Georgia Institute of Technology application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Action - 10/21/2014
Regular Decision - 01/10/2015
Early Admission (juniors only) - 01/10/2015
Summer 2015

First Year
Regular Decision - 01/10/2015
Early Action - 10/21/2014
Early Admission (juniors only) - 01/10/2015

Beyond rankings, location, and athletics, why are you interested in attending Georgia Tech?

Georgia Tech's motto is: "Progress and Service." What does that mean to you?

Emory University application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Decision - 11/01/2014
Early Decision II - 01/01/2015
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015
Early Admission (juniors only) - 01/01/2015

In addition to the Common Application’s Personal Statement, please choose one (1) of the essays below (500 word limit). This supplemental essay should give us insight on your character as well as your potential fit with Emory University. Please consider your essay thoughtfully, as our Admission Committee and Faculty have special interest in this portion of your application. 

Essay Option 1
Emory University welcomes first-year students with two distinct options to begin their liberal arts education: the research-infused Emory College or the smaller, experiential learning Oxford College. If you could create an academic course that is in the Emory University spirit of collaboration, creativity, entrepreneurship and inquiry, what would it be? What impact would the course have on you and your classmates’ educational experience? (500 word limit) 

Essay Option 2
What is something you have taught yourself in the last year? How did you teach yourself this new skill or concept and what was the result? (500 word limit) 
Option 1- Design and academic course

Option 2- Something you have taught yourself

Duke University application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Decision - 11/01/2014
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015
Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you'd like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you've had to help us understand you better-perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background-we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke. (250 word limit)

Duke will learn about your extracurricular involvement through the Activities section of the Common Application. If you wish to include a brief resume you may include it here.

Vassar College application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Decision - 11/15/2014
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015
Early Decision II - 01/01/2015
        
Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below. Limit 350 words

How did you learn about Vassar and what aspect of our college do you find appealing? Limit 350 words

University of Pennsylvania application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Decision - 11/01/2014
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015

The Admissions Committee would like to learn why you are a good fit for your undergraduate school choice (College of Arts and Sciences, School of Nursing, The Wharton School, or Penn Engineering). Please tell us about specific academic, service, and/or research opportunities at the University of Pennsylvania that resonate with your background, interests, and goals. (400-650 words)
    

University of Southern California application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Regular Decision - 01/15/2015
USC students are known to be involved. 

Briefly describe a non-academic pursuit (such as service to community or family, a club or sport, or work, etc.,) that best illustrates who you are, and why it is important to you. (250 word limit)
Describe your academic interests and how you plan to pursue them at USC. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections (250 word limit).
Describe yourself in three words. First Word: Second Word Third Word:

Short takes - 
Favorite food: Favorite fictional character Greatest invention of all time: What do you like to do for fun? Role model: Favorite book: Best movie of all time: Favorite musical performer/band or composer Dream job:

University of Virginia application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Action - 11/01/2014
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015
        
To what school or program are you applying?
Required of ALL applicants, regardless of school or program. Answer one of the following questions in a half page or roughly 250 words (Please select the prompt you are responding to): Please complete this required question.
1. What's your favorite word and why? 
2. We are a community with quirks, both in language (we’ll welcome you to Grounds, not campus) and in traditions. 
3. Describe one of your quirks and why it is part of who you are. 
4. Student self-governance, which encourages student investment and initiative, is a hallmark of the U.Va. culture. In her fourth year at U.Va., Laura Nelson was inspired to create Flash Seminars, one-time classes which facilitate high-energy discussion about thought-provoking topics outside of traditional coursework. If you created a Flash Seminar, what idea would you explore and why? 
5. While a student at U.Va., Fulbright Scholar Rowan Sprague conducted groundbreaking research aimed at protecting the complex structure of honeybee hives. We know that colonies include bees acting in a diverse range of roles, all equally important to the success of the hive. What role will you play in the U.Va. hive? 
6. To tweet or not to tweet?  Select

University of Michigan application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Action - 11/01/2014
Regular Decision - 02/01/2015

If you could only do one of the activities you have listed in the Activities section of your Common Application, which one would you keep doing? Why? (Required for all applicants. Approximately 100 words)
        
Essay #1 (Required for all applicants. Approximately 250 words) Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.

Essay #2 (Required for all applicants. 500 words 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?

University of Chicago application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Action - 11/01/2014
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015

Choose one of the six extended essay options and upload a one or two page response.

What's so odd about odd numbers? - Inspired by Mario Rosasco, Class of 2009

In French, there is no difference between “conscience” and “consciousness.” In Japanese, there is a word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word “fremdschämen” encapsulates the feeling you get when you’re embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot (or should not) be translated from its original language. - Inspired by Emily Driscoll, an incoming student in the Class of 2018

Little pigs, french hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Parts of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together. -Inspired by Zilin Cui, an incoming student in the Class of 2018

Were pH an expression of personality, what would be your pH and why? (Feel free to respond acidly! Do not be neutral, for that is base!)  - Inspired by Joshua Harris, Class of 2016

A neon installation by the artist Jeppe Hein in UChicago’s Charles M. Harper Center asks this question for us: “Why are you here and not somewhere else?” (There are many potential values of “here”, but we already know you're “here” to apply to the University of Chicago; pick any “here” besides that one). - Inspired by Erin Hart, Class of 2016

In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. 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.

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.

(Optional) Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.

Tufts University application deadlines and supplementary essay prompts

Early Decision - 11/01/2014
Regular Decision - 01/01/2015
Early Decision II - 01/01/2015

Which aspects of Tufts’ curriculum or undergraduate experience prompt your application? In short: “Why Tufts?” (Required length is 50-100 words)

There is a Quaker saying: “Let your life speak.” Describe the environment in which you were raised—your family, home, neighborhood or community—and how it influenced the person you are today. (Required length is 200-250 words)

1. Now we’d like to know a little bit more about you. Please respond to one of the following six questions (Required length is 200-250 words): 

A.  From Michelangelo to Mother Theresa, from Jackie Robinson to Elizabeth Bennett, the human narrative is populated by a cast of fascinating characters, real and imagined.  Share your favorite and explain why that person or character inspires you.

B. What makes you happy?

C.  Sports, science and society are filled with rules, theories and laws like the Ninth Commandment, PV=nRT, Occam’s Razor, and The Law of Diminishing Returns.  Three strikes and you’re out.  In English, “I” comes before “E” except after “C.”  Warm air rises.  Pick one and explain its significance to you.

D. Celebrate your nerdy side. 

E. Nelson Mandela believed that “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” Describe a way in which you have made or hope to make a difference.

F. Whether you are goal tending or cheering from the stands, celebrate the role of sports in your life.