Associate Dean of Admission Parke Muth has some tips about writing your college essay.

2011-2012 Application Essays

The Common App General Essay

Please write an essay (250 words minimum) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below. This personal essay helps us to become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself.

• Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
• Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
• Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
• Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
• A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

Topic of your choice.

UVa Supplement Essays for First-Years

1. We are looking for passionate students to join our diverse community of scholars, researchers, and artists.  Answer the question that corresponds to the school you selected above. Limit your answer to a half page or roughly 250 words.
   
   • College of Arts & Sciences:  What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?
   • Engineering:  If you were given funding for a small engineering project, what would you do?
   • Architecture:  Discuss an experience that led you to apply to the School of Architecture.
   • Nursing:  Discuss experiences that led you to choose the School of Nursing.
   • Kinesiology: Discuss experiences that led you to choose the kinesiology major.

 

2. Answer one of the following questions in a half page or roughly 250 words:

• What is your favorite word and why?
• Describe the world you come from and how that world shaped who you are.
• Discuss your favorite place to get lost. (This question was written by U.Va. students who live in one of residential colleges, Brown College at Monroe Hill.)
• Discuss something you secretly like but pretend not to, or vice versa.

UVa Supplement Essays for Transfers

1. How do your possible career or professional plans relate to your planned course of study? Limit your answer to one page.
   • If you are applying to the College of Arts & Sciences and are undecided about your major, indicate your general area of interest.
   • If you are applying to the Architecture, Commerce, Education, Engineering, or Nursing Schools, tell us why you have chosen this field and what experiences (work, internships, etc.) have prepared you for it.
   • If you are applying to the Five-Year Teacher Education Program, indicate your academic major within the College of Arts & Sciences and your intended teaching area (e.g., elementary education, secondary education).

 

    2.  Answer one of the following essay questions.  Limit your response to one page.

• Stephen Hawking asked the question, "What is the probability of life existing elsewhere in the universe?" in his public lecture, "Life in the Universe."  If life does, in fact, exist elsewhere in the universe and you could send one thing to represent the human race, what would it be and why would you choose it?
• What issue of local, national, or international significance concerns you?  Why?