Briefly (approximately one-half page, single-spaced) discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been the most involved.

Roughly, this is 500 words. A nice, meaty opportunity to do some solid damage!

Challenge 1 - Identifying the activity.

What we like about this question is that it cuts out the opportunity for fluff and pardon our French but… ‘bs.’ You can talk a big game about a thing that is significant to you because it sounds amazing, paints you in an amazing light, but if you’ve committed only 2% of your time on it compared to everything else you chose to commit your time to, it’s disingenuous and empty, etc. Here, Georgetown is focusing you on the piece of that pie chart that represents your ‘greatest/highest (‘most’) involvement’ as measured by some weighted combination of time and energy. They’re asking about things you didn’t need to do, but chose to. Why that thing? The best response here is one that reveals a genuine attraction toward a subject, interest area, etc. If your reasons for spending the majority of your time have more to do with fulfilling someone else’s idea for what’s in your best interest, it is likely to be exposed here––hard to manufacture a genuine interest in something you don’t have a genuine interest in. 

So, if you have a choice of options, most definitely choose the one you feel the highest gravitational pull toward. Be real about it, it will help your cause.

Challenge 2 - Did you choose it? Or did it choose you?

Sometimes the calling is something you’re incredibly ‘aware’ of. Things you chose intentionally, as the result of careful thought, something you reasoned, and decided (on an intellectual level) that this was a thing you felt strongly about, were attracted to, wanted to pursue, needed to explore, wanted to commit to, etc. Other times, your reasons for getting involved in a thing might not have started with any conscious aim, but developed once you gained exposure, and the magnetic pull was ‘created’ without your permission in a sense. See if you can determine which of those two it is in your case.

If you chose it intentionally, can you explain to us why of other ‘nearby’ options, you chose this activity/subject specifically? What was that decision like? Can you travel back to the moment where you had a decision to make about how to spend your time during the summer or at school on some kind of activity, and you deliberated (perhaps not for long) and chose what you chose? Take us through that dialogue so we might understand what the motivating factors were. And why. Oftentimes choosing to do one thing can be understood best by recognizing that you therefore chose ‘not’ those other options. Why Choice A over B-Z?

If you discovered your interest ‘by accident’ this is a touch easier, in the sense that you can explain your attraction through the non-believer to believer evolution. You went from having either no or middling interest in Activity/Thing A, but then it turned into far more than middling interest. Explain that journey, and how your intensity level rose, and why you think that is. What was this activity delivering that you wanted more of?

Challenge 3 - What clue might this give us about where you might end up in 30 years?

If we were to predict what you’ll end up doing in 30 years, and why, and someone with a time travel machine checks out our story, finds that we are correct, comes back and says to us … by God, you were mostly correct. How’d you get so much of that prediction so right? We might point to something in this essay response and say that we could see the makings of X in the way this student wrote about topic Y. Can you explain your attraction to this activity at a ‘root’ level, in a way that can potentially be applied to many other things? For example, you have aptitude in math, you win a bunch of math competitions, etc. When you really dig deep though, you might arrive at the conclusion that you like solving problems. Solving problems is a much more ‘root-level’ insight about what it is you love compared to ‘I love mathematics.’ ‘I love mathematics’ has a narrower set of applications than ‘I love solving problems.’ Take your essay to the next level by identifying that ‘root’ level attraction. And try to imagine a future where you might apply this, not just to the activity you’re interested in now, but maybe something totally different (in 30 years) that is still motivated by the same power source.

Okay, let’s put that together:

1. Set the stage. Take us back to when you initially began participating in this activity. Remember, this could be because you chose it very intentionally, or the attraction part came later. Either way, take us back to that starting point and give us a sense for how it began. (50-75 words)
2. Explain the intention behind the choice (Option 1) or Explain how the attraction developed (Option 2). If Option 1, explain what led you to that attraction to begin with. Take us through that journey. If Option 2, this will also be a journey, but with a different starting point and through line––this version will be more about how you went from not really having an attraction to developing one. Take us through the what and how of all that. (100 words)
3. Now go deep on the activity itself, and your experiences inside it. Table is set, now let’s get into the specifics of what it’s like, what you do, what challenges you face, why you have so much fulfillment, or fun, or whatever you get out of it. Make it visceral, take us into the action, make it so that we can picture it and feel it alongside you. (100-125 words)
4. Why do you like it so much? If the previous section is ‘What is it like?’ then this section is ‘So why do you like it so much?’ Alternatively, ‘Why does this hold so much meaning or value for you?’ Try to explain it however it makes sense to you. If you get stuck, you can always remember that you had so many ways to spend your time, and you ended up returning back to this one again and again. Why? (75-100 words)
5. Finally, what’s happening at the root level? This is the hard part, but the most impactful exercise. See if you can reason out what is happening at the root level, such that if you were to change your circumstances completely, you could still find a way to scratch that itch because the ‘root level’ insight has infinite opportunities. (75-100 words)

That’ll land you an incredibly strong first draft. From there it can get reworked a million different ways and come out with a completely different structure, but for a first draft, that’ll put you on the right course.

All Applicants: As Georgetown is a diverse community, the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in your own words. Please submit a brief personal or creative essay which you feel best describes you and reflects on your personal background and individual experiences, skills, and talents.

Roughly, page-long, doesn’t mean it needs to be long for long’s sake, but figure anywhere from 600-1000 words. That’s a wide range, and is meant to suggest that longer isn’t automatically better.

While it’s open-ended in the sense that they’re inviting either a personal or ‘creative’ approach, still, they seem to want to guard against a piece you might have written in a creative writing assignment that is completely absent any engagement with what you’re all about, who you are, where you come from, what makes you tick, what differentiates you, etc. Remember, while a creative writing essay can reveal certain aspects about you, even if the subject is something entirely ‘else,’ this is the one shot you get (and that Georgetown gets) at learning something about you as an individual that may advance their level of desire to admit you to their program. That decision is a gamble that you’re going to eventually do great things, and to get to that level of confidence here, they need to see evidence of future greatness. To fail to give Georgetown that glimpse, is to miss this opportunity. So one stress test you can apply is this: can a reader, after reading this essay, arrive at the conclusion “This kid is going to be successful whatever they end up pursuing in life”? If not, you may have some additional soul searching to do, possible new angles to consider. We need to be able to have our confidence level ‘rise’ after reading this essay.

Unlike a business school essay, where you would need to make that case clearly, and effectively, on the page, here you can be more subtle. This isn’t a job interview, and you’re not expected to have a clear plan for future success at age ~17. So, what you need to do is develop an understanding of why you think you’re more likely to be successful than your nearest competitors, and then somehow make that evident, using whatever topic, theme, story or essay modality is available to you.

Take a look at our essay analyses for Common App Prompts (Prompt 1 may be the closest, but best to scan all six prompts) and then come back. Also take a look at our discussion around Essay Modalities and then come back.

Now that you have a sense of not just the ‘substance’ aspect (theme, key points to hit) but also the ‘execution style’ (essay ‘genre’ that best serves your individual application argument), you can put together a first draft that’ll get you as much mileage as possible. For something as open-ended as this, the organizational approach is near infinite. So instead of an outline, we’ll just recap the key points to consider and then recommend the ‘Let the Pen Fly’ approach to your first drafts.

Key Themes (not necessarily in this order)

• When you imagine students who are in your most likely competitive pool, does this essay reveal something about you that’s differentiated
• Are those differentiating features different for different sake, or are they meaningful and exciting somehow?
• Are we learning something about you that gives us confidence that you’ll be successful later in life?
• Would someone who knows you well learn something new about you? (This is a stress test on how reflective are you being, and are we really getting a glimpse into ‘the interior’?)

If you’re applying to schools that do the Common App, there’s a chance your draft there might be useful as a starting point, but we wouldn’t recommend simply copying and pasting. There is work to be done to make sure that we’re really engaging the spirit of Georgetown’s prompt to the fullest.

Depending on which school you’re applying to, you’ll need to sell each school on the reasons you’re applying to that particular field of interest. Let’s go through each of the prompts for each program.:

Georgetown College of Arts and Sciences: Founded in 1789, the Georgetown College of Arts & Sciences is committed to the Jesuit traditions of an integrated education and of productive research in the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and fine arts. Describe your interest in studying in the College of Arts & Sciences. (Applicants interested in the sciences, mathematics, or languages are encouraged to make specific reference to their choice of major.)

Georgetown makes a point to reference Jesuit traditions and highlights an approach to education that’s ‘integrated’ as well as research that’s ‘productive.’ It almost feels too obvious to state that you might have an interest in an education that is not narrowly focused and devoid of variety, or that you dislike research that is unproductive. However, this is a tell. Georgetown is famously a touch more traditional as compared to other schools in its weight class. And it’s leaning into this reputation. They are subtly (or perhaps not so subtly) suggesting that you *can* approach the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, or fine arts in a way that isn’t productive. Now, how do they define ‘productive’? It doesn’t matter. The important take home is that this is an opportunity to indicate that *you* have a sense of what that difference is, and that you prefer and are motivated by the ‘productive’ kind of approach. You won’t need to say in such plain terms, but you’ll want to make a coherent argument for why your interests have some kind of practical or useful application. To see that you’re thinking things in grounded terms that consider the real world will demonstrate a kind of ‘fit’ that is crucial for a Georgetown application.

As you interrogate the sources of your interest in an area, or the potential future impact you might make, it is often useful to think of a real world problem you’d like to solve, or an opportunity you’d like to take advantage of. And by learning and researching in your stated areas, you have an inkling of how you might add value in this area, eventually. Even if much of this thinking doesn’t end up making it on the page ultimately, it can be a useful thought exercise to divine insights that you will want to focus on.

Here are some questions you’ll want to think through as you prepare for your first draft:

• What are you thinking about studying, generally?
• How might studying this advance you toward some future, practical issue/goal?
• If you imagine a narrow, simplified, conventional approach to studying this, what would an ‘integrated’ approach look like?
• What is the value add of the integrated approach?
• Can you connect the ‘value add’ piece of the integrated approach to being in a better position to attack the issues/goals you laid out in Bullet #2?
• Can you make a case for why Georgetown’s disposition toward pragmatism and practicality aligns better with your learning style than other universities?

If you can build a first draft around those concepts (order/organization initially won’t matter that much), you will have hit on the key points for an excellent starting point.

School of Nursing: Georgetown University’s School of Nursing is committed to the formation of ethical, empathetic, and transformational nursing leaders. Describe the factors that have influenced your interest in studying Nursing at Georgetown University.

On the one hand, it would be surprising for a program expressing a commitment to the formation of unethical, apathetic, and non-transformational nursing leaders, right? So why mention these other traits, if every school would also embrace these same ideas? Well, it’s harder to make a great case here than it may sound, it’s not surprising that it’s an effective question to ask to separate the wheat from the chaff.

There are two pieces here. 

Piece 1 - The influences that led you to wanting to study nursing at Georgetown.

As with all Examine this faithfully. Write it plainly. Here are some traps to avoid (remember: we’ve read millions of essays of this nature):

• Try not to be impressed with yourself, or this particular ‘origin story’ on the grounds that it’s unique, even if for you it’s moving, transformational etc. If you make subtle hints that *we* the readers should find this as amazing as you, chances are, we’ll push back. Instead, if you don’t seem too aware of how ‘special’ this story is, but simply tell it plainly, and focus on the impact it had on you, we will feel the gravity of it automatically.
• Try not to suggest that your intentions in the field of nursing are unique. Instead, sell us on the sincerity of those intentions, and how dedicated you are to follow through. The more sober and focused you seem, the more likely you’ll appear to be one of Georgetown’s success stories.

Piece 2 - Connect those influences to the concepts of ethics, empathy, and transformation.

Don’t spent a ton of time addressing this, and even when you do, don’t be too on the nose. Instead, you’ll want to make some arguments and statements with those concepts in the back of your mind. See the difference? Rather than use the words ‘ethics’ or ‘empathy’ or ‘transformation,’ see if you can sell those concepts through practical and tangible concepts. As though, after hearing you talk about your ideas and plans, it is clear *that* you have engaged with and embody these ideas/values.

School of Health: Georgetown University’s School of Health was founded to advance the health and well-being of people locally, nationally, and globally through innovative research, the delivery of interdisciplinary education, and transformative engagement of communities. Describe the factors that influenced your interest in studying health care at Georgetown University, specifically addressing your intended related major: Global Health, Health Care Management & Policy, or Human Science.

Same general principles here as with the other blurbs (see above)!

Walsh School of Foreign Service: Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service was founded more than a century ago to prepare generations of leaders with the foundational skills to address global issues. Describe your primary motivations for studying international affairs at Georgetown University and dedicating your undergraduate studies toward a future in global service.

Same general principles here as with the other blurbs (see above)!

McDonough School of Business: Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business provides graduates with essential global, ethical, analytical, financial, and diverse perspectives on the economies of our nation and the world. Describe your primary motivations for studying business at Georgetown University.

Same general principles here as with the other blurbs (see above)! 

For any of these essays, expect roughly 1-page. Doesn’t mean it needs to be long for long’s sake, but figure anywhere from 600-1000 words.