New Ivy Plus Supplemental Prompts
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Affirmative Action. This decision forbids colleges from considering race in college admissions. While there are still plenty of questions about how this might affect your student or college admissions in general, we do know that many colleges are pledging to find new ways to keep campuses diverse.
We suspected that many colleges would shift their focus to the admissions essays in order to find diversity, and our suspicions have been confirmed. Late this summer, several Ivy Plus colleges released their supplemental essay prompts. As you’ll see below, many of them ask questions directly related to diversity through lived experience.
Duke has two prompts that address diversity: “We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.”
“We recognize that “fitting in” in all the contexts we live in can sometimes be difficult. Duke values all kinds of differences and believes they make our community better. Feel free to tell us any ways in which you’re different, and how that has affected you or what it means to you.”
Emory has two prompts that address diversity: “Emory University has a strong commitment to building community. Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your participation helped to change or shape the community for the better.”
“Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.”
Northwestern has two prompts that address diversity: “Northwestern fosters a distinctively interdisciplinary culture. We believe discovery and innovation thrive at the intersection of diverse ideas, perspectives, and academic interests. Within this setting, if you could dream up an undergraduate class, research project, or creative effort (a start-up, a design prototype, a performance, etc.), what would it be? Who might be some ideal classmates or collaborators?”
“Northwestern is a place where people with diverse backgrounds from all over the world can study, live, and talk with one another. This range of experiences and viewpoints immeasurably enriches learning. How might your individual background contribute to this diversity of perspectives in Northwestern’s classrooms and around our campus?”
NYU: “We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives and innovators. Choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you; or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why:
“We’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. So we did what we do best. We reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” Judith Heuman, 2022 NYU Commencement Address
“I encourage your discomfort, that you must contribute, that you must make your voice heard. That is the essence of good citizenship.” Sherilynn Ifill, 2015 NYU Commencement Address
“If you know how to fly but you never knew how to walk, wouldn’t that be sad?” Lang Lang, 2015 NYU Honorary Degree Recipient
“You have the right to want things and to want things to change.” Sanna Marin, Former Prime Minister of Finland, 2023 NYU Commencement Address
“It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair.” Taylor Swift, Change, Released 2008, 2022 NYU Commencement Speaker
Stanford: “Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University.”
Tufts: “Using a specific example or two, tell us about a way that you contributed to building a collaborative and/or inclusive community.”
University of Virginia: “What about your individual background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you or those around you at UVA?”
As of this writing, CalTech, MIT, UChicago, Vanderbilt, and Rice have not updated their prompts asking students to directly reflect on diversity. We will let you know if that changes. In the meantime, if your student is struggling with writing their supplemental essays or if they need extra help preparing their college applications, reach out to Ivy Link below. Our advisors will work with your student one-on-one to craft compelling and competitive Personal Statements and supplements.
