Bentley University 2026-27 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Bentley University 2026-27 Application Essay Explanations

The Requirements: 1, 2, or 3 optional essays of 250 words or less

Supplemental Essay Type: Why, Diversity

Bentley University’s Instructions:

After you have submitted your application, you will see an option in your BentleyConnect portal to submit responses to three supplemental essay questions. Although this is entirely optional, students who would like to demonstrate their interest in Bentley and share more information about themselves can use these questions as an opportunity to provide more insight into their candidacy. You will have the option to submit a response to one, two or three of the questions. Responses must be received no later than a week after the application deadline and should be 250 words or less. The questions for Spring and Fall 2027 are:

Question #1

Bentley’s core values are Caring, Collaboration, Diversity, Honesty, Impact, Learning, and Respect. Select one or two of these core values and share how you currently embody them in your life. How will you continue to develop these values at Bentley?

The goal of this prompt is for admissions to get a sense of how your personal experiences and values align with theirs. Grab a notebook and make a column for each of these values. Under each one, jot down a few examples from your own life. For example, maybe under “Caring,” you note that you babysit all your cousins once a month so your parents, aunts, and uncles can go out. Under “Impact” you can jot down the time you helped an anxious freshman navigate your high school and then, the next year, saw them guiding another new student. Once you’re done with this brainstorming exercise, you’ll be able to see which one or two core values you best embody in your life. From there, think about how you would continue to develop these skills in college. Perhaps you’ll found a club for students of Nigerian descent as part of the “Diversity” value. Maybe you’ll lead a cross-disciplinary project combining visual art and engineering to improve dorm common spaces as part of the “Collaboration” value. As you write this essay, make sure you cover both how these values play into your current life and how you see them growing at Bentley.

Question #2

Our students bring to campus a variety of experiences, cultures, and intersecting identities including race and ethnicity –aspects that are important to a rich educational experience and your success in college and beyond. You may use this section to discuss how race and ethnicity affected your life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.

Applicants who choose to respond to this prompt likely have something in mind to say about how race and ethnicity have impacted their lives. Since you only have 250 words at your disposal here, our advice is to focus on you: your experiences, your intersecting identities, and your culture. This is an opportunity for you to address how race has played a role in your life and the ways your cultural inheritance has inspired you and/or how you have continued to rise above any obstacles set in your path by systemic injustices. Give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm, draft, and revise your response, as writing about topics as nuanced as these can be challenging, even for adults who have spent twice, thrice, or four times as many years on this earth as you. We have no doubt that you’ll be able to write a concise, meaningful story about the kind of person you are, the qualities you possess, and the ways in which you will succeed and positively contribute to any academic community. 

Question #3

You wake up tomorrow morning and it’s the first day of high school. What would you do differently over the next few years? 

We at CEA love creative prompts like this. We all have regrets or awkward moments in our past that haunt us at night, and what better way to kick those ghosts than to rewrite history? Think back over the last three (and change) years of school. What went well? What didn’t go so well? What did you learn about yourself, your friends, your family, or your communities? Perhaps you were too shy to join the Drama Club until your junior year and would go back in time to join earlier. Maybe you were so eager for independence from your parents that you now feel like you missed out on family bonding during weekly game nights. Perhaps you were peer-pressured into dressing or acting a certain way that didn’t reflect who you were and you wish you could go back and swim against the current. Let your imagination wander! Our main piece of advice: make sure whatever you write about reveals something new about you. That could be your secondary academic interests, your thoughtfulness, personal growth, quirky family traditions, or any other aspects of your life and personality that you want to highlight.