2024-25 Common App Supplements

IvyWise On-Demand: Catch Their Eye: How to Write Compelling College Application Essays

Join IvyWise college admissions experts to learn how you can showcase your best self when applying to college. They will cover:

• Each step of the Common App, including the activities section and the optional community disruption question.
• How to stand out to admissions officers when applying with the Common App.
• Tips for brainstorming essay topics, beginning the first draft, word choice and tone, editing the final personal statement essay.
• How to use supplemental essays to demonstrate interest in each college on your list.

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Many schools utilize the Common App as their primary application form, and school-specific supplements allow every institution to customize this universal application in order to build a well-rounded first-year class. From asking about a student’s favorite snack to designing their dream seminars, many colleges are getting creative with their supplement questions so that admissions officers can learn as much about applicants as possible.

Common App Supplements for 2024-25

Many colleges and universities announce their supplemental essay prompts in the weeks leading up to the official opening of the Common Application on Aug. 1. The Common App essay prompts are already available for this cycle, allowing students applying to college this fall to get a head start on their personal statement. It’s a good idea to get started on your supplements in the summer before your senior year if you have access to the prompts for the upcoming admissions cycle. It can be hard to keep up with, so we’re posting supplemental essay prompts as they are announced prior to Aug. 1.

Brown University

Three essays are required for all first-year and transfer applicants:

1. Brown’s Open Curriculum allows students to explore broadly while also diving deeply into their academic pursuits. Tell us about any academic interests that excite you, and how you might pursue them at Brown. (200-250 words)
2. Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (200-250 words)
3. Brown students care deeply about their work and the world around them. Students find contentment, satisfaction, and meaning in daily interactions and major discoveries. Whether big or small, mundane or spectacular, tell us about something that brings you joy. (200-250 words)

First-year applicants are also asked to reflect briefly on each of the very short answer questions below. We expect that answers will range from a few words to a few sentences at most.

• What three words best describe you? (3 words)
• What is your most meaningful extracurricular commitment, and what would you like us to know about it? (100 words)
• If you could teach a class on any one thing, whether academic or otherwise, what would it be? (100 words)
• In one sentence, Why Brown? (50 words)

Two essays are required for applicants to the PLME in addition to the three essays required of all first-year applicants:

1. Committing to a future career as a physician while in high school requires careful consideration and self-reflection. Explain your personal motivation to pursue a career in medicine, and why the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) will best meet your professional and personal goals. (500 words)

2. Healthcare is constantly changing as it is affected by racial and social inequities, economics, politics, technology, and more.
Please respond to one of the following prompts (250 words):

1. How will you, as a future physician, make a positive impact?
2. How has your personal background uniquely shaped your perspective on the field of medicine?

One essay is required for applicants to the Brown|RISD Dual Degree Program in addition to the three essays required of all first-year applicants:

1. The Brown|RISD Dual Degree Program draws on the complementary strengths of Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to provide students with the opportunity to explore and engage with diverse spheres of academic and creative inquiry. The culmination of students’ five-year program is a capstone project that relates and integrates content, approaches, and methods from two distinct learning experiences. Considering your understanding of the academic programs at Brown and RISD, describe how and why the specific blend of RISD’s experimental, immersive combined studio and liberal arts program and Brown’s wide-ranging courses and curricula could constitute an optimal undergraduate education for you. Additionally, how might your academic, artistic and personal experiences contribute to the Dual Degree community and its commitment to interdisciplinary work? (650 word limit)

Dartmouth College

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

As you seek admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2029, 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 “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” Dr. Seuss invites us to “Think and wonder. Wonder and think.” Imagine your anticipated academic major: How does that course of study sync with Dr. Seuss’s advice to you?

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.    Buddy Teevens ’79 was a legendary and much-beloved coach at Dartmouth. He often told parents: “Your son will be a great football player when it’s football time, a great student when it’s academic time, and a great person all of the time.” If Coach Teevens had said that to you, what would it mean to be “a great person”?

Duke University

The following question is required for all 2024-25 applicants to Duke University:

• What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there’s something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well. (250 word limit)

We want to emphasize that the following questions are optional. Feel free to answer one or two if you believe that doing so will add something meaningful that is not already shared elsewhere in your application. Five optional questions are available – a maximum of 2 can be selected.

• We believe a wide range of viewpoints, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to maintaining Duke as a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.
• Tell us about an experience in the past year or two that reflects your imagination, creativity, or intellect.
• We believe there is benefit in sharing or questioning our beliefs or values; who do you agree with on the big important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
• Duke’s commitment to inclusion and belonging includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Feel free to share with us more about how your identity in this context has meaning for you as an individual or as a member of a community.
• We recognize that not fully “fitting in” a community or place can sometimes be difficult. Duke values the effort, resilience, and independence that may require. Feel free to share with us circumstances where something about you is different and how that’s influenced your experiences or identity.

Emory University

In addition to your Personal Statement, please answer two additional short answer questions, one about your academic interests and one to help us get to know you better. We encourage you to be thoughtful in your responses and not stress about what the “right answer” might be, as there really isn’t one.

ACADEMIC INTERESTS

This question is required. (150 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)

• Which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work (fiction or non-fiction) seems made for you? Why?
• 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.
• Emory University has a strong commitment to building community. Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your participation helped to change or shape the community for the better.

Rice University

1. Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected. 150 word limit.

2. Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you? 150 word limit.

3. Please respond to one of the following prompts to explore how you will contribute to the Rice community:

• The Residential College System is at the heart of Rice student life and is heavily influenced by the particular cultural traditions and unique life experiences each student brings. What life experiences and/or unique perspectives are you looking forward to sharing with fellow Owls in the residential college system? 500 word limit.
• Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice? 500 word limit.

University of Chicago

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):

1. We’re all familiar with green-eyed envy or feeling blue, but what about being “caught purple-handed”? Or “tickled orange”? Give an old color-infused expression a new hue and tell us what it represents.
– Inspired by Ramsey Bottorff, Class of 2026

2. “Ah, but I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now” – Bob Dylan. In what ways do we become younger as we get older?
– Inspired by Joshua Harris, Class of 2016

3. Pluto, the demoted planet. Ophiuchus, the thirteenth Zodiac. Andy Murray, the fourth to tennis’s Big Three. Every grouping has something that doesn’t quite fit in. Tell us about a group and its unofficial member, why (or why not) should it be excluded?
– Inspired by Veronica Chang, Class of 2022

4. “Daddy-o”, “Far Out”, “Gnarly”: the list of slang terms goes on and on. Sadly, most of these aren’t so “fly” anymore – “as if!” Name an outdated slang from any decade or language that you’d bring back and explain why you totally “dig it.”
– Inspired by Napat Sakdibhornssup, Class of 2028

5. How many piano tuners are there in Chicago? What is the total length of chalk used by UChicago professors in a year? How many pages of books are in the Regenstein Library? These questions are among a class of estimation problems named after University of Chicago physicist Enrico Fermi. Create your own Fermi estimation problem, give it your best answer, and show us how you got there.
– Inspired by Malhar Manek, Class of 2028

6. And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun!

University of Richmond 

One essay response is required. Choose from the following prompts:

1. You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale?

2. Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next?

3. Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application?

Word Limit: Minimum 350. Maximum 650 words.

University of Texas at Austin

Summer/Fall 2025 Essay

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. Please keep your essay between 500–650 words (typically two to three paragraphs).

Short Answers

Submit the required short answers to prompts in your admission application. Answers are limited to no more than 40 lines, or about 250–300 words per prompt, typically the length of one paragraph.

Summer/Fall 2025 Prompts

1. Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?

2. Think of all the activities — both in and outside of school — that you have been involved with during high school. Which one are you most proud of and why? (Guidance for students: This can include an extracurricular activity, a club/organization, volunteer activity, work or a family responsibility.)

Optional Short Answer

Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance.

Villanova University

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.

1. 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?

2. What is a lesson in life that you have learned that you would want to share with others at Villanova? 

3. “Villanova” means “new home.” Why do you want to call Villanova your new home? 

4. 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 or background.

5. 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. 

Wake Forest University 

Our supplemental questions remain optional, but we hope that these prompts provide space for you to share with us what makes you, you.

• List five books you’ve read that have intrigued you.
• 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 (limit 150 words).
• 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? (limit 300 words)
• Give us your Top Ten List. (The choice of theme is yours.) (limit: 100 characters per line)

IvyWise also confirmed with Wake Forest admissions that the “Why Wake?” question will be included: Why have you decided to apply to Wake Forest? Share with us anything that has made you interested in our institution. (150 words max).

Yale University

While answering additional essay questions might seem challenging, the supplements give students the chance to show a different side of themselves to the admissions office, as well as emphasizing their demonstrated interest. Since supplements are an important component of the college admissions process, we always recommend students begin working on these essays early to save themselves the stress of working down to the wire. If you’re getting ready to apply to college and looking for guidance on writing supplements, our team of admissions experts is here to help.

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