All, College Admissions, Essay Writing

How to Write a “Why Us” College Essay

What Is a Why Us Essay

Many colleges require answers to essay prompts beyond the long personal statement. These might range from asking about a historical event you could have witnessed (Stanford) to your favorite book (University of Southern California). One type of supplemental essays that frequently stumps students are the Why Us college essay. These challenges students not just to describe themselves or list features they like about the college, but to connect their interests with the characteristics of the college to demonstrate why student and school are a good match.

A Why Us college essay prompt might look something like these:

Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. (Approximately 250 words) University of Southern California

Please describe why you are interested in attending Tulane University. (max 800 words)

Why do you want to study your chosen major specifically at Georgia Tech? (max 300 words)

How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests, both in and out of the classroom? (max 100 words)

Why Bard? (max 250 words)

Why Do Colleges Have Why Us Essays

Before you sit down to write your response, consider how a college would use this prompt – what information do they hope to get out of it? Remember that any essay a college requires is one that they have to spend time reading. Georgia Tech is explicit about why they use this prompt (and their explanation would apply to many other colleges).

The traits of a strong essay include ones that:

  • Demonstrate authenticity & self-awareness
  • Demonstrate thoughtfulness
  • Display attention to topic, style, and grammar
  • Demonstrate a student has thought about why Georgia Tech, specifically, is a fit for them and how their goals align with Georgia Tech’s mission statement: The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university established by the state of Georgia in Atlanta in 1885 and committed to developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

One reason colleges often include this type of prompt is they want to admit students who will actually enroll. This is something they keep close track of and try to predict accurately, especially as numbers of applications increase. Yield is the ratio of students who attend to students who are accepted. So a yield of 20% would mean than 20% of the students admitted to a college chose to enroll as students. When colleges do a poor job of predicting yield, they either have a class that is smaller than desired (with lower tuition revenues) or a class that is larger than expected (causing shortages in housing and seats in classes). Asking students to directly express why they think a college is a good fit helps to distinguish between students who are likely to arrive in fall. Students who apply based on a rankings list, because their friends are applying, or because a parent said they should will often struggle to write a Why Us essay.

What to Include in a Why Us College Essay

Try to draw strong connections between your interests and the opportunities at the college. When you read about academic programs, extracurricular activities or unique opportunities at the college, which make you think, “Hey, if I were there I could…”  Which opportunities light you up and what ideas do they spark?

Make a list of 10-15 reasons you would like to attend the college. 

  • What are you looking forward to as a prospective student?
  • What aspects of your future academic department intrigue you?
  • Are there any particular classes you hope to take? Why those courses?
  • What clubs or teams interest you?
  • Are there particular outreach or networking programs that have caught your eye?
  • If you could choose between several colleges, why would you choose this school over other colleges?

Now connect your interests to these unique college features.  These responses might follow a pattern like:

Because I’m interested in (aspect of prospective major), I’m excited by (program, way of teaching, club, opportunity), because it would (possible outcome).

Or you can flip it around:

Because I want to (achieve goal or outcome), the (program, club, opportunity, way of teaching) attracts me, since it would let me (combine parts of your identity, have access to something special, be supported in a significant way). 

The depth of your explanation will depend on the word limit for the response. An 650-word response is going to need a thoughtful response with vivid detail, while a 100-word response will only allow you to explore a few ideas.

This response shouldn’t read like a laundry list of facts about the college. Instead it should connect what interests you with what the college offers, with a “so what” type explanation. If you want to study computer science but can’t decide between artificial intelligence and the internet of things AND Georgia Tech has a Threads curriculum that lets you study both, THEN what do you hope to get out of that experience. If a college is well-known for its interdisciplinary programs, coop requirement, or individualized major; why does that make you sit up and take notice.

Other Tips for Writing Why Us College Essays

If you are still struggling to write a Why Us college essay, go back to the reasons you put the school on your college list in the first place. If you come up short on reasons why this school is a good match, it may be a sign that you need to do more research. Sign up for a virtual presentation from the admissions office, explore the options for potential academic majors, read social media news streams from not only the main official account but also departments and clubs, and browse recent articles in the campus paper.  Expect to spend several hours doing this type of research.

General Tips for Writing Essays

Write in a word processing program where you can easily edit, check word count, and spell check. When you are happy, paste your response into the application.
Use examples that are specific and reveal who you are. Don’t use general comments that might apply to any college — or any student.
Don’t wait until the last minute. Give yourself time to research and think about how you would find your place at that college.

Looking for more advice on the Common App Personal Statement and other Tell Us Your Story type prompts? I’ve got ideas here.

Close up of vintage typewriter with "Stories matter" typed on fresh sheet of paper.
All, College Applications, Essay Writing

Common App Essay Prompts 2023-24

The Common App essay prompts aren’t a list of questions to answer. They are designed to help you think about what’s important to you, who you are as a person, and what you would bring to campus as a college student. The Common App opens August 1 for students applying as freshmen for Fall 2024. The prompts are usually released by February. (This year the prompts didn’t change.) Releasing the prompts earlier allows these story starter questions to rattle around in your head for a while. It can take some time to settle on what stories you want to tell to help an admissions reader understand who you are.

What Is the Purpose of a College Personal Statement

College applications that require essays want to know more about a student than just the basic data of course grades, activities, and scores that appear in other parts of the application. The transcript might show they dropped German in favor of American Sign Language. An essay could reveal the friendship with a young neighbor and a desire to better communicate with her. The activities list might seem like a patchwork of unconnected clubs. An essay might discuss multiple cross-country moves as a military kid and how that experience taught them to make friends quickly.

When considering essay ideas, remember the topic of each essay is you, not what happened. The essay should paint a broader and deeper picture of you to the admissions reader. It might even draw direct connections to what you hope to do in college. The Common App personal statement can respond to any of the Common App essay prompts. Some college applications will have their own essay prompts, like the University of California Personal Interest Questions, or additional essay prompts like Why Us? supplemental essays.

Not sure what a Why Us? essay is? I explain what they are and how to approach them here: How to Write a “Why Us” College Essay.

How to Write Your Common App Essay

When you are ready to get started, read through some of the prompts. What experiences or stories come to mind? Jot down not only what happened but sensory details (how it smelled, sounded, felt, maybe even tasted). Then add some lines about why that experience mattered. How did you change as a result? How did you affect those around you? In other words, you want to get past describing only what happened to explain how this reveals more about who you are as a person.

Some people think their college admissions essays need to be unique. This can pressure them to try to think of topics that no one else has ever written about. But what matters isn’t writing about something unusual or unique. What’s important is making the essay individual to the student. How does the essay reveal who you are, what’s important to you, and how these traits will affect what you bring to campus?

It’s OK to feel uncomfortable during the essay writing process. You are trying to remember events in detail, convey them to someone who wasn’t there, and write in a way that is both grammatically correct and emotionally evocative. That’s a tall order and not something you will achieve at the first attempt. One of my writing profs used the phrase “zero draft” to describe the phase of pouring initial thoughts and words onto paper. This early phase wasn’t even at “first draft” stage, because we were still figuring out what to write about and where the connection points were. Give yourself time and space to work through these steps.

Close up of vintage typewriter. "rewrite...edit...rewrite...edit...rewrite" typed on paper.
College essay first drafts usually need work. Don’t be too critical of your early writing, but do leave plenty of time to reread and rewrite your essay. Remember to read it out loud and check for spelling and punctuation errors.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Full List of 2023-24 Common Application Essay Prompts

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don’t feel obligated to do so. (The application won’t accept a response shorter than 250 words.)

  1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
  2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
  3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
  4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
  5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
  6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
  7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Don’t Panic Over College Essay Prompts

Don’t obsess over these prompts. The Common App essay prompts are simply questions designed to encourage deeper thinking and writing in a way that lets you share what’s important to you. Your goal is to give admissions readers a better understanding of who you are as a person than they would get from just looking at grades and test scores. Your essays are your opportunity to control both content and delivery. It is one of the few parts of the application you exert this much control over.

If the first six Common App essay prompts don’t generate ideas, remember that Prompt Seven gives you the freedom to choose your own adventure. This is one reason I start my clients with pre-writing exercises that help them identify what they are trying to communicate – what their story is and what examples help convey it.

Essay coaching is included in each of my comprehensive packages. Essay coaching is also available through hourly services. If this is something you are interested in, let’s connect.

Once you’re done writing your personal statement, use the advice in How to Write a “Why Us?” College Essay to work on any supplemental college essays.