A historically Black college in the heart of Washington, D.C., Howard University is a world-renowned leader in STEM fields, as well as social work, business, and communications. As one of the only HBCUs in the country with an extensive doctoral research program, Howard has produced thousands of Black scholars, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, and politicians. The university's motto, Veritas et Utilitas (Truth and Service), represents a key part of its identity, and all undergraduate students complete a university-wide core curriculum. These elements are on full display in the Howard supplemental essay prompts, as we’ll explain in a bit.
But before diving into the prompts, get an extensive, by-the-numbers look at Howard’s offerings in its Common Data Set, and for deeper insights into the university’s vision for the future, read its strategic pillars, Howard Forward.
What are the Howard University supplemental essay prompts?
Howard University Supplemental Essay Prompt #1
Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. You may express why this activity is important to you, lessons learned from said activity, or any related details that give us more information on your passions, goals and/or experiences. While not required, this section gives our committee further details on your interests outside of the classroom. (250 words max)
Howard University Supplemental Essay Prompt #2
The College of Arts and Sciences is comprised of four divisions: Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. The curriculum of the College is designed to meet the needs and interests of a diverse, multicultural student body. Explain what interests you in the Arts or Sciences, and how studying at Howard University will help you achieve your overall goals? (750 words max)
Howard University Supplemental Essay Prompt #3
The year is 2030, and you have been invited to be the keynote speaker at an event of your choice. If you were to give this very important speech, what would it be about? You may reflect on a passion of yours, an important personal/global issue, or something that piques your interest; please feel free to be as creative as you'd like. (250 words maximum)
Howard University Supplemental Essay Prompt #4
Optional: Presume there was only one spot left in your first choice major program. Given you have thoroughly researched said program, why should we offer the spot to you over another student? Please feel free to discuss your reasons for pursuing your first choice major, your unique talents & skills, and/or how said program aligns with your long-term goals. (250 words maximum)
Howard University Supplemental Essay Prompt #5
Optional: If you had the chance to meet any one of the over 100,000 Howard University alumni (living or dead), who would you choose and why? (250 words maximum)
How to Write each Supplemental Essay Prompt for Howard University
how to write Howard Supplemental Essay Prompt #1
Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. You may express why this activity is important to you, lessons learned from said activity, or any related details that give us more information on your passions, goals and/or experiences. While not required, this section gives our committee further details on your interests outside of the classroom. (250 words max)
This is your classic extracurricular essay. You’ll find a really in-depth step-by-step guide at this link. We recommend using that post to guide you as you write.
But if you want the short version, here’s what to do:
Go to your Common App Activities List and pick 2-3 possible topics.
Then, run those activities 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, perhaps do a simple outline for two different topics.
Write a draft! To guide you, each of those BEABIES columns could provide a sentence (or a few) for your first draft, which you can then revise.
Pro tip: Be careful 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 or any of the other supplements, write 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!” For more on how to choose strong topics, check out that link to the full guide above.
Here’s a great example of an extracurricular activity essay.
Example:
I’ve never had trouble listening, but I question if I’ve always listened close enough. After countless hours of morning and evening practice, my ears have become attuned to every nuance of a beat. Being on the Step Team has taught me a multitude of things. I seek inspiration in the complexities of music, my ears catching onto harmonies, and bass undertones of Afrobeats, and the riddim of dancehall. I haven’t always had the ability to adapt to the varying group steps that ultimately make one single beat in unity. As an unsure freshman on the team, I was more focused on myself, rather than the whole. There wasn’t a single practice where I wasn’t told to sit down and listen to the team! I’d go home with voice recordings and study the steps, listening to every individual group. I’d step all around my house and into the classroom, set on turning my shattered steps into a beautiful mosaic of sounds.
Eventually the constant practice paid off. I’ve become a group leader, comfortable demonstrating how steps are performed, and known for my attention to detail, I am able to call steps in front of the school and community events confidently. As a senior on the team, I create my own steps using methods that will challenge the whole team. I’ve made the decision to make tryouts unnecessary in order to be on the team, accepting anyone who is as unwavering as I was as a freshman.
— — —
Tips + Analysis
Try to tie your activity of choice to a specific value/s in your life. Rather than just state what you did point-blank, make it resonate for the reader by connecting it to some aspect of what makes you, well, you. In this essay, the opening line immediately intrigues us with the juxtaposition of “never” and “always,” introducing a clear value of listening. Leading with your values allows you to connect with your audience, whether or not they have the same or similar experiences you have.
Use active verbs so that readers get a clear sense of what you’ve done. This approach makes things more engaging and dynamic overall. This essay offers a great example of what it looks like to pack 250 words with active verbs, such as “seek,” “adapt,” “sit down and listen,” “step all around,” and “create.”
Consider starting your essay with the “problem” (if there is one). In fact, probably name the problem in the first couple sentences, as this author did with: “I question if I’ve always listened close enough.” Then, tell us what you did about your problem, then what you learned. Those three components—challenge, what I did about it, what I learned—are the basics of narrative structure.
Write it long first, then cut it. In our experience, cutting down to word count is far, far easier (and leads to better writing) than writing a short version then trying to figure out what to add. Structurally, notice how this essay squeezes a full journey in under 250 words—no easy feat, but also clearly doable. The author begins as an “unsure freshman” and ends “accepting anyone who is as unwavering as I was as a freshman.” Her personal development is on display, as is her commitment to removing barriers for those who come after her.
Don’t forget to include specific impacts, even if they’re brief. You’ll want to connect your time and energy to a meaningful outcome. You should be able to say, “I did X, and that resulted in Y.” The Y is just as important as—in some ways, more important than—the X because it shows how your work paid off and (maybe even) inspired some kind of change. On a related note, try to answer the “so what” question, even briefly. The “so what” is where you help the audience see how your actions and experiences connect to your values and insights. The final paragraph of this essay demonstrates clear, specific impacts of the work the author invested.
how to write Howard Supplemental Essay Prompt #2
The College of Arts and Sciences is comprised of four divisions: Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. The curriculum of the College is designed to meet the needs and interests of a diverse, multicultural student body. Explain what interests you in the Arts or Sciences, and how studying at Howard University will help you achieve your overall goals?
(750 words max)
This prompt is what we call the “Why us?” essay. We recommend checking out this complete guide on how to write the “Why us?” essay and paying particular attention to the “Why Cornell” and “Why Penn” examples, which are our favorites.
Here’s the short version of how to write the “Why us?” essay for Howard:
Spend 1 hr+ researching 10+ reasons why Howard might be a great fit for you (ideally 3-5 of the reasons will be unique to Howard and connect back to you and your core values and interests).
Make a copy of this chart to map out your college research.
Create an outline for your essays based on either Approach 1, 2 (recommended), or 3 in the full guide above.
Write a first draft! Then revise. And revise ...
As you write, try to avoid these common mistakes:
Six Common Mistakes Students Make on “Why Us?” Essays
Mistake #1: Writing about the school's size, location, reputation, weather, or ranking
Mistake #2: Simply using emotional language to demonstrate fit
Mistake #3: Screwing up the mascot, stadium, team colors, or names of any important people or places on campus
Mistake #4: Parroting the brochures or website language
Mistake #5: Describing traditions the school is well-known for
Mistake #6: Thinking of this as only a “why them” essay
*One thing to note is that the 750-word budget makes for a pretty long “Why us?” essay. So organization and structure will be key to staying focused, writing with clarity, and keeping the reader’s attention. We find that outlining before you write really helps. So ...
Here’s a sample outline for longer “Why us?” essays (which you can adapt for your own essay):
Intro/thesis (say what you want to study and why)
Really specific academic offering at the school that’s in your intended major/concentration (this should connect to you in a really specific way)
A second really specific academic offering that’s also in your intended major/concentration (and that also connects back to you)
Something academic that’s not in your intended major/concentration (this keeps the focus on academics, but also brings in some variety)
Best/most important extracurricular offering that connects to you in a really specific way, and that ideally connects to either “what interests you in the Arts or Sciences,” and/or “how studying at Howard University will help you achieve your overall goals.”
Miscellaneous extracurriculars paragraph (2-3 things to demonstrate social/non-academic fit)
Closing (this can be short and, in shorter “Why us? essays, can be a single line)
Here’s a great sample essay for this Howard prompt:
Example:
I was my mom’s shadow. Starting from age three, I would accompany her to work every day at a local nonprofit group home. I would follow closely behind as she went to check on her patients. This served as my first introduction to the healthcare industry. The nonprofit was dedicated to helping and supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. It was from there I learned how to be gentle with others and interact with a wide array of individuals, aware of their disabilities but never treating them any differently. The lessons I learned stuck with me, and I understood them more as I matured.
One of the most important takeaways I got from the experience is that healthcare is a complex, ever-evolving system, standing at the center of human life. The industry needs professionals who are imaginative architects for the further development of care for diverse populations and who look beyond the traditional scope of health into its social origins and implications. Healthcare providers must be innovators with the goal of health equity and justice.
As innovation becomes the forefront of the healthcare industry, studying Health Sciences Management at Howard will prepare me to become a leader in a field where minorities are both underrepresented and underserved. The program will provide me with a cross-pollination of knowledge regarding the intersection of Healthcare and Management. Courses such as HLMN 405: Health Care Finance will teach me effective health care financial management, budgeting, and strategic planning, which is instrumental in ensuring that quality care is given and can serve many people. Other courses such as HLMN 402: Health Management Internship will allow me to go into a community and put my classroom skills to the test, learning how health organizations are run and teaching me how to interact with other healthcare workers and patients effectively. Ultimately, courses like this will teach me how to build and manage healthy communities to attract investment into those that are underserved.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman.” During COVID-19, I have seen how health care systems suffer when politics and mismanagement obstruct their goals, resulting in care that is less than optimal, and leading to countless deaths. My personal goal is to bridge the gap between health management and public health by putting public health analysis to action. Courses such as HLMN 406: Epidemiology and Public Health will help me understand the applicability of demographics, assessment techniques, and health indicators useful for health systems designs.
Complex issues require complex, interdisciplinary solutions. Opportunities that the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences offers beyond the classroom will allow me to network and create partnerships with others across various disciplines, both within and outside the Howard community. The college’s council would provide me with a plethora of leadership and community service opportunities. Through the health connect program, I would have a chance to serve as a teaching assistant at a local high school, reinforcing my leadership skills and confidence within my area of study. The program would also allow me to learn from other students in the mentoring program.
Other programs, such as GlobeMed will connect me to grassroots health organizations around the globe. I’ll learn how to mobilize resources for global health and have the opportunity to participate in discussions about social justice, access to health care, and more. I could also travel abroad on an internship to work on community development programs.
Being in the capital of the nation, where significant decisions related to change and policies that impact human life are made, I’ll be able to learn how such instrumental changes are implemented with internship opportunities at the American Public Health Association where I can participate in health equity hearings, and meetings, as well as interact with senior leaders within the health field. A Public Health Policy internship would allow me to see how science, policy, and health intersect.
With the goal of breaking barriers within the healthcare industry, I believe there’s no place better to do so than at the cultural mecca that is Howard University. I would be surrounded by students who are like me in terms of values and goals, but unlike me in terms of approaches and ideas. This would allow us to both learn and expand on each other’s knowledge. Thus leading to groundbreaking discoveries and limitless possibilities in the field of Health.
— — —
Tips + Analysis
Add personality. The opening anecdote of this essay tells of early moments in the author's life that show when the seed for her academic interests and professional goals was planted. From those specific experiences emerge a budding medical professional who has thought deeply and critically about the impact she’d like to make in the healthcare field and why Howard will be the best place to help her develop the skills needed to make that impact. Just because the prompt here is relatively generic doesn’t mean your answer should be. Invest some time thinking about how you can stand out, both at Howard and in this essay, and try to inject some of that personality into your answer.
Make connections between Howard’s values and yours. Mistake #6 above (Thinking of this as only a "why them" essay) is maybe the biggest of the 6: Instead, be sure to approach this essay as Why You + Them. In other words, use the “Why us?” essay to demonstrate how you and Howard make a great match, as this student does, as opposed to focusing solely on how much Howard has to offer her. Notice that she continually connects her own values and experiences to specific information about Howard, demonstrating why she and the school belong together, while also showing how Howard will propel her to success.
Be specific. Speaking of specificity, clearly, this applicant has done her research. She references specific programs, clubs, and classes she’d like to explore if she were admitted. If you’re a Howard admission reader, the specificity of those references makes you feel certain the student values the school. When she includes academic courses, she explains exactly what those courses will do in helping her on her professional journey. She also goes beyond the classroom and explores how the community will be of support, much like her mother’s work at the local nonprofit group home. She even includes information about Howard’s location in DC as a center of policymaking. Note, though, that she doesn’t overly focus on the location alone (Mistake #1 on our things-to-avoid list above), but instead integrates it firmly into her interests. Think about your core values or what resources you absolutely need in a college setting, then try to find places to explore and engage those values at Howard. Doing that research ahead of time pays off in the long run in a detail-rich essay.
Take the reader on a journey. While you’re under no obligation to use all 750 words, Howard is offering applicants an opportunity to go deep in this supplemental essay. In this response, there’s a clear trajectory that the author sees herself taking, and she makes a convincing case that Howard is the ideal institution for her to continue on that path. We see her starting the essay in the shadows and concluding as an innovator who plans to break barriers within the healthcare industry by providing access for all.
how to write Howard Supplemental Essay Prompt #3
The year is 2030, and you have been invited to be the keynote speaker at an event of your choice. If you were to give this very important speech, what would it be about? You may reflect on a passion of yours, an important personal/global issue, or something that piques your interest; please feel free to be as creative as you'd like. (250 words maximum)
Choosing a Topic
Here’s a chance to nerd out about something you know a lot about. The best topics are ones that also excite you. What’s a topic that—when someone brings it up—lights you up? If you’re having trouble thinking of a topic on your own, ask yourself: What would be the topic of my TED talk? Don’t feel pressured to make it a super academic or serious topic, so long as you demonstrate the kind of thinker you are, and the type of perspective you’ll bring to the Howard campus, you’ll be able to set yourself apart.
Want some ideas? Here’s a spreadsheet listing every single TED talk ever. One important thing to consider: Note that Howard expressly asks for you to imagine giving your speech in 2030—so think of a topic that will still be relevant, or perhaps even more so, a decade from now.
Since this is a new prompt for Howard, we don’t have a specific example to share, but this essay, written for a similar UVA prompt asking students to imagine leading a Flash Seminar on the topic of their choice, could work with some tweaks we’ll share in the Tips + Analysis.
Example:
In 1988, the employee-owned company my grandfather worked for was sold, creating ninety millionaires. By 2005, my grandparents’ nest egg was gone. Watching my grandparents’ situation unravel, I wondered: “How is it possible that two people with MBAs are bankrupt?”
While researching for my AIS Capstone project, I made three important discoveries.
1. Only 6/50 states require students to take a standalone personal finance course.
2. 48% of retirees don’t have savings.
3. Time is the low-hanging fruit of investment strategies.
My Flash Seminar will be titled “Winning the Long Game,” for I feel driven to ensure my and others’ financial security, and I know it’s possible.
If every graduating senior initiated an automatic monthly deposit of $255 (or $8.50 a day/$3,060 a year) and didn’t touch it for 43 years, they would have $1,015,502.49 by age 65 based on a conservative 8% annual rate of return.
Throughout our ninety minutes together, I will provide knowledge (what), context (why), and framework (how) to ensure each student leaves with a step by step guide to open, fund, and allocate their initial investment to achieve long-term gains.
My grandparents’ situation was avoidable. I wish they felt secure and could fill their days with activities that brought them joy. I hope to use my Flash Seminar to help others envision a secure and joyful future. Nationally recognized for their dedication to teaching students financial literacy, UVA fosters an environment for its students to win the long game. (248 words)
— — —
Tips + Analysis
Keep it timeless. Because you’re giving this speech a decade from now, it’s important to keep the long-term view mentioned earlier and ensure your speech will be just as relevant then as now. While the numbers in this student’s flash seminar are accurate today, the ever-changing financial landscape means we can’t be sure they’d hold true in 2030—not to mention that we simply can’t make the guarantee of achieving long-term gains and retirement security just by following a TED Talk. Instead, we’d encourage this student to hedge their bets just a little and make sure they’re not making promises they can’t keep while still communicating their passion (and strategies) for helping students plan for and secure their financial futures.
Show your passion. As with many college essays, it’s easy to want to select a topic that sounds good. Saving the orphans in Africa. Developing clean-water sources in rural Central America. But if you’re not truly enthused about the topic—or you’re just casually interested in it, that lack of emotion will come through in your essay. So find a topic you really care about and could talk about for hours—even if it’s as simple as the overuse of em-dashes in contemporary, writing or the implications of social media from MySpace to TikTok and beyond. It’s clear this student has a personal reason for wanting to help others save for retirement, and because that comes across loud and clear in their proposal, the reader is likely to feel more connected to it too.
Make deeper connections. If you watched Malcolm Gladwell’s 2004 TED Talk on the quest for the perfect spaghetti sauce, you’d know it’s really not about spaghetti sauce at all. It’s about the nature of choice and happiness. We encourage you to also consider similar, deeper meanings in your speech. Of course, your topic is your topic for a reason—you love it. But does it also make you think, or question the status quo, or aspire to greatness? If you can tie in those insights with your topic, you’ll make for a compelling speech that can help you earn a standing ovation. This student did that in his essay. Investing isn’t relevant just because of their grandparents. It’s because of the 48% of retirees without savings and the 44/50 states not requiring finance classes from their students. It’s because of a pervasive need. These deeper dives help us see there’s a bigger issue at play here, and that the student has a plan to address it.
how to write Howard Supplemental Essay Prompt #4
Optional: Presume there was only one spot left in your first choice major program. Given you have thoroughly researched said program, why should we offer the spot to you over another student? Please feel free to discuss your reasons for pursuing your first choice major, your unique talents & skills, and/or how said program aligns with your long-term goals.
(250 words maximum)
You likely caught that “Optional” in front of this prompt and thought, I don’t have to write this essay. And you’d be right. But should you? We’d say so (enthusiastically). Why? Because every essay is a new opportunity to show Howard why you’re a great fit for its campus—and writing an optional essay shows just how interested you are in going there.
This is essentially a “Why Major” with a healthy dose of “Why us?” (how said program aligns with your long-term goals) thrown in. So we’d recommend dedicating about half of your essay to your major of choice. Here’s a guide to writing that part. Then devote the other half to “Why us?” details on how Howard’s program would help you achieve your career goals and aspirations. Since you (hopefully) already read the “Why us?” guide for Prompt #2, so you should have all that research mapped out already. We recommend you save your details on your specific major, and the Howard programs and resources that connect to it, for this essay and write about your other Why Howard interests for Prompt #2.
Like Prompts #3 and #5, this is new for Howard, so we don’t have an example written specifically for this prompt. But here’s an essay we love, written for another school’s Why Major/“Why us?” mashup (though you’d have 31 fewer words for your essay).
Example:
During a panel discussion about skill sets for prospective engineers, I learned about a certain philosophy: that seeking vertical knowledge is preferable to seeking it horizontally. It was the first time I discovered that there was a name for what I've been doing my whole life.
Georgia Tech offers unique methods for me to continue gaining vertical knowledge. Within my chosen major, Computer Science, it offers the Threads system, which allows for specialization within the whole field, rather than a broad overview. What I really want to study within computer science–software development that affects the physical world–is contained in the Computing and Devices, and Computing and Information Internetworks threads.
Within these threads, I am most attracted to the class Technology and Sustainable Community Development, taught by Dr. Zegura. Since I want to use my future engineering skills to help low-income people via the creation of low-cost medical devices, this course will allow me to gain deeper knowledge in how to avoid creating obsolete products. I am especially curious about the Field Observation Exercise that was mentioned in the syllabus, as this will teach me how to identify the ecological, social, and economic issues that I will need to address while pursuing my goal.
Outside of classes, I’m specifically interested in the Assistech club. Their motto, “make something that means something,” really struck a chord within me, as it is the reason I became interested in engineering in the first place. In this club, not only would I be able to go vertical and deepen my experience and knowledge in engineering, but I could also immediately apply those skills to help design better prosthetics for disabled children in Atlanta and other communities. (281 words)
— — —
Tips + Analysis
Show you deserve that spot. Howard wants students who won’t just thrive on campus, but who’ll also use their education to discover solutions to human problems worldwide. So when admission officers must decide between two students with similar academic profiles and target majors, your ability to make specific connections on how your Howard education will benefit you post-graduation could give you an edge. This student does this to a T, clearly outlining how she’ll take what she’s learned from her computer science degree and related Threads to create low-cost medical devices for low-income populations and design prosthetics for children. And that’s going to help her stand out among other would-be computer science majors with less-specific future plans.
Draw on your unique talents and skills. Build on your response by showing what you’re bringing to the table now, not just what you’ll do on campus. Yes, an interest in medical devices and prosthetics is fantastic. But demonstrating prior experience in the field—like interning at a medical facility that worked with children needing prosthetics or designing and producing a prosthetic prototype on a 3D printer—would’ve been one way for this student to level up her essay.
Dial in on one major. With only one (hypothetical) spot left in that first-choice major, you want to leave no doubt in your essay that X major is the major for you. Show your connection with the courses, the professors, the research opportunities, and even related clubs, and then demonstrate how these unique-to-Howard opportunities will help you succeed. While this student clearly states she’s interested in majoring in computer science, three of her four paragraphs mention her interest in engineering. This mixed response could lead the admission officer to think she’s not really that serious about computer science after all and award that remaining spot to a student who’s been more demonstrative in their essay about their passion for and interest in computer science.
how to write Howard Supplemental Essay Prompt #5
Optional: If you had the chance to meet any one of the over 100,000 Howard University alumni (living or dead), who would you choose and why?
(250 words maximum)
This is a Howard-specific spin on the popular get-to-know-you question: If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
Like that old conversation starter, this prompt is digging for insights into who you are and what makes you tick: Who are you interested in meeting and why? What would you do with a short window of opportunity to speak to this person? Did their Howard education play an important role in their career or the impact they may have had on their community? Though the prompt does not specifically ask for that last insight, you’ll pretty much get guaranteed bonus points for finding a way to squeeze that into your essay.
Here’s an example, written for another school, that could work for this prompt, with some changes we’ll discuss in the Tips + Analysis (though, again, you have a bit less room than this student did).
Example:
It’s the year 1066. I’m in a small prison cell in the holy city of Mecca. Opposite me is a woman who has just been stripped of her principalities. She looks sullen, broken. That woman is Asma Bint Shihab, one of the most overlooked female powerhouses in the history of the Arab world. The proclaimed co-ruler of Yemen from the year 1047, she bore the name “al sayyida al hurra,” which translates to “the woman sovereign who bows to no superior authority.” This translation serves as a testimony to the great respect she garnered throughout her sovereignty. I hope to speak with Shihab about her journey as an accomplished female ruler of Yemen.
In our conversation, I will ask Shihab about her “glory days” in the famous “golden palace.” As an educated woman, she attended council with her face uncovered, fighting for women’s rights to an education. Eventually she passed the “Fatimid endorsement of equal education,” allowing for women to receive equal learning opportunities. How did she manage to get the fully male council to agree to the endorsement, especially in a time and place where gender equality was non-existent? Was she ever treated as inferior and dismissed by male counterparts? In many ways, I resonate with Shihab’s journey. I often experience dismissal in the classroom when, as the only girl in my Oxford Economics class, my opinions were often negated. I wonder how Shihab learned to deal with gendered regulations of power. Was her education pertinent to her advocacy?
I admire Shihab’s incredible strength when faced with adversity. Like Shihab, I want a future in politics and plan to become a politician who represents the needs of women. I believe this conversation with Shihab can illuminate a clear path forward in the fight for justice and equity in politics. (300 words)
— — —
Tips + Analysis
Cut to the chase. With just 250 words for your response, you don’t have a lot of words to lobby for yourself. Yes, you want an engaging opening that grabs the reader’s attention and entices them to keep reading. But you don’t want it to take the focus off you. So keep that opening brief but relevant. While this student’s opening paragraph is certainly attention-getting, those 100-plus words do little to show us who she is and what’s important to her. If she were writing for this prompt, we’d suggest a shorter, more direct opening that piques the reader’s curiosity but that leaves the bulk of the word count for showing who she is and what she’s interested in. Speaking of which ...
Don’t forget who the real subject of the essay is. Hint: It’s you. While the prompt makes it sound like admission officers want to know everything you find fascinating about that one Howard alumni, the prompt is a bit of a Trojan Horse. The question, as we mentioned above, is a way for admission officers to learn more about you—they’re just asking you in a subtle, roundabout way. So for every sentence you use to talk about your chosen Howard alumni, make sure you’re spending just as much (if not more) essay real estate on you. If this student had been responding to the Howard prompt, we would’ve encouraged a little more introspection than the two brief personal connections—the classroom and politics—and general questions she offered.
Think critically about your answer. It’s tempting to take the easy route here and go with a big name, like poet Toni Morrison or Judge Thurgood Marshall. Or you might swing in the opposite direction and pick a more obscure graduate, like actress Roxie Roker (half of TV’s first interracial couple) or Johari Abdul-Malik (the first Muslim chaplain in higher education in the United States), just to show you’ve done your research. But it’s not whom you pick—it’s why you picked them. Regardless of your selection, dive really deep into that why. What have you learned from them? How have you changed because of what they’ve done or what they believe in? This student would’ve strengthened her response if she’d demonstrated how she’s taken what she’s learned from Shihab’s trailblazing career and implemented it in her own life. Did Shihab’s voice from 1066 give this student a voice in her Oxford Economics class? We want to know!
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
