NYU Essays, Prompt by Prompt

We are looking for students who want to be bridge builders—students who can connect people, groups, and ideas to span divides, foster understanding, and promote collaboration within a dynamic, interconnected, and vibrant global academic community. We are eager for you to tell us how your experiences have helped you understand what qualities and efforts are needed to bridge divides so that people can better learn and work together. Please consider one or more of the following questions in your essay (250 words or less):

1. Tell us about a time you encountered a perspective different from your own. What did you learn—about yourself, the other person, or the world?
2. Tell us about an experience you’ve had working with others who have different perspectives. What role did you try to play in helping people to work together, and what did you learn from your efforts?
3. Tell us about someone you’ve observed who does a particularly good job helping people think or work together. How does this person set the stage for common exploration or work? How do they react when challenges arise? What qualities do you admire in this person?

First of all, while NYU's supplemental essay is optional, we HIGHLY recommend writing a thoughtful reply to the prompt if you're serious about NYU. Any time you have the OPPORTUNITY to tell a school more about yourself... seize it!

NYU, like the metropolis that houses it, is dynamic, interconnected and global. The admissions committee wants to make sure that, if and when you're plunked in a dorm room off Washington Square Park surrounded by classmates from all walks of life, you can get by and, better yet, thrive through building new connections and collaborations with the resources of NYU x NYC. Dartmouth it ain't. When your campus IS lower Manhattan, you don't have the same built-in nurturing cocoon as you might on a more rural campus. This is your opportunity to let them know (show, don't tell) that you’re ready for the NYU experience, and that the NYU experience is PERFECT for you. You're someone who connects communities, resources, ideas... someone who can bridge ideological gaps through sincere dialog and doesn't shy away from the unknown.

First, write a list of ways you've built bridges. Don't get too narrow at this moment... the impact of your story is the most important... you can retrofit the bridge-building metaphor to any number of stories. It could be a collaboration in the classroom, the time you saw a need and created a new club at school, community outreach work, tough conversations across ideological divides, etc. Pick the impactful story that allows you to really highlight how YOU saw an opportunity and built a bridge where previously there was only a ravine.

Leaning toward question 3? That one puts someone else in the spotlight: a person you’ve watched help people think or work together. Totally fair game, as long as the essay still tells NYU about YOU. They learn who you are through what you noticed: how this person sets the stage, how they react when things get bumpy, and which of their qualities you admire (and are quietly trying to borrow). Pick someone you’ve seen in action up close (a coach, a shift manager, the cousin who keeps the family group chat from imploding) and give us one specific scene.

You don't need to be a city-slicker to nail this one. If you've always lived in a small town in Idaho, own it and subvert their expectations... "people assume my worldview is narrow because I was raised in a small rural town, but actually this has FORCED me to actively build bridges to branch out and grapple with XYZ to go out and get for myself what city kids take for granted." or "BECAUSE I was raised in this small and somewhat dogmatic community, whose values are very different from my own, my entire youth has been filled with hard conversations with people who disagree with me."

NYU lets you take on one or more of the questions. With only 250 words, though, we recommend choosing ONE to anchor your essay. And whichever you pick, look at what the intro asks for: how your experiences have helped you understand what qualities and efforts are needed to bridge divides. So the story only gets you halfway. The rest is what it taught you about getting people to learn and work together. Say it plainly. Want a nod to NYU at the end? Keep it to a sentence, pulled through from your main story... as in, 'I learned THIS about bringing people together, and NYU is where I want to keep doing it, in XYZ ways.' Don’t let that nod take over the essay... answers that rely solely on your assertion that you'll be X kind of student at NYU, without any historical examples to justify that assertion, don't have the same credibility as answers that draw a connection (or build a bridge, if you will!) between what you've done in the past and what you'll do in the future. Of course, your past doesn't LIMIT what you can do, but it can indicate what you're capable of, and the values that shape and inform your interactions with others.