It’s fair (or even an understatement) to say that, with more than 60 majors and 80 minors to choose from and 200+ undergraduate programs, Stony Brook University offers a diverse course curriculum. And the university is just as proud to support diversity outside the classroom, too—it’s been named as a top 10 “Most Diverse U.S. University” by 24/7 Wall St./USA Today. Stony Brook is proud of its values—respect, inclusion, partnership, responsibility, and excellence—and is dedicated to instilling them in students to help create meaningful change. These are also important values to think about as you write, and to reflect in your essay.
You can get a better sense of what Stony Brook is looking for in its students by checking out its Common Data Set. There you’ll find an extensive, by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information. To learn more about the specific goals and objectives Stony Brook has set for creating a safe, inclusive, and vibrant learning community for students on campus, read through its most recent strategic plan.
What is the Stony Brook University supplemental essay prompt?
Prompt #1
Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (250 words)
How to write the Supplemental Essay Prompt for SUNY Stony Brook
how to write SUNY Stony Brook Supplemental Essay Prompt #1
This is a classic extracurricular activity essay. So you’ve been crushing it as an intern at a local tech startup, volunteering at an urban gardening nonprofit, and babysitting your neighbor’s insane twins for extra cash. Which one do you write about?
It depends!
Your most impressive activity may not always make for the best essay. You could write an incredible essay about working at McDonald’s as a vegetarian and a totally boring essay about being ASB President or working on Wall Street.
Take a look at your Common App essay and make sure to avoid too much overlap. Remember that all of your activities will be in the activities list with descriptions.
Before you start, it’s a good idea to do some brainstorming (bonus: You can use your brainstorming results for all of your college essays, not just this one!).
Grab a glass of water (or caffeine if you need it), put on a soothing Spotify playlist (no lyrics), open a blank document (or pen and paper if you’re old school), and set a timer for 20 minutes.
Congrats! You’ve just started working on your college essays.
You’ll find a pretty in-depth, step-by-step guide to the extracurricular activity essay at this link, with specific advice for the 150-word format and some great examples near the end. We recommend using that post to guide you as you’re writing.
But if you want to see the short version, here’s what to do:
Go to your Common App activities list and pick 2-3 possible topics.
Then, go through the Best Extracurricular Activity Brainstorm I’ve Ever Seen (AKA BEABIES exercise), either mentally or by filling out the chart. This will help you decide which topic might yield the most content for your essay. If you’re unsure, maybe do a simple outline for two different topics.
Write a draft! To guide you, each of those columns could provide a sentence or two of your first draft that you can tweak later.
General tip: Be careful about writing about an activity you’ve already shared a lot about elsewhere in your application. If you’ve already written about your most important extracurricular activity in your main Common App personal statement, for example, you might consider writing about your second or third most important activity. This essay is your chance to say, “Hey, there’s this other cool thing I’ve spent some time doing that I haven’t told you guys about yet!”
Here’s an example we love written for SUNY Stony Brook.
Example:
In eighth grade, I created an art piece addressing a stereotype I had faced and posted it online, encouraging my friends to do the same and hashtag it #StereotypeProject. The drawing snowballed into a viral movement, gathering the attention of over 1,000 youth artists worldwide, each contributing their own stories and drawings. The Stereotype Project has since grown, extending into local schools and calling on the next generation to stand strong against the biases they face due to race, gender, sexual orientation, mental illness, and more. In a time of increasing youth activism and reminders of the potential we have as young revolutionaries, the Stereotype Project is a channel for creative expression, unity, and a means of imparting a positive impact on the world. Our website continues to be live and accept submissions: stereotypeproject.org. (136 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Be specific about the how and why. The admission committee doesn’t want to know only what you did—they’re also looking to learn why you pursued this opportunity, how you contributed to your team/boss/community, and what skills or insights you gained that you’ll bring to Stony Brook. This student’s hashtag, for example, is far more than just an avenue for her self-expression; instead, it’s become a way to educate others on biases and stereotypes while also instilling a sense of unity among contributors.
Demonstrate that you’ve made an impact—small or big. What’s the legacy you’ll leave behind thanks to your involvement in this activity? Even if you’re writing about a babysitting job, it’s still an activity in which you’ve left an impression on others’ lives. Demonstrating how the work you’ve done has created a positive ripple effect is pure essay (and life) gold, ’cause you want to be a good human! For this student, that positive impact is giving other “young revolutionaries” (can we just take a moment to applaud this description?) a voice and a platform.
If possible, share quantitative outcomes. Saying that you’ve started a robotics club or held a fundraiser for the Humane Society is great. But can you uplevel it with numbers? Has your club grown from one to 150 members in two years and earned a state championship title? Did you host the single-most profitable fundraiser in the Humane Society’s history, topping $20,000 in donations? Documenting these outcomes is the equivalent of transforming your activities from a plain scoop of ice cream to a banana split with all the toppings. This student goes for the upgrade by showing how her movement snowballed from a single piece of art to more than 1,000 contributions. Other outcomes she could’ve shared are the number of schools the project has expanded into and how many students the project has reached (not just how many have participated).
Take advantage of the space you’re given. While we certainly don’t want you to fill your essay with meaningless fluff and filler words, we do encourage you to take advantage of the word count you’re given. And that means describing your activity, accomplishments, and insights fully. This student might’ve taken advantage of her remaining word count to more fully describe her role in growing her movement—like how she expanded into schools and other activities the project engages in. If you’re still not sure what to add …
Sneak in a “Why Stony Brook” conclusion. If you still find yourself with words to spare, consider connecting your essay back to Stony Brook. While this prompt doesn’t specifically ask you to make this activity relevant to your imagined future at Stony Brook, taking the extra care, time, and thought to make that connection gives you an extra opportunity to demonstrate values you and the school share. A nice bonus: It allows admission officials to envision you on their campus, giving back to the community (a priority for many schools). To do this, this student might’ve explored how she’d expand her project while on campus and what resources she’d use to help it grow, both in size and impact.
Special thanks to Julia for contributing to this post
Julia published her first “book” on the elusive Pika in elementary school and has been writing fervently ever since. She’s thrilled to unite her quirky love of grammar and master’s in psychology to help students tell their most meaningful stories. Her favorite punctuation mark is the apostrophe because, in the words of Imagine Dragons, it’s “a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see.”
Top values: Collaboration | Family | Productivity
