Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus supplemental essays

• Prompt 1Optional650 words max

  Beyond the record

  This is your opportunity to share something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State.

Program-specific prompts

These apply only if you are applying to the named program or school.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Extracurricular Activities

  List your extracurricular activities over the last four years. This can include school and non-school activities. Please include any leadership roles you have had.

  How to approach it

  The activity elaboration works best zoomed all the way in: one meeting, one build, one shift, told concretely. The reader already saw your activities list; show them what it felt like to do the thing.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Leadership Experience

  Tell us about your most significant leadership experience and why leadership is important to you.

  How to approach it

  Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one concrete problem you care about, connect it to something you have already touched in real life, and let the ambition be specific enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Awards & Recognition

  List awards or other recognitions (if any) you have received in or outside of school over the last four years.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Community Influence

  Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups. Choose one of the communities or groups to which you belong and describe how it has influenced your life over the last four years.

  How to approach it

  Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeOptional200 words max

  Additional Information

  Please use this space to share information you would like us to consider that has not been discussed elsewhere in your application.

  How to approach it

  The additional-information space is for context, not a bonus essay. Use it if something needs explaining (a grade dip, a circumstance, a commitment that limited activities), state it plainly in a few sentences, and leave it empty otherwise. Empty reads better than padding.

• Millennium Scholars ProgramRequired500 words max

  Major & Global Impact

  Tell us what is your intended major and how you will apply your major to address any global challenge. (Examples: food insecurity, clean water access, climate change, healthcare disparities)

  How to approach it

  An academic-interest prompt wants the origin story and the evidence, not the resume. Pick the moment the interest became yours, show one or two things you did about it on your own, and let the school see how you think when nobody assigns the work.

• Millennium Scholars ProgramRequired500 words max

  Community Contribution

  What strengths will you bring to the community? How will you contribute to and benefit from the collaborative environment?

  How to approach it

  Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.

• Millennium Scholars ProgramRequired500 words max

  Resilience Reflection

  How has resilience played a role in your life and how do you see it affecting your college career?

• Millennium Scholars ProgramRequired500 words max

  STEM Collaboration

  Reflect on how your unique background and experiences have influenced your interactions with others and shaped your understanding of collaborative work within STEM.

  How to approach it

  Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired800 words max

  An overlooked issue

  Identify an important global or local issue that you believe does not receive sufficient attention. Why is this issue often overlooked or under-addressed? Analyze possible paths forward and propose a realistic strategy to raise awareness and advance solutions. Finally, evaluate your proposal's potential to create meaningful change, considering its feasibility, limitations, trade-offs, implementation challenges, and possible unintended consequences.

  How to approach it

  For a challenge prompt, the challenge is the setup, not the essay. Spend most of the words on what you did and how you changed. Readers are wary of trauma used as currency; growth is the currency.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Empowered growth

  One of the Schreyer Honors College values is Empowered Growth. What values, beliefs or experiences have empowered you to grow intellectually and/or personally?

  How to approach it

  An academic-interest prompt wants the origin story and the evidence, not the resume. Pick the moment the interest became yours, show one or two things you did about it on your own, and let the school see how you think when nobody assigns the work.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Somewhere new

  If you were able to go anywhere in the world, outside of the country you currently reside in, where would you go and why?

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  Leading through it

  Tell us about your most significant leadership experience and why leadership is important to you. This could include community roles, family contributions, research, clubs and organizations, etc. Describe challenges you've faced and successes you've had in these roles.

  How to approach it

  Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  The one that mattered

  Reflecting on the recognitions listed above, which one stands out as having an impact on your outlook and why?

  How to approach it

  Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one concrete problem you care about, connect it to something you have already touched in real life, and let the ambition be specific enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  A book that shifted you

  Tell us about a book or other media that has made you think about something in a new way.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeRequired200 words max

  A community I belong to

  Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups, including shared geography, faith, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities or groups to which you belong and describe how it has influenced your life over the last four years.

  How to approach it

  An academic-interest prompt wants the origin story and the evidence, not the resume. Pick the moment the interest became yours, show one or two things you did about it on your own, and let the school see how you think when nobody assigns the work.

• Schreyer Honors CollegeOptional200 words max

  Anything else

  Please use this space to share information you would like us to consider that has not been discussed elsewhere in your application (optional).

  How to approach it

  The additional-information space is for context, not a bonus essay. Use it if something needs explaining (a grade dip, a circumstance, a commitment that limited activities), state it plainly in a few sentences, and leave it empty otherwise. Empty reads better than padding.