How to Write the Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essay: Examples + Guide 2026/2027

This prompt invites you to describe how you’ve been a bridge builder in your life—making connections between groups, cultures, or ideas (side note that this prompt is really similar to NYU’s, if you’re applying there as well). Hopkins is looking for students who can help lead us toward a more connected and collaborative world. 

So consider your role as bridge builder. 

How have you been a changemaker who has brought people or groups together, reached across divides, and shaped collaboration in your school, community, or personal life? 

How do you see yourself expanding on those actions in college and beyond? 

Overall, this prompt offers a take on what is generally referred to as a “diversity” essay—check here for a full guide to various kinds of “diversity” prompts.

To brainstorm, focus on ways you’ve engaged with people from different backgrounds or perspectives. (Keep in mind that “different backgrounds or perspectives” can refer to things like race or ethnicity, but it doesn’t have to—you can keep a broad lens here.) Ideally, focus on actions that show how you brought people together/created engagement, and lessons you learned about how to effectively do so.

One option for this prompt is to treat this as essentially a “Community Essay” focused on how your engagement led you to develop a new perspective, change your point of view, and/or empower you to take an action or be courageous.  You can find our comprehensive guide on how to write the Community Essay here. Or, if you’re short on time, here’s the abbreviated version:

Step 1: Create a “communities” chart by listing all the communities you’re a part of. Keep in mind that communities can be defined by …

1.   Place: Groups of people who live/work/play near one another
2.   Action: Groups of people who create change in the world by building, doing, or solving something together (Examples: Black Lives Matter, Girls Who Code, March for Our Lives)
3.   Interest: Groups of people coming together based on a shared interest, experience, or expertise
4.   Circumstance: Groups of people brought together either by chance or external events/situations. 

Step 2: Use the BEABIES Exercise to generate your essay content. Once you’ve chosen a community, map out your content using the BEABIES Exercise. That exercise asks:

1. What did you actually do? (Tip: Use active verbs like “organized” and “managed” to clarify your responsibilities.)
2. What kinds of problems did you solve (personally, locally, or globally)?
3. What specific impact did you have?
4. What did you learn (skills, qualities, values)? 
5. How did you apply the lessons you learned?

Step 3: Pick a structure. You can potentially use montage structure here, but narrative seems like it will be easier to fit the prompt.

Consider answering these three questions in your essay if you choose the Narrative Structure: 

1. What challenge/s did you face?
2. What did you do about it? 
3. What did you learn?

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Here’s an example, written for another school, that illustrates how you can approach this prompt (and others like it).

With that framing in mind, let’s explore an example essay written for the same prompt from a different school:

Example: 

Realizing that artists felt underrepresented at Haverford, I decided to create an art magazine to showcase our collective work. When I proposed the idea to my teacher, I made the deliberate decision to work with my classmate Tripp, driven by my awareness of his profound affinity for Haverford’s art community. However, I did not anticipate that we would have drastically different working styles: while I work more in a measured and incremental style, Tripp works in spurts of creativity and intense industriousness. 

Initially, this was frustrating. As I worked through the magazine, page by page, Tripp would go on a seemingly irrelevant tangent. However, as I saw various titles, descriptions, and new works trickle into the pages of the magazine, Tripp’s tangents began to make sense. Seeing this scattered but oddly consistent progress gave me newfound confidence in my colleague. As I formatted each page, I saw Tripp’s experiments evolving into intriguing features for the magazine, such as a full-spread cover that stretched to the back. I developed the magazine’s foundation while Tripp added little oddities that made it enjoyable to read. 

From this experience, I learned that my working style is not always the best or correct one. Combining our two drastically different approaches allowed us to create a better product than we could have individually, one that celebrated the artists of Haverford.

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Tips and analysis

• Start with a mix of action and context. It may feel tempting to just lay everything on the line and state the obvious—something like “I’m a collaborator in everything I do.” Sure, it’s true, but… it’ll probably feel a little generic. A stronger approach is to anchor your essay in a moment, like the student does here. In deciding to create an art magazine, they say, they “made the deliberate decision to work with my classmate Tripp.” It’s an opening that immediately conveys  the project, the stakes, and the people involved—setting the scene for those differing perspectives.

• Embrace the conflict. An essay with no conflict is pretty likely to fall flat. What makes your writing memorable in response to this prompt is the tension. The problem you encountered. The different perspectives you experienced. The obstacle you were forced to navigate. And especially, how (as in, the skills you used) you navigated it. And that conflict is what sets up the space for your growth.
  
  If you’re familiar with College Essay Guy’s resources at all (and you’re here, so you probably are), you’ll know that we’re big on showing, not telling. And for good reason. That showing fuels the essay and gives the reader something to follow. Here, the reader does that by setting up the two very different working styles: the writer’s “measured and incremental” approach versus Tripp’s bursts of intense creativity. Because this student doesn’t just say “we work differently” and instead gives a play-by-play of how their individual working styles clashed (and clashed big), we’re pulled in with a deeper understanding.

• Embrace growth, not perfection. Students often think they have to be flawless in their applications. But we want to let you in on a little secret: Admission officers appreciate vulnerability in your essays—and sometimes that means acknowledging your imperfections, your ability to learn from others, and your willingness to adapt. Showing growth can make you look resilient (and even, go figure, teachable). Which is just the kind of student who will thrive on the NYU campus. We see the writer demonstrating their own growth when they say that “my working style is not always the best or correct one.” Instead of boasting or claiming victory, they show humility and that willingness to see value in a different perspective. 

• Find the bigger takeaway.  While we want you to tell a great story, there’s a lot more to a standout essay than just a cool anecdote. So you’ve experienced all of these things—but what does that really mean about who you are and how you might take what you’ve learned and translate it to the NYU community? Being able to step back and identify (and then highlight) the broader significance is a great way to wrap up your essay. This essay does that in the final reflection: “Combining our two drastically different approaches allowed us to create a better product than we could have individually.” It’s a strong ending that shows not just what happened, but also what the student is carrying forward from it—like valuing collaboration and diversity of thought. And that’s what matters in college and beyond.

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