How to Write Georgetown’s Personal or Creative Essay
This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Alexander Oddo in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.
What’s Covered:
- What You Can Write About for Georgetown’s Personal Essay
- Do I Have to Write About Diversity?
- How Can I Write This as a Diversity Essay?
Georgetown’s final supplemental essay prompt, often referred to as their Diversity Essay, asks:
As Georgetown is a diverse community, the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in your own words. Please submit a brief essay, either personal or creative, which you feel best describes you. (1 page, single-spaced)
Remember, this is only one of many essays required to submit a Georgetown application. Have questions about the other Georgetown essays? Read CollegeVine’s Guide to Georgetown’s Essays or these Examples of Great Georgetown Essays.
What You Can Write About for Georgetown’s Personal Essay
This is an open-ended, personal essay prompt. As such, applicants should use this essay to describe who they are. Because Georgetown has a standalone application, this is a great place to reuse or repurpose parts of your Common App essay.
If in your Common App essay you responded to prompts one, two, three, or five — which focus on personal traits, overcoming challenges, questioning beliefs, and accomplishments — it can likely be submitted without changes. There is no need to edit it to include keywords from the Georgetown essay prompt.
Need help with your Common App essay? You can find CollegeVine’s post about how to write all of the Common Application essays.
Do I Have to Write About Diversity?
No. Georgetown is a diverse campus with many students from different backgrounds and perspectives. However, this is not a diversity essay. Getting tripped up by the first sentence of the prompt is a common mistake students make. Applicants should avoid feeling boxed in by the prompt, its main purpose is to further help the admissions committee better understand who you are, what you care about, and what you will bring to their community.
How Can I Write This as a Diversity Essay?
For some applicants, answering this prompt as a diversity essay may feel natural and make sense. In that case, consider what you are trying to convey to the reader.
To do this, first think about what makes you stand out among other applicants. This could include hobbies, perspectives, experiences, languages, family, or personality traits. The topic of your essay does not have to be crazily unique. It just has to be something fundamental to who you are.
As with all essays, showing is better than telling. Think about a story that exemplifies the aspect of yourself you want to highlight. Illustrate your experience to the reader through an anecdote, rather than just stating what is important to you. From there, discuss how this aspect of yourself shapes your outlook and actions. It must be important to who you are as a person, or you would not have chosen to write about it here. How does it influence your life now, and how would it continue to do so on their campus?
For more tips and writing do’s and don’ts, check out CollegeVine’s post about how to write The Diversity College Essay.
