University of Florida 2025-26 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

University of Florida 2025-26 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

The Requirements: 1 essay of 250 words

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Activity

How to Write the University of Florida Supplemental Essay

With only one supplemental essay, the University of Florida is making it easy for you to complete their application—but don’t take this opportunity lightly! In this essay, they’re aiming to assess your “quality of thought,” so make sure you give it the attention it deserves. Keep reading to discover our University of Florida supplemental essay tips! 

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non-classroom activity. (250 words)

What would your life be mundane without? Elaborate on an activity, responsibility, or passion that is meaningful to you. Unlike an activities resume entry, this should be expanded to reflect your priorities, worldview, and sense of purpose. Do you babysit your cousins when your aunt gets called into work? How does it feel to support your family members in this way and what does the phrase, “it takes a village,” mean to you? Do you foster rescue cats until they find their forever homes? What does this hobby mean to you? Maybe you inherited your animal love from your dad who used to work as a farmhand. Use your experiences to tell admissions something about you they wouldn’t already know from your list of extracurriculars. What gives your life meaning? Why do you wake up in the morning? What are you working toward?

Honors College only:

In today’s rapidly evolving world, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how we learn, work, and interact with one another. It influences everything from the classroom to the workforce and is becoming an integral part of modern education, especially at the University of Florida. As AI continues to advance, however, there is a growing conversation about the need to balance technological innovation with critical thinking, creativity, and human connection – all attributes of an honors education.

Reflecting on this, how do you plan to navigate this evolving landscape during your college experience through your academic study, learning opportunities, and extracurricular activities? How do you hope the Honors Program will impact the way you learn and interact with others? (400 word maximum)

This somewhat opaque Why Essay asks you what you hope to gain from the Honors Program with a focus on AI, critical thinking, creativity, and human connection. Start with research! Spend an hour or so noodling around UF’s Honors Program website to find out what special courses, activities, internships, research opportunities, and experiences excite you. Then, think about how you will use those opportunities to foster critical thinking, creativity, and human connection among your cohort in the age of AI advancement. Maybe you’re excited to join an Early Arrival Course-Based Camp like One Credit to Rule Them All, which will allow you to meet like-minded classmates face-to-face before school starts while indulging your love of The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps you hope to win a Wentworth Travel Award to help you go to the Everglades to research wetlands, exercising your critical thinking and creativity in your own self-directed research. In addition to identifying what you hope to do in the Honors Program, make sure you write about how you expect those experiences to impact your learning and interactions with others, particularly as AI continues to expand into all aspects of academic life.