university of washington application essay

• Faculty & Staff

The Office of Admissions will be closed on Friday, October 25 from 9 a.m.-1p.m. We will be available via phone and email . Campus tours will remain as scheduled.

Transfer personal statement

All applicants must write a personal statement and submit it with the transfer application for admission. The personal statement should be a comprehensive narrative essay outlining significant aspects of your academic and personal history, particularly those that provide context for your academic achievements and educational choices. Quality of writing and depth of content contribute toward a meaningful and relevant personal statement.

You should address the following topics in your personal statement. Within each subtopic, such as Academic History, write only about what is meaningful to your life and experience. Do not feel compelled to address each and every question.

Required elements

Academic history.

• Tell us about your college career to date, describing your performance, educational path and choices.
• Explain any situations that may have had a significant positive or negative impact on your academic progress or curricular choices. If you transferred multiple times, had a significant break in your education or changed career paths, explain.
• What are the specific reasons you wish to leave your most recent college/university or program of study?

Your major & career goals

• Tell us about your intended major and career aspirations.
• Explain your plans to prepare for the major. What prerequisite courses do you expect to complete before transferring? What led you to choose this major? If you are still undecided, why? What type of career are you most likely to pursue after finishing your education?
• How will the UW help you attain your academic, career and personal goals?
• If you selected a competitive major, you have the option of selecting a second-choice major in the event you are not admitted to your first-choice major. Please address major or career goals for your second-choice major, if applicable.

Cultural Understanding

Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the University of Washington.

Optional elements (include if applicable)

Educational challenges/personal hardships.

Describe any personal or imposed challenges or hardships you have overcome in pursuing your education. For example: serious illness; disability; first generation in your family to attend college; significant financial hardship or responsibilities associated with balancing work, family and school.

Community or volunteer service

Describe your community or volunteer service, including leadership, awards or increased levels of responsibility.

Experiential learning

Describe your involvement in research, artistic endeavors and work (paid or volunteer) as it has contributed to your academic, career or personal goals.

Additional comments

Do you have a compelling academic or personal need to attend the Seattle campus of the UW at this time? Is there anything else you would like us to know?

Content, as well as form, spelling, grammar and punctuation, will be considered. Suggested length is 750-1000 words.

• Online application: You should write your statement first in a word processing program (such as Word) or a text editor, and then copy/paste it into the text box provided on the application. All line breaks remain. However, some formatting may be be lost, such as bold, italics and underlines. This will not affect the evaluation of your application.
• PDF application (spring applicants only): Type or write your statement on 8.5’’ x 11’’ white paper. Double-space your lines, and use only one side of each sheet. Print your name, the words “Personal Statement” and the date at the top of each page, and attach the pages to your application.

Tell us who you are

Share those aspects of your life that are not apparent from your transcripts. In providing the context for your academic achievements and choices, describe your passions and commitments, your goals, a personal challenge faced, a hardship overcome or the cultural awareness you’ve gained. Tell us your story. Be concise, but tell the whole story.

Be specific

Personal statements too often include sentences such as “I’ve always wanted to be a Husky” or “My whole family attended the UW.” Although this may be important to you personally, such reasons are not particularly valuable to the Admissions staff because they do not tell us anything distinctive about your experiences and ultimate goals.

Write like a college student

Your personal statement should reflect the experience and maturity of someone who has already attended college. It should reflect your understanding of the components of an undergraduate education, such as general education and the major. We want to read how, specifically, your academic and personal experiences fit into your academic, career and personal goals.

Keep in mind

• We want to know about your intended major and career aspirations, and we want to know your plan to get there.
• You have the option of selecting a second-choice major. If you do, be sure to address it in your personal statement.
• The UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values and viewpoints.

All writing in the application, including your essay/personal statement and short responses, must be your own work.  Do not use another writer’s work and do not use artificial intelligence software (ChatGPT, Bard, etc.) to assist or write your statement.

Choose Your Test

• Search Blogs By Category
• College Admissions
• AP and IB Exams
• GPA and Coursework

4 Tips for Writing Perfect University of Washington Essays

College Essays

The University of Washington is often ranked among public Ivy Leagues —that is, public schools with the academic clout and selectivity to elevate their reputations. So if you want to be a Husky, it's not just about good grades and test scores. You'll also need to prove yourself with a good University of Washington essay, combining your technical skill with your knowledge of the school and your reasons for wanting to attend to attract attention from admissions officers.

But to do that, you need to know how to write great UW essays. The University of Washington uses the Common Application , which can be submitted to multiple schools and includes an essay section with several different prompts. The supplemental UW essay prompts are pretty standard, but we have all the helpful tips you need to make sure your application is set to impress.

Feature Image: Cody Logan/ Wikimedia

What's Included in the University of Washington Essay Section?

There are two required essays you need to write for the University of Washington, along with an optional third essay. These essays are:

• Common App essay (650 words)
• Short response (300 words)
• Additional information (optional, 200 words)

Part of the Common App includes answering an essay prompt in 650 words or less. While there are seven Common App essay prompts, the University of Washington doesn't allow you to choose which prompt to answer; all applicants must answer the same prompt and submit them as part of their Common Application .  

The University of Washington application also includes a required short response question of 300 words and an optional short essay of 200 words.

Additional space is available, but it's recommended that you don't take it unless you absolutely need it. Show restraint when responding to UW essay prompts; it shows that you can be concise and follow directions , and you won't run the risk of volunteering too much information or making yourself memorable for the wrong reasons. That said, we'll cover some exceptions below!

What Is the Common Application Essay Prompt?

Although there are seven Common App essay prompts , the University of Washington requires you to answer a specific prompt; you don't get to choose. The maximum length of this essay is 650 words, but the University of Washington recommends the essay be closer to 300-400 words.

This is the Common App essay prompt you must answer:

Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

This essay prompt is pretty broad; it allows you to focus on any significant experience in your life. To answer it effectively, you'll want to relate a specific anecdote or event that had a strong impact on you as a person and how you define yourself today.

When answering this prompt, you'll want to choose a particularly significant experience. It doesn't need to be super rare, but the experience should hold deep meaning for you. Ask yourself: what defines you? What do you find important? Can you connect a key part of your personality or a goal you have to a specific event in your life?

You should also focus on only one experience. Don't try to cram in as many stories as possible—concentrate on the one incident that's most important to you, and use this essay as a chance to really delve into the specifics of it. How did the experience make you feel at the time? Why did it have such an impact on you?

If you decide to write about a negative experience, try to put a positive spin on it. You don't need to stick with a happy-go-lucky story—maybe you lost a friend because of a heated argument, or forgot to pick up your little brother from school one day. Regardless of the incident, keep the focus on how this situation ultimately taught you something important about life, such as the value of responsibility or the meaning of maturity.

Tips For Brainstorming Topics for Your University of Washington Essay

If you're struggling to come up with an experience to write about, try these brainstorming ideas:

• A time you helped someone in need, such as a friend, a classmate, or a sibling, and how your assistance revealed to you the value of cooperation or compassion. For example, did you tutor a peer in math? Help your sibling recover from a bullying incident?
• A time you made a mistake or acted against your true character and what this taught you about morality and being true to yourself. Perhaps you lied about a grade you got to your parents or said something out of anger to a friend and later regretted it.
• An incident that emphasizes a particular skill or ability you have. For example, you could write about the time you organized a winter holiday food drive at your high school and how it highlights your leadership skills and passion for social work.
• A time you faced a challenge and how you ultimately overcame it. Maybe you struggled severely with geometry and were about to fail your math class, but because of a great friend who encouraged you to keep trying, you eventually raised your grade from a D- to a B.

When writing this essay, make sure to avoid pretending something is more important or unique than it actually is. Don't tell a story the admissions committee has likely heard hundreds of times. Choose an event that speaks to your life and has had a large impact on how you see yourself. Basically, don't write about what you think the admissions committee wants to read. For example, instead of discussing how you've been in Honor Society since 9th grade, it'll be a lot more interesting if you wrote about somebody you met through Honor Society or why you decided to drop out of it.

Also, don't focus too much on the negative part of the story. While it's OK to write about a time when you made a mistake, did something wrong, or faced a challenge, try to avoid writing only about the bad parts. Your story should overall be optimistic and reveal something positive about yourself.

What Is the Short Answer Prompt?

Once you've finished the Common Application essay, the University of Washington has an additional requirement for you—a short response question with a 300 word limit.

The University of Washington suggests that concise writing is particularly valuable, and recommends that the Common App essay be between 300 and 400 words rather than 650. Though they don't offer word count recommendations for the other prompts, it's best to assume they're looking for short answers. Cutting out 100 words might feel excessive, but do try to leave some breathing room within your essay rather than squeaking in right under the allotted 300 words .

Additionally, the University of Washington states that students tend to answer this essay more informally than the longer essay. However, they expect formal, polished essays for both prompts, so don't slack off on proofreading or editing this essay.

For the UW short response essay, here is the required prompt:

Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW.

UW offers a helpful tip right below the prompt: "Keep in mind that the UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values and viewpoints." What this means is that UW wants to see students who are going to be right at home in that diverse student body. When answering this question, consider specifically what you might add to the community. What perspective do you bring? What traits make you a good fit?

Some students might struggle with this, because it's easy to assume that UW means they're only looking for students from diverse backgrounds, such as students of color, LGBTQ+ students, or students of other marginalized identities. But the prompt doesn't at all mean that you have no chance if you don't belong to one of those communities. Students who fit into those groups may have an easier time of identifying what diversity they bring to the school, but belonging to a marginalized group doesn't in any way guarantee admission.

The University of Washington is looking for students who foster and embrace diversity, so be sure to think on those terms. Consider, for example, how your rambunctious family Thanksgiving taught you to embrace chaos, and how your ability to stop Great Aunt Kathy from throwing mashed potatoes at your cousin for bringing up a sensitive political issue translates to a college campus. Think about how having several different friend groups in high school—nerds and jocks, for example—taught you to move between spaces while always being your authentic self.

For students who are of marginalized backgrounds, the same advice still applies. You likely have different lived experiences than other students, but UW wants to know exactly what you're going to bring to the student community . You can discuss advocacy work, for example, or how your less advantageous upbringing taught you to work hard for everything you want. Always come back to that request to "Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW."

Embracing diversity isn't just about being a member of a marginalized community; think about how you participate in your social groups and how your experiences before college will help you have and, more importantly, create a good experience for others. Again, it's not about what identity you do or do not have, but rather about how you build communities and support others. UW is a big school, but you'll still be interacting with people from all walks of life on a daily basis—how will you navigate difference and fit into a student body made up of so many different people?

Let UW know exactly how they're going to help you make a slam dunk.

What Should You Add in the Additional Information Section?

The University of Washington essay prompt offers an additional 200 words for you to talk about yourself and your unique circumstances. This section is optional, and UW advises that the following types of students may benefit from taking the opportunity to expand on their application:

• You have experienced personal hardships in attaining your education
• Your activities have been limited because of work or family obligations
• You have experienced unusual limitations or opportunities unique to the schools you attended

Even if you don't fall into one of these groups, it's wise to take advantage of this additional space. Everyone has a goal that's important to them, after all, which is explicitly included in the second bullet point. However, you only have 200 words, so you'll need to make them count .

Again, UW mentions earlier in their guidelines for the writing section that they value brevity. Don't try to hit that 200 word mark just because it's there—use only the space that you need. Be succinct and clear about any obstacles you've overcome, what draws you to your major, and what makes you want to attend UW specifically.

For example, say you, like many prospective UW students, are interested in becoming a doctor. The University of Washington is highly ranked among medical schools , so saying you want to go there because it's a good medical program isn't doing any legwork in setting you apart from other students . Instead, use this space to talk about why your major is important to you, and why placement at UW is going to help you achieve more.

Following the medical school example, maybe your primary care doctor was a UW grad, and the depth of care they gave you convinced you it wasn't just what you know as a doctor that matters, but also how you deploy that knowledge. Because you want to make the same difference in somebody's life, you're applying to UW to have access to the same information and instruction that your doctor did. In essence, use this space to explain something you didn't have space to explain elsewhere, but make it count .

Be careful not to retread the same ground! This is an opportunity to flesh out your application, not to hammer something home. If you haven't had a chance to discuss that your grades slipped sophomore year because of a family illness or that your local library has a special box for you because of all the engineering books you keep checking out, now's the time to mention it. Keep it short, direct, and original—the admissions office is reading this supplemental section in the context of your application, so you don't need to revisit anything.

Careful not to fall into the trap of using more space than you need.

Should You Use the Additional Space? How?

It can be tempting to use UW's provided additional space to squeeze a few more words into your application, but resist it . Those word counts are there for a reason, and you should aim to get under, not exceed them.

That said, there are legitimate reasons to use this additional space. The University of Washington mentions clarifying answers from elsewhere on the application or providing extra information to the admissions office.

If you have special considerations as a student that you want to be sure the office is aware of, but that you didn't discuss in the previous additional information section, you could include that here. You could also include relevant awards or distinguishing recognition you've received. If your high school had an unusual grading system, it might be useful to explain how to interpret your grades.

But don't take the lack of a word requirement to mean that you can talk about whatever you want, or that you should use this space to expand on one of your earlier essays . Use only what you need, no more. Try to keep it under 200 words. Brevity is important!

Tips and Advice for the University of Washington Essays

Specific advice for each prompt will help you craft a better essay, but there are some general things to keep in mind, too !

Proofread Your UW Essays

It's a small space, so there should be fewer mistakes, right? Nope . You still need to proofread . Consider writing your essays by hand and then transcribing the drafts—it feels like more work, but turning written words into typed words is a great way to spot mistakes. Go through multiple drafts, and read your essay out loud before you submit it.

Don't let typos get through; no matter how good the rest of your essay is, a typo will make it look as though you didn't edit it at all, suggesting you didn't take your time. Do everything you can to avoid the perception that you wrote it up without thinking! On the UW admission website they are very specific that you should “write like it matters, not like you’re texting. This is an application for college, not a message to your friend.”

Get Editing Help

Seek feedback from those you trust, not just those who are going to tell you your essays are great . You want your essays to be as good as possible, so let people who are going to be truthful with you make suggestions. They'll help you write a better essay, and a fresh pair of eyes can spot holes in your logic and errors you might miss after repeated revisions.

Think about going to teachers or counselors rather than friends or family. Though they undoubtedly want to help you, they might also be worried about hurting your feelings. Someone who's a little more objective but still wants to see you succeed is the kind of editor you want.

Be Specific

Always remember that you're applying to the University of Washington. Don't just write an essay that could impress any college (that's what the Common Application essay is for!); write one that ties into UW's core values . Their vision includes an emphasis on discovery, research, community, optimism, and even celebrating the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. All of these are angles ripe for exploration in your essays . If one of your answers is lacking, try folding a little of this vision into it by finding parts of your essay that match the mission and making them stand out more.

Read Essays That Got Students Into UW

It can be tricky finding essays that got applicants into UW, but it can also be a great indicator of what the school values in an application. Take these essays by Issa Rice . Though written for a different set of prompts, it's not hard to see why Rice was accepted.

Notice how his essays could only come from him; they're so tied to personal experience that it's unlikely anyone else would have the same essay. That's the kind of personalization you want to strive for. Your essay should speak about your own unique experience and leave the admissions office with a clearer picture of who you are as a person, not just as a collection of grades and test scores.

What's Next?

Crafting a perfect essay is just one part of the admissions process to the University of Washington. Because UW is a moderately selective school, you need to be aware of all admissions requirements before applying to be sure that your application is up to snuff .

As you're writing and rewriting your UW essay, be sure that it meets all the guidelines of a good college essay in addition to the UW requirements. A little extra polish will go a long way to cementing your application in the admission office's memory!

If you're struggling to understand why UW uses the Coalition App and what that means, never fear! We have all the information on what distinguishes one application system from another , helping you plan your college applications with less stress.

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write the University of Washington Application Essays 2017-2018

Located just north of the center of Seattle, the University of Washington is an urban public university that boasts highly ranked STEM and business programs, ranks consistently in the top 20 public schools in the nation, and offers 180 majors to undergraduates.

UW uses a quarter system for their academic calendar, meaning that classes are fast-paced, exciting, and consistently intellectually stimulating. And with a class population of 31,418, the undergraduate community is vibrant and diverse.

The average SAT score of admitted students ranges from 1210-1420, with an ACT Composite of 26-32; the average GPA of admitted students ranges from 3.68-3.94; and the admission rate is at about 45%.

Since the University of Washington does not use the Common Application, the admissions process can seem particularly daunting. But don’t worry — we here at CollegeVine are ready to help you put your best foot forward when it comes to the UW essays.

University of Washington Application Essay Prompts

Part a: main essay (500 word limit), at the university of washington, we consider the college essay as our opportunity to see the person behind the transcripts and the numbers. some of the best statements are written as personal stories. in general, concise, straightforward writing is best, and good essays are often 300 to 400 words in length. (maximum length: 500 words).

The main essay is the biggest, and usually most important, component of the University of Washington’s application. But before you begin to consider how to tackle the specific prompt on which you choose to write the main essay, it’s important to consider how to approach this essay in general, regardless of the prompt.

It’s important to note that since you don’t apply to UW through the Common Application, it’s helpful to consider the main essay as, essentially, a Common Application essay. With that in mind, it’s important to remember that this essay should accomplish the same things as a typical Common Application essay — that is, after reading it, the reader should feel like they just became friends with you and know you in a authentic, genuine way.

So, for example, if you are a prospective engineering major, this essay is not the place for you to list off all of the extracurriculars you’ve done that would make you a perfect fit for the engineering school. But it is an excellent time to talk about your intellectual curiosity and your knack for coming up with innovative solutions to problems.

To brainstorm ideas for this essay, you should follow the exact same strategy you would use to brainstorm for a Common Application essay . Make sure that when choosing the prompt you’re going to write about for the main essay, you select one that allows you to highlight the things about your story that you feel are most important.

If you are a very analytical thinker, choose the prompt that asks about a time that your opinion has changed, or if you’re very involved in your community, choose the prompt that asks you to discuss the meaningful contributions you’ve made. The only difference is that since this essay is slightly shorter than a regular Common Application essay (500 words instead of 650), the organization of this essay should be more compact.

Refrain from overly long introductions and conclusions, make your sentences concise and to the point, and make sure that your story flows coherently from paragraph to paragraph.

Main Essay Options: Specific Strategies for Each Prompt

Main essay prompt #1, tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it..

This prompt is a great opportunity to clue your reader in to your fundamental values. At the heart of it, it’s a prompt that is asking about who you are. What are the things that motivate you? Where are times in your life where people have seen the ‘true you?’

Something to keep in mind while you’re writing this essay is that the story you choose has to be dynamic. It should be a story in which a change occurs — either a change within yourself that helped shape your character, or a change that you enacted that demonstrates your character. For example, a good story for this prompt would be a story of the time you started a food drive after noticing a problem in your local community, or changed your lifestyle to incorporate more recycling and composting into your life after listening to a speech by a climate change expert.

By the end of the essay, the reader should have a clear idea of what your fundamental character and values are, based on how you conducted yourself within whatever situation you choose to tell.

In terms of writing technique, this prompt lends itself well to a more narrative style of writing. Instead of writing this essay like a regular English class essay, you could get inventive and write it more in the style of a novel or, if you’re daring, even a play. Above all, remember to show, not tell.

For example, if you’re writing about a time when you were waiting for results from a doctor, rather than just saying, “I was nervous because I didn’t know what my doctor was going to tell me,” you could say this: “The air was filled with electricity. My heart pounded in my chest, barely giving me room to breathe. What was my doctor going to tell me?”

Every opportunity you get, make an effort to immerse the reader in the story that you’re telling. This gives them more space to empathize and connect with you and your personal story and gives the essay more impact.

Main Essay Prompt #2

Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution..

On its surface, this is a great prompt for people who are very involved in community service and volunteer work. But even if you don’t fly halfway across the world every summer to dig wells in foreign countries, this can still be a great prompt for you.

What’s important to remember is that here, the reader is not necessarily looking for you to list off all the volunteer hours that you’ve ever done — that’s what your extracurriculars section is for. This essay is about how those contributions have impacted you, and your view of the world. For this essay to stand out, you should discuss why making the contribution was important to you, and how you grew and learned from the experience.

This prompt is also implicitly asking you what you think the greater good actually is . This is something to be conscious of as you’re writing. Ask yourself: Why was this a meaningful contribution? Why do I believe that what I did was a good thing? How exactly did I make the world a better place, and for whom? Implicitly answering these questions in your essay will give it more depth, no matter how seemingly trivial the contribution you made was.

For example, if you baked your friend cookies after she had a bad day, you can discuss in your essay that afterwards, you came to the realization that making and maintaining kind and loving human connection is fundamentally important, both on an individual and a global scale.

Even if the contribution is small, if it is meaningful to you, there’s a good chance that it will be a meaningful and powerful essay to the reader as well.

Main Essay Prompt #3

Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged how did you respond how did the challenge affect your beliefs.

This prompt is a great opportunity to talk not only about what your beliefs are, but why you believe what you believe. The reader wants to know that your ideas are a product of careful consideration, not just blindly following the crowd. This essay gives you a chance to show that.

At its core, this question is asking you about your critical thinking skills. The reader wants to understand how you work through problems in your head. What is your thought process when someone challenges you? How do you interact with ideas that are diametrically opposed to your own?

It’s important to understand that there are two different possible outcomes for this essay — either you changed what you believed, or you didn’t. If it was the former, you have to walk the reader through the steps that led you to change your mind. If it was the latter, explain why you didn’t change your mind.

In either case, make sure to walk the reader through your thought processes in an engaging way, adding in specifics to keep them hooked. So rather than saying, “I researched the question and realized I was wrong,” try saying something like this: “The combined force of the statistics published by UC Berkeley and the lengthy economic research paper from Harvard School of Economics convinced me that my beliefs on the San Francisco housing crisis were misinformed. Ultimately, I realized that my opinion had mostly come from the prevailing biases in my school and larger community.”

By the end of the essay, the reader should have a firm grasp on how you handle intellectual conflict and what you believe about the world as a result of the challenges your beliefs have encountered.

Main Essay Prompt #4

What is the hardest part of being a teenager now what’s the best part what advice would you give younger siblings or friends (assuming they would listen to you).

This prompt is interesting because it asks you to draw not only on your personal experience, but also implicitly asks you to draw on your historical knowledge. You have to compare teenagers now to teenagers in some historical era — it could be as recent as the 2000s, or as far back as the 1400s. If you have a strong passion for history, it could be interesting to draw that out in this essay — demonstrate your strong knowledge about teens in the 1600s by crafting an essay that is an extended compare-and-contrast type of essay.

Whichever time period you choose to compare your own experience to, you should make sure that your essay doesn’t just turn into you listing off good and bad things about being a teenager. While that might be a good brainstorming technique when you start writing the essay, tie the hard parts and the best parts of being a teenager to either one or two concrete stories in your life that demonstrate these parts, instead of just telling the reader what they are. This is much more engaging and will create a more powerful essay.

The second part of the question is the most essential part to answer because it’s the part of the essay where you show how you’ve grown and matured. Without answering the second part of the question, your essay just turns into an exposition about all the good and bad things in your life.

If you say that the hardest part of being a teenager is learning how to navigate the structures of school and home without losing your independence, you should also talk about how you and your teacher devised a way for you to self-study history so you could also take orchestra, or how you compromised with your parents so you could stay late after school for robotics and still get home in time to do your chores.  

The advice that you give shows that you are not a passive participant in your own life — you’ve taken the good and bad things in your life and learned meaningful lessons from them. This essay is an amazing way for your reader to see all the growing up you did in high school take place over the course of 500 words.  

An important thing to keep in mind when writing this prompt is that you should remember your audience. You don’t have to try and come up with adult-sounding problems that you don’t have — it will come off as disingenuous — but at the same time, now is not the place to talk about high school parties or your awful ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. Be yourself, and talk about the highs and lows of your life that are genuine and meaningful to you, but don’t feel compelled to overshare.

Main Essay Prompt #5

Submit an essay on a topic of your choice..

If you are applying to a lot of other schools on the Common Application and are looking to save some time, you might consider taking your Common Application essay and cutting it down to 500 words to fit this prompt. This is a good strategy, especially if your Common Application essay is already answering some other question because it means that the essay you’re submitting here is still targeted and on point.

The biggest pitfall of this prompt is that because it’s so general, you can get lost in your own essay and end up addressing too many things, rather than pinpointing one or two aspects and going in depth with them. To avoid this, a good strategy is to tie your essay to a concrete story in your life, and then build it off of that.

With that being said, this prompt can also produce some of the most amazing essays. Because you aren’t constrained by a question, you can literally write about anything that interests you. This is especially good for people with strong or unique writing skills. You could write an essay about how a specific book changed your view of the world in the same style that book was written, or tell a story about a specific extracurricular that drastically changed who you are throughout the course of high school.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to this essay is that depth is almost always better than breadth. Again, don’t just list out all of your accomplishments. Instead, choose something specific and dive deep into it, writing an essay that shows the reader who you are.

Part B: Community and Diversity Essay

Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the university of washington. (word limit: 300 words), tip: keep in mind that the university of washington strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values, and viewpoints..

The first essay prompt was about how you influence the world around you. This short response is about how the world has influenced you. As you write, consider: How have the people and the social structures around me influenced the way that I interact with the world? How does this mixture of influences make me unique?

Many students are scared by this question because they’re not from a background that people would consider conventionally “diverse.” But, as the tip for the prompt says, diversity is not limited to race or ethnicity. It encompasses ideas and life experience.

Keep in mind that no matter who you are or where you’re from, there are inevitably things about you and your experience in the world that make you unique from all of the other applicants. You could write an essay about how much your extended family gatherings at Christmas mean to you, and how they’ve influenced the way that you’ve grown up. Or you could talk about how your co-workers at your summer job taught you about the importance of teamwork and optimism.

It’s fine to write about community in a literal sense, and discuss your neighborhood or your city, but don’t let the textbook definition of the word confine you. Talking about your community can mean talking about your group of friends at school who all come from disparate backgrounds, and how you relate to them. Or it could mean talking about the people that you play video games with online, and what they taught you about how to interact with the larger world.

At its crux, this question wants to know one thing: What unique experience will you bring to the UW campus? Answering that question is the key to writing an impactful short response.

Part C: Additional Information

You are not required to write anything in this section, but you may include additional information if something has particular significance to you. for example, you may use this space if:, you are hoping to be placed in a specific major soon, a personal or professional goal is particularly important to you, you have experienced personal hardships in attaining your education, your activities have been limited because of work or family obligations, you have experienced unusual limitations or opportunities unique to the schools you attended (word limit: 200).

While this part of the application is not required, it’s probably in your best interest to submit something here, particularly if you want to get directly admitted into a specific major at UW. There are a few majors at the university — particularly Computer Science and most of the Engineering disciplines — that are extremely hard to get into after you’re on campus; most of the people majoring in these were directly admitted from high school.

With that being said, this is a great place to discuss why you are specifically suited to be in that major. For example, if you are applying directly to the Computer Science major, now is the time to bring up the app or website that you built for fun. Make sure to provide concrete connections between what you are doing in high school and what you want to do in college; also include a reason why you think UW would be the best place to further that interest.

If you’re not applying for a direct admission anywhere, this can still be a good place to highlight things that may not have come through in the rest of your application. If you were super involved in Model UN but didn’t get the chance to talk about it in any of your other essays, this is a good place to briefly explain what you did and why it was so important to you. Or if you did something interesting, but not immediately quantifiable, over the summer (like, for example, reading two books a week, or teaching yourself how to code using library books), this prompt would be an appropriate place to discuss that.

Another reason to use this prompt would be to address extenuating circumstances. An appropriate thing to mention would be a sickness that occurred — either to you or to someone in your family — that might explain why your grades slightly slipped during that semester, or that you have to drive your little sibling home from school every day, so you couldn’t do a particular extracurricular as much as you might have liked to.

All of these reasons are good reasons to use the space; however, remember that you don’t have to write anything here. Don’t repeat things that you’ve already gone over in your application. This will only frustrate the reader.

Part D: Further Explanation (if necessary)

You may use this space if you need to further explain or clarify answers you have given elsewhere in this application, or if you wish to share information that may assist the office of admissions. if appropriate, include the application question number to which your comment(s) refer..

This space is mostly for clarifying anything you said earlier in your application that might be confusing — for example, if you went to a school with a strange grading system, or if you studied abroad for a year and so your school transcripts are confusing.

This section can also be used to expand upon other parts of your application: For example, if you said earlier that you did Speech and Debate, you could use this part of your application to list off some of the most prominent awards that you received in that sport. There is no clear word limit here, but don’t take that as an invitation to submit a 1,000 word essay. It’s just a place for you to clearly and concisely clear up any lingering questions that the reader might have after going through your application.

Now, you know everything you need to feel confident and fully prepared to tackle the University of Washington essays!

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

Need help with your college applications?

We’ve helped thousands of students write amazing college essays and successfully apply to college! Learn more about how our Applications Program can help your chances of admission.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts