the Trustee Statement on Diversity and Community

Prompt 2 Question: In what ways could your unique experiences enhance our understanding of our nation and our world?

Prompt 3

“We are working together to build a community that makes room for both true disagreement and true connection, one that practices the kind of recognition and robust negotiation that the everyday life of democracy requires, and one that explicitly prepares our students to work for the greater good in their professional and personal endeavors.” — Presidential Priorities: Serving the Greater Good

Prompt 3 Question: Tell us about a time that you engaged with a viewpoint different from your own. How did you enter that engagement, and what did you learn about yourself from it?