How to Write the Boston College Supplement Essays 2016-2017
Check out the Boston College Application Essays for 2017-2018
Nestled in Chestnut Hill, a village just west of downtown Boston, Boston College is a private Jesuit Catholic research university that was founded in 1863. The idyllic campus contains over 120 buildings on a hill overlooking the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, but is also conveniently located near the bustling city, with easy access to Boston’s “T” public transit system with direct routes to the city.
Boston College has 8 schools and offers undergraduate degrees in 4 of them: the Robert J. Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences; the James A. Woods, S.J., College of Advancing Studies; the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch School of Education; and the Carroll School of Management.
Academics are top-notch at BC, which ranks among the highest among American research institutions in producing Fulbright scholars and houses eight research libraries containing over two million printed volumes. Students studying here are also given a chance to let loose and show some school spirit, especially while watching the men’s hockey team, which has won five national championships so far.
BC has claim to fame in its alumni network as well, having graduated notable alumni such as John Kerry, previous U.S. Secretary of State; Marty Walsh, Mayor of Boston; and numerous Rhodes, Truman, and Marshall scholarship awardees.
Boston College has a competitive application process, having received almost 30,000 applications in the 2015-2016 cycle and accepting about 30% of those students. Because of this competitive admissions process, it is imperative that your essays stand out. CollegeVine essay specialists have put together a guide to the supplemental essay prompts below.[vc_cta h2=”Looking for the 2017-2018 Essay Guides?” h4=”We’ll send them to you!” txt_align=”center” color=”vista-blue”]Sign up below and we’ll let you know when our Essay Breakdowns for the 2017-2018 cycle are out. We’ll have how-to guides for the top 100 schools, and possibly more!
Boston College Application Essay Prompts
We would like to get a better sense of you. Please select one of the questions below and write an essay of 400 words or less providing your response.
Human beings have a creative side that tends to shine most when we are truly invested in the world around us. Describe a situation when you responded effectively to a particular need and found yourself at your creative best.
Best for those with a humanitarian bent (and whose activities reflect that), this is a loaded prompt with many aspects to address. There are two main topics involved: volunteer/humanitarian-related work and creativity. The prompt asks how helping others has led to an outpouring of personal creativity in your life, weaving the two topics together.
Choose an experience where you responded to a need, and how you were able to exercise creativity through it. This will most likely show up in the form of having to come up with unconventional ways to solve problems that you face with volunteering. Did you need to serve dinner to a couple hundred people at a homeless shelter and had to come up with a spontaneous line organization system?
You don’t need to limit yourself to strict volunteer work, though. You can write about teaching your younger sister how to tie her shoe in a way she could remember, or starting a food compost system at your school with limited supplies. Just remember to illustrate your creativity through solving the problem.
Experience teaches us the importance of being reflective when making major decisions. Share an example from a recent event when a leader or an average person faced a difficult choice. What were the consequences of the decision? Would you have done the same?
This prompt also allows for a wide range of responses. You can write about virtually anyone here. The essay should be divided into two portions, the first part describing the event and its consequences, and the second your thoughts on whether you would have made the same decision and why.
Feel free to choose a widely publicized event or one that is more personal, at which you may have been present. You have higher chances of landing a more unique topic if you choose to talk about a friend’s decision versus a political leader’s, but choose whatever you feel most strongly about; what matters most is your analysis of the event and decision, not the event itself.
The goal of this prompt is to communicate to admissions committees your method of thought and the process through which you come to logical conclusions.
You can choose to delve into something deep such as the U.S. deciding to bomb Japan to end WWII, or something lighter, such as someone deciding between pursing college or going directly to the workforce to support family (keep in mind the restrictive word count). Can you detect the ramifications of certain actions, beyond the obvious? The key is to explain clearly your reasoning for whether or not you would have chosen the same path.
Boston College strives to provide an undergraduate learning experience emphasizing the liberal arts, quality teaching, personal formation, and engagement of critical issues. If you had the opportunity to create your own college course, what enduring question or contemporary problem would you address and why?
Similar to the second question, this prompt provides an opportunity for you to write about real-world thoughts and experiences. Keep in mind that the prompt is focusing on a problem (contemporary or otherwise). While you should definitely choose a topic that you are passionate about, remember that the class is supposed to address and discuss a problem rather than a set, concrete topic (such as microbiology).
This question is best for those who are passionate about a contemporary issue or general problem, and have spent a bit of time thinking about it. The prompt asks you not so much to explain how you would structure the class, but rather why you would choose that question/topic for your course.
Why are you passionate about finding a cure for breast cancer? Why are you really interested in the food-waste problem in the United States? Ideally, you would have thought about the issue to an extent that you have ideas of rough solutions. Feel free to break up your essay into three paragraphs: stating your issue, explaining why you chose that issue (this paragraph should be the longest), and providing thoughts on possible solutions to this problem.
Keep in mind that the point of every essay is to reveal more about who you are. The admissions officers want to know more about you than they do about the topic you are writing about, so keep in mind while writing to write intentionally and portray yourself in a light in which you wish them to see you.
Jesuit education stresses the importance of the liberal arts and sciences, character formation, commitment to the common good, and living a meaningful life. How do you think your personal goals and academic interests will help you grow both intellectually and personally during college?
This is a subtle “Why Boston College?” question, and if you have strong, specific reasons for applying to BC, you may want to take this opportunity to write a more school-specific essay. The question itself is broad, and like for other essays, focus on being truthful and stick to what you are passionate about. Take some time to think about how you truly want to grow in college.
What kinds of skills (academic and otherwise) do you want to learn? Are there are any personal characteristics you wish to strengthen or weaknesses you hope to turn into strengths? Is there a specific research project at Boston College that you wish to work on? You don’t need to know where you will be in four years; in fact, the question is not asking how attending will meet your personal goals, but rather how your current goals will help you grow during your college career.
In this response, be sure to have a balance of personal and academic goals; mention your desire to delve into metaphysics and also your wish to try something completely new and out of your comfort zone, like hip-hop dancing. Admissions officers want to know that you are coming into BC with developed interests and passions, but also a heart to gain new ones.
The “living a meaningful life” phrase in the prompt is key. Reflect on how your interests and goals tie into living (what you consider) a meaningful life, and how you hope to develop and grow those ideas in college. Communicate to BC how going there will influence you as a person, and also touch on how you might be able to make an imprint on the campus as well.
The Boston College prompts allow for deep, personal reflection and the chance to share that with admissions officers. Don’t be afraid to be honest and candid in your answer.
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