Many colleges require a “why this college?” supplemental essay as part of your college application.
This essay is one of the most frequently overlooked parts of college apps. However, it’s actually incredibly important!
I’ve helped hundreds of students to write great supplemental essays that help their college admissions chances. Here’s my complete guide to writing an impactful and detailed “why this college” essay.
How to Write a “Why This College?” Essay:
the complete guide
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5 steps to actually write a “why this college” supplemental essay:
Stanford University
What is the “why this college?” supplemental essay?
Many colleges and universities in the US use the Common Application, which allows students to use the same online form to apply to multiple schools.
The Common App allows students to only fill out their demographic information (birthday, address, high school, etc.) once. It also allows students to use the same Personal Statement, a 650-word essay about the student, for all of the colleges that use the Common App.
However, many colleges also require more essays that are customized for the admissions process at that specific school. These essays often called “supplemental essays.” They may be shorter, perhaps 150 or 300 words, or they can be just as long as the Personal Statement.
Harvard University
One of the biggest mistakes that I see students make is to focus all of their efforts on the Common App Personal Statement and then write their supplemental essays as an afterthought.
This mistake could absolutely be the deciding factor for an offer of admission. College Admissions Officers will take a close look at the supplemental essays, and they’re just as important as the Personal Statement.
The “why this college” essay or “why us” essay is a very common type of supplemental essay, and most selective colleges will ask students to answer a variation on this prompt.
University of Chicago
These are all “why this college” supplemental essay prompts:
Columbia: Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words)
Dartmouth: Dartmouth celebrates the ways in which its profound sense of place informs its profound sense of purpose. As you seek admission to Dartmouth's Class of 2028, what aspects of the College's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? In short, why Dartmouth? (100 words)
Duke: 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 words)
Stanford: Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University. (100–250 words)
Cornell: At the College of Arts and Sciences, curiosity will be your guide. Discuss how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey, and what areas of study or majors excite you and why. Your response should convey how your interests align with the College, and how you would take advantage of the opportunities and curriculum in Arts and Sciences.
UChicago: 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.
Yale: What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words)
Northwestern University
Sometimes colleges split the “why this college” question into two separate essays, one focused on academics and another on community engagement:
Penn academics: The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences? (150–200 words)
Penn community: How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn. (150–200 words)
Brown academics: 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)
Brown community: 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)
Northwestern academics: 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? (200 words)
Northwestern community: Community and belonging matter at Northwestern. Tell us about one or more communities, networks, or student groups you see yourself connecting with on campus. (200 words)
These essay prompts may be short, but of all of the supplemental essays, the “why this college essay” is definitely one of the most important. It’s a perfect chance for students to make absolutely clear why they’re a perfect fit for that specific college.
In another post [link], I’ve shared some tips directly from Admissions Officers at some of the nation’s most selective colleges and universities about how to approach the “why this college” essay.
Keep reading for practical step-by-step advice on how to write great “why this college” essays for your college applications.
What makes a great “why this college” essay
1. It’s about the match
The best “why this college” supplemental essays communicate clearly why you and that college are a perfect match.
While the prompts might seem like they’re about the schools, they’re actually about you as the student just as much as they’re about the great features of the college!
So for everything you mention about the school, you need to connect it back to yourself — your past projects and activities, your current interests, and what you want to accomplish on campus and in your future career.
2. Get specific
When you describe what attracts you about the college, your answers should be highly specific both to that college and to you as a student. Stay away from super generic features that hundreds of other colleges share.
Features of a college that you should absolutely not write about in your “why this college” essay:
The college ranking
The weather
The location
The size of the college
The student-to-faculty ratio
The cafeteria or dormitories (and honestly the campus in general)
The sports teams (unless you’re a student-athlete)
The party scene on campus or Greek life
A well-known campus tradition
The influential alumni network
While these aspects may have played a role in your process of selecting colleges and creating a balanced college list (and that’s fine!), they’re not going to be persuasive to the admissions committees that you have a strong interest in the specific opportunities that their college offers students.
You need to find things that couldn’t apply to any other college. It’s very possible that these features wouldn’t appeal to everyone — ideally, you’ll find things that appeal to you in particular, and help you to prove that you and the college make the perfect match.
Examples of specific features of a college that might be good to include in your “why this college” essay:
A unique aspect of the academic program at that college, like the substantial senior research projects that all undergrads at Princeton must complete or the famous “Core Curriculum” at Columbia
A specific academic opportunity that college offers that’s not available elsewhere, like the professional flight degree that students can earn at the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue or the Costume Technology program that students can pursue at DePaul
A unique style of learning offered at that college, like the Oxford-style tutorials (two students + one professor for a whole semester) offered in every subject at Williams, or the ability to design your own major at Brown
An unusual major, minor, or certification that relates to your interests, like the Assyriology major at Brown, the Data Science minor at Stanford designed for students in the humanities, the Hellenic Studies certificate at Princeton for students interested in Byzantine history, or the Bioinformatics minor at Duke
An unusual degree structure, like the dual degree program at Oberlin that allows students to earn both a music degree (BM) and a liberal arts degree (BA)
A specific academic partnership with nearby research institutions that the college offers to students, like the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego or the connection between the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and UC Berkeley for nuclear physics and nanotechnology
A special interdisciplinary program or honors program, like the interdisciplinary “Climate Science and Solutions” program at Yale or the “Great Conversation” program at St. Olaf College
An example of a professor whose research interests you and who you would like to work with as a potential mentor (bonus points if you’ve been reading that professors publications)
A specific research laboratory and its focus (note the name of the professor running the lab) — if it relates to your past projects and what you want to study in college
A specific resource or facility on campus that students can use, like professional-grade music recording studios at Oberlin, Purdue’s private airport (for students at the Flight School), or the largest student-run maker space in the country at Georgia Tech
Examples of classes that you probably couldn’t find at another college that relate to your specific interests, like the dendrochronology courses offered by the world-renowned Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory or numismatics courses offered at Princeton — this is especially relevant for students who already have hopes to study something more unusual, like medieval archaeology or underwater robotics
Unique opportunities for internships or startup incubators, like the Create-X program at Georgia Tech that helps students to launch a fully-functioning startup before graduation (they’ve launched over 300 countries in the past decade that are collectively valued at over $1.4 billion!)
Special study abroad programs, such as an international campus like NYU’s Shanghai campus or the unique Williams-Exeter program for students at Williams College to study at Oxford
Student organizations or clubs that would allow you to continue your extracurricular activities from high school
Student organizations or clubs that would allow you to get experience outside the classroom relevant to your future career
New student organizations or clubs that you particularly want to try exploring, especially if these organizations or clubs don’t exist at many other colleges!
When searching for specific features of colleges, make sure to stay genuine. Don’t invent an interest in beekeeping and pollinator ecology just to try an impress the admissions readers — they’re experts at seeing through such ploys and it will usually backfire.
But if you can find genuine points of alignment between your specific interests or goals and what the college offers students, you want to absolutely highlight these.
Want a next-level professional tip? Look for where the college has been making investments, because this is likely to indicate a current institutional priority. Institutional priorities can actually play a significant role in selective college admissions, especially in the final phase of the admissions process when admissions officers “shape the class,” or select those students from the potential-admit pool who match the areas that the college wants to focus on that year.
For example, did the college recently build a state-of-the-art biochemistry research lab? They’re probably looking for great students to fill that facility. Did the college recently create a new major in Artificial Intelligence? They’re probably looking for students to enroll in that major. Did the college just build an amazing new performing arts complex? They’re probably looking for students who will shine in the music and theater ensembles on campus and make that arts complex look amazing.
To figure out the recent investments and current institutional priorities of a college, look for press releases, take a peek at the college student newspaper, or check out the social media for that college. Look for new buildings or facilities, new majors or academic programs, or just generally what that college is highlighting about themselves.
For example, for several years the college president of Harvey Mudd College, a smaller STEM school that rivals MIT and CalTech, made it clear that she was looking for more female students who would enroll in the Computer Science major so that the college could reach 50-50 parity between men and women in programming. While it was still very competitive to get admitted, female students who indicated an interest in programming probably had an admissions boost during those years.
While this strategy is certainly not a requirement, if you find a great point of alignment between your interests and that college’s institutional priorities, that’s fantastic! If that alignment exists, definitely make the most of it in your application and really highlight the match.
Including specific details proves to colleges that you’re actually interested in their college specifically, which is more important every year as students apply to more and more colleges. Colleges want to know that they’re a top choice for you, not just another name on a list.
Showing great alignment between your interests and the specific opportunities at that college also indicates to admissions readers that you would thrive on campus. In the end, the goal of the admission committees is to find the students who will be happy and highly successful at their college!
3. …but don’t waste space describing the college to its own staff
That said, you need to be careful not to spend your entire “why this college” essay describing the college and its features.
In fact, admissions officers hate it when you waste space describing their own programs back to them!
As many admissions officers will tell you, they probably know the great features of their college better than anyone else, because they essentially function as marketing reps for the school to prospective students. They know their college is amazing! They don’t need you to tell them that.
So while you need to find specific opportunities at that college that appeal to you, don’t go on and on about them. Simply name the academic program, research lab, student organization, etc. and then dive straight into how that connects to you and your past and future goals and interests.
Many “why this college” essays are short, as little as 150–300 words. You’ll need to make sure that every word counts!
How to actually write a “why this college” supplemental essay
1. Do deep research about the colleges on your list
In order to refer to the kind of highly-specific academic programs, research labs, majors, professors, clubs, etc. described above [link], you’ll have to first do a ton of research.
Hopefully you already know a little bit about the colleges on your list — after all, there must be some reason you want to apply there!
But when ambitious students these days might be applying to as many as 15 or 20 colleges (the bare minimum would be 6 colleges, and 8–12 would be typical), it’s easy for a college to end up on your list without knowing very much about that school specifically beyond its ranking and location.
In fact, as you’re going through this research process, you may discover something about a college that makes it clear that it’s not such a great fit for you. It’s not too late to adjust your college list a little bit!
When I work with students through the entire college application process, students often ask me — how to do research about colleges?
The answer is actually kind of boring — you google a lot!
You can start by googling the name of the school + an academic major that you’re considering, or a specific academic or research interest that you have.
Once you find a specific academic program, major, minor, or certificate that interests you, try and find out which faculty are involved with that program.
Then you can google the names of the relevant professors and find out what classes they teach, what they’ve published, and what their research specialty is. If any of those relate to your interests, keep going! You may be able to find a copy of a course syllabus posted online or an article or book or article they’ve published. (I often help my students get copies of publications if there’s a specific professor that aligns with their interests.)
Or you can look to see if there are students from that major or academic program who have been featured in the student newspaper, college website, on official college social media. Looking at what other recent students have accomplished is a great way to learn more about opportunities offered by that college.
You can do the same with any extracurricular interests that you have.
For example, back when I was a high school student, I knew I wasn’t going to be a music major, but I wanted to find a college where I could continue to perform music at a high level and connect with other students who were passionate about the arts.
With a few quick google searches (“Princeton orchestra,” “Princeton symphony orchestra”) I found the pages for the Princeton University Orchestra, as well as other music ensembles on campus. I could see that the orchestra tours international and has worked with famous conductors like Gustavo Dudamel. I could look at past concert programs and see the repertoire that they perform. I could even find recordings of the orchestra on youtube and check out their style and ability level. I could see that Princeton has recently invested in the performing arts by building a big new building complex with rehearsal space, classrooms, and performance halls.
All of this research would allow me to specifically describe what aspects of the music opportunities at Princeton appeal to me in my “why this college” essay. I could then connect these features to my past activities and achievements (performing at a high level, touring internationally with a youth orchestra, doing arts outreach in inner-city schools, organizing community concerts) and describe how I could continue to pursue those passions while on campus. I could also tie in music to my interdisciplinary academic interests.
In addition to Google, here are some other resources that you might use to find specific opportunities at the colleges on your list:
Academic program or department websites
Student organization or club websites
Student newspapers
Youtube (search the college name + campus tour)
LinkedIn (search for faculty and recent alumni)
Academia.edu (search for faculty and their publications)
Google Scholar (to find copies of publications)
Email the admissions office
Email an individual professor whose work you admire
Unigo.com
Campusreel.org
Official social media from the admissions office — what kinds of student projects and achievements do they highlight?
Social media from current and recent students
As you research, you’ll need to make sure that you’re keeping everything organized. If you inaccurately describe the opportunities at a college or refer to a program by the wrong name, that may result in an automatic rejection from the admissions committee!
In an interview, Ian Schachner, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Cornell, said that “particularly when you’re applying to multiple schools, there’s so much information, so many different websites. It’s not easy. But ensuring that you really are familiar with the program that you’re talking about REALLY matters.”
Fortunately, I’ve created a custom worksheet to help students keep their research organized:
Just click the link to access the worksheet and get started on the research required to write a great “why this college” essay.
Is this process a lot of work? Yes, absolutely. But as Ian Schachner, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Cornell, has said, students need to give the supplemental essays just as much attention and care as the rest of their application — and “if you don’t do that, don’t even bother applying.”
Besides, I think this part of the process (finding cool stuff at colleges) is actually pretty fun!
2. Think about your own most important selling points and strategize
Chances are, you’ve already done some serious thinking about your deepest values and most compelling stories as you began planning your college essays.
If you haven’t already done this self-reflective process and gathered up the best anecdotes and examples that give glimpses of your truest self, head over to this college essay brainstorming guide [link] and discover your best college essay material!
Once you’ve uncovered a variety of stories that you can tell about yourself, your interests, and your achievements, think holistically about your application for each college.
You want to make the most out of every essay and tell as many impactful stories as you can in a limited amount of space.
Are there stories or examples that you haven’t been able to share elsewhere in your other essays for that college that you want the admissions officers to know about you?
Or are there stories that are going to be perfect for your “why this college” essay, so you want to make sure they appear in this part of your application?
Remember, it’s these memorable little stories in the essays that can really persuade the admissions officers to pick you.
As Parke Muth, the former Associate Dean of Admissions at the top-ranked University of Virginia said in an interview,
“I have never argued [in an admissions committee] for a number, whereas I would argue for an essay or for what I see in a student’s activities.”
You’ll use your list of stories you can tell about yourself in the next step.
3. Use this formula to find the points of connection between you and the college
This is where you bring steps 1 and 2 together to make a strong case why you and this college are the perfect match.
Make a chart with four columns — you can download this free handout to get you started:
Formula for writing a great “why this college” essay — example
| Specific opportunity at that college | How this relates to my past achievements and activities | How this relates to my goals in college | How this relates to my future career goals or general personal development |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programs, professors, labs, classes, student organizations, internships, any other unique opportunity. Get specific and have lots of actual names of people and programs. | Specific academic interests you developed and want to develop further, academic projects you did, books or articles you read, extracurriculars that were important to you. | What are you going to do while you’re on campus? Classes you’ll take, professors you’d like to work with, labs you’d like to join, academic programs that are perfect for your exact interests. | If you have an idea of a future career, how is this going to be the perfect springboard? If you don’t yet have a career or major in mind, how will these opportunities help you develop and explore? |
| Interdisciplinary certificate in Global Health Studies — politics, history, and economics, engage with the insights of anthropology, ethics, law, and sociology, and relate this knowledge to public health and the biomedical sciences. | Past interest in interdisciplinary approaches, e.g. read interesting book on bioethics. Personal experience during Covid made me think more about the way that politics intersects with health, and global health inequities. | Want to work on health issues but in the context of cultural, social, political issues. | Not exactly sure about career but might pursue a Masters in Public Health and then a career in public health issues? And/or a medical degree? |
| Students in the Global Health Studies program can get grants for summer field research. | Volunteer experience at a local free health clinic, 10-12th grade. Research experience with science fair project in 10th grade. Summer research program after 11th grade (highlight this). | Want to do original research as an undergrad. International research project? | Want to have a real impact on my field and make an original contribution. |
| Undergrads in the Global Health program can take grad courses at the School of Public Health. | I like to challenge myself academically. Took lots of APs, and also in 12th grade am taking a course at the community college. | Hope to jumpstart my career by taking grad-level courses in my target field. | Would help me to determine if I should do a Masters in Public Health. |
| Prof. Marcia Inhorn teaches medical anthropology, intersection of gender issues and health. | Read her book on refugee health issues, would be amazing to work with her. In high school helped with local project helping refugees. | Hope to work with Prof. Marcia Inhorn, ask for mentorship. | Want to have a similarly interdisciplinary career in the future. |
| Yale School of Music (perfomance conservatory) means that there are great music opportunities on campus. | Played the cello in the local youth orchestra and school orchestra for years, want to continue. | Want to join the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Saw they perform challenging works by Strauss, Mahler. | Continue to be involved in the arts to live a rich, balanced life. |
| Yale Carillon (giant bells in tower) — unique chance to learn this unique instrument at the heart of campus. | Saw this instrument being played once and thought it was really interesting! | Take classes to learn to play the carillon, then perform weekly on campus with the student-run Yale Guild of Carilloneurs. | Continue to be open to fun, unique experiences. |
The example in the table shows a hypothetical student applying to Yale who is interested in public health issues.
You can see how the chart made it really easy to see how unique opportunities at that college connected back to past experiences the student had in high school, and connected forward to the specific things they hope to accomplish on campus if they’re admitted to that college. It’s not necessary to have a future career plan in mind and be able to connect everything to a planned career, but it can be helpful.
Your goal is to find the best hyper-specific proof for why YOU are a perfect match for THIS college!
Aim to find 3–8 strong examples of how a unique opportunity at that college is a perfect fit for you.
This may take some serious reflection, so give it time.
However, if you truly can’t find at least three detailed examples of how specific opportunities at that college relate to your past achievements, current interests, and future goals … then perhaps that’s an indication that the college is not actually the best fit for you, and you should revise your college list.
4. Draft your “why this college” essay
The beauty of this chart is that once you fill it out, you have everything you need to write a fantastic “why this college” essay!
Many “why this college” essay prompts are pretty short, so you may only have 150 or 250 words. Unless the prompt is on the longer side (400+ words), don’t worry too much about having an extended “hook” at the beginning of the essay — one or two sentences to get your reader engaged should be enough.
Make sure that you follow the specific essay prompt given by the college. Remember, some essays ask you to focus on academic opportunities, while other essays ask how you’ll contribute to the campus community.
Remember, throughout your essay you should call out specific opportunities that you’d have at that college by name, but don’t waste space describing the college’s own programs back to them at length.
For real examples of great “why this college” essays that worked, check out these example essays [link].
5. Revise your “why this college” essay
After you’ve written your first draft, set it aside for a few days to get a fresh perspective.
When you come back to revise your essay, check that you’ve clearly linked each specific opportunity at that college back to you.
During the revision process, ask at least one other trusted person to read over your essay (a teacher, friend, parent, coach, or other mentor).
Ask your reader if it’s obvious that this essay applies to you and not some other student. Then, ask them if this essay could easily have been written about another college.
In the end, each “why this college” essay has to be completely unique to both you and the college and prove why you’re a perfect match.
That means that while you might be able to use the same stories about your life to write “why this college” essays for multiple college on your list, you should be careful to write customized essays for each college.
When you do your final revisions, be really, really careful that you have the names of all the programs, majors, student organizations, and the COLLEGE NAME ITSELF correct!
While this might sound obvious, it’s surprisingly easy to make a mistake when you’re juggling over a dozen college applications at once! I’ve heard plenty of horror stories from admissions officers at the University of Chicago (a top-10 school) who received applications from students describing why they wanted to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago (a completely different school), or admissions officers at the University of Michigan who received essays describing Michigan State.
Ian Schachner, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Cornell, cautioned that getting the names of academic programs and other opportunities wrong could mess up your chances of admission:
“You want to be very careful in making sure you truly understand a program. It’s one of the ways to stand out, and it’s also one of the ways you can prevent being knocked down in the pool. If you confuse some of the terms, if you confuse some of the [academic] structures, it may convince a committee that you may not have actually done sufficient research. We want you to be happy here. When certain things like [the program of study] are wrong, we’re actually worried that you don’t understand what opportunities you do and don’t have there.” In the end, “that stuff can really matter. When you’re in a competitive pool, those things can impact the decision.”
So when you do your final revisions, check everything two or three times.
I also always advise students to plan to submit their applications a few days before the deadline at the very latest, so as to avoid the kind of mistakes that happen during a last-minute panic.
Need help with your college essays?
Feeling stressed about your college essays?
Not sure where to begin? Or not sure if your essays are as good as they could be? Wondering how to make them better and really highlight everything you worked hard to accomplish in high school?
Every year I help students and families navigate the college application process, including the process of writing impactful college essays that make the most of the student’s achievements.
I’m a Princeton summa cum laude grad and college admissions professional with over a decade of experience helping to mentor students through this process.
While I won’t write your essays for you, I’ll coach you through every step of the process with encouragement and insight. I’ll break down the tasks for you every week so that you don’t have to stress about the complex task of applying to college.
Want to work with me to write your college essays and crush the admissions process? Email me (Emily) at info@ivybloomacademics.com, or reserve your spot immediately through the website here [link] (spots are limited and fill up every year).
Good luck, and happy writing!