Providence College 2025-26 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Providence College 2025-26 Application Essay Question Explanations 

The Requirements: 1 essay of 250-500 words

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Community, Oddball

The Committee on Admission will discover much about you through the Common Application, but we are always interested in learning more! While optional, the following essay prompts are used to help us understand your personal background, fit to our campus community, and interest in Providence College. Please choose one of the following topics and answer the prompt in 250 – 500 words.

Providence College values each student’s willingness to embrace and learn from different viewpoints. What experiences or perspectives do you believe individuals from diverse backgrounds bring to a community or organization? And how will your unique background positively impact others at Providence College?

This question is twofold: First, admissions wants you to explain—in your own words—how diversity affects a group. Speaking generally, what are the benefits of having varied perspectives and experiences within a community? Second, Admissions wants to know how you will specifically contribute to the diversity of perspectives at Providence College. What has shaped you as a person and how has that made your perspective unique? Is there anything you can teach your classmates or peers about your hometown, culture, religion, or identity that they might not already know? Maybe you spent 11th grade caring for your mom during her breast cancer treatments and you’ll use that same empathy and patience to help your hallmates adjust to college life. Perhaps spending summers with your grandparents in Nigeria has given you a strong affinity for international students, and you look forward to joining the International Student Welcome Program to make them feel at home. Providence College wants to know how your personal perspectives, beliefs, and/or lived experiences will impact others on campus, so tell them a story that helps them to imagine the kind of student you’ll be.

Providence College thrives on the energy of those who seek. How will you contribute to our vibrant campus life and intellectual culture in the years ahead?

Like many colleges, Providence is asking how you will contribute to their campus community. The twist here, however, is that they want to know how you will influence the school’s intellectual culture. As with your other Community Essays, consider things that make you unique: what about your history, experiences, interests, or passions might be worth highlighting for an admissions officer? Try to choose something (or things) that illustrates your commitment to curiosity and academic exploration. How can your passions, experiences, or interests enrich the learning environment at Providence College for others? Maybe you organized your school’s first-ever Model UN team after attending a real UN session in NYC and look forward to reviving the team at Providence. Perhaps you learned classical Kuchipudi dance from your grandmother and aim to combine a Global Studies major and Dance minor, completing a community-based action research project to bring Kuchipudi to underserved children. Maybe you plan to research social interaction post-Covid by staging elaborate pop-up psychology experiments outside Aquinas Hall. Take time to look into the future and think about how you will capitalize on your passions over your four years of undergrad and make an impact on your future cohort at Providence.