Wellesley College 2023-24 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Wellesley College 2023-24 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 1 short essay of 250-400 words

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Why

When choosing a college, you are choosing an intellectual community and a place where you believe that you can live, learn, and flourish. We know that there are more than 100 reasons to choose Wellesley, but it’s a good place to start. Visit the Wellesley 100 and select two items that attract, inspire, or celebrate what you would bring to our community. Have fun! Use this opportunity to reflect personally on what items appeal to you most and why.

Please limit your response to two thoughtful paragraphs (minimum 250 words, maximum 400 words).

Wellesley’s hyper-specific take on the Why Essay instantly directs you to the key piece of advice we always offer: do your research! Admissions has literally included the URL to the specific page they want you to pore over, so your very first (and most obvious) step should be to actually read it. There’s no real trick to this one other than just doing the work and trusting your gut, since reading through these reasons to attend Wellesley with care will demonstrate beyond words your commitment to the school. (Think: Trials of Hercules.) If a reason is on the list, you can be sure it’s a good reason to be interested in the school, and all of the numbers are listed out of order, so you can throw any sense of ranking out the window. As you read through, jot down the reasons that resonate most with you and then edit your list down to the most powerful one or two. Perhaps using the Whitin Observatory (#60) will allow you to share your expansive trivia knowledge about the stars with your peers, or attending Lake Day (#53) will enable you to revel in your love of spontaneity and adventure! Of course, it isn’t enough to simply choose your reasons and regurgitate them; you need to make an argument for why they stick out to you and how they celebrate the unique qualities you would bring to Wellesley! So, be specific. If you need to do more research about the observatory and the astronomy program, dig through the department website. If your reason relates to a personal experience, share an anecdote to bring it to life. The point is to show who you are (and who you will become) through your relationship with Wellesley.